South American Indians in Asia

While we waited in the very nice lobby of the hotel in Weifang Friday night, there was a group of people who arrived. I was with an ERRC team mate who back in the 70’s had driven an RV with her husband from the US through South America, and through Africa.(!)  When we saw the new arrivals in the lobby, she looked at me and said, “They look like Otavalan Indians!” Otavalo is a very specific group of Quichua Indians in Ecuador. They have a world famous market in the town of Otavalo, well known for wall hangings and woven materials. They have a very distinctive look. It was always fun to go there when we lived in Ecuador from 1976-1980.

I totally agreed with her. The facial features, the color of the skin, even the clothes were very reminiscent of Otavalo. We openly stared at them….just as we are often so openly stared at here. (Shame on us.) I tried to speak Chinese to them, but no response. A few mumbled out, “hello” in English. I should have tried Spanish, but didn’t. Finally our tour guide came by and we asked him where the group was from. He said, “Tibet.” Who would have thought that Tibetans would bring back memories of a South American Indian group half a world away?

The next day at the hotel breakfast, the group was there. It was interesting to see that the women were very flashily dressed in their skirts and over skirts and blouses. The men needed help to put on their outer robe. They would pull the back of it up over their head and one of the women would wind the sash around their waists a couple times and secure it. Then the men either took the whole top part of the coat off and let it drape around their waist, or just took one arm out. Then they had one arm in the coat and one arm hanging down their back. (Interesting.) When we got to the kite festival, here was the group performing on stage an intricate Tibetan dance, with one arm in their coats and the other arm flying in the wind.