Lapei Nani of the Derung ethnic group shows her tattooed face in Drung-Nu Autonomous County of Gongshan, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 27, 2007. The women of the Derung ethnic group used to have their faces tattooed when they turned 12 or 13 as a sign of maturity. The custom began hundreds of years ago. The Dulong people were often attacked by other ethnic groups and women were taken as slaves. To avoid being raped, the Dulong women had their faces tattooed to make themselves less attractive. However, the old custom began disappearing after the founding of the People's Republic of China and today tattooed women faces can only be seen among some aged people of the group. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    by Xinhua writers Zhou Yan, Li Huaiyan and Liu Juan

    KUNMING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- At 98, Lape Nannie worries that her own death would erase from the memory of the living a mysterious image: the dark blue tattoo pricked on her face when she was a child.

    She was one of 38 women who still bore the mark in the Dulong ethnic group, traditionally known as the "facial tattoo tribe".

    Experts said the group in the Dulong River Valley of southwestern Yunnan Province was rapidly shrinking from the more than 60 reported last year.

    "I do hope others will still remember the butterflies on our faces after we die," Lape Nannie said through an interpreter in her home county of Gongshan.

    A close look at her tattoo showed that her cheeks looked like the wings of a butterfly, her nose its body, and her forehead its antennae.

    The tiny lady, about 150 centimeters tall and no more than 35 kilograms, had six children, the youngest of whom is 48.

    A lifetime of hard work in the field had caused constant aches in her back and stomach, but her eyesight and hearing were still good for her age.

    Lape Nannie did not remember when, or why, she had her face tattooed. All she could remember was the acute pain. "I was there with two other girls from the village. We all cried in agony."

    The other two women died over the last two years.

    Peng Yiliang, an ethnic culture expert at the county's cultural bureau, said Dulong women used to have their face tattooed at 12 or 13. "It was said to mark the puberty of young girls and serve as an ID because the patterns vary in different clans."

    It was still controversial on whether the tattoos were considered beautiful in the old days. "Some say it was an adornment to make women more beautiful. Others say it was meant to make them less attractive so the women wouldn't be abducted," Pengsaid.

    The tattoo, often the image of a butterfly because the souls of the dead were said to turn into butterflies, was pricked on the girls' faces using bamboo needles and an ink made out of ashes on the bottoms of pans.

    "The process lasted for seven or eight hours, and the girls were not to wash their faces for at least five days after the ordeal in order to keep the pattern intact."