-- Morning light spills across the stone paths of Mo‘erduo Mountain, and the everyday rhythms of Jikayi Village slowly spread along the slopes. In a courtyard, villagers wipe butter tea churns made of red pine, as the rich aroma of tea drifts among staggered Tibetan-style homes. Outside an old Tibetan house nearby, early-rising visitors chat quietly over cups of Sichuan pepper coffee, the numbing spice and roasted notes mingling in the mountain breeze, gently blending the village’s centuries-old past with its present-day life.
When the United Nations awarded Jikayi Village the title of World “Best Tourism Village” in October 2025, the ancient settlement presented a clear answer: a village confident enough to engage with the world does not need to cater deliberately to external tastes. By holding fast to its local roots and cultural identity, it can resonate naturally on a global scale. Through village self-governance, local people have built a shared interest community in which a millennium-old cultural lineage and fertile ecological foundations have grown into a sustainable path toward shared prosperity.
Stone-Built Heritage and Self-Governance Safeguarding Local Roots
Jikayi Village’s defining character is shaped by centuries of stone-built wisdom. The ancient watchtowers embedded in the mountains by Jiarong ancestors, constructed using staggered stone-laying techniques, fit tightly together, with clay-filled seams that withstand wind and rain. Heavy overhanging stones at corners conceal practical solutions for earthquake resistance and insulation. To Qimi Badan, a national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor in his seventies, these towers are not merely cultural relics for visitors, but a continuation of the community’s lineage.
“In the past, watchtowers were built for defense and territorial boundaries. Today, restoring them is about cultural continuity,” said Qimi Badan, regarded in the village as the most authoritative “quality supervisor.” All homestay construction must pass his inspection: walls must use local stone and follow traditional techniques. Even if construction takes longer, the original texture of the village cannot be compromised. This insistence reflects not only the strict requirements of Danba County’s regulations on watchtower preservation, but also villagers’ deep attachment to their land.
The revival of the Worebo old Tibetan house illustrates this approach in practice. Once abandoned after its owner moved to the urban downtown, the connected watchtower-house complex has been transformed into a space combining a café, cultural products shop and study base. Traces of traditional Jiarong life remain throughout. Visitors can see agricultural heritage reflected in lifelike sculptures of Tibetan pigs, learn to make traditional foods beside polished butter tea churns and stone stoves, and watch looping videos on sun-deck screens showing watchtower construction techniques, allowing ancient craftsmanship to be understood and passed on in the present day.
Sichuan Pepper Coffee and Women’s Craft Revitalising Tradition
Cultural expression in Jikayi Village turns everyday life into tangible symbols. The immersive mini live-action performance Coming-of-Age under the Pear Blossoms features no elaborate stage or professional actors. Villagers, dressed in traditional attire, carry out rituals such as burning mulberry branches for blessings and arranging braided hair with hairpins beneath centuries-old pear trees. Visitors can take part, learning Jiarong proverbs from village elders and experiencing the Eastern Female Kingdom culture’s emphasis on respect for women and cooperation. This open, shared approach to culture has proven more engaging than staged displays.
The role of women in Jiarong culture has become increasingly visible along the village’s path to shared prosperity. One example is “Sichuan Pepper Coffee,” created by Tibetan woman Silang Deji, now one of the village’s most distinctive cultural products. Drawing on local resources, she combines high-altitude Sichuan pepper with coffee, preserving local flavours while expanding beyond traditional agricultural products.
The initiative reflects collective progress among women under village self-governance. Silang Deji worked with other village women to refine recipes and packaging, incorporating Jiarong embroidery motifs into coffee boxes to give the product clear cultural identity. The coffee has become a staple offering at local homestays and has entered urban markets, enabling women to preserve cultural heritage through traditional skills while improving household incomes.
Young People Returning Home, Collective Action Shaping a New Chapter
After centuries shaped by harsh natural conditions, the Jiarong Tibetan village is drawing young people back home. As tourism reaches rural areas, Jikayi Village’s commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship has taken tangible form, injecting new vitality into the old settlement.
In 2020, Erxi Qierong, who had worked for years in the construction industry outside the village, returned with his skills. Unlike external investors who proposed demolishing old houses to build modern structures, he insisted on reviving his family’s traditional Tibetan home. Using traditional earth-wood-stone construction, he preserved carved wooden beams and rammed-earth walls, reinforcing them with local craftsmanship. Pear and pomelo trees were planted in the courtyard, filling the space with seasonal fruit aromas. He designed 13 guest rooms, each named after local folk legends, with handwritten story cards by the bedside. “A homestay is not just accommodation,” he said. “It should help guests understand our way of life.”
Behind this effort is support from the village’s self-governance alliance. A homestay association was established to help local entrepreneurs secure subsidized financing and professional training. Erxi Qierong has since cleared his debts, earned a three-star Tibetan-style homestay rating, and received financial rewards under Danba County’s homestay support policies. He now participates in alliance training programmes, sharing experience in traditional building restoration and helping others increase income while protecting cultural heritage.
More young people are returning with new ideas, opening study-tour homestays that integrate intangible heritage experiences, livestreaming daily village life, and developing year-round tourism products. Together, these efforts are transforming village tourism from simple accommodation into a diversified industry, injecting sustained youthful momentum into the ancient settlement.
Shared Benefits Rooted Locally, Confidence Reaching the World
Tourism has not turned Jikayi Village’s residents into bystanders. Instead, it has enabled them to become self-reliant entrepreneurs, with benefits distributed across households. The village’s experience explores a new path for rural communities engaging with the world: preserving old houses rather than replacing them with concrete structures, retaining traditions such as Guozhuang dance and folk songs instead of abandoning them for market appeal, and using self-governance as a link to align ecology, culture and industry. Through practice, this ancient Tibetan village shows that by anchoring development firmly in local roots and uniting villagers through collective governance, all participants can benefit from preservation. Even a community tucked high in the mountains can find its footing in a globalized world, presenting its own distinctive path forward.
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