At the time of David Hummel's trip to the Drakana Valley, all kinds of brass artefacts hung in rows above the kitchen fireplace. There were ladles to scoop up food with or pour water, milk, or tea. There were small ladles to fry chilli or carry embers in, and a spoon to dole out flour.
The Tebbu Tibetans live in the long valleys north and south of the Yangtze River's northernmost tributary, Bailong Jiang. In the north, the over 5,000 meter-high peaks of the Min Shan Mountains separate their wooded valleys from the almost treeless landscape of the Yellow River.
At the top of the Bailong Jiang valley, you are close to the Tibetan highlands, and Tebbu Tibetans live mainly from livestock – yaks, horses, sheep and goats. Further down, you find a Chinese population and Tebbu Tibetans that are farmers.
The Drakana valley's population live in a transitional zone and combine agriculture down in the valley with animal husbandry up in the mountains. Culturally, they exist in the borderlands between Chinese and Tibetan culture, and this is observable in the artefacts from David Hummel's collection.