As the first level subject of research and higher education, the ethnology program at Sichuan University has a long history that traces back to West China Union University. Through the pioneering work of a group of outstanding Chinese and foreign scholars, including D. C. Graham, James Huston Edgar, Thomas Torrance, Li Anzhai, Yu Shiyu, etc., the “Western School of Chinese Anthropology,” one of the most influential and prominent schools of anthropology in twentieth-century China, came into being. Having emphasized a research approach that integrates textual investigation and analysis with ethnographic field research, this school laid a solid academic foundation for the founding of ethnology at Sichuan University. Since the 1950s, a group of prominent scholars such as Ren Naiqiang, Meng Wentong, Hu Jianmin, Wu Tianchi, Meng Mo and others had been engaging in research and conducting fieldwork concerning history, economy, societies and cultures of minority nationality areas in southwestern China. Their effort had resulted in great achievements in the field of ethnology with distinctive research characteristics and advantages. In the field of ethic history, they had not only continued to conduct excellent research in the ethnic history of minority nationalities in southwestern China, but also made many breakthroughs in the fields of the history of Western Xia Regime, the history of the Qiang ethnic group and others. With regards to ethnology, having actively promoted and participated in ethnographical fieldwork carried out in minority regions in southwestern China, scholars from Sichuan University led by Tong Enzheng had begun to engage in research concerning ethnic minority regions and the “ethnic corridor.” Since 2000, Prof. Ran Guangrong, Shi Shuo, Xu Jun and others in the Center for Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University, a key research base for humanities and social sciences under the Ministry of Education, have made outstanding achievements in the study of the current situation and the social development of Tibetan areas, in the field of Tibetan history and other fields. In particular, they are currently leading the studies of Sino-Tibetan relations and the relationship between the Tibetan local government and the Chinese central government in Tibetan Studies in China. Recently we have also completed a series of influential studies of the stone towers in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Tibet-Yi Ethnic corridor, the environmental protection in Tibetan areas.  

At present the research carried out at the ethnology program of Sichuan University mainly focuses on the development study of contemporary Tibet, history of ethnic minorities in southwestern China, historical anthropology, history of the Kham region and Tibet, human ecology of the Tibet plateau and others. The emphasis on the integration of textual investigation and analysis with the ethnographic field research has already become a major tradition for ethnological study at Sichuan University. A preliminary systematic Tibetan curriculum has already been established within the program, and it has already established long-term cooperation and academic exchanges with the corresponding units of Tibetan Studies and anthropology at Harvard University, University of Cambridge and other leading universities in the world.

The program has a long and outstanding tradition in fields of minority history and anthropology, as it has been especially well-known in China for its study of minority history in southwestern China. In recent years, it has been very influential in Tibetan Studies in China, and has made great contributions to the rapid development of the Center for Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University.

The Ethnology program recruits M.A. students in the fields of the development study of contemporary Tibet, cultural anthropology, the study of social and economic development of southwestern China, Tibet-Yi ethnic corridor and others. Currently the program is being led by two Ph.D. advisors, five associate professors and two lecturers.