Sichuan's isolated Zhaba move with the times

Zhaba, China

NIMBLE after years of practice, Trinley Norbu is used to hoisting himself three storeys up the side of a stone house and through the window for a one-night stand in his south-west China community.

While other young men squire their love interests to dinner or a movie, he has honed his climbing skills, long the key to successful courtship for men in the small matrilineal Zhaba ethnic group of Sichuan province.

The Zhaba eschew monogamous relationships for traditional "walking marriages" - so-called since men typ…