In China, village head (simplified Chinese: 村长; traditional Chinese: 村長; pinyin: cūn zhǎng) is a local government or tribal post. The village headman is the person appointed to administer an area that is often a single village.
Duties and functions
The headman has several official duties in the village, and is sometimes seen as a mediator in disputes and a general “fixer” of village or individuals problems.
Examples of headmanship have been observed among the Zuni,[2]!Kung, and Mehinacu,[3] among others. Nearby tribal leaders recognized or appointed by the Chinese were known as tusi (tu-szu; Chinese: 土司; pinyin: tǔsī; Wade–Giles: t'u3-szu1), although they could command larger areas than a single village.
Indonesia
The village head in Indonesia is called Kepala Desa.
Generally in Malaysia, the village head is called Ketua Kampung, except for the proto Malay village where the position is called Batin. Ketua Kampung was appointed and assisted by Majlis Pengurusan Komuniti Kampung (Village Community Management Board). In Sarawak, the head of a traditional long house is called Tuai Rumah.
In the Qing and early Republican era, dibao were officially appointed village officials, usually selected from the local landowning class and responsible for land use and boundaries in their jurisdiction.
Japan
In Edo period Japan, the village head was called nanushi (名主) and was in charge of tax collection, general village administration, management of public natural resources (such as mountain, field, river and ocean) of the village, as well as negotiating with the territorial lord as the representative of the villagers.[4]
