Yi
Encyclopedia : Y : YI : YI : Yi
- For other uses, see Yi (disambiguation)}}}.
The Yi speak Yi, a Tibeto-Burman language closely related to Burmese, and have their own syllabic script.
History
Legend has it that the Yi are descended from the ancient Qiang people of Western China, who are also said to be the ancestors of the Tibetan, Naxi and Qiang peoples. They migrated from Southeastern Tibet through Sichuan and into Yunnan Province, where their largest populations can be found today.
They practice a form of animism, led by a shaman priest known as the Bimaw. They still retain a few ancient religious texts written in their unique pictographic script. Their religion also contains many elements of Daoism and Buddhism.
Many of the Yi in northwestern Yunnan practiced a complicated form of slavery. People were split into the Black Yi (nobles) and White Yi (commoners). White Yi and other ethnic groups were held as slaves, but the higher slaves were allowed to farm their own land, hold their own slaves and eventually buy their freedom.
See also
References
- Cheng, Xiamin. A Survey of the Demographic Problems of the Yi Nationality in the Greater and Lesser Liang Mountains. Social Sciences in China. 3: Autumn 1984, 207-231.
- Dessaint, Alain Y. Minorities of Southwest China: An Introduction to the Yi (Lolo) and Related Peoples. (New Haven: HRAF Press, 1980).
- Du, Ruofu and Vincent F. Vip. Ethnic Groups in China. (Beijing: Science Press, 1993).
- Harrell, Stevan, ed. Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers. The History of the History of the Yi. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995).
- Harrell, Stevan, ed. Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China. (Berkeley / Los Angeles / London: University of California Press, 2001), ISBN 0-520-21988-0.
- Ma, Yin, ed. China's Minority Nationalities. (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1994).
- Zhang, Weiwen and Qingnan Zeng. In Search of China's Minorities. (Beijing: New World Press).
External link
- [The Yi ethnic minority] (China.org.cn)
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