Arts and Crafts of the Daur ethnic minority

The Daurs live mainly in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province. About several thousand of them are found in the Tacheng area in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China. They are descendents of Daurs who moved to China’s western region in the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The Daurs speak a language … Read more

Arts and Crafts of The Dai ethnic minority

The Dai ethnic group lives in the southern part of Yunnan Province, mainly in the Xishuangbanna region. The area is subtropical, with plentiful rainfall and fertile land. Local products include rice, sugar cane, coffee, hemp, rubber, camphor and a wide variety of fruits. Xishuangbanna is the home of China’s famous Pu’er tea. The dense forests … Read more

Arts and Crafts of the Bonan ethnic minority

The Bonan is one of China’s smallest ethnic minorities, with only 16,505 people. Its language belongs to the Mongolian branch of the Altaic language family and is close to that of the Tu and Dongxiang ethnic minorities. Due to long years of contacts and exchanges with the neighboring Han and Hui people, the Bonan people … Read more

Arts and Crafts of the Bouyei ethnic minority

Most of China’s 2,971,460 Bouyei people live in several Bouyei-Miao autonomous counties in Xingyi and Anshun prefectures and Qiannan Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province. Others are distributed in counties in the Qiandongnan Miao-Dong Autonomous Prefecture or near Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou. The Bouyei region is on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, which slopes from an … Read more

Arts and Crafts of the Blang ethnic minority

The Blang people, numbering 91,882, live mainly in Mt. Blang, Xiding and Bada areas of Menghai County in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern Yunnan Province. There are also scattered Blang communities in the neighboring Lincang and Simao prefectures. All the Blangs inhabit mountainous areas 1,500-2,000 meters above sea level. The Blangs in Xishuangbanna … Read more

Arts and Crafts of the Bai ethnic minority

Around 1,858,063 Bai people, 80 per cent live in concentrated communities in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, southwest China. The rest are scattered in Xichang and Bijie in neighboring Sichuan and Guizhou provinces respectively. The Bais speak a language related to the Yi branch of the Tibetan-Myanmese roup of the Chinese-Tibetan language … Read more