Mythologies of the Yi Tribe

The Yi ethnic group is better known to many as the Nuosuo or Nuosu, but they are called by many other names too. There are about 9.5 million members in China, so they are one of biggest of China’s 55 official ethnic groups. They live among related ethnic groups in southwestern China, both in mountains and in river valleys, and they are mainly in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. They make terraced fields, love to make music, and are often accomplished musicians on both traditional and modern instruments. They also love dancing with almost acrobatic skill. Their ancestral history (and present history too) is quite interesting since they founded a big empire called Nanzhao about 1,000 years ago.

The Yi or Nuosou (or Nuosu) ethnic minority group is spread extensively in southwestern China. Over 4.5 million live in Yunnan Province, 2.5 million live in southern Sichuan Province, and 1 million live in far way in Guizhou Province. Those in Guizhou live around Bijie in western Guizhou and with the Buyi and Miao in southern Guizhou. Some live in Guangxi. The Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southern Sichuan Province has the largest concentration of Yi people. About 2 million Yi live there, and this one prefecture has almost all the Yi in Sichuan. If you want to visit Yi people and experience their traditional culture, this homeland area is one of the best places to go to. They make both terraced fields and farms on the valley floors, and their culture seems strangely like that of the Thai. This is the homeland of the ruling caste within Yi society. At one time, the Yi from this area established a powerful kingdom called the Nanzhao Empire that later became the Dali Kingdom.

The Austroasiatic Yi people make up the largest ethnic minority in southwestern China. Though their culture has not always been the most egalitarian or savory, it has remained strong in the face of outside influence. The Yi people of southwest China, sometimes referred to as Nuosuo or Lolo, number close to nine million, making them the seventh largest ethnic minority in China. Traditionally, the Yi had a very structured society, with men performing “masculine” work and women performing “feminine” work. Until the 1950s, society was also organized into three castes: a ruling caste and two lower slave castes. While their society has had to adapt to modern Chinese standards, many aspects of their ancient culture have survived, such as the language and unique animistic religion called Bimoism. The Yi are spread out across diverse terrain in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces. A large majority of them, namely 2.2 million, live in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the extreme south of Sichuan.

The Yi or Nuosu people, historically known as the Lolo, are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering nine million people, they are the seventh largest of the 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the People’s Republic of China. They live primarily in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, usually in mountainous regions. The Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is home to the largest population of Yi people within mainland China, with two million Yi people in the region. For other countries, as of 1999, there were 3,300 Mantsi-speaking Lô Lô people living in the Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, and Lào Cai provinces in Northern Vietnam. The Yi speak various Loloish languages, closely related to Burmese. The prestige variety is Nuosu, which is written in the Yi script.

The Yi number some 9.5 million people who speak a large number of related languages in the Yi language family. They were formerly called the Lolo. They revere the tiger, and have an especial devotion to the element of fire. They live mostly in Yunnan, southern Sichuan, and western Guizhou Provinces. A few are also found in western Guangxi, as well as northeastern Laos and northwestern Vietnam, where they are still referred to as Lolo. They live mostly in mountainous areas, as do most of the ethnic minorities.  When first conquered by the Chinese, they had a very structured and stratified society, with levels from aristocracy down to slaves. The aristocratic Yi believe that they are distinguished from others by having black bones. Yi costumes are usually rich in ornamentation, including applique, reverse   applique, ‘plain embroidery’, by which the Chinese mean satin stitch, and also counted thread embroidery, including cross stitch. Here is a Yi cross stitched medallion featuring eight guardian tigers.

The Nuosu (also formerly known as Lolo) are part of the Yi peoples and have lived in mountainous sections of southwestern China, covering parts of Sichuan, eastern Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces, for approximately the past one thousand years. Arts and crafts flourished in traditional Nuosu culture, including weaving, embroidery, silversmithing, and lacquerwork. Notable among the lacquerwork is Nuosu armor, which is made of lacquered leather in a style that is unique to the region and can be recognized by its form, construction, and decoration. The helmet comprises a one-piece hemispherical lacquered leather bowl, with rows of rectangular lacquered leather lamellae suspended by rawhide laces from the rim of the bowl at the area of the front, temples, and back. The bowl is covered in complex decorative patterns rendered in glossy black and red lacquer; the lamellae are coated with plain red lacquer with a matte finish on the exterior and yellowish and black lacquer on the interior.

Nuosu or Nosu (ꆈꌠꉙ, transcribed as Nuo su hxop), also known as Northern Yi, Liangshan Yi, and Sichuan Yi, is the prestige language of the Yi people; it has been chosen by the Chinese government as the standard Yi language (Chinese: 彝语) and, as such, is the only one taught in schools, both in its oral and written forms. It was spoken by two million people and was increasing as of (PRC census); 60% were monolingual (1994 estimate). Nuosu is the native Nuosu name for their own language and is not used in Mandarin Chinese, though it may sometimes be translated as Nuòsūyǔ (simplified Chinese: 诺苏语; traditional Chinese: 諾蘇語). The occasional terms “Black Yi” (黑彝; hēi Yí) and ‘White Yi’ (白彝; bái Yí) are castes of the Nuosu people, not dialects. Nuosu is one of several often mutually unintelligible varieties known as Yi, Lolo, Moso, or Noso; the six Yi languages recognized by the Chinese government hold only 25% to 50% of their vocabulary in common. They share a common traditional writing system, though this is used for shamanism rather than daily accounting.

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