Gelo Ethnic Group

The Gelo Ethnic Group has a population of 579,357 and most of them are located in Guizhou Province. There are also a number of settlements in Bijie and Anshun.

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 1

 

Chinese is the common language of Gelos, though many Gelos have learned three or four languages from other people in their communities, including the Miaos, Yis and Bouyeis. Their houses are built against hills. Most of them are made of wooden balustrade the house is divided into two parts: the upper part is for people’s living and the lower part is for raising cattle.

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 2

 

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 3

 

The Gelo women are very good at spinning and weaving. The cloth named “iron flute cloth” is endurable and elegant. Most men wear collarless robe with buttons down the front, as long as to knees. Their sleeves are big bur short.

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 4

 

Gelao ethnic group still keeps many old traditions on marriage nowadays. For example, young people need to drink Jiagua Wine when they are engaged. “Jiagua” means “lucky divinatory”. Girls need to kick of two of her teeth before marriage.

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 5

 

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 6

 

The Gelao people have rice as their staple food which is complemented with maize, barley, potato, taro, millet and sorghum. For meat they eat pork, mutton, beef and horse flesh. They love sour food. Almost every household pickles Chinese cabbage.

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 7

 

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 8

 

The Gelos have the Spring Festival and Mid-autumn Day as the Han people do. They also have the small spring festival of their own and the festival for worshipping ancestors and the festival for seedling of cereal crops. The Beginning of the Spring Festival and Eating-new-food Festival are most unique.

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 9

 

Gelo Ethnic Group Photo 10

 

Lisu Ethnic Group

Lisu ethnic group numbers 634,912 people, and mainly live in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, and in Weixi Lisu Autonomous County of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Some also live in the areas of Lijiang, Baoshan, Dehong, Chuxiong, Dali, Simao, and Lincang, etc.

Lisu Ethnic Group Photo 1

 

The Lisu language belongs to the Chinese-Tibetan language family. The Lisus mainly live in mountain areas, high and cold, and they live on farming, with hunting as an important complementary device. There are bamboo-structured, wooden-structured and wooden-adobe structured houses.

Lisu Ethnic Group Photo 2

 

Lisu Ethnic Group Photo 3

 

Lisu women dress in bright colors. In daily life, they often wear long linen gowns decorated with dozens of pieces of colorful lace. The most popular item of clothing for Lisu men is the black turban, followed by a home-spun hemp gown or jacket and loose pants with leggings.

Lisu Ethnic Group Photo 4

 

Lisu Ethnic Group Photo 5

 

 Youngsters have a free air of dating. In the past, they used to whistle with tree leaves, breaking tree branches, tying straw knots, laying stones, and laying chopsticks to express their love. Using sand to bury lovers is a traditional custom of Lisu People. Nowadays, youngsters communicate with each other much easier with the help of letters and telephones.

Lisu Ethnic Group Photo 6

 

The staple food of the Lisus consists of maize, and buckwheat. They like roasting meat, thanks to their hunting tradition. They like drinking wine brewed by themselves, and when they drink, they prefer two people to share the wine out of one bowl, which is called heart-alike wine.

Lisu Ethnic Group Photo 7

 

Lisu Ethnic Group Photo 8

 

The festivals of the Lisus living closer to the hinterland are nearly the same as those of the Han, Bai, Naxi and other peoples around. During the Lunar New Year, the first thing they do is to feed their cattle with salt to show respect for their labor.

 

She Ethnic Group

She ethnic group is one of the minorities in China with a small population. With a population of 709,592, She people are mainly live in Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong Provinces. They live in villages of several dozen households or live along with Han people.

She Ethnic Group 1

 

She language is a Hmong–Mien language. Most of the Shes today speak Chinese dialects, like Hakka. A few Guangdong Shes speak a language similar to the Miao. The Shes lives in hilly land, mainly in subtropical climate. With plenty of rain, warm and humid weather, it’s important secondary forest zone and famous tea-producing area as well.

She Ethnic Group 2

 

The Shes used to dye the self-made flax into dark blue and make clothes out of it. The unique clothing style is mainly embodied in women’s clothes, especially in phoenix sets consisting of Phoenix hair-bun and Phoenix dress. Men have the same clothing style clothing style as the neighboring Han men.

She Ethnic Group 3

 

She Ethnic Group 4

 

The wedding ceremony of She people is simple. The Shes like singing and dancing. They dance even during the wedding ceremony. The groom would go to the home of the bride’s family for a feast. The newlyweds would say prayers to their ancestors and bid farewell to the bride’s relatives. With the groom in front, they would walk to his family’s home, each holding an umbrella and singing in echo. The groom’s parents would welcome them at the front door, completing the wedding ceremony.

She Ethnic Group 5

 

She Ethnic Group 6

 

 She people take rice and potato as their staple food. Hakka diet is deeply influenced by She diet culture. Dog meat is forbidden.

She Ethnic Group 7

 

The 3rd day of the third month in Chinese traditional calendar is the traditional festival of She ethnic group. People will make a kind of black rice to memorialize their heroes Lei Wanxing on that day.