Photos

The Yi people are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering 8 million, they are the seventh largest of the 55 minor ethnic 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 Yi speak a Tibeto-Burman language and have their own script. As animists, Yi worship the spirits of ancestors, hills, trees, rocks, water, earth, sky, wind, and forests, but their religion also includes elements from Daoism, shamanism and fetishism

Traditional Yi society was based upon four castes, with the lowest being slaves and the highest rank determined by blood lineage only. In the Liangshan Mountains this system lasted till 1949.

This picture was taken at the market in Xichang, not far from the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Region. I spotted a man with a kind of turban. When I asked if I could take his picture, to my surprise he gestured he didn't want this. Then he put his hat on, adjusted his decorative belt...and got back to me: "OK, nów take your picture!". I duly obliged and this is the result. What a wonderful, wonderful man! I hope you like his picture.

analogue picture scanned, no PP, only framed