China: Yi (Lolo) women, Lijiang Old Town, Yunnan Province

The Yi or Lolo people are an ethnic group found mainly in Yunnan, southwest China. Numbering 8 million, 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 Yi speak Yi, a language closely related to Burmese.

The Yi are more rural than their urbanised Naxi neighbours. Like the Naxi, they are a Tibeto-Burman people who may have originally migrated from the northwest.

Yi women generally wear a colourful long-sleeved blouse and vest over long skirts, pleated from the knees. Headgear varies according to marital status, with unmarried girls favouring an elaborately multi-coloured head-dress decorated with cowries or glass beads, while older married women wear a more sombre black hat.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

David Henley

Credit:

Pictures From Asia