Ethnic Communities in China

These four pretty postcards were sent to me from China by Françoise. They show glimpses of four different ethnic communities in China. They are :-

Jino nationality (top left) which is one of the 56 ethnic groups in China, the population is around 20,899, most of the Jinos live in the Jinoluoke Township of Jinghong County in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province.The language of this ethnic minority belongs to the Tibetan-Myanmese group of the Sino -Tibetan language family. Its structure and vocabulary have much in common with Yi and Myanmese.

The Monbas (top right) are scattered in the southern part of Tibet Autonomous Region. Most of them live in Medog, Nyingch and Cona counties. They have forged close links with the Tibetan people through political, economic and cultural exchanges and intermarriage over the years.

The Lhoba Nationality (below left) is one of the smallest ethnic groups of China. It has only 2.312 members. They mainly live in Mainling, Medog, Zayu, Khunze and Nang counties. The Lhobas have many tribes including the Bogar, Ningbo, Bangbo, Degen, Adi, and Tajin. Lhoba is a name given them by the Tibetans meaning "the Southerners". After the founding of new China, they were named the Lhoba Nationality.

The smallest of China's 55 ethnic groups is the Hezhen nationality (below right) who once lived at the confluence of the Heilongjiang, Songhua, and Usuli rivers in Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. Their illiteracy rate is the 4th lowest following the Chinese Tartars, the Chinese Koreans, and the Xibos, and even lower than that of the Han nationality. There were about 12,000 Hezhen citizens in the early 18th century.