The Gelao people (also spelled Gelo) ( Gelao: ''Klau'', ) are an

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

of China and Vietnam. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. However, many Gelao are also variously classified as Yi,

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

, and Zhuang by the Chinese government. They number approximately 438,200 and are mainly located in Gelao autonomous counties in the western part of

Guizhou ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province , map_caption = Map s ...

, such as Wuchuan Gelao and Miao Autonomous County and Daozhen Gelao and Miao Autonomous County in Zunyi. They are also found in

Liupanshui Liupanshui ( zh, s=六盘水 , t=六盤水 , p=Liùpánshuǐ) is a city in western Guizhou province, People's Republic of China. The name Liupanshui combines the first character from the names of each of the city's three constituent counties: Liu ...

, Anshun,

Dafang Dafang (), called Dading () until 1958, is a county of Guizhou ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showin ...

, and

Bijie Bijie ( zh, s=毕节, t=畢節, p=Bìjíe) is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Guizhou Province, China, bordering Sichuan to the north and Yunnan to the west. The Daotianhe Reservoir, located to the north of the town was commissioned in ...

. Some live in western

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

( Longlin Various Nationalities Autonomous County), southeastern

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

and southern

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

. The main religion practiced is

Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

with a small but significant

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

minority.

History

The Gelao people are often considered to be the aboriginal inhabitants of

. The ancestors of the Gelao were the

Rau peoples The Rau people ( Zhuang: ), also known as Lao ( zh, c=僚人, p=Lǎorén; ), were an ethnic group of ancient China. Their descendants are the Zhuang, Buyei, Tày– Nùng and other Kra–Dai-speaking peoples. Names The ethnonym and autonym of t ...

, who made up the population of ancient Yelang.

Language

The Gelao languages belong to the Kra–Dai language family. Today, only a small minority of the Gelao still speak this language. Since the various Gelao dialects differ greatly from each other,

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

has been used as a ''

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

'' and is now the main language spoken by Gelaos. Hmong, Nuosu, and Bouyei are also used.

Culture

Gelao men's traditional suit consists of a jacket fastened up the side and long pants. Gelao women wear short jackets and narrow skirts, divided into three parts: The top section is elaborate in red wool, while the other two parts are made of black and white bordered fabric. Both men and women wear long scarves. The Gelao make a two-stringed fiddle with a body made from a cow horn, called the '' jiaohu'' ( 角胡;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: jiǎohú) used in their traditional music. The Gelao people have their own language, Gelao. At present, only a little over a thousand Gelao people can speak their traditional language. The Gelao language differs greatly from place to place due to scattered living. Most Gelao people speak several languages in the same language family, such as

, Yi, and Bouyei. Gelao folk circulates oral literature such as poetry and proverbs. Ancient folk songs consist of long and short sentences of varying numbers of words. In the past two or three hundred years, they have been greatly influenced by the genre of Han poetry, and many have borrowed Chinese words and phrases.

Language

It was previously thought that the Gelao people only had a spoken language, not a written one. However, in September 2008, ''The History of Jiu Tian Da Ling'' ( English: ''Record of the Nine Heavens'') was found in Guizhou. The book is kept by a Gelao person with a surname of Li in Qianbei, whose ancestors were from the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

. A descendant of King Li Wentong of Gulao, he himself does not know what kind of book this is, but he has always inherited his ancestral teachings and treasures the book. The discovery of ''Record of the Nine Heavens'' fully proved that the Gelao people and their splendid culture have a long history, reaching back to ancient times. It not only has a written language, but it was also the earliest nation that advocated the concept of "harmony and harmony". The Gelao tribe invented their own words of tea, fireworks, copper, iron, etc. Although the book identifies the distribution area of the Gelao ethnic group described in ''Record of the Nine Heavens'' in a manner consistent with information that circulated locally during the mid-1980s (for example, it states that the origin of the Gelao is in Wuchuan, but core parts of Yelang now lying in Panjiang, Chishui, and

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

are ignored), it deviates from local history records dating from the Ming and

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

dynasties. However, the description of the ancient song "Sue Genyou" in Gelao, and the

classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

and Gelao language written in ''The History of Nine Heavens'' contain many grammatical errors, presenting the possibility of a modern-day forgery. The Gelao people living in the western part of

, such as Anshun, used to have Gelao characters derived from Chinese characters, which had been used to record some folk songs.

Subgroups

The Gelao consist of various subgroups. Their historical exonyms, given in a provincial ethnic gazetteer from the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

era, include the following.Guizhou County Gazetteer: Ethnic Gazetteer ��州省志. 民族志(2002). Guiyang: Guizhou Ethnic Publishing House ��州民族出版社 * Flowery Gelao 花仡佬, in Qianwei 前卫, Pingfa 平伐司, Yongning 永宁州, Shibing 施秉, Longquan 龙泉, Huangping 黄平 * Red Gelao 红仡佬, in Qingshan 青山司, Anping 安平县, Renhuai 仁怀县, Liping 黎平府 * Jiantou/Cut-Head Gelao 剪头仡佬, in Guiding 贵定, Shibing 施秉, Huangping 黄平, Yongning 永宁 * Tooth-Hitting Gelao 打牙仡佬, in Pingyue 平越, Qianxi 黔西, Anping 安平, Yongping 永宁, Pingyuan 平远, Huangping 黄平, Qingzhen 清镇 * Guoquan/Pot-Circle Gelao 锅圈仡佬, in Pingyuan 平远, Anping 安平, Dading 大定 * Datie/Iron-Hit Gelao 打铁仡佬, in Pingyuan 平远州 * Pipao/Robe Gelao 披袍仡佬, in Pingyuan 平远, Anping 安平, Dading 大定 * Shui/Water Gelao 水仡佬, in Yuqing 余庆, Zhenyuan 镇远, Shibing 施秉, Yongning 永宁 * Tu/Native/Indigenous Gelao 土仡佬, in Weining 威宁 * Yayi/Elegant Gelao 雅意仡佬, in Yongning 永宁

Yi people

The Yi (), who number no more 3,000 people, live in the Chishui (赤水) area in Xuyong County,

, which is on the border with

. They are a subgroup of the Gelao but have a distinctive history. The Yi call themselves the ''gau13''.张済民/Zhang, Jimin. 仡佬语研究/Gelao yu yan jiu (A Study of Gelao). 贵阳市/Guiyang, China: 贵州民族出版社/Guizhou min zu chu ban she, 1993. In comparison, the Gelao of Xinzhai 新寨, Puding 普定, Guizhou, call themselves the ''qau13''. The Yi live in: * Chishui village 赤水镇, Xuyong County 叙永县, Sichuan * Napangou 纳盘沟, Gulin County 古蔺县, Sichuan. According to the ''Gulin County Gazetteer'' (1993), ethnic Gelao and Yi are found on the northern banks of the Chishui River 赤水河, in Napan township 纳盘乡. * Xiaohe 小河, Puyi 普宜,

County 毕节县, Guizhou * Yindi 阴底,

County 毕节县, Guizhou The Yi have been mentioned since the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, and were said to have come from the north. The Yi are also noted for their belief in the Zitong (子童)

Bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...

(菩萨). Unlike most Gelao dialects, the Yi dialect uses a Loloish-derived numeral system (Zhang 1993:424).

Gelao in Vietnam

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, the Gelao are recognized as an official ethnic group. There are 2,636 Gelaos in Vietnam (2009), mostly inhabited in the karst plateau Hoàng Su Phì and Đồng Văn districts of

Hà Giang province Hà Giang (, ) was formerly a Provinces of Vietnam, province in the Northeast (Vietnam), Northeast region of Vietnam. It was located in the far north of the country, and contains Vietnam's northernmost point. It shared a 270 km long China-Vi ...

. They represent a majority in Túng Sán commune of Hoàng Su Phì.

References

*Hoàng Thị Cáp. 2013. ''Văn hóa dân gian của người Cơ Lao Dỏ''. Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản văn hóa thông tin.

External links

* http://www.china.org.cn/e-groups/shaoshu/shao-2-gelo.htm
"Heaven Book" of the Gelao people

Ethnologue report on the Gelao language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelao People Ethnic groups officially recognized by China Ethnic groups in Vietnam

History

Language

Culture

Language

Subgroups

Yi people

Gelao in Vietnam

See also

References

External links