The Baima people (), also called Baima Tibetans (), are classified by the Chinese government as a subgroup of Tibetans living in the southeast of

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

and the northwest of Sichuan in China, especially in

Pingwu Pingwu County () is a County (People's Republic of China), county located in the north of Sichuan province, China, bordering Gansu province to the north. It is the northernmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of Mianyang. It ha ...

and Jiuzhaigou Counties of Sichuan and Wen County, Gansu. The official classification of the Baima within the larger Tibetan nationality was resisted by the Baima. They demanded to be recognized as a separate nationality, but their claim was rejected. Like the Songpan people of Tibet, Baima people call themselves ''Bai''. Unlike

Standard Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branch ...

, the

Baima language Baima ( autonym: ') is a language spoken by 10,000 Baima people, of Tibetan ethnicity, in north-central Sichuan Province and Gansu Province, China. Baima is passed on from parents to children in Baima villages. It is spoken within the home domai ...

does not use a written script, although a hieroglyphic system is used in religious practice. In religion, they still keep ancient nature worship and totem worship, which practices were later influenced by Bon, and in some degree they also believe Buddhism and Daoism, but there are no temples or lamas (monks). To many of the Baima, the Mountain God is the highest god. The most important religious event for them is the Caogai Dance (曹蓋, which means domino in Baima). The Baima people are said to be the descendants of Baima Di (白馬氐) and after Songtsen Gampo established the Tibetan Empire, they gradually became part of the Tibetan people. The Di (氐) were an ancient large ethnic group living in west China who were associated with the Qiang (羌), also called Di Qiang (氐羌). The change from their original Di language to Amdo Tibetan probably took place in the 7th century AD.Katia Chirkova
Baima: From language to dialect
(University of Leiden lecture) The area Baima people live in is the region that was previously called Jiandi Dao (湔氐道) before the Tibetan empire was established. Baima_-_panoramio_(1)

References

近三十年来白马人研究状况述论__ - 四川社会科学在线
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baima People Ethnic groups in Sichuan Sino-Tibetan-speaking people People from Gansu