Central YI People Profiles:
Believers: 200
Bible: No
Jesus Film? No
Profile: Yes
Prayer Requests: Yes
Click for a more complete profile of the Lolopo peoples.
Believers: 150
Bible: No
Jesus Film? No
Profile: Yes
Prayer Requests: Yes
Click for a more complete profile of the Western Lipo peoples.
Believers: 0
Bible: No
Jesus Film? No
Profile: Yes
Prayer Requests: Yes
Click for a more complete profile of the Central Niesu peoples.
Believers: 0
Bible: No
Jesus Film? No
Profile: Yes
Prayer Requests: Yes
Click for a more complete profile of the Enipu peoples.
Believers: 0
Bible: No
Jesus Film? No
Profile: Yes
Prayer Requests: Yes
Click for a more complete profile of the Popei peoples.
Totals:
Population:537,600Believers:350
Introduction to the Central Yi peoples
In the southwest corner of the Middle Kingdom (China) lies the dragon-shaped province of Yunnan. The variety, color, and isolation of the peoples of this province are unlike any other. Of the fifty-six nationally recognized minorities in China, twenty-six of them reside in Yunnan. One of these is the Yi minority. The Yi minority itself can be broken down into numerous subgroups of peoples speaking different dialects, having different dress, and with differing cultures. These peoples are generally divided under six distinct language headings. These headings fall somewhat along geographic lines and are as follows: Northern Yi, Southern Yi, Southeastern Yi, Eastern Yi, Western Yi, and Central Yi.
The Central Yi are mostly located in Chuxiong Prefecture (pronounced Chew Showng ) of Yunnan, an area which is known for its spiritual resistance and dryness. The Central Yi number nearly half a million souls. Within this language grouping are at least 5 distinct tribes of people. The largest two groups are the Lolopo (pronounced Low low poe) and the Dayao Lipo (pronounced Lee poe ). Other tribes or people groups include the Central Niesu, Enipu, and Popei. Though they all speak a language in the Central Yi family, each has its own dialect or sub-dialect.
These peoples all live far from the modern world, where natural language and ethnic barriers fall along river valleys and mountain ranges. To reach them, one must travel dirt roads crossing mountain streams, and paths going straight up to nowhere. They farm and herd on lands at tremendous elevations . steep, rocky, and often unfertile. Their existence is marked by poverty. Hidden away from the vast population and bustle of urban China, does anyone consider them or know they are out there?
Their villages are small, only about sixty mud-brick houses and a scattering of tobacco drying huts. The land area is flat, but drops off drastically at the edge. The people stay in their village, only leaving a few times a year to travel to a market town and trade. All of their needs . food, water, shelter, medical, spiritual . must be met or left unmet by the mountain.
At least five distinct tribes and peoples with a combined population of nearly 538,000 make up what Chinese linguists call "the Central Yi." The largest concentration of these peoples is found in the ten Counties of Chuxiong Prefecture but their numbers spill over into at least ten other counties of Yunnan and one other county of Southern Sichuan.
The name "Central Yi" in no way implies the languages and dialects spoken by the people's classified as Central Yi to be central or standard for all Yi languages. Rather, "Central Yi" designates these peoples' common geographic location and reported mutual language proximity. Further research may turn up other peoples already included in the numbers of the "Central Yi:" for example, the largest of the "Central Yi" peoples, Lolopo, is reported to have three major dialects.
There is no evidence that any of the "Central Yi" peoples has ever had a written language in history past, but at the present, the spoken use of these languages and dialects still thrives. In 1982 the report was that, 96.3% of the "Yi" in Chuxiong Prefecture retained the use of their mother-tongue. The "Central Yi" have been slow to assimilate, and today the number of speakers should still be over 90% of the total population.