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| 3164 Miao people |
Posted on 21.04.2014, 08.10.2017
Miao is an ethnic group who live primarily in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, and Hubei, but also, in smaller numbers, in northern Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Miao is actually the official Chinese term for four distinct groups of people who are only distantly related through language or culture (and doesn't reflect the self-designations of the component nations of people): the Hmu people of southeast Guizhou, the Kho (Qho) Xiong people of west Hunan, the A-Hmao people of Yunnan, and the Hmong people of Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Yunnan.
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| 1061 Long Skirt Miao women in Guizhou |
There are some nine million Miao in China, of whom the Hmong constitute probably one-third. The Miao are related in language and some other cultural features to the Yao; among these peoples the two groups with the closest degree of relatedness are the Hmong (Miao) and the Iu Mien (Yao). Much of the Miao area is hilly or mountainous, and is drained by several big rivers. The weather is mild with a generous rainfall, and the area is rich in natural resources. Major crops include paddy rice, maize, potatoes, Chinese sorghum, beans, rape, peanuts, tobacco, ramie, sugar cane, cotton, oil-tea camellia and tung tree.
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