Hlai Culture ID

The Hlai are an indigenous people of the island of Hainan, off the southern coast of China. Their language belongs to the Tai-Kadai family, and they are considered among the earliest inhabitants of the island.

Hlai communities lived chiefly by farming, cultivating rice and other crops in the island's valleys and hills, supplemented by hunting and the use of the surrounding forests.

Society was organised around village and kin, with a rich tradition of weaving and decorative textiles, and a religious life centred on the spirits of nature and the ancestors.

Long settled in the interior of Hainan, the Hlai maintained a distinct language and identity apart from the mainland peoples to the north.