Yi Culture ID

The Yi culture belongs to the highland peoples of southwestern China, chiefly in the mountains of Yunnan and Sichuan. Speakers of a Tibeto-Burman language, the Yi developed a distinctive society adapted to the uplands.

Yi communities combined farming with herding in the high country, and their society was traditionally marked by a stratified order of clans and social ranks that governed land, obligation, and authority.

The Yi are notable for possessing their own script, used by ritual specialists to record texts of religion, divination, and lore, setting them apart from many of their highland neighbours.

Rooted in the mountains of the southwest, with their own language, writing, and social order, the Yi formed one of the distinctive highland cultures of the region.