Almost all of the 300,000 Qiang live in Sichuan Province.

The Qiang people call themselves the Erma. According to historical records, they are descended from the ancient Qiang people who have lived in the region for thousands of years.

The spoken Qiang language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It’s written using Chinese characters. Since there are major differences between dialects of the Qiang language, Qiang people often use Mandarin to communicate with each other.

The Qiang continue to practice their traditional polytheistic religion, known as Rujiao. Some, who live closer to Tibet, practice Tibetan Buddhism.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Qiang. Chief crops include corns, wheat, highland barley, and a variety of beans. The white beans called Snow Mountain beans are the local specialty. The Qiang people also raise Tong sheep, a well known breed. Valuable Chinese traditional medicines produced here are caterpillar fungus, the bulb of fritillary, pilose antler, musk, and gall bladders of bears.

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