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.

According to historical records, the Nu people are the descendants of the Luluman people, who inhabited the area during the Yuan Dynasty and were the ancient residents of Gongshan. The name “Nu” comes from the name of the river they live near, the Nu River.

The Hani call themselves the Hani or Ani people. Like the Yi, they are descendants of the ancient Qiang people, who migrated south from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau some 1700 years ago. The Hani language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

There are several versions of the story of their origins but they are generally considered to be descendants of the Wu Man people, or alternatively the Ba people who ruled the area around modern day Chongqing some 2500 years ago.

The Pumi language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. In the past it was written using Tibetan script, but today it’s written using either a Roman alphabet or Chinese characters.

The Yi call themselves the Panduo. They are also called a number of other names - Nosu, Misa, Lasu, Luoluo, Sani, Axi etc. - depending on where they are.