The Yi live in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. Their total population is 8 million.

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.

The Yis are ultimately descended from the ancient Shiqiang who lived all over West China. More immediately the are the descendants of the Qiang group, who split away from the Shiqiang and migrated southwards, where they intermingled with the peoples of Southwest China.

The Yi language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family and is divided into six major dialects. Yi was once written with the Cuan ideographs, but now has its own writing system.

The Yi continue to practice their traditional animistic religion.

The Yis mainly engage in agriculture, cultivating barley, potatoes, beans, paddy rice. They are also involved in forestry, growing also masson pine, dragon spruce (picea asperata), camphor trees, kapok and other timber.

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