39. Chinese Nationalities (Pumi Minority) -- Minorities by Descending Populations

Pumi Minority

The ancestors of Pumi were a nomadic tribe living in the southern part of Gansu Province and the eastern part of Qinghai Province. Later, their descendants moved south to warmer areas along the Hengduan Mountain Range. After the 13th century, the Pumi ethnic group gradually settled down in Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Lanping counties.

The Pumi ethnic group has its own language, which belongs to the Tibetan-Myanmese family of the Chinese-Tibetan language system. They also have their own simple written language based on Tibetan letters, but now Chinese characters are widely used among Pumi people.

The Pumi mostly live in Yunnan Province. 90% of them inhabit the mountainous areas at an average elevation of 2,500 meters in the province's northwestern counties, namely, Lanping, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Yongsheng. They migrated from Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan provinces to Yunnan during 400 B.C. The Pumi people live in log houses. The upstairs usually has a fire pit at the center and there the family lives. The first floor serves as the cattle shed. The regions where the Pumi live are advanced in livestock breeding. The Pumi speak a language related to Tibetan and have a similar lifestyle to Tibetans. Part of the Pumi accepts lama Buddhism; the others have a polytheistic religion and sacrifice to their ancestors.