@tigertiger

YOU didn't like the term tribal? What's wrong with that??

Are you a serial complains letter writer who gets his thrills out of complaining about diagnostics of language and taking gross offence, mostly on behalf of others?

Don't apologise Fix it with a Hammer, stand up for yourself - How are you to know what words TigerTiger likes to read?

@tigertiger I would say the term doesn't fit in the China context. The minority groups are more at the level of ethnic peoples with distinct languages and customs.

They also range across most of S.E. Asia. I can recall mountain people in Vietnam and Cambodia that share similar dress to some of the Chinese ethnic groups. Even there we when we referred to the groups as tribes we were corrected as the cultural experts said there were tribes within ethnic groups.

Maybe Jim Goodman can enlighten us.

@Geezer

Completely true. Many of these groups are made up of different tribes. Yi, Hani, Wa, Dai are all separated into tribes with in some case, slightly different clothes, customs and language to one another. The Wa especially are proud in representing their own tribe, as a trip down WaBang way would show you.

These minorities have tribes spread over the boarders where they are known by different names - Karen, Shan, Hmong etc.

The term is often imprecisely used, generally for any group which has been technologically rather simple in recent history. Tends to be applied, inaccurately and condescendingly, to 'minorities' within a nation-state dominated by somebody else.

In fact, if there is any precision to the word 'tribe', it would be applied to a group of people whose political leadership is in the hands of those selected by age and genealogy - i.e., something like a family writ large.

I will stop by these villages and inquire about the symbols the next time I go to Dali. Will keep you posted.

Of course they are related to Yi culture: its mostly about dancing and theres the tiger too. Tiger - the "God of Yunnan" - is worshiped in Yi religion, call it religion or call it what you want. Yi has a script too and these symbols are used as well as the specific colors and patterns on clothing (embroidery).

These answers are pretty simple and just a basic knowledge of Yi culture is enough.

Then theres the dinosaur paintings, and that area is dinosaur land, theres even a yunnanosaurus and lufengosaurus. And as mentioned above, theres the mushroom paintings, that area is famous for mushrooms, particularly dried and perserved in chilli oil. They are good indeed.

Now Campo dont need to stop on route, anyway its recommended to try the mushrooms in chili oil, well worth a stop.