The Hani (also called the Akha , or Haqniq, 哈尼族, Hānízú) are one of the 56 ethnic minorities alive in China at the sides of the Han (dominant ethnos group = 91% of the Chinese).
More than 90% of Hani live in the province of the Yunnan in the south-west of China, distributed between the mountains Ailao (哀牢山), the Mekong (Lancang Jiang, 红河) and the Red Fleuve (Yuan Jiang, 元江, also called Lalsa baqma in the language of Hani). They were approximately 1,5 million at the end of the 20th century. They are also very numerous in the mountainous provinces of the north of the Laos, like in the state Shan of Burma. The most recent hearth of population is in the north of the Thailand.
The origins of Hani are not well-known, even if it is thought that their ancestors constituted the old tribe Qiang who would have migrated towards the south since the plate Tibetan before the 3rd century.
The oral traditions Hani affirm that they go down from the people Yi, but that they left them to form a new tribe there are 50 generations. One their oral traditions consists in reciting all the names of their ancestors, of the first Hani family member until reciting. It is one of the many aspects of the worship dedicated to the ancestors. One compliments a person by saying good on his parents. They believe also in spirits of forest (each village has a door which is reserved to them) and also dedicate a " worship with the riz" , which is present in any ceremony of cure, marriage, etc… Animiste S, Hani respect the gods of the rice plantations which they honor for the sowing as for harvests. The wizard, called " migu" , the face dissimulated under a mask of ceremony, alleviates the spirits to avoid the shortages and to protect the village from the natural disasters. Hani being unaware of the writing, it ensures the oral transmission of the knowledge from generation to generation. The buffalo is a faithful companion of Hani. Sacrificed to died of its Master, it will be used to him as guide in beyond. The child bears initially a name of animal which protect it from the demons.
Remarkable facts of company
The model hani privileges the entity with the individual. Example: a sick person will have to go to live the village below, so that its waste does not contaminate the healthy families. The twins also are very badly perceived (that would go until their systematic elimination in certain villages, habit who fall slowly in disuse.) because they put in danger the clan by the strong relation which links them between them, at the detriment of the clan. Hanis are particularly remarkable for the richness of the costumes of the women, in particular of the cover-chief who in known as length on the person who carries it (social status, many children, geographic origin etc, etc). The dominant color of the appropriate dresses is the indigo. They are remarkable goldsmiths of the money, specialized in chiselling. The men in general carry silver bracelets, representation of the forces of nature the such teeth of the tiger and the flower of lotus, the mountains and the plains (opposite symbols) to preserve their place in the balance of the world. The bracelet is for them a very powerful amulet. Bracelets are tied with the wrists of sick people or those which prepare with a long voyage.
Agriculture
One can see many Hani villages in the region of Yuan Yang (Yunnan), there even where one comes from the whole world to admire the famous rice plantations in terraces. Hani are famous for their art to carve in terraces the rice plantations which they cultivate. They built a true age of rice. By developing rice growing in terraces, Hani acquired a perfect control of the techniques of irrigation. Water is collected in sources of altitude. It is then channeled by small drains which distribute it in the various pieces to be flooded. A system of regulation makes it possible to evacuate the surpluses of the strong rains and to maintain the humidity in the event of dryness. The men plow the pieces 5 times per annum with their buffaloes. Each winter, of the hundreds of villager new rice plantations dig and remblaient the old ones. The area of the Monts Aïlao is populated of Hani but also of Yi (another minority ethnos group of China). These two ethnos groups often made alliance in the past to resist the domination of the Han, majority in China. Today, they join for rembayer the old rice plantations and to dig news of them. With the autumn, the harvest of the Riz mobilizes all the village; isolated from the world they still harvest with the hand. They produce also Maïs, Soja and The, whose certain seedlings are thousand-year-old.
Language
The language of Hani belongs to the Yi branch of the Langues tibéto-Burmeses. The oral tradition mentions an old written form, but it would have been lost during the migration since the Sichuan. They use the romanisation today Luchun dialect like writing. However, alive in isolated villages of mountain, linguistic continuity was extremely started, for proof the variety of names that one lends to them.
Example of text
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