Yi women if Yongning in 1996

me with yi, originally uploaded by mutikonka1.

These lovely ladies of Yongning were persuaded to take a happy snap with yours truly during our trip of 1996. They aren't dressed up for a special occasion - the local women always wear stuff like this.

Yi people have a reputation for being rather wild - and some say the descended from the Roman or Persian warriors who attacked China's border areas a thousand years ago. Maybe it's true. Some have high aquiline noses and light coloured eyes.

The mortar board hat is characteristic of the Yi.

They used to be a slave owning society with Black Yi masters and White Yi slaves. Lefty journalist Alan Winnington wrote an interesting book about it in the 1940s, called Slaves of the Cool Mountains.