Yi Beauty Contest in the Daliangshan Mountains

Approximately two million Yi ethnic people inhabit the Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan mountains, where Sichuan Province adjoins Yunnan Province in Southwestern China, and this area claims to have the largest Yi population in China. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the majority of this region was dominated by slavery. The natural mountainous boundary kept the locals locked in. As a result, a cultural island was formed, which unintentionally preserved the rich varieties of Yi folk culture, including a fire worshiping ceremony, a ceremony celebrating a maiden growing up, crying marriage, robbing marriage and original religious ceremonies as well as a mysterious folk beauty contest. In this article, we introduce you the Yi's custom of folk beauty contest.