Yiuh minority came from the “Guov leih” and
the “Faamh miuh”, originated from the middle and the lower reaches of Yangtze
River and Yellow River, and the upstream areas of Huaihe River. The total
population is approximately 320 million, mainly distributed in the 134 counties
of Guangxi Cueng Autonomous Region, and Hunan, Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou,
Jiangxi five provinces of China, and Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Burma, USA,
Canada, and France. There are 28 self-claims and more than 450 kinds of other
appellations but they are mainly divided into Bienh Yiuh, Bono Yiuh and
Tea-Mount Yiuh three branches. King Bienh (Bienh gouv ) is the same ancestor
for most Yiuh minority and people celebrate his birthday as a festival on the
lunar calendar 16th Oct. Meanwhile, Bono Yiuh don’t have any belief about Bienh
gouv and they just celebrate their ancestor Miloto’s birthday in the lunar
calendar 29th May. Mienh, Bono, Lakkia language, some Chinese dialects, Lao,
Thai language, Vietnamese and English are mainly spoken. It’s very difficult to
determine whether Yiuh minority have writing systems or not in ancient times.
In the 1980s, the Latin-style Mienh writing was created and integrated by the
delegates who came from China, America and Thailand. Bono Yiuh also have
latin-style writing now. Yiuh minority is famous for and proud of its long
history and splendid culture.(译者：唐秋平[一一]，杨盛[峒民]) |
