The Yi

In the mountains south of Erhai and the other side of Cangshan live the Yi. Most of them rarely come to Dali, but the one sub-group which does, selling fruits and vegetables, is the most eye-catching in the prefecture, the women more colourful than the Dali Bai. These are the Dali Yi, who live in the hills immediately southeast of Xiaguan and down into the mountains of Midu County. The women all dress in their distinctive traditional costume-a green, side-fastened, long-sleeved jacket, heavily embroidered apron, trousers and embroidered shoes. Married women wear a tall, black turban, with a stone set in a silver ornament attached to it just above the forehead. Single girls wear a cap with lots of colored tassels falling down the back.

Women also wear a small round pad at the back, called a guobei. One kind is cotton and lushly
embroidered. The other, commoner one, is of felt wool, with a pair of spiders embroidered onto it. According to Dali myth, long ago young Yi women fled the attentions of a wicked chieftain. Running into the hills they hid inside a cave. A sympathetic spider then spun a web over the mouth of the cave. The chieftain's soldiers combed the hills and passed by the cave. But seeing the web covering the opening they assumed the girls couldn't have gone inside. So the girls escaped and to memorialise the event they and their descendants embroidered spiders on the guobei. As a costume part.it has no real function. When loading baskets on their back they push it aside so it doesn't get damaged.

Occasionally these Yi come to Dali to sell potatoes, walnuts or fruit, but more often to the food market by the river in Xiaguan. Many more attend the open markets in Midu town, which are held every four days. Residing mostly in the mountains south of Midu they must leave their villages soon after sunrise in order to reach Midu, on foot, leading ponies packed with their produce, by late morning, the peak of activity. Huge bundles of hemp stalks and loads of firewood and sugar cane are among their other goods.

Southeast of Dali the Yi are a branch of the Lolopo sub-group that inhabits western Chuxiong Prefecture. They are less ornately dressed, distinguished mostly by the embroidered apron, which also covers the stomach and chest. West of Cangshan, in Yangbi Yi Autonomous County, live half a dozen sub-groups of Yi, each dressed very differently from each other.

In the mountains north and west of Heqing live a very traditional branch of the Yi called the Baiyi. They can be occasionally seen in Heqing's market, the women dressing in their very distinctive costume of a long-tailed tunic over trousers and a peaked, Jinuo-like cap. Colors are predominantly blue and white, with a wide, multi-coloured waistband. Most of the components are hand-made. They are rarely visited, but are quite friendly to foreigners they encounter in Heqing.