The identity of the Sani

The Sani are approximately 40.000 persons concentrated principally on the mountain Guishan of the County of Lunan (to 80 km of Kunming)

The Sani are one of the most famous ethnic groups of the Province of Yunnan, and it is possible that the whole China, nevertheless they have not been recognized like national minority yet.

Perhaps his first reputation was a result of his geographical location, to scarcely 80 km of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, and of having preserved intact big part of his traditional culture. It is for it, and for his pacific character, that the Sani belonged to the first peoples of the family Yi in attracting the curiosity of the investigators, as they show the works of the Frenchman Paul Vial in the first years of the XXth century, and those of the Chinese Ma Xueliang shortly before the Revolution.

His second popularity wave came to them after the Revolution, with the diffusion by the whole China of the story of Ashima, based on that a movie was even done in the year 1964. Although Ashima is not a basic work of the literature sani, the topic, a young woman whom the landowner kidnaps preventing him from marrying his dear one, whom it kills later, was most adapted to these times of revolutionary exaltation. Soon all the Chinese knew the existence of a people who keeps the memory of his heroine Ashima (1), who communicates to herself the love by means of songs.

The third wave, the most recent, has come with the development of the tourism in the Province of Yunnan, which with the target to turn into the favorite destination of the domestic tourists promotes his ethnic and natural peculiarities. Here, the stone Forest of Lunan, the homeland of the Sani, has turned into stop forced for all those who visit Kunming. The visit to the stone Forest is intimately related to a spectacle in which there appear the characteristics most emphasized from the culture Sani. There the word "Yi", since they are considered officially, does not appear on any part.

In fact most of the proper Sani do not even know that Yi considers the government to them, as it is not known by anybody who is not a little keen of the minorities. The Sani are Sani for the whole world, although officially there are called they Yi. Some travelers have described the surprise that the Sani feel when one faces them to this contradiction, and even some, on having attracted attention of him that in his Identity card it is written under the word "Nationality", the name "Yi", they have felt truly confused.

In the official report (2) of the commission that studied the ethnic identification of the peoples indigenous of Yunnan the following arguments are used to demonstrate that the Sani are an only one branch of the Yi:

1. That his language is not such, but only one dialect Yi. A pity is that there does not exist a language Yi as such, but even in the restrictive language policy of China, which considers dialects to mutually unintelligible languages, it is considered that the Yi speak six different languages. His writing is similar, but not identical.

2. That the Sani are autonamed "Not", very similar to the "Nosou" of Yi de Liangshan. But there are peoples with major resemblance in his car denomination, like the Nusu (branch of the Nuzu), the Na (car denomination of the Moso)

3. A series of cultural characteristics that are common, not only to the Yi and to the Sani, but to many other Yunnan villages, as they are:

a) Sexual freedom before the marriage.
b) Preference of the uncle in marrying his son with his niece.
c) Clans traces in his society.
d) To celebrate holiday of the torches
e) Funeral for incineration
f) Belief in numerous spirits of the nature
g) Shamans' existence called "pimos" and other religious specialists.

Most of these cultural characteristics are common to numerous peoples who speak languages of the family tibeto birmana.

(1) Of "Ashima" at least two translations to English exist, published one for the Publishing house of the Nationalities of Yunnan (2000) and other one for the Publishing house of the Literature of China (2000)
(2) Yunnan sheng minzu shibie baogao (I reported on the identification of the nationalities of Yunnan). In Yunnan shaoshu minzu shehui lishi diaocha ziliao huibian 3 (Materials of the investigations on the history and society of the national minorities of Yunnan volume 3). Publishing house of the People of Yunnan. Kunming. 1987

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