HANI

also called Woni, or Houni, non-Han Chinese people living on the high southwestern plateau of Yunnan sheng (province), China, specifically concentrated in the southwestern corner. There are also several thousands of Hani in northern Southeast Asia, notably Thailand. The China census, which recognizes the Hani as a nationality, numbered them at about 1,250,000 (in 1990). Classified as tribes of the larger Yi (Wu-man) ethnic group, the Hani were the first of the Yi to migrate from Tibet, appearing in China in Han times. They were infiltrated slightly by Thai who were fleeing the Mongols. Contemporary Hani are mostly farmers who produce two excellent types of tea and are also known for their remarkable terraced rice paddies. The Hani language, which is spoken by some 520,000 people (fewer than half of the ethnic Hani), belongs to the Tibeto-Burman division of the Sino-Tibetan language family.