Buyang people


The Buyang people are an officially unrecognized Kra ethnic group living in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan and Napo County, Guangxi in China. They are closely related to the Laha, Qabiao, Gelao, and Lachi. The Buyang language is spoken, although many Buyang are now shifting to Zhuang and Southwestern Mandarin. In Yunnan, the Buyang are classified by the Chinese government as Zhuang, while they are classified as Yao in Guangxi.

Names

The name Buyang comes from the Zhuang ', which means "other people." The Buyang of Napo County, Guangxi call themselves the ', while Guangnan Buyang call themselves . In Napo and Jingxi counties, many Zhuang are called "Buyang" by other Zhuang groups. In southeastern Guizhou and Tianlin, Longlin, and Xilin counties of Guangxi, many villages also contain the word yang 央, suggesting that those villages may be formerly Buyang-speaking areas that had been assimilated by the Zhuang people.
The Buyang of Guangnan County and Funing County are officially classified as Zhuang, while those in Napo County are classified as Yao. This is because Buyang clothing appears similar to Yao clothing, and many Zhuangs and Hans have mistaken the Buyang as Yao and have called them:
The Buyang of Napo County are also called the Liu Yao 六瑶 because they used to live in six villages. According to the Napo County Almanac, this exonym dates back to the Qing Dynasty, when the "Six Yao" lived in the villages of Nianyi 念益, Guolie 果列, Yancun 燕村, Rongtun 荣屯, Gonghe 共和, and Shanhe 善合.

Culture

Traditional Buyang clothing resembles that of the Gelao and Lachi peoples, although many have now switched to Zhuang-style clothing. Today, most Buyang celebrate Zhuang festivals, although the Guangnan Buyang celebrate the Dragon-Worshiping Festival and the Yin Day, or New Year, Festival.

History

The Buyang people may have originally migrated to their present locations in Yunnan and Guangxi from Guizhou province in the north, which is now occupied by the Gelao people. Various types of historical evidence suggest that the Buyang were much more populous in the past. For instance, many village names in Xilin County, Longlin County, and Napo County begin with Yāng, suggesting that they may have formerly been Buyang-speaking areas from at least the Qing Dynasty. Today, the dominant languages in these areas are Bouyei and Yang Zhuang. Li states that the following counties were formerly inhabited by Buyang speakers, but no longer have any:
The majority resided in the Hongshui River valley. Today, the river serves as a border between northwestern Guangxi and southwestern Guizhou.
A legend among the Buyang of Guangxi recounts that once there were three Buyang brothers living in poverty. One stayed in Guangxi, another went to Yunnan to escape poverty, and yet another migrated to northern Vietnam. The third brother who migrated to Vietnam could have been the ancestor of the En or the Qabiao people.
A Qing-era chronicle had also mentioned a people called the Puyang 普央 living in Guangnan.
According to Holm, the Buyang used to build hanging coffins, including hanging coffins on cliffs above a large bend in the Hongshui River near Banwen village 板文村, Sihe Township 四合乡, Donglan County, Guangxi.
Holm reports that the Buyang continue to exist in the legends of the Zhuang people of Donglan County, Guangxi and the Buyi people of Xingyi, Guizhou.