Dai people

Dai people
中国境内傣族
1962 photograph of a Dai girl weaving silk in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan
Total population
c. 8 million
Regions with significant populations
 Myanmar6,345,236
 Vietnam1,818,350
China1,159,000[1]
 Laos126,250
 Thailand145,236
Languages
Tai Lue, Tai Nuea, Tai Dam, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Lao, Thai
Religion
Theravada Buddhism and Dai folk religion[2]
Related ethnic groups
Zhuang people, Shan people, Thai people, Lao people

The Dai people (Burmese: ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; Tai Lü: ᨴᩱ/ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿ; Lao: ໄຕ; Thai: ไท; Shan: တႆး, [tai˥˩]; Tai Nüa: ᥖᥭᥰ, [tai˥]; Chinese: ; pinyin: Dǎizú) are several Tai-speaking ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of China's Yunnan Province. The Dai people form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. By extension, the term can apply to groups in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar when Dai is used to mean specifically Tai Yai, Lue, Chinese Shan, Tai Dam, Tai Khao or even Tai in general. For other names, see the table below.

  1. ^ "Ethnic Groups". China.org.cn. Archived from the original on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  2. ^ Haimei Shen. Risk Society, the Predicaments of Folk Religion and Experience of Modernity: The Guardian Spirits in the Mandi Dailue Ethnic Society of Xishuangbanna Archived 2020-11-06 at the Wayback Machine. China: An International Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2