 Ethnic Kam women and man in holiday dresses. Liping County, Guizhou, China. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2,960,293 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi provinces, China; small pockets in Vietnam and Laos | |
| Languages | |
| Kam, Chinese | |
| Religion | |
| Polytheism |
The Kam people (Kam: Gaeml, [kɐ́m]), officially known in China as Dong people (Chinese: 侗族; pinyin: Dòngzú), are a Kam–Sui people and one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live mostly in eastern Guizhou, western Hunan and northern Guangxi. Small pockets of Kam speakers are found in Tuyên Quang Province in Vietnam.[1]
They are famed for their native-bred Kam Sweet Rice (Chinese: 香禾糯), carpentry skills and unique architecture, in particular a form of covered bridge known as the "wind and rain bridge" (Chinese: 风雨桥). The Kam people call themselves Kam, Geml, Jeml or Gaeml.[2]
- ^ Edmondson, J.A. and Gregerson, K.J. 2001, "Four Languages of the Vietnam-China Borderlands", in Papers from the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, ed. K.L. Adams and T.J. Hudak, Tempe, Arizona, pp. 101–133. Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies. Expand.
- ^ Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. New York: Routledge. pp. 408, 409. ISBN 1-57958-468-3.