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Geography
Yunnan, though a province of China, is, in many aspects,
a part of Southeast Asia. This is the case because it is populated not
only by Han Chinese who have migrated into the province in more recent
times but by a large number of minorities who have been living here for
as long as history has been recorded. Actually, one of the dominant ethnic
groups of Southeast Asia, the Thais, trace their origin to Yunnan
where they lived in their own, independent kingdom, Nanchao, for
hundreds of years, until it was overrun by the Mongols of Kublai Khan.
Dschingis Khan's and Kublai Khan's conquest of much of Asia forced many
of the Thais of Yunnan, mainly those living in an advanced social
order, the Nanchao state, to migrate south into an area which today forms
the Kingdom of Thailand.
Nevertheless, a large number of ethnic Thais remained in Yunnan after
Kublai Khan's conquest, especially in the mountainous regions of Yunnan
which have less easily been penetrated, first by Kublai Khan's troops
and later by Han Chinese administrations. Though these remaining
Thais, known as Dais, Bais, and by other names, have,
after Nanchao, never again been able to form their own, independent
states, they have, until today, maintained their own way of life, their
own religion, and their own customs which in many ways are quite different
from those of the Han Chinese.
Yunnan is probably the most colourful, and the most diverse Chinese
province. The particular ethnic mix certainly contributes to this fact.
Actually, Yunnan is among the ethnically most diverse regions
not only of China but of all of Asia, comparable in diversity to its neighbor
in the South and East, the Union of Myanmar (Burma).
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