Dong

Dong, an ethnic minority of China found in southeastern Guizhou province and in neighbouring Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi and Hunan province. According to most linguists the Dong speak a Kam-Sui language that is closely related to the Tai languages, and they call themselves Kam.

The Dong first appeared in China during the Song dynasty (ad 960–1279), moving southwest in a series of migrations, possibly forced by the advancing Mongols. Concentrated today in sparsely populated Guizhou, they share the area with the Buyei.

Most Dong are lowland agriculturalists with glutinous rice as their primary crop. They have also long produced cotton and cotton cloth for sale. The Dong are known as fish breeders, raising fish in specially constructed ponds as well as in some flooded paddy fields. Before 1949 they were integrated into the periodic market system of southern China and since the opening of China have increasingly shifted to production for the market.

Like related minority peoples, but, unlike the Han Chinese, they live in large houses built on pilings. They are known for pagoda-like wooden drum towers that can be as tall as 100 feet (30 metres). These towers and distinctive covered bridges, together with revived festivals, particularly those involving water-buffalo fights—once associated with animal sacrifices in traditional Dong religion—have made some Dong villages attractive for tourists.

According to data from the 1982 and 1990 censuses, the Dong had the highest birth rate of any ethnic group in China. In the early 21st century they numbered nearly three million.