The Yeche is a branch of the Hani. Their population it was about 15.000 people (1982). They live in the south of Yunnan Province, in the oriental part of the Ailaoshan Mountains, establishing its villages in the hillsides of the mountains, at heights of between 1500 and 2000 meters. They concentrate especially on three counties or townships: Dayangjie, Liangdi and Chegu.

They build their houses in the mountain, with the forest behind them and their fields before, as they think this is the best way of being protected from the floods. The houses generally face to the south. The Yeche have their own language, a dialect of the Haya dialect of the Hani language. Speaking their dialect they can communicate with some other branches of the Hani that live in the vicinity, as the Bugong, Lami, Ruby and Rumei.

The dress of their married women, however, is different from that of other Hani branches who life near them.

According to their legends and historical traditions, in the Tang dynasty they migrated to the south with other Hani tribes. Then they settled as an independent tribe in the oriental slopes of the Ailaoshan mountains. According to the genealogies that they preserve carefully (as other branches of the Hani do), they have been living in their current localization the last 1,000 years. Their ancestor was one of the grandsons of Yingzhe (the Hani hero) whose name was Yezhe (the whole tribe took the name of this ancestor). Yezhe was the third son of the fifth son of Yingzhe, the Hani leader that, according to their legends, led the people in a big migration to the part of Yunnan Province they inhabit nowadays.

Their common history of the Yezhe with the rest of the Hani, is the reason of their linguistic and cultural similarities. Their separation during the last 1.000 years explains their differences.

Their religion is based on the cult to the ancestors and in the deification of the forces of the nature. The fundamental concept is the existence of different souls or "yuela."

They believe that people are eminently spiritual beings that have twelve souls (1). After death the soul of people becomes a spirit. Much more powerful that these spirits are the gods. A person can fight the spirits, but before the gods he can only submit himself. They divide their main deities according to the place where they inhabit. Their six main gods are the following:

Momi or God of the Sky, maybe their most important deity.

Mishu or God of the Earth, their second deity.

Pumaepo God of the Forests. Is very important to them as their life is linked to the forest.

Other important deities are: God of the Water, God of the Fire, God of the Cliffs.

There are other gods of the nature, called "chang" that are worshipped along the territory of the Yeche. They are possibly related with the structure of matriarchal clans of the old Yeche society.

The cult to the ancestors has for them a primordial function. In every Yeche house, there are three baskets nailed in the back wall that face to the forest in order that, if the ancestors return, they can live in them. It is said that the ancestors only return in the important festivals: those of the third, fifth and seventh month, when they like to visit their descendants in the family. When the festivity ends they go back to the distant Da'e or Land of the Ancestors. But if their descendants don't follow the social rules, the multitude of ancestors cannot take care of them. To have their ancestors happy the Yeche doesn't violate their laws and make sacrifices to them on the main festivals. At home they place a table with six bowls of rice with meat and some wine. The men also worship the ancestors in the baskets hung in the wall, thinking that this way they will protect their souls.

(1) Mao Youquan. - Yeche ren of "linghun" guanniang yu yuanshi diaocha zongjiao (Investigation on the concept of the soul and the original religion of the Yeche) In Yunnan Minzu jigan 1. Kunming.