Sani is one branch of ethnic Yi. In 2, Dianchi was an area for ethnic Yi living. From 3, ethnic Yi little by little enlarged living area to south of Dianchi, Guizhou and Guangxi. Ethnic Yi lived together with other ethnic and formed many branches. Among ethnic YI, people living in Yunnan stone forest, north to Qiubei are mostly occupied by ethnic Sani. Ethnic Sani respects tiger a lot. In Sani language, Luo is tiger, luo is dragon. So early Sani entitled themselves as “luoluo” and means that an ethnic is like dragon and tiger, and unconquerable.

Sani Villages

　　Ethnic Yi Autonomous County of Stone Forest in Yunnan is the largest gathering area for Sani of Ethnic YI. In county stone forest, because of various terrain and topography, there are various natural environment. There are different living styles of Sani. Thatched cottage is one type of house for Sani.

　　Sani has its unique language characters. There are odd lion dance in wedding and funeral, dazzling costume and colorful embroidery, rich poem and fable, simple and rural wrestling, bull fight and sheep fight for Sani and the tourists all marvel at those traditional customs of Sani. There is also the fable of Ashima named by Sani as “Sani Venus” and attracts many tourists. There are also the torch festival named as oriental carnival, together with the warm folk dance, tens of thousands of torch lighten the sky red and leave so many unforgettable impression and everlasting memory.

　　Torch festival is the biggest festival of ethnic Yi. In every Lunar New Year June 24th, the torch festival are usually held. It is said in ancient time, in order to be against the violent management by a brutal Tusi, sani local residence raised rebellion against his violent control. Torch festival since then has passed around in order to celebrate victory. There are three days celebrated in the torch festival, the first day is for family reunion, the second and last day both for wrestling, horse racing, bull fighting, boat racing, tug of war and many others. At last there is a very large Bonfire party for celebrating whole night.

　　There is red and big “Xi” pasted on the door of one household, that means a Sani couple just got married. There are three types of drinking wine including drinking little wine, drinking middle wine and drinking big wine. After drinking big wine, the groom will visit the residence of bridegroom and bring her back home. Men in groom side carry baskets with grains, vegetables, clothing and silver wares for bridegroom. When arriving the bridegroom’s home, only via song competition with girl in bridegroom side, after getting permission from bridegroom,the bride can enter the house of bridegroom. The girls in bridegroom side are very naughty and make fun with guys from groom side. There are left with so many laughter and happiness in the fun interactive connection.