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Cliff villages

Liangshan Prefecture
凉山州 · ꆃꎭꍏ
Autonomous prefecture
凉山彝族自治州 · ꆃꎭꆈꌠꊨꏦꏱꅉꍏ
Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture
Huidong, Liangshan, Sichuan, China - panoramio (3).jpg
Location of Liangshan Prefecture in Sichuan
Location of Liangshan Prefecture in Sichuan
Coordinates: 27°53′N 102°16′E / 27.883°N 102.267°E / 27.883; 102.267
Country People's Republic of China
Province Sichuan
Prefecture seat Xichang
Area
 • Total 60,423 km2 (23,329 sq mi)
Population (2009)
 • Total 4,532,809
 • Density 75/km2 (190/sq mi)
Time zone China Standard (UTC+8)
Website www.lsz.gov.cn
Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese 凉山彝族自治州
Traditional Chinese 涼山彝族自治州
Commonly abbreviated as "Liangshan Prefecture"
Simplified Chinese 凉山州
Traditional Chinese 涼山州
Yi name
Yi Script: ꆃꎭꆈꌠꊨꏦꏱꅉꍏ
Romanisation: niep sha nuo su zyt jie jux dde zho

Liangshan (Chinese: 凉山; Yi: ꆃꎭ Niep Sha, pronounced [nɛ̀ʂā]), officially the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the southern extremity of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China; its seat is Xichang. Liangshan has an area of 60,423 km2 (23,329 sq mi) and over 4.5 million inhabitants (2010). It is also has the largest population of ethnic Yi nationally. Liangshan Li contains a number of isolated villages high up on its cliffs, often known as "cliff villages".

Yi people came into Chinese and western history books as "罗罗" (Lolo) and "" (Yi) in the beginning. After the Chinese Communist Party came into power in mainland China, the government changed the spelling of the name from "夷" to "" since the old character was derogatory.

The appellations of Lolo, Lolopu, etc. are related to the Yi people’s worship of the tiger, as lo in their dialects means "tiger". Lo is also the basis for the Chinese exonym Luóluó 猓猓, 倮倮, or 罗罗. The original character, 猓, with the "dog radical" 犭and a guǒ 果 phonetic, was considered condescending, comparable to the Chinese name guǒran 猓然 "a long-tailed ape".

Writing reform in the People’s Republic of China replaced the 猓 character in Luóluó twice: first by Luó 倮, with the "human radical" 亻and the same phonetic, but that was a graphic variant for luǒ 裸 "naked"; and later by Luó 罗 "net for catching birds". However, the stigma remained and resulted in negative remarks when people of the prefecture visited other cities, so the government changed the name of the prefecture.


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