Yao

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A people living in southern China, North Vietnam, northern Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma), and numbering about 4 million (1984). The Yao language may belong to either the Sino-Tibetan or the Thai language family. The Yao incorporate elements of ancestor worship in their animist religion.

The Yao are generally hill-dwelling farmers practising shifting cultivation, growing rice, vegetables, and also opium poppies. Some are nomadic.

The ‘Sun of May’ was added in 1818. The blue bands are a shade known as ‘celeste’, said to be the colour of the sky which inspired Argentine revolutionary Manuel Belgrano before battle. Effective date: 16 August 1985. >>