The Bit or Bid are an
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
living in
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
.
There are around 1,500 people left, mainly in a single village, as well as a further 500 or so across the border in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
.
They speak
Bit, a
Mon–Khmer language
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...
, although most also speak
Lao.
The Bit live in houses built on stilts, and cultivate wet
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
as well as other vegetables. They believe in local spirits and have a male religious leader known as ''mo mon''.
References
Further reading
*Schliesinger, Joachim, ''Ethnic Groups of Laos, vol. 2'', White Lotus 2000,
External links
RWAAI Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage
Ethnic groups in Laos
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