Ethnic origin of Kam in China

Introduction

The Kam people are a part of the Tai-Kadai people and one of the Bai-Yue tribes. The Han Chinese called them Liao (僚) during Han dynasty, Geling (犵伶) during the Tang dynasty, Dong (峒) (侗) from Ming dynasty onwards. Dong means cave because they live around the streams and mountain caves (溪峒) in Guizhou and Hunan.

Homeland

The Kam people mostly live in Qiandongnan prefecture in eastern Guizhou province, Huai-Hua city in south-western Hunan province and also several small areas in northern Guangxi province. See map below. They are divided into two main groups which are Northern and Southern Kam.

However, their original homeland is not Guizhou province but actually Zhejiang province. We will explore how the Northern and Southern Kam migrated to Guizhou in ancient times.

First wave of migration

A Bai-yue kingdom named Eastern Ou aka Dong-Ou (東甌) state was established along Ou river (甌江) basin in southern Zhejiang about 333 BC after the Chu kingdom annexed Wu-Yue kingdom.

An old Northern Kam folksong "Migration of the ancestors into villages" (祖公進寨) said that the ancestors of Northern Kam originally came from Wenzhou city in Zhejiang province, followed the Yuan (沅) River from Lake Dongting in Hunan province down into Qingshui river in eastern Guizhou province.

The ancestors of Northern Kam people migrated westward to avoid the constant wars starting from the Qin dynasty which annexed the region in 220 BC until the Han dynasty which annexed the region in 138 BC.

First wave migration paths in dark red

Another group migrated southward into Guangdong province and became the ancestors of Southern Kam people.

Northern Kam and Southern Kam most probably split after they reached Jiangxi province because there are some Southern Kam songs that said they first lived in Jie'an Fu in Jiangxi province before reaching Guangdong province.

Second wave of migration

The second wave of migration occurred in the 7th century AD during Tang dynasty according to an old Southern Kam folksong called "Migration of ancestors going up the river" (祖公上河). This is most probably due to the massive Han Chinese migration into Guangdong province during the Tang dynasty.

There were four Kam subtribes who migrated from the Pearl River basin near Guangzhou.

The Biao subtribe split earlier and was left behind in Guangdong province. Whereas, the Lakkia subtribe followed the Kam subtribe after reaching Wuzhou city before getting lost and settled in Jinxiu Yao county in Guangxi province. Thereafter, the Mulam subtribe split from the Kam subtribe and settled in northern Guangxi province.

Migration path of Southern Kam in purple

The Kam subtribe migrated further north until the Duliu River basin in Guizhou province and became known as the Southern Kam people today.

Language

The Kam speakers constitute the largest proportion of the Kam-Sui branch of Tai-Kadai people even though they didn't have their own native writing system before modern times.

There are two mutually unintelligible Kam languages which are Northern Kam and Southern Kam. Northern Kam language contains more Chinese loanwords and has no short/long vowel length distinction compared to the Southern Kam language.

There are Mien aka Yao cultural words found in Kam language which can be explained by their interaction in Hunan province in ancient times.

This is a video of the Kam singing the grand song of their ethnic group.

Sub-groups

Besides the Lakkia and Biao sub-groups, the other sub-group of the Kam ethnic group is what the Han Chinese called the Mulao (仫佬) tribe but they call themselves Mlam who are descendants from the ancient Gelam tribe.

The Mlam live mostly in Luocheng county in Guangxi province and also Qindongnan (黔東南) prefecture in Guizhou province. Their most important festival is the Yifan (依飯) festival when they pray for abundant crop.

Celebrating Yifan festival

Some of the Hmong-Mien tribes such as Cao Miao, Naxi Yao have adopted a language close to the Kam language giving further evidence that they have been living together with ancestors of Kam people in Hunan province since ancient times.

Closest ethnic group

The closest ethnic group is the Sui ethnic group of the Kam-Sui family. The proto-Kam-Sui people split into two groups which are proto-Kam and proto-Sui probably when both groups were in Zhejiang province.

The proto-Sui people reached Guangdong much earlier than the proto-Kam people.

Sui people

A detailed article on the origin of the Sui people can be found in the related links below.

Conclusion

Kam people were the Eastern Ou aka Dong Ou people in ancient times and one of the native Yue tribes in south-eastern China. Nowadays, they live mainly in Guizhou but their original homeland was in southern Zhejiang.

Sources

《侗台語族概論》1996. By 梁敏、張均如
The Kam in ancient times. By Quan Yang and Jerold Edmondson.
The Kam People of China: Turning Nineteen. By D. Norman Geary, Ruth B. Geary, Ou Chaoquan
The origin of the ethnic Dong. https://kknews.cc/culture/3or535g.html

East Asian origin, history, language, culture

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