The population is about 1.661 million. The majority live in the Ailao Mountain area on the west side of the Red River downstream the Lishe River in the southwestern part of Yunnan Province. They use the Hani language, which belongs to the Yi branch of Tibeto-Burman languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family with three dialects called Haya, Bika and Haobai. The Hani ethnic group originally did not have its own script. In 1957, the phonogram writing system was devised based on Latin alphabets. The Hani people are mainly engaged in agriculture who grow rice, various cash crops and trees, and tea plants. The Hani people are polytheists and worship their ancestors. Traditional festivals include the “Tenth Month Festival” and the “Sixth Month Festival”. The tenth month in the lunar calendar is the beginning of a year for the Hani ethnic group. The “Tenth Month Festival” is celebration of the New Year. The celebration usually lasts for 5 to 6 days, to even half a month at most. The “Sixth Month Festival” is called “Kuzhazha” in the Red River region, which usually takes place around the 24th day of the sixth month in lunar calendar, lasting for 3 to 6 days. In addition, the Hani people living in Mainland China and the Red River area celebrate the “Spring Festival”, “Dragon Boat Festival” and “Mid-Autumn Festival” as the Han people do.