The population is about 216 thousand. The Mulao people mainly reside in the Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and a small number of the Mulao people reside in the nearby counties and cities together with Han, Zhuang, Miao, Yao, Dong, Maonan, Shui and other ethnic groups. The Mulao people use the Mulao language which belongs to the Dong-Shui branch of Zhuang-Dong languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is quite similar to the Maonan, Dong and Shui languages. Most of the Mulao people can speak Chinese and a part of them can speak the Zhuang language. The Mulao ethnic group does not have its own script and they have used Chinese characters as their communication tool since ancient time. The mountains where Mulao live are rich in coal and therefore they are known as the “coal town”. Coal mining has become an important source of their economy. Most of the Mulao people believe in Taoism and a few believe in Buddhism. They celebrate plenty of festivals and the special ones include the “Powang Festival” (also known as the young children festival), celebrated on the third day of the third lunar month when each Mulao village offers sacrifices; the “Bull Festival”, celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month when the Mulao people let the cattle rest and worship the corral god; the “Dragon Boat Festival”, celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month when people in each Mulao village carry paper boats to patrol the fields for deworming to ensure a good harvest, in addition to the same celebration activities as the local Han and Zhuang.