The population is about seven thousand. The Derung people mainly reside in the  Derung River Valley in the Gongshan Derung and Nu Autonomous County in Yunnan Province. The Derung language is used, which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Derung ethnic group does not have its own script. The name Derung was first recorded in a geographic chronicle of Yuan dynasty in which the people were named “Qiao”. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, they were named “Qiu” or “Qu”, and also “Qiu people” or “the son of Qiu”. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, their name is confirmed to be “Derung” according to their will. The Derung people are mainly engaged in agriculture, but they still retain the tradition of fishing and hunting. They used to believe in animism and worship the nature. Their only traditional festival is “Kaque Wa” (New Year), which can fall on any date in the twelfth month of the lunar year and normally lasts for two, four or five days. During the festival, the most significant sacrificial activity is “sacrificing oxen to the heaven”.