The Deng is an ethnic group that is not officially recognised by the government of People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

.
They are also known as the Dengba.

They live in Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

's Zayu County

Zayü County

Zayü County is a county of the Nyingtri Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region.Chinese claims include parts of Arunachal Pradesh, south of the McMahon Line, what was casus belli for the 1962 Sino-Indian War.-Settlements:*Puzang...

 and virgin forest areas between the Himalayas and the Hengduan Mountains at an elevation of 1000 meters.
Currently, they are 9 Deng villages.
They have their own spoken language, derived from the Tibeto-Burman language branch

Tibeto-Burman languages

The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Chinese members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken thoughout the highlands of southeast Asia, as well as lowland areas in Burma ....

 of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

In 1985, the Chinese government tried to have some expert study on Deng and recognize them, but 10th Panchen lama says "All the people in Tibet should be tibetans" and "To recognize any new ethic groups is to split our tibetans." and as a result the project has been abolished (according to Chinese National Geographic).

Origins

This is a story among Deng people. They believe their ancestor is Ajiani.

External links

• http://www.ethnic-china.com/Deng/dengindex.htm
• http://zt.tibet.cn/tibetzt/ssmz_en/deng/001.htm