A community of dwarves has set up its own village to escape discrimination from normal sized people. Everyone in the mountain commune in Kunming, southern China, must be under 4ft 3ins tall – and they run their own police force and fire brigade from their 120 residents.
Now the group has turned itself into a tourist attraction by building mushroom houses and living and dressing like fairy tale characters.
randy newman – short people

‘As small people we are used to being pushed around and exploited by big people. But here there aren’t any big people and everything we do is for us,’ said spokesman Fu Tien.

Excerpts from a lecture by German author Hartwig Hausdorf that has been floating around the net:

“It began with news from Associated Press, coming from China in November, 1995. [...] In Sichuan Province, Central China, some 120 dwarfish beings were discovered – with the tallest among them to be 3 ft. 10 inch, and the smallest adult to be 2 ft 1 inch! It’s really incredible – scientists are helpless: some of them think about poisoned environments, others presume a certain genetic configuration to be the reason for their stunted growth.”

“120 dwarfs cannot be created only by chance, as the probabilities for stunted growth is one case among 20,000 – all we know about the theory of probability is against chance! Poisoned environments are not practicable as well, since the “Village of the Dwarfs” is far away from major cities and industries. I got this information from two faxes sent by Chinese Tourist Administration, and from several telephone calls with Secretary of the Chinese Ambassador in Bonn, Mr. Dai.

In January, 1997, a new theory leaked from Chinese ethnologist – revealing their helplessness in a case that grows more and more mysterious. They attributed the dwarfism to a high concentration of mercury in the soil, that poisoned the drinking water for generations.”

“It is significant for the information I got from China that the authorities did not deny the existence of the “Village of the Dwarfs” – but they kept on directing me to the fact that the place isn’t open to foreigners.”

“The so-called “Village of the Dwarfs” is located only a few hundred kilometers east of Bayan-Kara-Ula mountains, almost near the east spur. At this point, Chinese provinces Qinghai and Sichuan are adjoining.”

“Mr. George Dendl from Berlin, who takes a doctor’s degree in History, found a report from the year 1911 that spoke about repeated sightings of extremely dwarfish beings in Tibet and its Central Asian neighborhood.”

“When holding a lecture in Australia in June, 1996, I was contacted by a young couple one eve in Brisbane. They told me about their grandfather, who was on duty with the Allies in Central China during World War II. Until he died, he never ceased talking about several encounters he had with members of an extraordinary dwarfish tribe in Central China. According to his reporting, these dwarfish folks were far smaller than the Pygmies from Africa, who usually grow by 4 ft 8 up to 5 ft.”

Other random tidbits:

1322 – Sir John Mandeville claims To have seen dwarfish people along the Delay river.

1911 – Unknown (and probably unverified) reports of extremely dwarfish people in Tibet and surrounding Central Asia.

1947 – English scientist Dr. Karyl Robin Evans claims to have seen a few hundred dwarfs living in a remote valley of the mountains.

From Shan Hai Jing (the Classic of Mountains and Seas-Birrel Trans.):

Roundample Country lies to its east. Its people are short and squat, and they wear a cap and belt. One author says that Roastdwarf Country lies east of Threehead Country.’ – Book VI

‘[The Roundample People] are three feet tall and they live in caves. They are master inventors and they use the five grains.’ – Comm.

‘There is the country of the Small People. Their name is the Little People.’ – Book XIV

‘In the furthest northeast regions there are people only nine inches tall.’ – Comm. *This is quite interesting when considered in light of ‘pigmy flints’ which according to one Prof. Wilson: ‘The datum, just at present, leads me to accept that these flints were made by beings about the size of pickles. Not only that the flints are tiny but that the chipping upon them is “minute.”‘ (Rept. National Museum, 1892-455) – Luke*

‘Here are the Small People. Their country is named Roastdwarf Country. They have ‘Few’ as their family name. Their food is an excellent grain.’ – Book XV

‘There are Small People here. Their name is the Mushroom People.’ – Book XV

‘In the mountains their appear little people like a “meat fungus.”’ – Comm.

‘On Mount Silver there are female trees which give birth every day to babies which by dawn can walk, but by sunset die. Yet by the next dawn they come to life again.’ – Comm.

‘Here is the land of the Progenyless Folk. [...] Their children have no bones. Their food is pure air and fish.’ – Book XVII *Compare to Robert Kirk’s assertion in “The Secret Commonwealth” that faeries ‘have Bodies or Vehicles so spungious, thin, and delecat, that they are fed by only sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors, that peirce lyke pure Air and Oyl.’ He also maintains that, ‘their Bodies of congealled Air are some tymes caried aloft.’- Luke*‘

[The Roastdwarf People] invented the featherless arrow.’ – Comm. *Compare to ‘elf-shot’ in the western tradition -Luke*

‘Beyond the northwest seas, north of the river block, there are people who have wings. Their name is the Sprout Folk. [...] They are meat-eaters.’ – Book XVII

‘To the south of the land of the Female King, there is the land of Crimsonscholar. The people there are three or four feet tall.’ – Comm.

WELL!!! HERE THEY ARE!!! THE DAWRFS FROM KUNMING:

在“小矮人王国”的蘑菇房前，“小矮人”们集体表演文艺节目（9月19日摄）