Throughout China and the world, there are many legends and fairy tales about little people. Among them, the story of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is the most well-known. But do dwarf tribes really exist in today's world? The answer is yes.
The Pygmies, also known as the Pygmy people, inhabit the Ituri region of central Africa. They have an average height of only 1.4 meters, with deep brown skin and straight hair, distinguishing them from typical Black Africans. Pygmies lead a primitive nomadic lifestyle, gathering mushrooms, nuts, and berries, and hunting wild animals for sustenance. They live in dome-shaped huts made of leaves and branches along riverbanks, often unclothed except for soft bark wrapped around their waists. Pygmies are skilled at extracting poison from snakes, using it to coat their arrows for hunting. Despite having had contact with the outside world for several generations, their way of life remains unchanged.
Another group of dwarfs resides in the Andaman Islands, located off the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. These dwarfs have broad faces, straight noses, and skin that is as dark as coal or slightly reddish-brown. Adult males typically stand between 1.4 meters and 1.6 meters tall, while adult females are even shorter. Scholars have differing opinions about their origins. Some believe they are descendants of prehistoric Negritos, while others think they originated from the Nile ethnic groups south of the Sahara Desert. There are also those who argue that they belong to the same short-statured group as the Pygmies of Congo and Angola. How these dwarfs made their way from distant Africa to Asia remains an unsolved mystery.
