In the remote regions of southwest China's Guizhou province reside the Miao, an ethnic minority. Villagers brave the unforgiving mountains to tend rice fields, and shamans sing esoteric songs of their past. Some scale hundred-meter cliffs without a lifeline. Research has identified their roots in the ancient Yelang kingdom, which flourished some 2 millennia ago. After making enemies of the Han empire, the Yelang were forced to flee into these distant mountains. Their history is a record of a community bearing the harsh elements, united as one in the preservation of their unique tradition.