Abstract: A survey of the somatoscopic and anthropometric traits of 526 adults (280 males and 246 females) of the Dong nationality between the ages of 20 and 55 living in Guizhou was carried out in May 2003. Twenty-eight observations and sixty-four measurements were made on this sample of parents, paternal and maternal grandparents. The results of the survey are summarized as follows:
1. The average stature of the males is 1569.64mm, and of females is 1472.81mm. The span of the arm is longer than that of the stature in both sexes. Most of the individuals belong to anthropometric categories of mesocephaly, euryproscopy for males, and brachycephaly, hypereuryproscopy for females; and mesorrhiny, wide hand, narrow shoulder, medium body type, mesatiskelic type. The stature of the Dong type in Guizhou is short. In this sample, the Dong nationality belongs to the South Asian type of the Mongoloid race.
2. A comparative analysis of the dendrogram of the Guizhou Dong nationality and 31 other minorities living in southern China shows that the physical character of the Guizhou Dong is most closely related to the Yao in Guangxi, Buyi in Guizhou, and is remotely related to those of the Yao and Tujia in Hunan, and the Miao in Taijiang County of Guizhou.

Key words: Somatoscopy; Anthropometry; Physical anthropology; Dong nationality; Guizhou