On the basis of Raman, photoluminescence, and absorption studies of porous and nanoparticle silicon we propose that the strong luminescence in porous silicon results from strained silicon quantum dots. A silicon nanoparticle is a special Jahn-Teller system induced by extended electron states rather than localized state. Thus Raman scattering and photoluminescence in porous silicon are multi-phonon assisted free electronic transition processes, all observed anomalous properties of porous silicon can be clearly explained by using this strained quantum dot model.