This article explores the practices of indigenous tea growers on Jingmai Mountain who continue to use ancient techniques to cultivate a premium tea. It highlights the spiritual significance of the tea forests and the challenges they face in preserving their traditions in the face of increasing demand.
High on Jingmai Mountain , Indigenous tea growers are holding fast to ancient techniques and creating a premium tea that has never been more popular. Dai tea growers pluck leaves in Da Ping Zhang, one of five tea forests on Jingmai Mountain in Yunnan Province . The region’s Dai and Blang peoples have used natural farming methods for over a millennium.
A four-foot-wide trunk along with enormous branches, stretching up into a canopy of leaves, gave it an imposing bearing—nothing like the smaller tea shrubs often packed into tight rows on commercial farms throughout China. But this tree, deep within the southwestern Yunnan Province, was different. And it served a different purpose altogether. A married couple named Ai Rong, 41, and Ke Lanfang, 36, had gathered with their elderly parents in front of the tree, chanting a prayer in the Blang people’s language, spoken by the Indigenous community throughout this region where five tea forests—collectively the oldest and largest on the planet—are cultivated. To the untrained eye, the tree might have been merely part of a forest. But for the family, it was the heart of a living shrine: They prayed to their Tea Spirit Tree, asking an ancestor named Pa Aileng, now considered a deity, to deliver a strong harvest. “It’s a thousand years old,” Ai said proudly, pointing to the tree’s large trunk. In recent years, however, his faith has seemed to be continually tested. At a time when the region’s highly specialized tea has gained widespread attention, commanding impressive prices, there are ever more unpredictable natural forces to contend with. Husband and wife Ai Rong (back right) and Ke Lanfang, joined by their kneeling parents, pray to their family’s Tea Spirit Tree, the oldest and largest in their plantation atop Aileng Peak. For tea producers of Blang descent, cultivation is infused with spirituality. They honor the tea forest as a shrin
Indigenous Tea Growers Jingmai Mountain Yunnan Province Ancient Techniques Spiritual Beliefs Tea Forests
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