Puer photography

Yunnan is the center of the origin of tea trees in the world, with an ancient tea area with a history of 1700 years. It is recognized as one of the birthplaces of Pu 'er tea in the world and the famous "hometown of tea trees". There are wild-type "ancient tea tree kings" that have survived for more than 1700 years, cultivated "ancient tea tree kings" that have lasted for more than 800 years, and more than 3,200 hectares of cultivated ancient tea trees and a number of large-scale wild tea trees.

The cultural landscape of Pu 'er Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest is located in the southeast of Huimin Town, Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Pu 'er City, Yunnan Province, 237 kilometers away from Pu 'er City and 70 kilometers away from Lancang County.

Dai folk houses in ancient tea forests

About the 10 century, ancestors such as Bulang and Dai discovered wild tea trees when they migrated to Jingmai Mountain, so they built villages in the forest and cultivated tea trees around the villages. Through long-term exploration, they gradually realized the growth characteristics of Pu 'er tea trees and formed the intelligent tea planting technology under the forest.

Tea trees do not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but mainly rely on natural leaves and herb layers to provide nutrition, and rely on the biodiversity of communities to control pests and diseases. Together with vertical land use technology and traditional settlement construction technology, they enable indigenous people to make the most effective and sustainable use of natural resources here. They are the essence of the world agricultural cultural landscape and an outstanding example of traditional human settlement and land use.

The legend of Bulang nationality

The story of a leaf

Su Guowen

On 201165438+1October 18, CCTV Record Channel released China's first documentary "Tea, The Story of a Leaf", which made more people know about Prince Brown and Su Guowen, the inheritor of Brown culture.

Bulang nationality, formerly known as Balang, is a descendant of Gupu people and one of the oldest indigenous peoples in Yunnan. According to historical records, the Bulang people originally lived around Dianchi Lake. Later, due to the large-scale southward migration of the northern nationalities, the Bulang people were forced to move southward.

"My family is a hereditary leader. A long time ago, it may have been like this for seven or eight hundred years. There is no such thing as a leader now, but ideas still exist among the people. The so-called Jingmai Mountain consists of two administrative villages, one is Jingmai Village, which is dominated by Dai people, and the other is Mangjing Village, which is dominated by Bulang people. There are 6 Bulang villages with about 680 households and more than 2,800 people. I am not just making tea, I am also leading all aspects of Bulang culture. " Su Guowen said.

Aerial photography in Jingmai Mountain

One afternoon in late September, Red Star News met him in his eighties at the Palen Temple built by Su Guowen himself. Su Guowen told Red Star News that the tea culture of Bulang nationality is different from other nationalities because tea saved the life of Bulang nationality.

According to legend, the Bulang people encountered a plague when they migrated from Dianchi Lake in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, there was no medicine, and the whole ethnic group faced the dilemma of extinction. When an ancestor was dying, he accidentally picked a leaf from the tree and put it in his mouth. After a long time, he woke up and found that the disease had been eliminated, so he quickly told his compatriots. As a result, other ethnic groups learned from that man and put leaves in his mouth. After a period of time, all the diseases of the whole nation were eliminated.

Aerial photography in Jingmai Mountain

At that time, the Bulang people called all the leaves "pull". Because the leaves of trees that can eliminate diseases are different from other trees, they have special functions, can cure diseases and can eliminate fatigue. Therefore, in order to distinguish them, the ancestors of the Bulang nationality called them "La", which has been in use ever since.

"Since then, the Bulang people have a deep affection for tea. Later, everywhere I went, the first thing I did was to look for tea trees. I won't stop if I can't find the tea tree. Around the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the last group of people stopped migrating in Jingmai Mountain and planted tea on a large scale. The starting point of the history of tea planting in Jingmai Mountain began at that time. " Su Guowen said.

Jingmai Ancient Tea Tree Photography Tan Chun

As the son of Surya, the last hereditary toast of the Bulang people in Mangjing, Su Guowen taught primary school Chinese in Lancang County for 25 years after he grew up, and then worked in the administrative post of the Education Bureau for 15 years. In 2004, Su Guowen retired and returned to the village to settle down.

"My father entrusted me with three things before he died, asking me to restore and inherit the culture of the Bulang people. When the villagers heard that I was retiring, they asked me to come back. I counted the old people in the village who knew the historical materials, and there were only six left. The youngest is 83 years old, so I took decisive measures-I submitted my retirement application and didn't approve it when I came back. Behind the organization department also took me back and scolded me. But in the end, they withdrew their criticism and felt that what I did at that time was right. "

In 2004, Mangjing Village still mainly grew grain. Because there is no market for tea, the ancient tea garden lacks maintenance for many years, and weeds are higher than tea trees. They absorb a lot of nutrients, which leads to insufficient light and ventilation, yellow leaves and danger of death. What worries Su Guowen even more is that in order to ensure food and income, villagers planted food and cash crops through deforestation, and some even cut down forests for firewood and sold them to foreigners.

"You can't do this." Su Guowen told the villagers that the idea of solving the food problem is correct, but it cannot be at the expense of deforestation. What our ancestors left behind for thousands of years can never be destroyed.

At that time, the concept of Pu 'er tea in the market was only divided into old tea and new tea, and ancient tea did not have such a high recognition. Because the ancient tea seeds are dark and big, they look rough, but people are more attracted to the more handsome table tea.

"In fact, this ancient tea belongs to one of the best teas. In the past, our ancestors used this tea as medicine. At that time, I slowly began to promote ancient tea. Later, society knew that there were ancient teas in Jingmai Mountain. This is the original ecology. "

In Jingmai Mountain ancient tea garden, Bulang people are picking tea.

"At that time, I told the people that I was not afraid, not a problem of tea, but a man-made problem, and the time would not be long. By 20 10, (tea price) was getting better again, slowly rising steadily. Later, everyone convinced me that I was right. "

In Su Guowen's view, "protection in development and development in protection" is the only choice for Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest. The quality of tea in Jingmai Mountain is due to the fact that tea trees grow in ten thousand mu of jungle. If this ecosystem is destroyed, it will become like tea in other places.

"Protect the ancient tea garden, which is the legacy left by our ancestors. Whatever is valuable and priceless, don't destroy it. Because it is the historical witness of our tea planting and the living fossil of our tea planting, its historical and cultural value will always exist. For the ancient tea garden, we used to put its economic interests first, and now we put protection first and economic interests second. " This is Su Guowen's warning to the Bulang people.

Return tea to the forest

Abandoning "High Yield and Close Planting" and Improving Tea Tree Ecology

Aerial photography in Jingmai Mountain

In Jingmai Mountain, besides tea trees, the biodiversity here is also very rich, with 14 species, such as dogwood with long tail, cycad, cypress, Toona sinensis, Heguomu, Phoebe bournei, fenugreek, Dalbergia odorata, Magnolia grandiflora, Cycad spinulosa, golden hair, buckwheat and so on.

The observation data show that 943 species and varieties of seed plants 125 families, 489 genera, ornamental insects 16 species, terrestrial vertebrates 187 species, mammals 22 species, birds 134 species and economic insects 2 1 species were recorded in the ancient tea forest.

Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest

For a long time, Lancang County has attached great importance to the protection and management of Jingmai Mountain, and has successively formulated and promulgated a series of local laws and regulations to strengthen the protection and management of Jingmai Mountain from the legislative level. In 20 15, Lancang county upgraded the Decision of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Lancang Lahu Autonomous County on the Protection of Jingmai Mountain to regulations, and formulated the Regulations on the Protection of Jingmai Mountain in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, which further strengthened the protection and management of natural and human landscapes such as Pu 'er Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest and traditional villages, and provided a stronger legal guarantee for the application of Pu 'er Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest.

Manggeng Village in Jingmai Mountain

Jingmai Mountain

"Some big trees have short crowns, which will cause poor photosynthesis of tea. We think it is necessary to make proper repairs. Trees such as Zizyphus jujuba and Huyi just lose their leaves when tea leaves grow, while red-haired trees and chestnut trees that do not lose their leaves all year round will block the sun and affect the growth of tea trees. " Yan Yuxi said.

In fact, too dense plant growth can easily lead to insufficient light and ventilation, thus affecting its growth. Under-forest tea planting model creates ideal growth conditions such as light, temperature and humidity for tea trees with the three-dimensional community structure of tree layer, tea tree layer and herb layer. Specifically, the upper tree layer mainly grows tall trees such as Cornus officinalis, Schima superba, Yuyi, Toona sinensis and Ficus microcarpa. Tea tree is the dominant species in the middle shrub layer, and there are plants such as Cinnamomum camphora and Ericaceae. The lower herb layer consists of grasses, ferns, medicinal materials, wild vegetables and other vegetation.

In the 1960s and 1990s, Jingmai Mountain tried to plant densely planted terraced tea gardens with high yield, but after 2007, it was transformed into an ecological tea garden that continued the tradition of growing tea under the forest.

Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest

"In 2007, Pu 'er tea had a bubble economy, but I don't think platform tea grew up. Taiwan tea is grown in a different way from our ancient tea. We use deforestation to grow tea with high yield and close planting. Moreover, it is impossible to grow it like this without fertilization and pesticides, so I proposed to remove the high-yield and dense-planted tea at that time. "

At that time, Su Guowen put forward the slogan of "returning tea to the forest", and carried out ecological transformation on the so-called "high yield and close planting" tea trees, and adjusted the original close planting distance of each tea tree to at least two meters, which greatly improved the ventilation, lighting and nutrition of tea trees. To this end, he also did experiments in his own garden. After more than 20 years of cultivation, the taste of tea made is even better than that of some ancient tea trees.

The future of Jingmai Mountain

"Love the tea tree as you love your eyes."

Jingmai Dazhai

Jingmai, a Dai language, is a new city or village built for Dai immigrants. According to historical records, the leader of the Dai people in Jingmai chased a golden red deer during the hunting process and came to Jingmai Mountain. Jingmai Dazhai is the first tribal settlement after Dai ancestors moved to Jingmai Mountain. It is also the place where Dai leaders in Jingmai Mountain live, and it is located in the external transportation hub of Jingmai Mountain.

Every year from mid-July to 10, it is the Dai people's closed day. After the closed day, in order to concentrate on productive labor, young men and women are not allowed to engage in love and marriage activities or build houses. Villagers must devote themselves to busy productive labor and work with peace of mind.

On love (first from right)

It's late September, which is a rare leisure time for the villagers on Jingmai Mountain. Because the harvest of autumn tea is much less than that of spring tea, villagers in Jingmai Dazhai love to make ancient tree tea in the tea room on the second floor of their home and chat with their neighbors. "On Love" is the Dai name of Qiuju. In the long historical life, the Dai people in Jingmai lived on tea and created a colorful regional tea culture.

"I have been to other Chashan, but it doesn't feel as good as here. Father said that Jingmai Mountain's tea tastes good because there is precious trees like Aquilaria sinensis. I think it has something to do with the ancient trees, soil and sunshine here. The best quality of fresh leaves is Dapingzhang. " Love theory.

Allen's Dapingzhang Ancient Tea Forest is located in the south of Jingmai Dazhai, covering an area of about 200 hectares. It is the only ancient tea forest located in the top basin on Jingmai Mountain. There are tea gods offering sacrifices to Dai people, and there are more than 600-year-old dogwood trees in 10. According to the theory of love, Jingmai Mountain's tea has outstanding aroma, strong Shan Ye flavor and unique orchid fragrance.

Jingmai Dazhai

"Chashan is still very hard. Contrary to what is said outside, Chashan is a local tyrant. I feel that we have a lot of tea in Chashan and our life is relatively easy. In fact, the maintenance of Chashan is very important. We can't apply fertilizers or pesticides here. We have to weed and prune branches with hoes every day. If you hire workers, the cost is very high, and the tea plantation owners usually do it themselves. At that time, the traffic was inconvenient, and it was necessary to walk up the mountain to pick tea, unlike riding a motorcycle now. "

20 10 learning business management in Beijing faces a choice. Considering that his parents are old, his younger brother and sister are still at school, and the development of tea industry in his hometown, Dao gave up city life and returned to Jingmai Mountain to take care of his 34-acre tea garden.

The tea-picking season in spring is the busiest time of the year. Before 6 o'clock every morning, she gets up to cook. Send workers up the mountain to pick tea before 7 o'clock. Spring tea is very popular and needs many workers. Dao should contact customers in advance while checking the picking of fresh leaves. At about noon 12, the picked fresh leaves were taken back to wither, and tea processing began in the evening. The whole busy process will last until July.

"This period of time is relatively idle in the mountains, because there is less autumn tea. The busiest time is March and April. I am busy all day and have no time to eat. As a cooperative, we will collect fresh leaves picked by our members, and we will also pick them at home. My family has thirty or forty acres of tea gardens. I feel like going to the tea garden when I wake up every day. " Tao told Red Star News.

Su Guowen

Now, Su Guowen, who is nearly 80 years old, feels that time is pressing. Although he has done a lot of work in recent years, he feels that every step forward is very difficult and he is worried that he can't finish it in time. He pinned his hopes on young people.

"I think, to really build Jingmai Mountain, still want to rely on young people. Young people in every era are the main force. I think young people nowadays are very smart, but they lack some necessary wisdom. This wisdom is to consider not only yourself, but also the whole nation; We should consider the times and be responsible for history. They still have a lot of work to do. " Su Guowen said.

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