Forest and tea coexist in harmony between humans and the environment
Figure 1: Scenery of Jingmai Dazhai.
Photo by Rao Shaogang
Figure 2: Villagers of Jingmai Mountain perform traditional dance of the Bulang ethnic group.
Photo by Zheng Xianzhang
Figure 3: Villagers in Jingmai Mountain are making tea.
Photo by Tan Chun
Figure 4: Scenery of Wengji Ancient Village in Jingmai Mountain.
Tiger Zunhui Photography
Figure ⑤: Jingmai Pu'er tea.
Photo by Lu Lei
Figure ⑥: Schematic diagram of the three-dimensional structure of understory planting in Jingmai Mountain.
Painted by Zhang Fangman
Figure ⑦: Several villagers dressed in ethnic costumes are picking tea on Jingmai Mountain.
Provided by the Administration for the Protection of Ancient Tea Forests in Jingmai Mountain, Pu'er
On September 17, the 45th UNESCO World Heritage Conference held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia adopted a resolution to include China's "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape" in the The World Heritage List, increasing the number of Chinese world heritage sites to 57.
Tea is one of the three major beverages in the world, originating in China and prevalent worldwide. In December 2019, the United Nations General Assembly announced that May 21st would be designated as International Tea Day to celebrate the economic, social, and cultural value of tea and promote sustainable development of global agriculture.
The cultural landscape of Pu'er Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest is a physical example of the traditional "tea under the forest" planting mode before the popularization of modern tea garden planting technology. It is also the world's first tea themed world cultural heritage and still maintains vibrant vitality. It is the wisdom crystallization of China's agricultural civilization and a model of benign interaction and sustainable development between humans and nature.
——Editor
On the fire pit, the fire simmered and roasted the aged Pu'er tea leaves, with wisps of tea fragrance wafting towards the face.
Guests come from afar. Tea farmer Xian Gong brought out his own top-quality tea leaves, and the faint fragrance of orchid honey permeated the air, which is the unique mountain and wilderness charm of Jingmai Mountain ancient tree tea.
Jingmai Mountain is located in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province. Under the dense primitive forest in the local area, there is a rare artificially cultivated ancient tea forest in the world, with a total of 28000 acres and over 3.2 million ancient tea trees. Professor Chen Yaohua from the School of City and Environment at Peking University introduced that the southwestern region where Jingmai Mountain is located is widely recognized as the origin and distribution center of the Camellia genus in academia. The trees of the Camellia family, which are the ancestors of tea, have survived multiple glacial periods in the Quaternary period in this area and have since evolved into the diverse modern tea plants of today. Around the 10th century AD, our ancestors settled in Jingmai Mountain and explored the cultivation technique of "understory tea" by utilizing the forest ecosystem, cutting trees in the middle of the forest, and planting tea trees under tall trees. After thousands of years of protection and development, we formed a unique cultural landscape of forest tea symbiosis and harmonious coexistence between humans and the environment.
From a distance, it looks like a forest, but up close, it looks like a tea forest
Clouds and mist steam out from the wet green mountains and gradually hide in the jungle. It's a good time to go up the mountain and search for tea.
"From a distance, it looks like a forest, but up close, it looks like a tea forest." Jingmai Mountain is vastly different from people's impression of the regularity of Taiwan's tea mountains.
Entering the Dapingzhang Ancient Tea Forest on Jingmai Mountain, under the tall banyan and camphor trees, the ancient tea trees gradually grow, and further down there are abundant parasitic plants such as dendrobium and pineapple.
"Come and see! We've found the 'crab feet'," Xian Gong called out and looked closer. It turned out to be a parasitic plant with segmented branches and hairs. In the lush ancient tea forest, numerous rare animals and plants are nurtured, and "crab feet" are the most talked about type. They usually grow on ancient tea trees that have been around for hundreds of years and have great medicinal value. Xian Gong said that this is not only a way to judge the age of trees, but also a clear proof of the ecological harmony of Jingmai Mountain.
Where does the unique orchid honey aroma of Jingmai Ancient Tree Tea come from? Perhaps the answer can be found in this ancient tea forest.
Yunnan large leaf tea trees are tolerant to shade, warm, and humid. Jingmai Mountain first used forest cultivation and understory planting methods to plant tea trees and maintain the tea forest. This three-dimensional community structure of trees, shrubs, and grasses not only cleverly distributes light and nutrients, but also allows the fragrance of various plants to seep into tea.
Lan Zengquan, an ancient tea tree expert from Southwest Forestry University who is searching for tea together, added that this planting method also utilizes the natural forest ecosystem to provide nutrients and prevent diseases and pests, without fertilization and medication, creating high-quality organic tea and a unique flavor.
September is the busiest tea picking season in Jingmai Mountain. To ensure that tea trees fully accumulate nutrients, there is an unwritten ancient tea picking rule in Jingmai Mountain: only pursue spring and autumn, not winter and summer.
In order to effectively handle the relationship with forests and tea forests, and make reasonable use of precious land resources, the ethnic group of Jingmai Mountain has explored the construction technology of villages that integrate nature and culture, and also formed the unique ancient tea forest cultural landscape of Jingmai Mountain: the highest point is the high mountain and forest, the village is located at an altitude of about 1400 meters above the sea of clouds, the ancient tea forest is around the village, and the paddy field is close to the lower altitude river valley.
"The heritage elements that make up the 'Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape' include 5 ancient tea forests, 9 villages, and 3 separated protective forests. The layout and design of the villages are the result of the long-term harmonious development of the indigenous people and nature." said Zou Yiqing, director of the Institute for Sustainable Development of Heritage Sites at Tsinghua Tongheng Planning and Design Institute in Beijing. "In the local area, tea culture is ubiquitous, and every aspect of production and life revolves around tea. Local people even incorporate tea elements into roofs, clothing, and songs. For example, Mangjing Village, located halfway up Jingmai Mountain, is a village of the Bulang ethnic group, with totems on its roof." "One bud and two leaves' tells the story of the villagers' relationship with tea."
The Road of Applying for World Heritage and Living Protection
The application for World Heritage of "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape" lasted for 13 years——
Li Qun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Director of the National Cutural Heritage Administration, introduced that in 2010, the National Cutural Heritage Administration initiated the application of Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest for World Heritage, aiming at the "blank" tea theme in the field of world heritage, and included it in the Preparatory List of China's World Cultural Heritage in 2012. In 2013, the National Cutural Heritage Administration reported to the State Council to publish the "Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Garden" as a national key cultural relics protection unit, supporting and guiding Yunnan Province and Pu'er City to systematically improve the level of heritage protection, management and display. In January 2021, the State Council approved the "Puer Scenery, Maishan Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape" as a 2022 World Heritage application project in China. The National Cutural Heritage Administration guided Yunnan Province and Puer City to prepare and submit the text of the World Heritage application, which successfully passed the on-site technical assessment of international organizations.
And the protection of the cultural landscape of the ancient tea forest in Pu'er Jingmai Mountain has lasted for over 13 years——
In the 1990s, Jingmai Mountain experimented with planting high-yield Taiwanese tea. Although the production of tea has increased, it cannot sell at a high price and has brought about a series of secondary problems. In order to protect ancient tea trees, the local government has successively revised and issued the "Regulations on the Protection of Ancient Tea Tree Resources in Pu'er City" and the "Regulations on the Protection of Jingmai Mountain in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Yunnan Province". Under the guidance of various rules and regulations, local villagers have regained the tradition of planting "understory tea" by controlling the spacing between tea tree rows and subtracting from the local tea.
In 2004, Jingmai Mountain launched a power grid construction and renovation project, and the renovation of the power lines gave way to the ancient tea forest. Even the dozens of kilometers of mountain roads entering the core area of Jingmai Mountain were repeatedly researched and demonstrated on how to build asphalt roads? Worried about affecting the local ecology and causing damage to the quality of tea; Build cement roads? "Reflection on the road surface may affect the temperature of tea growth... Finally, the road on Jingmai Mountain has been constructed into a cobblestone road surface, paved with block stones, and compacted into a sand cushion layer, resulting in good water permeability. However, in some sections of the core area, measures have been taken to restrict vehicle traffic to achieve maximum protection of the Jingmai Mountain ancient tea garden." Zhang Pisheng, Director of the Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Protection Management Bureau and Deputy Secretary of the Lancang County Committee, introduced.
The combination of government management and grassroots autonomy has formed a unique ancient tea forest protection and management system called "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape". In recent years, the beneficial practices of villagers have been further solidified into village rules and regulations, and Su Guowen, a villager of Mangjing Village, has collaborated with relevant departments to prepare a "Mangjing Village Heritage Protection Learning Manual".
At the same time, relevant departments and local governments are constantly exploring the active protection of heritage sites. "Tea forests, villages, tea industry and tea culture are important value carriers of 'Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape'." Xiao Li, Deputy Director of the Department of Cultural Relics and Monuments of the National Cutural Heritage Administration, said that since 2013, Pu'er has successively implemented 17 village cultural relics protection and display, fire protection and lightning protection, and ancient tea forest monitoring projects; In the specific implementation, priority should be given to using traditional craftsmanship and materials, continuing the structure, characteristics, and style of traditional drywall style residential buildings, and carrying out adaptive transformation and performance improvement. While protecting the authenticity and integrity of heritage inheritance, efforts should be made to promote the benefits of heritage protection to local people. In its evaluation report, the International Council of Monuments and Sites highly praised the protection and management of the "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape", believing that the heritage meets the requirements of authenticity and integrity, the protection measures effectively cover all value carriers, and the heritage monitoring and management system is scientifically efficient.
Li Qun stated that China will continue to make efforts in strengthening planning, addressing climate change, encouraging villagers to participate, and regulating tourism development to ensure the sustainable inheritance of the prominent universal value of the "Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape", and further strengthen international exchanges and cooperation. China will assume more responsibilities in the protection and inheritance of world cultural heritage, and contribute to promoting cultural exchanges and mutual learning among countries and jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Walking in Jingmai Mountain, with towering ancient trees and lush tea trees, cicadas and birds chirping incessantly - In Nuogan Ancient Village, a post-00s girl named Xianjin is live streaming on her phone, showcasing Jingmai's charm to netizens: "In the name of tea, one leaf lasts for a thousand years. Tea trees record the past here and also carry the future here."
"The ancient tea forest is not only our production site, but also our living home, and it is also the ecological treasure trove of the entire Jingmai Mountain." In the autumn wind, Xian Gong picked a piece of tea, and the emerald green buds shone with a moving luster in his hands. "Jingmai Mountain is constantly growing and nourishing us."
