Culture of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture
It comprises peoples’ ways of living in their ethnic communities, with their environment, from their agriculture, hunting and fishing. It refers to the norms on how to treat the living and the dead, how to celebrate and to mourn, how to dress and what to eat, and many more aspects of daily life.
These pages give a little insight into the cultural communities of Xishuangbanna, where ethnic cultures diversify into 14 different cultures, languages, traditional costumes and customs, and ways of living with nature which are markedly different from modern Chinese culture.
The Six famous tea mountains region (Chinese: 六大茶山; pinyin: Liù Dà Chá Shān) located in the prefecture produce some of the most highly regarded Pu-erh tea in the 20th century.
Xishuangbanna is rich in nature, historical and cultural resources, noted for its folklore, rain forests, rare plants and wildlife. Its major tourist attractions include Menglun Tropical Botanical Garden, Manfeilong Pagodas (Tanuozhuanglong), Jingzhen Pavilion, Wild Elephant Gully, Dai people’s village at Ganlanba. The Manchunman Buddhist Temple, which has a history of more than 1400 years, is also a very popular tourist attraction. The complex is made up of four parts, the main hall, the sutra collection pavilion, the gold pagoda and the drum tower. The temple is well known within the Southeast Asian region and each year attracts Buddhist monks and visitors from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
The well-known traditional festival is the Dai New Year, known as the Water-Splashing Festival. It lasts for three days from April 13 to 15. Besides the water festival event it also consists of some other events such as Dragon boat races, firing of indigenous missiles, flying Kongming Lamps.
