Ⅱ.Ethnic Minorities and Pu’er Tea
The ethnic minorities in Yunnan have a long history of using tea.In the process of continuous development, the ethnic minorities living here have formed a variety of ways of drinking tea,combined with their own history, culture, and customs, and derived the tea ceremony, custom,and art with distinctive regional and national characteristics and full of vitality, rich personality,colorful and rich national flavor, thus constituting the diversified national tea culture of Yunnan.For example, ethnic minorities such as Dai, Lahu, Jingpo, Hani, Bulang, De’ang, etc., have always followed the ancient customs and still make use of tea in primitive ways.De’ang people like drinking sour tea, Jinuo people like eating mixed cold tea, Bulang and Jingpo people like eating pickled tea, etc.In addition, there are typical representatives tea culture forms such as charcoalboiling clay-pot tea of Lahu, fried-cereal tea of Dong, three-cup tea of Bai, Bamboo-tube scented tea of Dai, wine-mixed tea of Naxi, butter tea of Xizang, paper-baked tea of Wa, shake-boiling tea of Yi, ingredient-mixed ground tea of Miao, etc.
Tab.4-1 List of tea drinking and use methods of some ethnic minorities in Yunnan
少数民族众多的饮茶方式中，烤茶最为普及。烤茶一般用陶土罐抖烤饮用。烤过的茶叶消除了本身的生寒气息，又兼具清心、明目、利尿的保健作用。烤茶汤色或红酽或黄褐，滋味醇浓。茶水苦中有甜，焦中有香，饮后提神生津，解热除疾。布朗族最早是把茶叶当做佐料和清毒解热的良药使用，随着岁月的推移，他们在生活实践中认识到茶叶的广泛用途，于是把野生茶树驯化为连片种植的万亩茶山。远在一千多年以前，他们就把野生茶树逐步培植驯化，并实施规模化种植，开辟了目前世界上为数极少的千年万亩古茶山，不能不说这是布朗族对世界茶文化的一大贡献。
名茶都与茶树生长的环境、人文景观、神话典故有着密切的关系。在南糯茶山，当地的哈尼人也有这样的传说：很久很久以前的一天，一位勇敢而憨厚的哈尼小伙子，在深山里猎到一只危害哈尼山寨人畜的凶豹，用大锅煮好后，邀约全寨男女老少去分享，大家一边吃一边说笑，还跳起舞，跳啊跳，跳了一个通宵，跳得口干舌燥……憨厚的小伙子又请大家喝锅里的开水，这时一阵大风吹来，许多树叶纷纷落到锅里，大家喝了锅里的开水，感到这水苦中带甜还有清香，非常爽口，从此哈尼人就把这树叶称为“老拔”（汉语即茶叶）并开始种植。虽说这样的传说如今已无从考证，但南糯山是云南最古老的茶山之一却是不争的事实，更重要的是哈尼族种植茶树的历史久远，哈尼人聚居区的茶叶产量，几乎占了云南全省的三分之一。
图4-2 哈尼族烤茶
图4-3 傣族制作竹筒茶
Tab.4-1 （continued）
Baked tea is the most popular among the many forms of drinking tea offered by ethnic minorities.Baked tea is usually made in clay pots by shaking.The tea, after baking, eliminates the coolness and has the healthcare functions of clearing away heart-fire, improving eyesight,and inducing diuresis.The soup of baked tea is dark red or yellow-brown, with a mellow taste.Tea is sweet in a bitter taste and fragrant in a burnt taste.After drinking, it can refresh the mind,promote body fluid production, relieve fever, and cure diseases.Bulang people first used tea as seasoning and medicine for clearing away poison and fever.With time, they realized the wide use of tea in their living practice, so they domesticated wild tea trees to thousands of mu of mountains where tee trees are planted continuously.More than 1,000 years ago, they gradually cultivated and domesticated wild tea trees and carried out large-scale planting, thus opening up a few ancient tea mountains with thousands of acres existing in the world, which was a significant contribution of the Bulang people to the world tea culture.
All famous tea varieties are closely related to the growing environment, cultural landscape,myths, and allusions to tea trees.In Nannuo Tea Mountain, the local Hani people also have such a legend: One day, a long time ago, a brave and honest Hani young man hunted a fierce leopard that was harmful to people and animals in the Hani village in the mountains and then cooked it in a large pot, and invited all people regardless of age and sex in the village to share the delicious food.Everyone laughed and danced while eating all night.When they felt tired and thirsty, the honest young man invited everyone to drink the boiling water in the pot.At that moment, many leaves fell into the pot one after another as a strong wind blew.After drinking the boiling water in the pot,everyone felt that the water was sweet and fragrant in a bitter taste, and was also refreshing.From then on, the Hani people called this leaf“Laoba”(tea in Chinese)and began to plant it.Although such a legend cannot be verified now, it is an indisputable fact that Nannuo Mountain is one of the oldest tea mountains in Yunnan.What’s more, the Hani people have a long history of planting tea,and the tea production in Hani communities even accounts for one-third of total output in Yunnan.
Fig.4-2 Hani people baking tea
Fig.4-3 Dai people making bamboo-tube scented tea