Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest: The World's First Tea Theme World Cultural Heritage

YuanJia131

In September 2023, China's "Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape of Pu'er Jingmai Mountain" was inscribed on the World Heritage List by the 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee, becoming the world's first UNESCO World Heritage site themed around tea.

This is not an isolated case. Its predecessor—the "Ancient Tea Gardens and Tea Culture System of Pu'er, Yunnan," which was inscribed as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) in 2012—has already established its core value: centered on Pu'er tea and tea culture, encompassing ancient tea tree resources, ancient tea garden ecosystems, and related traditional knowledge and its applications.

The ancient tea forests of Jingmai Mountain serve as a living exemplar of this value. A living specimen and ecological wisdom: It stands as an outstanding example of early human domestication and utilization of tea trees, embodying the concept of sustainable development rooted in an awareness of the finite nature of natural resources—by intensively utilizing mountainous land, it has created a habitable mountainous living environment that has endured for millennia, sustaining the long-term stability of the local socio-economy. Dubbed the "Natural Museum of Tea Trees," it boasts the most well-preserved, oldest, and largest artificially cultivated ancient tea garden in the world.

A Model of Human-Tea Forest Symbiosis: The superior natural environment nourishes the tea trees, while for centuries, multiple ethnic groups (such as the Bulang and Dai) have managed the ecosystem through traditional ecological wisdom—like understory planting that mimics forest conditions and natural farming methods—to coordinate with nature, rather than relying on intensive agricultural practices, forming a unique "human-tea-forest" symbiotic system.

The Lifeblood of Tea Culture: The indigenous ethnic groups living here have, for generations, used tea to foster friendships, conduct rituals, and arrange marriages. Tea has deeply permeated their daily lives, production, and spiritual world. Primitive tea-processing techniques (such as sun-drying and smoke-drying) originated here, evolving into the distinctive qualities of today's Jingmai Mountain tea—aroma (dry tea fragrance, brewed tea fragrance, cup-bottom fragrance), brightness (clear tea infusion), sweetness (rich and sweet taste), and lingering aftertaste (prolonged throat resonance). The Lancang River basin is widely regarded as the birthplace of primitive tea varieties like white tea and sun-dried red tea.

The Cultural Landscape of Ancient Tea Forests in Jingmai Mountain vividly embodies the simple ecological ethics and wisdom of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, as well as among people. It is a tangible, touchable, and perceptible millennium-old harmony—a painting of tea trees, forests, and the peaceful integration of multiple ethnic groups over generations. This essence of harmony is the origin and core of Chinese tea culture.