A Bulang Woman
Who are the Bulang?
The Bulang (Blang) are one of the indigenous people of China's southwestern Yunnan province, having lived there for more than 2000 years. They live in discrete, subtropical "mountain islands" at altitudes of 1500 m (5000 ft) on the lands that border China and Myanmar.
The majority of the Bulang people are distributed across southwestern Yunnan province, where they number 119,000, but others reside in Mayanmar, Laos and Thailand. Their spoken language belongs to the Palaung–Wa branch of the Austro-Asiatic (Mon-Khmer) family. The Bulang are consummate tea growers and their time is spent tending mountain-grown tea plantations, harvesting tea leaves and processing the leaves for tea production. Their product is a cornerstone of the great Tea Horse trading route that begins locally in Xishuangbanna and ends in the Tibetan plateau.
The Bulang are thought to be descendants of the ancient Pu tribe who lived in Xishuangbanna around 2200 years ago. At the time, they lived as hunter-gatherers but exposure to the Dai people in the 14th century resulted in an evolution from hunting-gathering to farming and from animistic polytheism with ancestor worship to Theravada (southern) Buddhist worship. The Bulang like to drink wine and smoke and they greatly admire teeth discolored from chewing betel nuts. The women usually wear long black skirts, the men wide black trousers and both like to wear turbans.
Nongyang Village in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, China
A Bulang Woman
Who are the Bulang?
The Bulang (Blang) are one of the indigenous people of China's southwestern Yunnan province, having lived there for more than 2000 years. They live in discrete, subtropical "mountain islands" at altitudes of 1500 m (5000 ft) on the lands that border China and Myanmar.
The majority of the Bulang people are distributed across southwestern Yunnan province, where they number 119,000, but others reside in Mayanmar, Laos and Thailand. Their spoken language belongs to the Palaung–Wa branch of the Austro-Asiatic (Mon-Khmer) family. The Bulang are consummate tea growers and their time is spent tending mountain-grown tea plantations, harvesting tea leaves and processing the leaves for tea production. Their product is a cornerstone of the great Tea Horse trading route that begins locally in Xishuangbanna and ends in the Tibetan plateau.
The Bulang are thought to be descendants of the ancient Pu tribe who lived in Xishuangbanna around 2200 years ago. At the time, they lived as hunter-gatherers but exposure to the Dai people in the 14th century resulted in an evolution from hunting-gathering to farming and from animistic polytheism with ancestor worship to Theravada (southern) Buddhist worship. The Bulang like to drink wine and smoke and they greatly admire teeth discolored from chewing betel nuts. The women usually wear long black skirts, the men wide black trousers and both like to wear turbans.
Nongyang Village in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, China