On The Tea And Cultural Change Of Dai Society

Jing Mai Mountain area is one of the main producers of Pu’er tea, and the rising of tea economy has profound impact on local traditional culture. Regarding tea as the media for foreign culture and Dai traditional culture in Jing Mai exchanging, it is the most important way for villagers in Jing Mai to contact with outside world by the interaction of tea products and its funding. It has huge influence on their livelihood mode, lifestyle, families and marriage, education, religion and so on. On lifestyle, Jing Mai villagers are on the way to modernize by constructing buildings, using means of transport and networking to deliver the latest information. Although living in the villages, they have integrated into modern life.On livelihood mode, their original patterns of pursuing grain production supplemented by tea and a variety of other agricultural producing gradually turn into the tea plantation economy which is even the only livelihood pattern. On spiritual culture, local people receive the modern educational resources, maintain religious convention linked with capital, enjoy material and spiritual entertainment, and get away from the traditional cultural life by degrees. On economic development, they have begun to utilize modern technologies and concepts to seek economic interests by trailing market demands as goals.As a result, in the process of chasing marketization, traditional and ethnic characteristics are gradually changing, with the roles of some people in the communities having begun to convert from the farmers to traders.This paper is to obtain first-hand information through field work, to analyze and summarize it by using of the Ethnoecology theories. In addition, the purpose of this paper is to explore how tea plants affect human as a kind of single plant species. Meanwhile, How to adapt the changes for local people in new environment and cultural conditions. Hopefully, the vision is to establish and fulfill Scientific Outlook on Development, and then ultimately to achieve effective virtuous cycle of resources and culture.