The Pu People and the Origins of Tea Growing in Yunnan: Where Tea Began

After drinking pu'er for a while, many of our customers get curious about an earlier question: where did tea actually begin? And when did people in Yunnan start growing it? There's no precise year that answers this, but botany, ethnic history, and old texts have each left clues, and pieced together, the picture is quite clear.

Is Yunnan the Tea Plant's Place of Origin?

Botanically, the natural range of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is generally believed to be the mountains where southwest China, northeast India, and northern Myanmar meet, and Yunnan is regarded as one of the most important parts of that native range. Within Yunnan you can find large tea trees of the wild, transitional, and cultivated types, and there are especially many close relatives in the Camellia genus. That's the main basis for the saying that "Yunnan is the home of the tea tree."

The Yunnan large-leaf variety (var. assamica) used for pu'er, with its big leaves, plump buds, and rich content, was nurtured in these mountains. To learn about its traits, read Yunnan Large-Leaf Tea.

The safer way to put it: Yunnan is one of the core areas of the tea plant's native range, but that range crosses national borders and can't be boxed in by a provincial line.

Who Were the Pu People?

"Pu" (濮) is the name ancient texts gave to a group of old peoples in the southwest. They were widely distributed and long lived in scattered tribes, so they were also called the "Hundred Pu." Histories from the Shang and Zhou periods already mention the Pu, and later records place them in what are now Yunnan and Guizhou.

Linguistic and ethnohistorical research mostly holds that the Hundred Pu were closely related to peoples speaking Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer) languages. Today's Blang, Wa, and De'ang peoples of Yunnan are often regarded as descendants of the Pu.

Are the Pu People Related to the Blang?

Yes, and the names themselves leave a trace. The Blang were called "Puzi Man" in the Tang dynasty, "Pu people" (蒲人) in the Yuan, and "Pu Man" (蒲蠻) or "Puman" (濮滿) in the Ming and Qing, and were only officially named the Blang in the 1950s, following the wishes of most of the people. Tracing the line from 撲 to 蒲 to 濮, scholars generally believe the Blang descend directly from the ancient Pu.

The Blang have lived for generations in Shuangjiang and Yunxian in Lincang, Menghai in Xishuangbanna, and Shidian in Baoshan, among other places. The Bulang Mountain Blang Ethnic Township in Menghai County has the largest concentration of Blang people, and Lao Banzhang and Lao Man'e are right in this area; see The Five Villages of Bulang Mountain. Growing and making tea is part of Blang life, and bamboo-tube tea, roasted tea, and sour tea are among their specialties. Read more in Blang Tea Customs.

When Did People in Yunnan Start Growing Tea?

The exact starting point can no longer be determined, because tea growing is older than writing. What we can say for sure:

• Tang dynasty: Fan Chuo's Manshu (Book of the Southern Barbarians), completed around 863, already records tea grown in the mountains around Yinsheng City. This is the earliest reliable written record.
• Around the 10th century: The ancestors of the Blang and Dai on Jingmai Mountain are generally believed to have settled there around this time and begun planting tea in the forest understory, forming today's ancient tea forest. See Jingmai Mountain.
• Earlier life: Before writing, the mountain peoples were already picking and using tea; they just left no record.

So the most honest answer to "when did people in Yunnan start growing tea" is: there are clear records from at least 1,000-plus years ago, and in reality it began earlier.

Where Is the Oldest Cultivated Tea Tree?

Yunnan has a few old tea trees that come up often. They're of different types, so don't compare them as if they were the same:

• The "Jinxiu Tea Ancestor" at Xiangzhuqing, Fengqing: In Xiangzhuqing, Fengqing County, Lincang, this tree stands about 10.6 meters tall with a base girth of about 5.82 meters. It's estimated to be over 3,000 years old and is often called the oldest surviving cultivated tea tree. The age is an estimate, and different parties calculate it differently.
• The transitional-type ancient tea tree at Bangwai, Lancang: Made public in 1991, it grows at about 1,900 meters elevation and stands 11.8 meters tall. It's considered intermediate between the wild and cultivated types, with an age of over 1,000 years. See Wild, Transitional, and Cultivated Tea Trees.
• The Tea King Tree of Nannuo Mountain: Discovered in 1951 and estimated at 800-plus years, a cultivated type. It died in the mid-1990s. See Nannuo Mountain.

The ages of ancient tea trees are mostly estimated from girth and height, with no precise tree-ring records. When you hear "thousands of years," it's best taken as a rough order of magnitude.

Where Did the Legend of Kongming Spreading Tea Come From?

A story circulates in the tea mountains of Xishuangbanna: during his southern campaign in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang (Kongming) came here and taught the locals to grow tea, so some revere him as the ancestor of tea.

This story was already written into an official gazetteer in the Qing dynasty. The Yunnan Gazetteer (Yunnan Tongzhi), completed in the first year of the Qianlong reign (1736), records under the entry "Relics of the Six Tea Mountains" an old tale: the Marquis Wu traveled all 6 tea mountains, leaving a bronze gong at Youle, a bronze mang at Mangzhi, burying an iron brick at Manzhuan, leaving a wooden clapper at Yibang, burying a stirrup at Gedeng, and leaving a seed bag at Mansa, and that's how the six mountains got their names. It also says Mangzhi had an especially tall Tea King Tree, said to have grown from tea seeds left by the Marquis Wu, which locals would worship.

But be clear: this is a legend. Zhuge Liang's southern campaign was in 225, and historical records place his movements in what is now central and northern Yunnan. No historical source proves he reached the tea mountains south of the Lancang River, and the Blang, Jino, and other peoples each have their own tea-ancestor stories. The legend looks more like later generations hanging the origins of the tea mountains on a household-name figure. It makes a good story, but taken as history, it doesn't hold up.

FAQ

Did tea originate in Yunnan? The tea plant's native range is generally believed to lie between southwest China, northeast India, and northern Myanmar, with Yunnan as the most important part. Large tea trees of the wild, transitional, and cultivated types can all be found there.

Did Kongming really teach people to grow tea? That's a legend. The 1736 Yunnan Gazetteer recorded the old tale that "the Marquis Wu traveled all six mountains," but no historical source proves Zhuge Liang reached the tea mountains of Xishuangbanna.

What's the relationship between the Pu people and the Blang? The Blang were called Puzi Man in the Tang, Pu people in the Yuan, and Pu Man in the Ming and Qing. Scholars generally believe they're among the descendants of the ancient Pu, and the Wa and De'ang are often placed in the same lineage.

Where is the oldest cultivated tea tree? The one most often cited is the "Jinxiu Tea Ancestor" at Xiangzhuqing in Fengqing County, Lincang, estimated at over 3,000 years old, though that's a calculated figure and accounts differ.