{"id":45587,"date":"2025-02-21t20:49:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-21t20:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/?p=45587"},"modified":"2025-02-21t20:58:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21t20:58:50","slug":"blang-sustainable-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/blang-sustainable-food\/","title":{"rendered":"essay | documenting traditional blang sustainable food practices in the tea forest ecosystem of jingmai mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"
jingmai mountain, located in yunnan province, china, has the world\u2019s largest, oldest and best-preserved ancient tea forest. it was inscribed into the world heritage list in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
the blang people are the indigenous group in jingmai mountain and are one of the first ethnic groups to cultivate and utilize tea<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n as a young scholar researching indigenous peoples and traditional food systems, with ancestors from four different asian ethnic groups, i came to this remote border village in 2021 for a vacation, seeking inspiration. while dining with a local blang family, the host proudly explained to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “yes, this is how we eat! when we go to gather tea, we collect any edible wild ingredients we find along the way. children learn to identify these traditional ingredients from their elders, and when they see them while playing, they pick them and bring them back for the adults to check if they are edible. during festivals or agricultural leisure times, we also invite friends and family to our fish ponds to pick some wild vegetables and make grilled fish with banana leaves. throughout the year, we eat hundreds of wild vegetables! they are all organic and very healthy.”<\/em><\/i><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n i was amazed by their way of obtaining food and the biodiversity of the local ingredients, which is crucial for planetary health<\/a>. i was very eager to document these practices and hoped to contribute to recording the traditional knowledge of the blang people. so, i visited the local community leader, mr. nan, to hear his views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “amazing! [recording traditional knowledge] is exactly what i have always wanted to do, but i never had the time! tourists who come to jingmai mountain are only interested in the beautiful landscapes and pu’er tea here. you are the first person interested in our ingredients. the ingredients are not only for foods but also used by us to connect our gods in rituals. i believe it is very necessary to document these ingredients and the traditional knowledge behind them. <\/i><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n the locust disasters caused by drought in recent years have also made many traditional ingredients very scarce. nowadays, young people only like to play with their phones and go to the city for school after the age of ten. if this knowledge is not recorded, it will be lost in the future! as an elder in the community, i believe it is my responsibility to record this traditional knowledge with you. i will be happy to organize the elders of the whole village to help you document these ingredients<\/i><\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n thus, the collaborative project began. i contacted independent artist and photographer, chaohui\u00a0li, the china biodiversity conservation and green development foundation, the china good food action hub, the central academy of fine arts, and the university of toronto\u00a0for collaboration. since the end of 2021, we have co-created a series of activities with the local community to document and promote the local traditional food system by combining traditional knowledge, science, and art.<\/p>\n\n\n with the help of 50 local villagers and the participation of indigenous youths, we collected 199 traditional ingredients (166 are plant-based) from the jingmai mountain tea forest and recorded their traditional medicinal effects, cultural meanings and cooking methods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n at the same time, we found that the development of tourism, the monoculture of tea planting for income, climate change, the introduction of new productive varieties to replace traditional varieties, overexploitation, the loss of traditional knowledge and related environmental protection regulations have made it more difficult for locals to obtain traditional ingredients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n the research results have been published in two<\/a> academic papers<\/a> and presented at the 27th united nations climate change conference (cop27) in egypt in 2022, the 7th china good food summit in 2023 and the world food forum at the headquarters of the food and agricultural organization (fao) in rome, italy, in 2024. the project was also selected in unesco’s case study collection on “safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and climate action from the asia-pacific region.”<\/p>\n\n\n in the field of art, we co-created the performance art piece “rainforest succession-la mianm” with more than 30 local villagers, filmed two related documentaries and exhibited the documentations and installations of the performance art at the 2023 shanghai urban space art season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n we organized local youth to watch documentaries to understand their views on traditional knowledge and the difficulties they encountered in learning it. we are currently discussing with community leaders how to enhance the transmission of traditional knowledge among local youth through artistic creation and biodiversity schools.<\/p>\n\n\n in terms of public impact, the project has been reported by more than ten media outlets, including the china central television net-news, gaining more than half a million views<\/a>. a blog <\/a>to introduce this project won first prize in a blog competition recognized by the international union of forest research organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n the blang chef mr. cao’s innovative dishes made with water taro sticks and sweet bamboo shoots<\/a> were showcased at the 2024 world food forum in rome<\/a>. the blang fermented tea used in rituals was also brought to the fao’s global-hub for indigenous people\u2019s food systems, where it was presented to<\/a> indigenous friends from around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n melinda hou, the ceo of good food fund china action hub, believed that: “the jingmai mountain project has excellently documented and showcased indigenous cultures in china, playing an important role in inspiring mainstream society on how to transform to sustainable food systems and other sustainable development goals (sdgs). other tea plantation regions, such as india and myanmar, will also benefit from this project because of the similar ecosystems and lifestyles. our organization plans to work closely with local villagers to further contribute to protecting the ecosystem and biodiversity of jingmai mountain.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n gina kennedy, ph.d., principal scientist with the alliance of bioversity and ciat, who was not involved in this project, feels that “this is a very inspiring example of combining a desire for scientific knowledge from the researcher perspective with the desire from the local community to document their traditional foodways and local knowledge on edible biodiversity for future generations. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n it is a beautiful example of using a scientifically rigorous process to identify and document local food biodiversity and combine this with culinary and artistic traditions to create demand. it is also nice to learn that the project findings were widely disseminated to showcase this as an inspiring example for others, especially members of the united nations global-hub.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n the blang people in southwestern china were one of the first groups to cultivate tea. university of toronto student zeyuan wang had the opportunity to go there and document this traditional practice. 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