The De'ang: Yunnan's Ancient Tea Farmers and the Republic's Quietest Hidden Culture

The De'ang (德昂族), one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, are the quiet custodians of a tea tradition older than most empires. Numbering roughly 20,556 people by the 2010 national census — fewer than a fraction of Beijing's daily commuters — they are among the smallest ethnic groups in China, and yet they claim a lineage as one of the country's earliest tea-drinking peoples, the self-described "Ancient Tea Farmers" (古老的茶农). Scattered in small mountain villages across Yunnan's southwestern frontier, they grow, ferment, and honor a drink most outsiders have never tasted: sour tea, a lightly fermented delicacy sealed in bamboo and buried in the earth for months.

This guide is the most complete portrait of the De'ang available to English-speaking travelers. It covers who they are, the extraordinary tea culture that defines them, the festivals and dress that make them unforgettable, and the precise places across Yunnan — from the Santai De'ang Township outside Mangshi to the tea villages of Zhenkang — where you can meet this ancient, hospitable people today.

Who Are the De'ang? Identity, Name, and an Ancient People of the Mountains

The De'ang ethnic group are best understood as the living descendants of the ancient Pu (濮) people, a broad Austroasiatic-speaking population that has inhabited the Nu River and Lancang River valleys of western Yunnan since at least the Neolithic era. Historical records track them under shifting names — the "Mangman" and "Puziman" of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the "Pu" of later chronicles — but their continuity in the highlands of what is now the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture and the Lincang region is one of the deepest in the province. Unlike later arrivals such as the Jingpo and Achang, the De'ang and their linguistic kin the Wa and the Blang settled the river valleys of the southwest long before recorded history, making them among the oldest documented inhabitants of Yunnan.

The name "De'ang" carries meaning: it translates roughly as "the people of virtue who live in caves," a reference to their ancestral memory of dwelling in mountain rock shelters. This self-designation replaced the former exonym "Benglong," which was applied by outsiders and dated to the Qing dynasty. In 1985, at the community's own request and with the approval of the State Council, "Benglong" was formally abandoned and "De'ang" adopted as the official name. The group is internally diverse, with seven recognized branches — including the Liang ("Flower De'ang"), the Bielie ("Red De'ang"), and the Raomai ("Black De'ang") — distinguished largely by the colors and patterns woven into their women's long skirts.

Linguistically, the De'ang speak a language belonging to the Wa-De'ang branch of the Mon-Khmer family within the Austroasiatic phylum, divided into three main dialects (Bulei, Rumai, and Najin). The language has no native writing system, and because the De'ang have lived for centuries in close contact with the Dai, Han, and Jingpo, many are multilingual, communicating fluently in Dai and Chinese and, in border areas, in Jingpo as well. The community practices Theravada Buddhism — of the same tradition as their Dai neighbors — blended with older animist beliefs in spirits and ancestors. This religious and linguistic fluidity is itself a defining trait of a small people who have survived for two millennia by adapting gracefully to the cultures that surround them, without ever surrendering their own.

The Ancient Tea Farmers: Sour Tea and a 2,000-Year-Old Heritage

No single feature defines the De'ang more profoundly than their relationship with tea. They are called the "Ancient Tea Farmers" because they have cultivated and drunk tea for over two millennia — among the earliest tea-farming peoples in the world, with the Tang-era classic "Manshu" recording their practice. Their origin epic, the "Dagu Daleng Gelaibiao" (《达古达楞格莱标》), a roughly 1,900-line creation narrative now recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, tells how the first human beings were born from a tea tree, placing the plant at the very center of their cosmology. For the De'ang, tea is not a beverage but a cosmology, a gift from the beginning of the world.

The signature expression of this heritage is sour tea (酸茶), a fermented tea unique to the De'ang and unlike anything most travelers have encountered. The process is deliberately slow and laborious, following seven traditional steps: hand-picking the finest two leaves and a bud of the Yunnan large-leaf tea variety; steaming them in a bamboo steamer; rolling the leaves by hand; packing them tightly into bamboo tubes sealed with banana leaves; burying the tubes in an earthen pit for a minimum of three months — and sometimes up to a year — during which anaerobic fermentation produces lactic and acetic acids; then pounding the fermented mass, pressing it into cakes, and sun-drying and slicing it. The result is a tea that is faintly tart on the first sip, then opens into a deep, honeyed sweetness with a long, clean aftertaste — an experience one De'ang master describes as "初尝微酸，回味甘甜" (slightly sour at first, sweet on reflection).

This ancient craft has been formally honored on the world stage. In 2021, the De'ang sour tea production technique was inscribed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, and in 2022 it was subsumed into the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as part of China's "Traditional Tea Processing Techniques and Associated Social Practices." The economic stakes are real: in 2025 alone, the city of Mangshi produced over 400 tons of De'ang sour tea with an output value of 167 million RMB, while the core village of Chudonggua (出冬瓜村) in Santai Township produced 8 tons worth over 6.4 million RMB. A 2026 Dehong government work report confirmed sour tea output value has risen for three consecutive years, driven by a growing cluster of more than 60 market players.

Tea also governs De'ang social ritual in a way few outsiders expect. The community observes the principle of "茶到意到" — "when the tea arrives, the intention arrives." A packet of tea wrapped in red thread serves as a wedding invitation; tea is the obligatory gift carried by a matchmaker to the bride's family; a person who has wronged another sends a gift of tea as an apology; and a distinguished guest is always welcomed with tea brewed over the household fire pit. In the homes of De'ang villages like Chudonggua, the fire pit (火塘) remains the symbolic heart of the family — the seat of honor, the place of council, and the altar before which a guest is offered the prized sour tea, roasted and boiled in the traditional manner. For the visitor, learning to receive a cup of De'ang tea is not a nicety; it is the doorway into their entire world.

Dress, Water Drums, and Festivals: The Living Material Culture

To see the De'ang is to recognize them at once by two unforgettable markers: the rattan waist hoop and the color-drenched textile traditions. The waist hoop (腰箍), or rattan ring, is the most iconic element of De'ang women's dress. According to legend, the first De'ang men and women emerged from a gourd, and because the women could fly away, the men wove rattan rings to keep them bound to the earth — and to love. Today, a De'ang woman wears a series of rattan hoops, often a dozen or more, lacquered in red, black, and green and sometimes inlaid with silver; the more hoops and the finer their carving, the more skilled and virtuous the woman is considered. The hoops function as a symbol of beauty, fidelity, and female craft, and they are so central that a young suitor will carefully carve a hoop as a love token for the woman he courts.

Men's and women's dress complete the picture. De'ang men traditionally wear a black or blue loose jacket over wide trousers, a head wrap of black or white cloth whose two ends are finished with bright woolen pom-poms, and, in youth, large earrings and a silver neck ring. Women wear a dark, often navy or black, cross-collar short jacket edged with red cloth and fastened with large square silver buttons, paired with a long hand-woven skirt striped with horizontal color bands that identify their branch, plus the defining rattan waist hoops. Ornaments of silver — earrings, pendants, bracelets — are worn with pride, and the textile techniques, including the ancient "waist loom" method, have been practiced since at least the Sui and Tang dynasties, a heritage of weaving and dyeing that the De'ang still maintain by hand today.

Music and movement are central to De'ang festivity. Their most distinctive instrument is the water drum (水鼓), called "gelengdang" in the De'ang language — a hollowed log, tapered at one end and covered with cowhide, whose tone is deepened by moistening the skin with water or wine before playing. Alongside the elephant-foot drum, gongs, and cymbals, the water drum leads the dances of celebration, and the Water Drum Dance is recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage. The tea-picking dance (采茶舞) and the elephant-foot drum dance are performed at festivals, while the village martial tradition — including the famous "left-hand fist" (左拳) with its principle of "the left hand decides the outcome" — reflects a hardy mountain people's history of self-defense.

The festival calendar revolves around Theravada Buddhist observance and the agricultural year. The most important celebration is the Flower Splashing Festival (浇花节), the De'ang version of the Water Splashing Festival, held in mid-April to welcome the new year: villagers in their finest dress carry spring water and fresh flowers to the village temple (the "zhuangfang"), bathe the Buddhist statues, and then splash water on one another as a blessing of cleansing, good fortune, and an abundant tea harvest. The Close-Door Festival (关门节) in the seventh lunar month begins a three-month period of spiritual retreat and intensive farming, while the Open-Door Festival (开门节) three months later lifts the restrictions and marks the resumption of weddings and celebrations. Alongside these come the "zuo bai" village alms ceremonies and the "burning white firewood" (烧白柴) rite of late winter. For a traveler, the Flower Splashing Festival offers the single most vivid, and most welcoming, window into De'ang communal life.

Meeting the De'ang: The Complete Traveler's Guide to Dehong and Beyond

For the traveler who wishes to encounter the De'ang, the good news is that their heartland is accessible, authentic, and still refreshingly off the mass-tourism circuit. The cultural capital of the De'ang world is the Santai De'ang Ethnic Township (三台山德昂族乡) in Mangshi (芒市), the seat of the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. Established in 1987 as the only single-ethnicity De'ang township in China, Santai is home to the De'ang's most concentrated and best-preserved villages. The township's centerpiece is Chudonggua Village (出冬瓜村), an ancient tea village wrapped in cloud and surrounded by tiered tea gardens, where visitors can walk the groves, watch sour tea being made by hand, and taste it fresh from the fire pit. A guided tea experience at Chudonggua typically includes three stages: hand-picking leaves in the garden with local women, learning the seven-step sour tea process in a master's home, and sharing the ritual "boiled tea" around the fire pit — an immersion that the Dehong tourism board actively promotes as a flagship cultural experience.

Beyond Santai, the De'ang are scattered across several other areas of Yunnan, each offering a distinct flavor. The Junsai Township in Zhenkang County (镇康县军赛乡), in Lincang Prefecture, is the second major concentration and preserves the pastoral, bamboo-rich lifestyle for which the region has been famed for two millennia — the dragon bamboo of Zhenkang, with trunks reaching a hand-span in diameter, was praised in historical records as "Pu bamboo" and is used for housing, tools, and food. Smaller De'ang communities live in Yingjiang County (盈江县), near the border town of Ruili (瑞丽), and in Longchuan, Baoshan, and Gengma, often sharing mountain slopes with the Jingpo, Lisu, and Wa. Because the population is so dispersed — barely 20,000 people spread across three prefectures and nine counties — the traveler who wants depth should focus on the Mangshi-Santai axis and plan at least one full day there.

The practical window for a visit is broad, but the ideal seasons are spring and autumn. The Flower Splashing Festival in mid-April (coinciding with the wider Dehong Water Splashing celebrations, which run roughly April 10-13 in Mangshi) is the single best time to witness De'ang ceremony, dance, and tea culture in full expression. Autumn, after the rains, offers clear skies, comfortable temperatures, and the harvest-season pace of village life. As with all travel to China's minority areas, the responsible approach is to go with a licensed, culturally sensitive operator who can arrange village access, tea workshops, and interpretation — not only because it ensures a richer experience, but because it channels revenue directly to the community that sustains these traditions.

Why Yunnan's Hidden Ethnic Groups Matter: A Leaderboard of the Province's Living Cultures

The De'ang are the perfect lens through which to appreciate a larger truth: Yunnan is home to more than half of China's 56 ethnic groups, and some of its most profound cultural treasures belong not to its famous sights but to its quietest communities. For the thoughtful traveler, ranking Yunnan's living ethnic cultures for a journey of discovery yields a compelling leaderboard. The Dai, centered on Xishuangbanna and Dehong, top the list for accessibility and spectacle, with the Water Splashing Festival and the night markets of Jinghong. The Yi, the province's largest minority, offer the fire festivals of the Dali and Chuxiong regions. The Naxi, in Lijiang, preserve a unique pictographic script and Dongba religion that earned Old Town a UNESCO listing. The Bai of Dali maintain the exquisite three-course tea ceremony and the marble-and-pine architecture of the old kingdom. And the Hani, who built the majestic Yuanyang rice terraces, hold a claim to one of the most breathtaking human-made landscapes on Earth.

But for sheer rarity and intimacy, the De'ang deserve a place near the top of any such list. To visit the De'ang is to meet a people whose entire identity — their cosmology, their economy, their etiquette, their festivals — is woven around a single plant, and who have maintained that bond for two millennia without ever seeking the spotlight. Their sour tea, their rattan waist hoops, their water drums, and their quiet, dignified hospitality constitute a living culture that most of the world has never heard of. In an era when travelers increasingly seek depth over spectacle, the De'ang villages of Santai offer exactly that: an authentic encounter with one of China's oldest, smallest, and most welcoming peoples — and a reminder that the deepest wonders of Yunnan are often the ones that require the patience to seek them out.

Frequently Asked Questions About the De'ang

Where do the De'ang people live? The De'ang live primarily in western Yunnan Province, with the largest concentration in the Santai De'ang Ethnic Township of Mangshi, Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, and the Junsai Township of Zhenkang County, Lincang Prefecture. Smaller communities are found in Yingjiang, Ruili, Longchuan, Baoshan, and Gengma counties.

What is the population of the De'ang ethnic group? According to the 2010 national census, the De'ang number approximately 20,556 people, making them one of China's smallest officially recognized ethnic groups. There is also a De'ang community across the border in Myanmar.

Why are the De'ang called the "Ancient Tea Farmers"? The De'ang have cultivated and consumed tea for over two thousand years, with their practice recorded in the Tang-era text "Manshu." Their creation epic, the "Dagu Daleng Gelaibiao," tells that the first humans were born from a tea tree, and their sour tea production is now recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage.

What is De'ang sour tea? Sour tea (酸茶) is the De'ang signature fermented tea. Fresh Yunnan large-leaf tea leaves are steamed, rolled, packed into sealed bamboo tubes, and buried to ferment anaerobically for at least three months. The result is a tea that tastes faintly tart at first and finishes sweet. The technique became a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021.

What is the rattan waist hoop? The rattan waist hoop (腰箍) is the defining ornament of De'ang women's dress. Worn in series around the waist and lacquered in red, black, and green, it symbolizes beauty, fidelity, and female skill. Legend holds that the hoops were first woven to prevent the women, who could fly, from escaping.

When is the best time to visit the De'ang? The ideal time is mid-April, during the Flower Splashing Festival (the De'ang Water Splashing celebration), when ceremonies, dances, and tea culture are in full expression. Autumn is also excellent, offering clear skies and the slower pace of post-harvest village life.

Do the De'ang have their own writing system? No. The De'ang language, of the Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic) family, has no native script. Because of centuries of contact, most De'ang speak Dai and Chinese, and some also speak Jingpo, adapting the written scripts of their neighbors.