Laobanzhang, the tea is strong, thick and mellow, domineering. Whether you are just beginning to understand Pu’er tea or an old tea friend of Pu’er Tea tea, you must have heard of Laobanzhang, which is a shining name card of Pu’er Tea tea and recognized as the “Tea King” in Pu’er Tea tea industry.
The origin of Laobanzhang’s name is interwoven with the transliteration of ethnic languages, the marks of geographical features and the track of historical migration.Its core can be divided into two parts: the etymological controversy of “Banzhang” and the formation background of the word “Lao”(meaning “old” in Chinese).
1. Transliteration of Ethnic Languages
The origin of the word “Banzhang” points to the Dai, Blang and other aboriginal languages in Xishuangbanna, and three mainstream versions are formed due to the differences in oral history, all of which bear the initial understanding of this land:
1.1 Mainstream Interpretation from Dai Language Transliteration
This is the most widely accepted statement, “Banzhang” comes from the Chinese transliteration of Dai language “Bazha” (or “Bazha” and “Bazang”), and there are three subdivisions of the specific meaning:
- “Residence with sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance”: “Ban” means “shack, humble hut” in Dai language, and “Zhang” means “sweet-scented osmanthus tree”, which together means “shack village with sweet-scented osmanthus tree”. This statement is in line with the settlement form of the old Banzhang village when it was first built-the ancestors of the Hani people migrated here to build shacks and settle down, and the osmanthus trees that had grown widely in the area became geographical indications.
- “Habitat of a fish”: According to some documents, “Ba Zha” means “a fish”, which originated from a lake near the village where big fish often appeared, and the Dai ancestors named it with this feature. The more legendary legend is that when the Dai King sent an eminent monk to look for his youngest son who went up the mountain to grow tea, the monk saw a big fish jumping out of the lake and blurted out “Ba Zha”, which has since been used as a place name.
- “Valley covered with bamboo forests”: “Banzhang” mentioned in the information of Yunnan Tea Circulation Association is the transliteration of “Bazang” in Dai language, which means “valley covered with bamboo forests”, echoing the ecological environment of dense bamboo forests in the mountainous area of Laobanzhang at an altitude of 1700-1900 meters.
1.2 Geographical Imprints of the Bulang Language
The Bulang people were one of the earliest settlers in the old Banzhang area, and in their language, “Banzhang” is interpreted as “big stone”. This statement is directly related to the “Banzhang Stone” in the village, a huge rock shaped like a tiger, which is regarded as a landmark by the Bulang people and becomes the core basis for naming. Today, the thousand-year-old tea trees preserved in the ancient tea garden of Laobanzhang are the witness of the activities of the ancestors of the Bulang people.
1.3Interpretation of the Derivation of Tea Culture
Some tea circles believe that “Banzhang” means “ancient tea tree” in the Bulang language, because the local tea tree planting history has been around 300 AD, the name directly highlights its genes as the core tea producing area of the Pu’er Tea. However, this statement lacks documentary evidence and is more likely to be a derivative interpretation of the spread of tea culture.
2. Marks of Geographical Features
Laobanzhang is produced in the core production area of Bulang Mountain in Menghai, Yunnan (1700-1900 meters above sea level), with an average annual foggy day of more than 200 days and an organic matter content of 4.2% in red soil. More than 60% of the existing ancient tea trees are over 100 years old, and their roots are 12-15 meters deep underground, absorbing deep minerals, forming a unique “mountain rhyme” and “rock bone flower fragrance”.
The climate of Laobanzhang is warm and humid, with an annual precipitation of more than 1300 millimeters, abundant sunshine and clouds. The ancient tea trees grow in the original ecological natural environment all the year round, and after thousands of years of baptism by the sun and the moon, they have a strong mountain charm, which is the most abundant tea product in Pu’er tea.
3. Traces of Historical Migrations
The word “old” in “Laobanzhang” does not simply refer to a long history, but originates from a clear population migration event: according to Menghai County Annals and the oral history of the village, Laobanzhang experienced two population migrations around 1800 and 1950 after the Hani people moved here to build the village in 1476. Among them, the migration in the 1950s was the most crucial — some villagers moved to a new site separated by a mountain. In order to distinguish the two places, the original village was called “Laobanzhang”, while the new settlement was named “Xinbanzhang”. This naming logic and Pu’er teaThe traditional distinction of “Laozhai-Xinzhai” in the production area is consistent (such as Iceland Laozhai and Yiwu Laozhai), which not only marks the time sequence of the construction of the village, but also implies the recognition of the original tea area.
Sum up
The controversy over the naming of Laobanzhang reflects the history of multi-cultural blending: the Dai nationality, as the main ethnic group in Xishuangbanna, its language has become the basis for the transliteration of place names; the early settlement of the Bulang nationality has left a mark of geographical indications; and the migration of the Hani nationality has finally solidified the distinction between the old and the new. The commonness of these statements lies in that they all take natural landscape (Osmanthus fragrans, fish, rocks, bamboo forests) as the core naming basis, which embodies the naming wisdom of ethnic minorities to “remember places by things”.