Mr Su Guo Wen
In the mist-shrouded Jingmai Mountain in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, where ancient tea forests have thrived for thousands of years and the Bulang, Dai, Hani, and other ethnic groups have coexisted harmoniously, there lives an 80-year-old educator and cultural inheritor who has dedicated his life to safeguarding the heritage of his people. He is Su Guowen, the son of the last hereditary chieftain of the Bulang ethnic group in Jingmai Mountain, a spiritual leader deeply revered by the local people, and a lifelong promoter of ethnic culture whose devotion has transcended time and generations.
As an educator, Mr. Su has always believed that "without education, culture is a tree without roots." His life of dedication to education began long before his retirement—he once helped nearly 100,000 people in Lancang County learn to read and write, lighting the lamp of knowledge for countless families in remote ethnic areas. After retiring in 2004, he chose to return to his hometown of Mangjing Village on Jingmai Mountain, determined to fulfill his father’s last wish: to restore and inherit Bulang culture. At that time, the protection and inheritance of Bulang culture was facing a critical crisis—only six elderly people in the village still knew the ethnic history and traditions, with the youngest being 83 years old. Undaunted by the challenge, Mr. Su immediately gathered these elders, meticulously recording and sorting out their oral histories, myths, and cultural traditions, laying a solid foundation for the preservation of Bulang culture.
Mr. Su’s commitment to cultural inheritance goes far beyond documentation. In 2005, he accidentally discovered ancient books compiled in the Bulang script, such as Mangjing Village Chronicles and Bulang Ethnic Group Chronicles, in the border area of Myanmar adjacent to Lancang County. Overjoyed, he spent nearly a year copying all these precious works and bringing them back to Jingmai Mountain, rescuing a wealth of lost cultural relics. A year later, he found a thousand-year-old Bulang ancient stele in a temple in Mangjing Village; he carefully moved, cleaned, and pieced it together, then erected it in the village as a tangible witness to the Bulang people’s history. He also compiled books such as A Brief History of the Mangjing Bulang Ethnic Group and The Bulang People and Tea, and built the Bulang Cultural Park with his own hands, where cultural relics such as the statue of Pa Ai Leng (the Bulang tea ancestor), traditional tea-pressing tools, sacrificial masks, and ancient Bulang calendars are displayed, making it an important window for the world to understand Bulang history and tea culture.
Mr. Su Guowen is more than just a cultural inheritor; he is an educator who sows the seeds of culture, a guardian who preserves a nation's spirit, and a messenger who promotes cross-cultural understanding. His life’s work reminds us that cultural heritage is the root of a nation’s spirit, and it is through the dedication of people like Mr. Su that these precious traditions can be passed down from generation to generation, shining brightly in the modern world. We are honored to have the opportunity to visit and learn from him every time we come to Jingmai Mountain. We hope to share his story with the world, so that more people can understand and appreciate the unique charm of Bulang culture and the timeless wisdom of Jingmai Mountain.
