Bulang people believe in Buddhism and ancestor worship. Bulang believers who believe in Buddhism spread to the upper part of the south must worship tea when they enter the Buddhist temple to observe precepts, listen to scriptures and meditate. The Bulang people in Lancang worship their tea-growing ancestor, Ba Leng Yan, who led the Bulang people to grow tea.
According to Ben Man, an ancient book of local chronicles of Bulang people in Lancang County, Ba Leng Yan was the leader who led Bulang people to settle in Mangjing area more than 1000 years ago. Before he died, he said to the tribesmen, "When I die, I will leave my cattle, horses and livestock. When I die, I will leave you this gem and tea to ensure that the descendants of the Bulang people have food and clothing." In the Song of the Bulang Ancestors, there is a aria: "Ba is our hero, Ba is our ancestor, he left us a bamboo shed and a tea tree, and he left us a crutch for survival". Before his death, he led his people to cultivate and transplant tea artificially, and gave this wild tea a new name called "La". The villagers in Man Jing, Manghong and five Bulang villages around Lancang are all descendants of Ba Yanleng, and they sacrificed to Ba Yanleng together. Before 1950, they offered sacrifices once a year to Man Jing and the former Bayanleng. The time is on the seventh day of the sixth lunar month. During the sacrificial period, people can't go to the fields to produce and work.
This is the ancestor worship of Bulang people related to tea.
Pu 'er Tea in Bulang Folk Custom
Bulang nationality in Pu 'er area of Simao is a nationality with a long history of growing tea and a common custom of drinking tea. When the Bulang people talk about marriage, the young man will bring a box of betel nuts to the woman's house, and the girl will give back some gifts, including a Baba, a bunch of bananas, a pack of tobacco and a pack of tea, and the girl will ask the other half to send it to the young man's house. The girl's parents thought her daughter could get married, so they killed a chicken and packed it for the young man's house. After the man received it, he killed the pig or bought three pounds of fat and a pack of glutinous rice, and asked someone to quietly send it to the girl's house to put it down. After the girl received it, she prepared some betel nuts, tobacco and tea for her relatives to eat. After the man gives gifts three times, he can set the wedding time. On the wedding night, the singer was invited to sing this song to celebrate. If he is the lead singer, the host will pay a reward, usually two Jin of meat, one Jin of wine, one Jin of tea and a pack of cigarettes.
In the past, the Bulang people in Lancang paid a small tribute to Menglian Tusi once a year, once every three years. In addition to silver dollar cotton, Xiao Gong asked for 20 kg of tea, while Da Gong asked for 50 kg of tea except silver dollar and flying squirrel (commonly known as "flying music"), which has formed a system and was abolished from 1949.