In many aspects, Xishuangbanna is China's own Mini-Thailand.
As far as the population of this southernmost part of Yunnan is concerned,
it is indeed more Thai than Chinese. In this district, the
minority (and by Chinese definition the Dais populating the
area are a minority) are actually the majority. Of the district's
population of more 650,000, more than half belong to the Dais who
are just as closely related to the Thais of Thailand as the name
suggests. The Han Chinese make up only about a quarter of the population.
The district's name, too, is more Thai than Chinese. "Sip
song pan na" is Thai for "Twelve thousand rice fields",
and that's what the fertile district has been called among the local Thai,
or Dai, population for centuries.
Xishuangbanna is China's Mini-Thailand, too, because like Thailand in
all of Southeast Asia, Xishuangbanna is, among China's provinces, a much
preferred tourist destination, though not so much by international
tourists but rather for Chinese from provinces further north.
Xishuangbanna is China's Mini-Thailand, too, because there is a striking
similarity of tourist attractions. The highest rating is given
to the Water Festival, which is equivalent to Songkran in
Thailand, falls on the same date (April 13 to 15), and has the same
traditional meaning of greeting a new year by the Thai, and Dai,
calendar.
But Songkran is not the only Thai festivity which is also found
in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna: there are rocket festivals, like in Thailand's
Northeast, and boat races on various festive occasions as they are
common in Northern Thailand.
Xishuangbanna, or rather the Dai majority, are Theravada Buddhists
just like the Burmese and the Thais which gives the region
additional colour. Like in Thailand and Burma, saffron-robbed monks
can be seen wandering from house to house to receive the faithfuls'
offerings. And there are countless Burmese- and Thai-style pagodas.
More information on Xishuangbanna:
