Abstract
The Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, located in the extreme south of Yunnan Province (China), comprises 49 basins and is known as a region that experiences frequent foggy days. Different ethnic groups have long coexisted in this region, separated from one another by this fog. The Dai people inhabit the basin floors, where they have traditionally maintained trees, which are the water source for the fog, in order to use the latent heat of the fog droplets to protect their crops from cold nighttime temperatures. Meanwhile, the mountain ethnic minorities inhabit the nighttime thermal belt that exists on the slopes above the fog layer and also receives early morning sunlight, where they have traditionally practiced a form of swidden agriculture that promotes forest regeneration. The peoples in this region have thus been able to maintain stable geoecosystems over entire basin areas. Since the 1960s, however, large-scale development driven by national policy has started to erode the geoecosystems of this region.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arai T, Nomoto S (2006) Higashi Ajia no kiko, suimon, chiri (Climate, hydrology and geology of East Asia). In: Sakamoto M, Kumagai M (eds) Higashi Ajia monsoon-iki no kosho to ryuiki (Lakes, marshes and basins in monsoon regions of East Asia). University of Nagoya Press, Nagoya, (in Japanese)
Fukao Y (2004) Gomu-ga kaeta bonchi sekai–Unnan Shipusonpanna no Kanzoku imin to sono shuhen (How rubber changed the basin world: Han immigrants to Xishuangbanna, Yunnan and their surroundings). Tonan Ajia Kenkyu 42:294–327 (in Japanese with English abstract)
Huijun G, Padoch C, Coffey K et al (2002) Economic development, land use and biodiversity change in the tropical mountains of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, Southwest China. Environ Sci Policy 5(6):471–479
Jianchu X, Fox J, Vogler JB et al (2005) Land-use and land-cover change and farmer vulnerability in Xishuangbanna prefecture in southwestern China. Environ Manage 36(3):404–413
Kato K (2000) Bonchi sekai no kokkaron–Unnan Shipusonpanna no Tai-zokushi (Theory of nations in the basin world: a history of the Dai people in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan). Kyoto University Press, Kyoto (in Japanese)
Nagatsuka S (1993) Shoyojurinn bunka to dojo (Evergreen forest culture and soil). In: Yoshino MM (ed) Yunan fierudo noto (Yunnan field notes). Kokon Shoin, Tokyo
Nomoto S (1993) Unnan no shizen ni ikiru (Life in mother nature of Yunnan). In: Yoshino MM (ed) Yunan fierudo noto (Yunnan field notes). Kokon Shoin, Tokyo
Nomoto S (1997) Unnan no kiko (The climate of Yunnan). In: Yoshino MM (ed) Nettai chugoku–shizen soshite ningen (Tropical China: nature and people). Kokon Shoin, Tokyo
Nomoto S (2003) Decreases in the number of foggy days in Thailand and Japan, and possible causes. Int Econ Stud 17:13–28
Scott JC (2009) The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia. Yale University Press, New Haven
Van Vliet N, Mertz O, Heinimann A et al (2012) Trends, drivers and impacts of changes in swidden cultivation in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers: a global assessment. Glob Environ Change 22(2):418–429
Xishuangbanna Prefecture Government (2018) Overview of Xishuangbanna Prefecture. http://www.xsbn.gov.cn/88.news.list.dhtml. Accessed 10 Aug 2018
Yao H (2004) Shui bai yi fengtu ji. Yunnan renmin chuban she, Kunming. Japanese edition: Yao H (2004) Unnan no Tai-zoku–Shipusonpanna Minzokushi (The Dai People of Yunnan: An ethnic history of Xishuangbanna) (trans: Tada K). Tosui Shobo, Tokyo
Yin S (2001) People and forest: Yunnan swidden agriculture in human-ecological perspective. Yunnan education publishing house, Kunming
Zhang K (1986) The influence of deforestation of tropical rainforest on local climate and disaster in Xishuangbanna region of China. Climatological Notes 35:223–236
Zhang L, Kono Y, Kobayashi S (2014) The process of expansion in commercial banana cropping in tropical China: a case study at a Dai village, Mengla County. Agric Syst 124:32–38
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nomoto, S., Yokoyama, S. (2020). Fog and People in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, China. In: Yokoyama, S., Matsumoto, J., Araki, H. (eds) Nature, Culture, and Food in Monsoon Asia. International Perspectives in Geography, vol 10. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2113-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2113-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-2112-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-2113-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)