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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
HUANG Yun, LIN Hai-tao
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.03.010
Senior Engineer, China; Yuxi Normal University, Yuxi, China
Yunnan, with its unparalleled ethnic diversity and ecological complexity, has nurtured a diversified and integrated system of aromatic therapy and incense culture among ethnic groups such as the Dai, Naxi, Bai, Yi, and Pumi. This system is not merely the utilization of medicinal plants but is deeply rooted in local cognition, belief systems, and social structures, forming a unique cultural morphology characterized by “homology of medicine and incense, symbiosis of incense and custom, shared incense by humans and gods, and ecological coexistence”. Adopting the core theoretical perspectives of ethnology, cultural anthropology, and folklore studies, and integrating methods from ethnobotany and medical anthropology, this paper systematically examines the practical skills, cultural logic, and social functions of representative ethnic aromatic therapy practices in Yunnan. The study aims to elucidate how incense culture operates across multiple dimensions—disease prevention and treatment, ritual communication, social integration, and ecological maintenance—and analyzes the inheritance crises it faces in the context of globalization and modernization. Building on this analysis, the paper proposes a path for “living inheritance” and “creative transformation” that balances cultural subjectivity, systematic knowledge, and sustainable development. This aims to provide theoretical reference and case studies for the contemporary preservation of ethnic traditional culture, regional ecological civilization construction, and the localized practice of the “Healthy China” and “Rural Revitalization” strategies.
Yunnan ethnic minorities, aromatic therapy, incense culture, ecological wisdom, cultural inheritance, ethnology
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