The Dai nationality, living in the south and southwest of Yunnan, believes in Theravada Buddhism, also called Hinayana Buddhism. The Buddhist monastery and pagoda, among buildings, have gained the highest achievements and possess the most distinguishing features.

The Theravada Buddhist monastery is called a Miansi temple. There is at least one such temple in almost every Dai village. According to religious discipline, every male must become a monk once during childhood, learning to read and write in the monastery. The Miansi temple provides a place not only for religious activities, but also for celebrations, election of leaders and mediation of disputes. The monastery has gone beyond pure religious significance, and people cherish a special cordial feeling for it. Therefore, the Miansi temple is quite different from a Buddhist monastery in Han areas and the Lamaist temples of Tibetan Buddhism. It is not so strict and solemn as the former, nor as magnificent and uninhibited as the latter; rather, it appears closer to the people. It is exquisite in shape, beautiful in posture and simple and unaffected in character.

The Mansuman Monastery in Ganlanba of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, located on the east bank of the Lancang River, is arranged in order from east to west with temple gate, approach porch and Buddhist hall. On the northeast side of the Buddhist hall is a Dai-style Buddhist pagoda; on the other side is a monastic hall, constituting an extremely vivid and beautiful but not symmetrical composition. The arrangement of temple gate with three rooms, roof with two slopes, high in the middle and low by the side, is simple in technique but rich in bodily form.

Unlike the Han Buddhist hall that takes longitude as the front, the Buddhist hall of Dai, plane and rectangular, takes gable (i.e., short side). The center of the big hall is covered with two sloping roofs. The four sides surround a single sloping roof, and the whole composition is a two-section roof like a Chinese-hip-and-gable roof. A huge statue of Buddha is erected within the hall facing east.

The monastic hall of the Miansi temple, similar to the Buddhist hall in appearance, is a place used to store Buddhist scripture and hold ihram. Its outward boundary is comparatively closed, and the lower part has a fairly high Sumerian seat. But the monastic hall of Jingzhen Temple in Mengzhe of Xishuangbanna, a plane polygonal angle cross, is composed of 16 outside angles and 12 inside angles, and ca1led an "octagonal pavilion". Its beautiful shape is the pride of Dai nationality architectural art. The pedestal of the "octagonal pavilion" is laid up with bricks and is quite high. The body of the pavilion is also laid up with bricks. Doors open on all four fronts. The roof is exceptional, composed of many two-slope Chinese overhung gable-end roofs stretching out from every storey and radiating in eight directions. They were laid up into 10 storeys from bottom to top and large to small, forming a complex of silken scale composed of 80 small roofs which are very complicated. The general outline of the roof is of a concave curve: giving a strong sense of movement. Finally, it converges in a laksata plate, and then extends upward through a high laksata pole, being fully played up and intensified. The color of the whole pavilion is very bright and beautiful; its shape is delicate and exquisite. The splendid jewelry, under the sunshine, looks like blossoming lotus, expressing the outstanding molding talent of the Dai architects and the Dai people's ardent feeling for life.