Xishuangbanna, sometimes shortened to Banna, is one of the eight autonomous prefectures of Yunnan Province. The autonomous prefecture for Dai people is in the extreme south of Yunnan province, China, bordering both Myanmar and Laos. Xishuangbanna lies at latitude 21°10′-22°40′ and longitude 99°55′-101°50′ east, on the northern edge of the tropics south of the Tropic of Cancer. It has an area of 19,124.5 square kilometers, bordering Pu'er City to the northeast and northwest, Laos to the southeast and Myanmar to the southwest. The border is 966.3 kilometers long, one river connects six countries, and there are four national ports. The prefectural seat is Jinghong, the largest settlement in the area and one that straddles the Mekong, called the "Lancang River" in Chinese.

This region of China is noted for the distinct culture of its ethnic groups, which is very different from that of the Han Chinese. The people, architecture, language and culture more closely resemble those of the Shan, Dai and Tai peoples, which includes the Thai and Lao.

Sibsongpanna (Tai Lue: ᧑᧒ᦗᧃᦓᦱ; Thai: สิบสองพันนา, romanized: Sipsong Panna; Lao: ສິບສອງພັນນາ, romanized: Sipsǭng Phannā; Shan: သိပ်းသွင်ပၼ်းၼႃး, romanized: Sípsǎung Pánnáa) is a Tai Lü compound consisting of sipsong (᧑᧒, 'twelve'), pan (ᦗᧃ, 'township') and na (ᦓᦱ, 'rice paddy'). The name refers to the traditional division of the mueang into twelve districts, which were called panna (lit. 'township rice-fields'). The etymology is parallel to the autonomous Tai-speaking region in French Indochina from 1890 to 1945 that was called Sip Song Chau Tai, meaning 'twelve Tai cantons'. Xishuangbanna was mentioned as ancestral land Möng Ri Möng Ram in Tai-Ahom Manuscript Lit Phi written by Ahom descendants of Dai people of Yunnan who later migrated to Assam.

Before 1886, the region was called Chiang Hung, a Tai Lue kingdom that was contended between China, Lanna and the Burmese dynasties. After the Mongol conquest in 1296, the subsequent Ming and Qing emperors appointed the Tai Lue rulers of Chiang Hung as a native Tusi governor. In 1563, King Bayinnaung of Burma's Taungoo Dynasty captured Chiang Hung. The Burmese and the Chinese agreed on the joint domination over Xishuangbanna, whose ruler was enthroned in a ceremony in which both Burmese and Chinese representatives jointly presided.

In the 19th century, the region briefly became a tributary state of Luang Prabang and the Rattanakosin Kingdom during the Burmese–Siamese War (1849–1855). When the British Empire occupied Upper Burma in 1886, it became a part of the British Raj. In 1892, the British transferred Chiang Hung to the Qing dynasty.

In the chaos of the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing government in 1911 in favor of a Chinese republican government, a local leader, the Chao Maha of Meng Jie, staged a rebellion against Qing remnant officials. The Yunnan provincial government of the newly established Republic of China sent troops in 1913 to oust the Chao Meng Jie rebels. Ke Shuxun remained in Xishuangbanna to govern with his "13 Principles of Governing the Frontier", which emphasized equality between Han and Dai in areas such as land ownership and taxation; allowed intermarriage between the ethnic groups; and promoted education in secular and technical subjects, rather than Burmese-based monastic education. The Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945) saw the heavy bombardment of Xishuangbanna by Japanese troops and a simultaneous influx of Pan-Taiist propaganda from Japan's ally, Thailand. According to Hsieh, that reduced the appeal of a broad pan-Tai identity among the Dai Lue.

During the final phase of the Chinese Civil War, many remnants of the Kuomintang fled from Chinese Communists forces into Burma's Shan State from Xishuangbanna. The new People's Republic of China sent various non-military expeditions to Xishuangbanna from 1949 to provide services such as schools and hospitals to replace those by western Christian missionaries.

The Communists took control of the prefecture from Kuomintang loyalists in 1952. On January 23, 1953, the PRC established the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Region and ended the native-chieftain system. That year, the People's Congress of Xishuangbanna created the New Tai Lue alphabet, based on the Tai Tham alphabet, to print material in the Tai Lü language.