As an important strategic area located on China’s southwest border, Yunnan Province has a 4,188-kilometer-long border line, with 16 indigenous ethnic minorities living across the border, boasting extremely rich ethnic cultural diversity. In response to the development needs of the new era, Yunnan Province has launched and implemented the modern border happy village construction project. In this construction process, traditional ethnic minority cultures are not only important cultural resources and spiritual wealth but also key components of rural revitalization. Focusing on the core theme of “the protection and inheritance paths of ethnic minority cultures in Yunnan’s border happy villages”, this paper explores the following key issues: First, what are the main achievements and challenges in the construction of Yunnan’s border happy villages? Second, what specific measures and mechanisms have been adopted for the protection and inheritance of traditional ethnic minority cultures? Third, how to promote the integrated development of culture, industry, and tourism, and what practical problems exist? Fourth, how to achieve the coordinated development of cultural protection and modernization? Through a systematic analysis of these issues, this paper strives to provide theoretical guidance and practical references for the deepening paths of border happy village construction and ethnic cultural protection.