To distinguish the vegetation types of tropical forest and understand the relationship between the community characteristics and topographical factors, we investigated the vegetation characteristics and topographical factors of 500 quadrats in a 20 hm² forest dynamics plot (FDP) in Xishuangbanna. Cluster analysis was used for community classification. The detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used toassign ordination of the forest communities. The results showed that: (1) The forest communities were classified into two types: tropical seasonal rain forest and tropical montane evergreen broad leaved forest; (2) The result from CCA ordination of 500 quadrats was consistent with that from cluster analysis, and CCA axis 1 and axis 2 showed the change of elevation and convexity gradient, which explained 83.9% of vegetation distribution pattern, indicating that the elevation and convexity factors played a crucial role in driving the distribution of vegetation types in the FDP; (3) DCA and CCA of dominant species showed that adaptation of plant species to thetopography was different and the distribution pattern of those species were mainly affected byelevation and convexity; (4) The results of cluster analysis, DCA and CCA unequivocallyindicated the existence of vertical distribution pattern of forest vegetation in the FDP. Therefore, the inherent relationship between vegetation distribution and topography could be uncovered by the combination of both methods, thus shedding new light for the management and conservation of tropical forests.