Dongba Cultural Museum

Welcome to the Dongba Cultural Museum, also known as the Lijiang City Museum, a hidden cultural gem nestled just outside the north gate of Black Dragon Pool Park. As a scholar of ethnic cultures, I find this institution to be one…

The first section of our tour focuses on the earliest chapters of Naxi history, illustrating how this ethnic group adapted to the challenging mountainous terrain of the Hengduan range. The museum cleverly showcases the evolution…

Moving into the heart of the museum complex, we observe the pinnacle of Naxi residential design: the traditional wooden courtyard house. The layout here demonstrates sophisticated patterns such as 'three courtyards with a screen…

We now enter what many consider the museum's most vital hall: the gallery of the Dongba script. This is the only pictographic writing system still in active use in the world today. …

In this hall, we explore the spiritual heart of the Naxi: the Dongba sacrificial rituals. The museum has recreated several ceremonial setups, allowing us to witness the tools and environments used for offerings to the sky, the…

This section of the museum shifts from the spiritual to the material, showcasing an impressive collection of Naxi cultural relics, including handwoven textiles, antique furniture, and traditional farming tools. These artifacts…

As we near the end of the museum, we enter a hall dedicated to the preservation of ancient Dongba manuscripts. These scrolls are more than just religious texts; they are encyclopedias of Naxi knowledge, covering subjects as…

Our journey through the Dongba Cultural Museum concludes where it began, in the quiet courtyard that bridges the past and the present. We have traversed the entire arc of Naxi history, from their nomadic origins in caves to their…