Mu’s Mansion (木府, Mùfǔ), also known as the Mu Family Mansion or Mu Residence, is the historic palace-style complex of the Mu clan, the hereditary Naxi tusi (native chieftains) who ruled the Lijiang region for centuries. It sits in the southwestern part of Lijiang Old Town (UNESCO World Heritage Site), at the foot of Lion Mountain (Shizi Mountain).

History

The Mu family rose to power under the Mongol Yuan dynasty and was formally granted the Chinese surname “Mu” by the Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang in 1382 after the Naxi leader Ajia Ade submitted to the Ming. They governed as hereditary tusi through the Ming and into the early Qing (roughly 22 generations, spanning about 470 years until the gaitu guiliu reforms of 1723 replaced native rule with direct imperial administration).

The mansion served as both private residence and administrative yamen (government office). Contemporary accounts, including the famous traveler Xu Xiake (who visited in 1639), praised its grandeur, comparing it to a royal palace (“宫室之丽，拟于王者”). Much of the original complex was destroyed in late Qing warfare and further damaged in the 20th century and the 1996 Lijiang earthquake. The present buildings were carefully reconstructed between 1996 and 1999 (with significant World Bank support) on the original site in Ming-dynasty style and opened as a museum (Lijiang Ancient Town Museum).

Architecture and Layout

The complex covers roughly 46 mu (about 3 hectares / 8 acres) with a 369-meter central axis oriented eastward (toward the rising sun). It blends Han Chinese imperial symmetry and formality with Naxi, Bai, and other local crafts and aesthetics. Key structures along or near the main axis include:

Stone Arch of Loyalty and Righteousness (忠义坊) — bearing imperial inscriptions

Ceremonial gates and Assembly / Council Hall (议事厅)

Wanjuan Tower (万卷楼, “Ten Thousand Scrolls Pavilion”) — historically a major library holding Dongba manuscripts, Buddhist texts, Chinese classics, and family collections

Dharma / Guardian Hall, Guangbi Tower, Yuyin Tower (Jade Sound / Imperial Edict Tower)

Sanqing Hall (Three Purities Hall, reflecting Daoist influence)

Side halls, courtyards, corridors, stage, and residential areas (over 160 rooms in total)

The overall effect is often nicknamed a “miniature Forbidden City of the South.”

Visiting Information

Location**: No. 49 Guangyuan Alley (官院巷), Guangyi Street, inside Lijiang Old Town. Easy walk from Sifang Square (about 10 minutes westward along the canals).

Opening hours**: Typically around 08:00/08:30–17:30/18:00 (confirm locally as times can vary by season).

Tickets**: Approximately 40–80 CNY for adults (prices have varied in reports; check current rates). Discounts often available for students, children, and seniors. Audio guides or live guides are commonly available.

Time needed**: 1.5–3 hours.

Highlights**: Architecture, historical exhibits on the Mu tusi system and Naxi culture, views toward the Old Town and (on clear days) Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, occasional cultural performances or demonstrations.

Mu’s Mansion is one of the best places in Lijiang to understand the political power, cultural sophistication, and multi-ethnic interactions of the Naxi elite under the Chinese imperial tusi system. It complements visits to the Old Town streets, Black Dragon Pool, and Dongba cultural sites.

Naxi Dongba religion rituals form the practical core of Dongba religion (also called Dongba culture), the indigenous animistic and polytheistic belief system of the Naxi people in northwestern Yunnan, China. Centered on maintaining harmony between humans, nature spirits, ancestors, gods, and demons, these rituals are performed by Dongba priests—male ritual specialists trained in the pictographic script, oral traditions, chanting, dancing, and the preparation of ritual objects.

Dongba religion blends indigenous Naxi animism with strong influences from Tibetan Bon, Tibetan Buddhism, and elements of Taoism. Its foundational myth holds that humans and Nature (shu / nature spirits, often serpent-like) are half-brothers. Rituals regulate this relationship to prevent misfortune, illness, or disaster and to secure prosperity, health, and proper passage of souls.

Role of the Dongba

Dongbas act as intermediaries. They master hundreds of manuscripts, learn complex sequences of chanting and dance, and prepare altars with painted cards (dzu), wooden tablets, dough figurines (gods, spirits, and demons), incense, and offerings. Training traditionally begins young within family lineages and requires mastery of multiple major ceremonies before independent practice. Rituals range from short household rites (hours) to multi-day community events involving dozens of texts, animal sacrifices, music, and dance.

Major Categories of Rituals

Scholars often group Dongba rituals into broad types (estimates of distinct ceremonies range from dozens to over a hundred major forms, with many subtypes):

1. Blessing and Prosperity Rituals (祈福类)
These seek favor from deities for good harvests, health, longevity, and family continuity.

• Sacrifice to Heaven (Muan bpo / 祭天): The most important communal rite. Held annually (major spring ceremony and smaller autumn one) by family or lineage groups at fixed outdoor altars. Features sacred trees (representing Heaven Father, Mother, and maternal uncle), offerings, animal sacrifice, and recitation of the human migration epic. It reinforces ethnic identity and cosmic order.
• Worship of family/life gods (su), grain and livestock protectors, village deities, stars, and longevity gods.
• House-building blessings, naming rites, and marriage-related ceremonies that transfer life-force while preserving household vitality.

2. Nature Spirit Propitiation (Shu / 祭署 and related)
Central to the ecological ethic. Rituals apologize for human overuse of forests, water, and land, and seek reconciliation with shu (nature spirits). These often reenact myths of conflict and balance between bird-like protectors (Garuda/Yuma) and serpent spirits. Performed especially when illness or environmental problems are attributed to offended spirits.

3. Exorcism, Purification, and Healing (禳鬼 / 除秽类)
Very common. Aimed at removing impurities, expelling specific demons or ghosts, and curing illness believed to have spiritual causes. Procedures include divination, smoke purification (juniper, rhododendron), sword dances, and targeted offerings. Many subtypes address particular threats (e.g., “impurity,” plague, verbal disputes, or specific ghosts).

4. Funerary and Soul-Guidance Rituals (丧葬 / 超度类)
Among the most elaborate.

• Ordinary funerals guide the soul along the ancestral path back to the homeland of the ancestors (historically linked to cremation practices).
• Special funerals for Dongbas: Feature a long painted “Sacred Road to Heaven” scroll and extensive recitation.
• Sacrifice to the Wind (Hai Lali Ken / 祭风): For unnatural deaths, especially love suicides. Guides the souls of the deceased to a paradisiacal “Third Kingdom of the Jade Dragon” rather than the ordinary ancestral realm, while seeking to prevent further tragedies.
• Rites for Dongba Shilo (the religion’s founder) and other special cases.

5. Divination and Other Rites
Divination determines causes of misfortune or auspicious timing. Additional ceremonies address victory, craftsmen, specific deities, or community crises.

Typical Ritual Structure and Performance

Most ceremonies follow a flexible but recognizable sequence: purification of the space and participants → inviting and installing deities → offerings and praise (chanting from manuscripts) → petitioning or confronting negative forces (exorcism, confession, or negotiation) → sending off the spirits.

Performance elements include rhythmic chanting (with specific melodies), ritual dancing (mimicking animals, deities, or combat), the use of bells, swords, drums, and the creation of temporary altars and dough figures. Multiple Dongbas may collaborate on larger events. Participants often include the sponsoring family or community.

Modern Context

Traditional full-scale rituals declined sharply after 1949 and during the Cultural Revolution but experienced partial revival from the 1980s onward, often framed as cultural heritage. Simplified demonstrations occur at cultural sites, tourist venues, and festivals (e.g., Sanduo Festival). Authentic traditional performances continue in some villages and through research institutes, though fully trained traditional Dongbas are few. The rituals remain a living expression of Naxi ecological ethics, ancestral memory, and the ideal of balanced coexistence with the spirit world.

In essence, Dongba rituals are not merely symbolic performances—they are practical technologies for maintaining cosmic and social order, guided by the pictographic scriptures and the expertise of the priests.

Dongba pictographic script (Naxi: ser jel lv jel or ss dgyu / lv dgyu, meaning “wood records” or “stone records”; Chinese: 东巴文 Dōngbā wén) is the unique writing system of the Naxi people of southwestern China, primarily used by Dongba priests for recording religious texts. It is widely regarded as one of the world’s last living pictographic (or semi-pictographic/logographic) scripts and was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2003 as part of the Ancient Naxi Dongba Literature Manuscripts.

Nature and Characteristics

Dongba script is primarily pictographic and ideographic, with strong visual resemblance to the things it represents—mountains look like mountains, people like stylized human figures, animals like simplified drawings of animals. It occupies a transitional stage between pure picture-writing and a full writing system.

Approximate inventory: around 1,000–1,400 basic glyphs (estimates vary; some dictionaries list over 2,000–3,000 including variants and compounds). New glyphs can still be coined.

Writing direction: left to right, usually in horizontal rows (sometimes arranged in blocks corresponding to phrases or sentences).

Materials: traditionally written with bamboo pens and ink (often soot-based) on handmade Dongba paper.

Function: largely mnemonic. Manuscripts do not fully transcribe spoken Naxi word-for-word. A single glyph or cluster often prompts an entire phrase, sentence, or longer oral passage that the trained Dongba recites from memory. Different priests may interpret the same glyphs with slight variations.

It can also function logographically (representing words/morphemes) and uses rebus principles (homophones) for abstract concepts. For example, a picture of eyes can stand for “fate” because the words sound similar. Inversion, added lines, dots, or color modifications alter meaning (e.g., upside-down for negation; missing pupils for a dead animal).

There is a complementary phonetic syllabary called Geba (哥巴文), which is more purely sound-based and sometimes mixed with Dongba glyphs for clarification.

Origins and History

Traditional accounts attribute the script’s creation to the legendary founder of the Dongba religion, Dongba Shilo (linked to the Tibetan Bon figure Tonpa Shenrab), or to a 13th-century Naxi king (Moubao Azong). Historical evidence places its use at least as early as the Tang dynasty (7th century), with wider adoption by the Song period (10th century). Some scholars suggest deeper roots. It developed mainly for ritual purposes among Dongba priests and was transmitted within priestly lineages (often father to son).

The script was never a widespread everyday literacy tool for the general Naxi population. Its primary role was religious: recording myths, cosmologies, genealogies, ritual instructions, and encyclopedic knowledge of Naxi life (astronomy, medicine, customs, etc.).

Manuscripts and Content

Tens of thousands of Dongba manuscripts exist (estimates of 20,000+ volumes historically). They cover roughly 1,000 ritual categories and form an extraordinarily rich corpus—creation epics, migration stories, funerary guides (including the famous long “Road to Heaven” scrolls), exorcisms, nature-spirit propitiations, and more. Many manuscripts are illustrated with vivid drawings of deities, animals, and ritual scenes that blur the line between writing and art.

Major collections are held in Lijiang (Dongba Culture Research Institute), other Chinese institutions, and Western libraries (notably due to collectors such as Joseph Rock and others in the early 20th century).

Modern Status and Revival

The script nearly disappeared during mid-20th-century upheavals. Since the 1980s reform era, efforts at documentation, standardization, education, and cultural tourism have increased. It appears on signs, souvenirs, and art in Lijiang, and workshops teach basic writing. However, fully fluent traditional readers remain few (mostly older Dongbas). Unicode encoding efforts are ongoing to support digital use. While revitalization projects aim to expand its practical applications, it remains primarily a cultural and ritual heritage rather than a mass literacy system.

Distinctive Features and Significance

Dongba script stands out for its pictorial vividness, flexibility, and direct connection to oral performance and ritual power. A glyph is not just a sign—it participates in the spiritual efficacy of the ceremony. Scholars often compare it to early stages of Chinese writing (oracle-bone script) or other ancient pictographic systems, while noting its unique living continuity.

It serves as both a practical mnemonic tool for Dongba priests and a profound cultural archive, preserving Naxi cosmology, history, and worldview in a form that remains partially readable by living tradition-bearers.

Mosuo matrilineal society refers to the traditional social organization of the Mosuo (also called Moso, Na, or Nari), a small ethnic group of roughly 40,000 people living primarily around Lugu Lake on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in southwestern China. Officially classified under the Naxi nationality in Yunnan (and sometimes as Mongol in Sichuan), the Mosuo are closely related to the Naxi but are best known for maintaining one of the world’s most distinctive and enduring matrilineal systems. They are often popularly called China’s “Kingdom of Women” or “Kingdom of Daughters.”

Core Features: Matrilineal, Not Strictly Matriarchal

The system is matrilineal (descent, inheritance, and household membership traced through the female line) and matrifocal (centered on mothers and maternal relatives). It is not a pure matriarchy in which women monopolize all political power. Women typically head households and control domestic resources and inheritance, while men often handle external affairs, heavy labor, and certain public or political roles. Decision-making within the household is frequently collective among adult members.

Key principles include:

• Children belong to the mother’s household and take her family identity.
• Property, land, and houses are held collectively by the maternal household and passed primarily through daughters.
• Both sons and daughters ideally remain in their natal (mother’s) home for life (natalocal or duolocal residence).

Household Structure

Mosuo live in large extended matrilineal households (yi-de or awo), often spanning three or more generations and including 10–20 or more people: a grandmother, her sisters and brothers, her daughters and their children, and her sons (maternal uncles). The senior woman (often the grandmother) or a capable adult woman serves as household head (dabu or ddabbu). She manages daily affairs, finances, and resources, though important decisions involve consultation with adult siblings (especially brothers).

Maternal uncles play a major role in raising and disciplining the children of their sisters—frequently more so than biological fathers. Sisters’ children are treated as one’s own. There is little distinction between “own” children and nieces/nephews within the maternal line. Households practice communal sharing of resources, labor, and childcare.

“Walking Marriage” (Tisese / Sese / Zouhun)

The signature practice is walking marriage (Mosuo: tisese, literally “going back and forth”; Chinese: zouhun). After a coming-of-age ceremony around age 13, young people may form romantic/sexual relationships (axia or azhu).

• Partners do not cohabit, share property, or form a joint economic unit.
• The man visits the woman’s private room (often called a “flower room”) at night by mutual invitation and returns to his own maternal home at dawn.
• Relationships can be short- or long-term, serial, or concurrent; both partners are free to end them simply by ceasing visits, with little social stigma.
• Children born of these unions belong entirely to the mother’s household. The biological father may acknowledge the child (e.g., with gifts at the first full month) and maintain a friendly relationship, but he has no formal parental rights or primary responsibilities. Maternal uncles fulfill the main male caregiving role.

Walking marriages involve no bride-price, formal contract, or lifelong obligation. They emphasize mutual affection and personal freedom while preserving the integrity and continuity of the matrilineal household. Formal co-residential marriage exists in some cases (especially when a household needs a particular gender balance) but is secondary to the traditional system.

Gender Roles and Daily Life

• Women: Manage the household, agriculture, finances, and child-rearing; hold high domestic status and inheritance rights. A household without daughters is traditionally seen as endangered.
• Men: Contribute labor (farming, building, fishing, herding, historically long-distance trade), support their maternal household (nieces and nephews), and handle certain external or ritual duties. They enjoy significant personal autonomy in relationships.

The system is often described as producing low rates of domestic conflict over marriage, divorce, or inheritance, with strong intergenerational support and few orphans or abandoned elderly in traditional settings.

Historical and Cultural Context

The matrilineal system appears long-established in the Yongning basin area (with possible transitions or variations in more mountainous zones such as Labai, where some groups practice patriliny). It has been influenced by Tibetan Buddhism (common among Mosuo) and local ecology. Chinese state policies, modernization, education, and especially tourism around Lugu Lake since the 1980s–1990s have brought significant change: some young people adopt conventional marriage or leave for cities, tourism commercializes aspects of the culture, and media often exoticizes or misrepresents “walking marriage” as pure promiscuity.

Despite pressures, the core matrilineal household and walking-marriage practices persist among a substantial portion of the population, particularly in more traditional villages.

Distinctions and Clarifications

• It is matrilineal (female-line descent and inheritance) rather than fully matriarchal.
• Biological fathers are usually known and may maintain ties; the system does not typically involve anonymous or unknown paternity as a norm.
• Men are not marginalized; they retain important roles within their maternal families and in society.

The Mosuo system offers a rare living example of large-scale matrilineal organization with non-co-residential partnerships, highlighting alternative ways of structuring kinship, parenting, property, and gender relations.

Naxi (Nakhi) ethnic history traces a people of Tibeto-Burman (Sino-Tibetan) linguistic affiliation who primarily inhabit northwestern Yunnan (especially the Lijiang region), with smaller communities in southwestern Sichuan and southeastern Tibet. The official Chinese ethnic classification “Naxi” was formalized in 1954, encompassing groups that historically used various self-names (such as Naxi, Na, Nari/Na-ri, Nahan) and external designations like “Moxie,” “Mosha,” or “Mosuo.” Population is roughly 300,000–320,000.

Origins and Early Migration

Most scholars link the Naxi to the ancient Qiang (proto-Qiang) peoples of the northwestern Chinese highlands (Yellow River–Huangshui / Hehuang region in present-day Gansu and Qinghai). These nomadic or semi-nomadic groups began southward migrations centuries before the Common Era, following river valleys along the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau (the “ethnic corridor”).

Key stages:

• South to the upper Min River, then southwest into the Yalong River basin in western Sichuan.
• Further west and south to the upper Jinsha (Yangtze) River area.
• Settlement in the fertile Lijiang and Baisha basins by the early centuries CE (some accounts place this around the 1st–3rd centuries or earlier).

Archaeological evidence supports long-term presence: “Lijiang Man” fossils (~100,000 years old) indicate early human activity in the basin, while stone-cist tombs and other sites show cultural layers. Many researchers favor a multi-origin model: southward-migrating Qiang groups fused with local indigenous populations (and later absorbed influences from neighboring groups such as Bai, Tibetan, Yi, and Pumi). Some local traditions and alternative theories emphasize stronger indigenous or other eastern components, but the Qiang-migration framework remains dominant.

Historical Chinese records refer to related groups as “Maoniu Yi” (Han dynasty), “Mosha Yi” (Jin), and “Moxie” or “Moxie Man” (Tang onward).

Medieval Period: Kingdoms and Consolidation

From the 6th–13th centuries, Naxi ancestors lived under the successive influence of the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms (centered near Erhai Lake). One Naxi-related polity, the Yuexi Zhao (越析诏), was among the “Six Zhaos” of the Nanzhao era but was eventually absorbed.

By the 10th–13th centuries, agriculture increasingly replaced pastoralism as the economic base in the Lijiang area. Society developed hierarchical structures with emerging local elites.

Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties: The Mu Chieftains

A major turning point came with the Mongol conquest. In 1253, Kublai Khan’s forces moved through the region en route to conquering the Dali Kingdom. Local Naxi leaders submitted, and the Yuan dynasty established Lijiang Prefecture (1278). A local chieftain (ancestor of the Mu line) was appointed hereditary tusi (native official).

Under the Ming dynasty (especially after 1382), the Mu family rose to prominence. The Hongwu Emperor granted the Chinese surname “Mu” (木) to the leader Ajia Ade (thereafter Mu De). The Mu tusi ruled Lijiang as hereditary chieftains for centuries, collecting taxes and tribute for the imperial court while expanding influence northward into Tibetan borderlands (reaching areas of present-day Deqin, Batang, and Markam at their height). They promoted agriculture, handicrafts, trade along the Tea Horse Road, and cultural synthesis—patronizing Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese Confucian learning, and local Dongba traditions. Baisha served as an early political and ritual center; Lijiang Old Town later flourished.

The Mu era (Yuan–early Qing) is often viewed as a golden age of Naxi political autonomy and cultural flourishing under imperial suzerainty.

In 1723, the Qing Yongzheng Emperor implemented the gaitu guiliu policy (“replacing native chiefs with circulating officials”). Hereditary Mu rule ended; the family retained a lesser administrative title but lost real power. Direct Qing administration accelerated Han Chinese cultural and economic influence, land commodification, and social change.

Modern Era

In the Republican period and after 1949, the Naxi were integrated into the modern Chinese state. The 1954 ethnic identification confirmed the unified “Naxi” nationality. Land reform, collectivization, and the Cultural Revolution disrupted traditional practices (including Dongba religion), but post-1978 reforms brought cultural revival, tourism centered on Lijiang Old Town (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997), and renewed interest in Dongba heritage.

Today the Naxi maintain a distinct identity while participating fully in broader Chinese society. Lijiang remains their cultural heartland, known for its architecture, Naxi ancient music, Dongba culture, and the living memory of Mu rule and ancestral migration myths preserved in Dongba scriptures.

Key Themes in Naxi Historical Memory

Dongba texts emphasize ancestral migrations from the north, the unity of related groups, and the half-brother relationship between humans and nature spirits—reflecting both historical movement and ecological worldview. The Mu family’s genealogies blend legendary origins with documented service to successive dynasties.

The Naxi story is one of adaptation: from highland pastoralists to settled agriculturalists and traders at a cultural crossroads between Chinese, Tibetan, and Southeast Asian influences, while preserving a unique indigenous religious and literary tradition.

Naxi Dongba culture is the traditional religious, literary, artistic, and philosophical system of the Naxi (Nakhi) people, primarily concentrated in the Lijiang area of northwestern Yunnan, China (with communities also in neighboring Sichuan and Tibet border regions). It is named after the Dongba (东巴; Naxi: dto-mba), the ritual specialists or “wise men/priests” who preserve and transmit it.

Dongba culture is one of the most distinctive living indigenous traditions in China. Its ancient manuscripts were inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2003.

Core Beliefs and Worldview

Dongba religion is fundamentally animistic and polytheistic, centered on the idea that all things—mountains, rivers, trees, animals, rocks, and natural forces—possess spirits. A key myth holds that humans and Nature are half-brothers (sharing the same father but different mothers). Harmony between people and the natural/spiritual world is essential; imbalance brings illness, disaster, or misfortune.

There are thousands of spirits and deities in the pantheon (over 2,400 mentioned in scriptures). Major categories include nature gods (especially serpent-like shu or naga spirits associated with land and water), ancestral gods, protector deities, and a complex hierarchy influenced by Tibetan Bon religion. Important rituals often address propitiating these spirits, expelling demons, healing, funerals, and major life events.

The religion blends indigenous Naxi practices with strong influences from Tibetan Bon (pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion), plus elements of Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese Taoism, and Confucianism, reflecting Lijiang’s historical position as a cultural crossroads.

The Dongba Priests

Dongbas are traditionally male ritual specialists whose knowledge is learned (often passed patrilineally within families, though later apprenticeship expanded).

They serve as intermediaries between humans, gods, and spirits—conducting ceremonies, divination, healing, and reciting sacred texts.

Training involves mastering complex rituals, chanting, dancing, painting, and reading the script; a skilled “great Dongba” can perform dozens of major ceremonies.

They are distinguished from sani (or sanii), another type of Naxi ritual specialist more oriented toward shamanic possession.

Rituals range from short exorcisms to multi-day ceremonies (e.g., funerals, heaven-worship/tian ceremonies, or propitiating nature spirits). Performances involve chanting from scriptures, ritual dancing, music, offerings, and the use of painted wooden tablets, cards, and masks.

Dongba Script and Literature

The Dongba script (Naxi: sə-ʨə lv-ʨə, meaning “marks on wood and stone”) is a pictographic writing system—often called the world’s only living hieroglyphic/pictographic script still in use for religious purposes. It consists of roughly 1,000–1,400 symbols depicting gods, animals, plants, objects, and actions.

Used almost exclusively by Dongbas to record ritual texts (not everyday writing).

There is also a secondary syllabic script called Geba.

More than 30,000 manuscript volumes exist (about 1,000 types/ritual categories), covering mythology, cosmology, history, genealogy, astronomy, medicine, ethics, and daily life. They form an encyclopedic record of traditional Naxi society.

Famous literary works include creation epics, migration stories, and the long “Road to Heaven” (or Sacred Road) painting scroll used in funerals.

Arts and Practices

Dongba culture is highly artistic and performative:

Painting**: Vibrant ritual paintings on paper, wood, or long scrolls (e.g., the famous multi-meter “Sacred Road to Heaven” depicting the afterlife journey).

Dance and music**: Ritual dances (often mimicking animals or deities) and chanting accompany ceremonies.

Crafts**: Wooden tablets, masks, paper cuttings, and offerings made for rituals.

Other elements include traditional Naxi music (distinct from Dongba ritual music), architecture, clothing, and festivals such as the important annual Heaven-worship ceremony.

History and Modern Status

Origins trace to ancient Qiang-related peoples who migrated southward. The system developed over centuries, absorbing Bon influences (legend credits a Bon shaman named Dongba Shilo/Tonpa Shenrab). It flourished until the mid-20th century.

After 1949, and especially during the Cultural Revolution, practices were heavily suppressed. Many manuscripts were lost or scattered (large collections exist overseas). Since the 1980s reform era, there has been a revival under the broader label “Dongba culture” (often framed more as cultural heritage than active religion). Research institutes, museums, and tourism have helped preserve it, though traditional practicing Dongbas remain few, especially fully trained ones from the pre-1949 generation. Transmission continues in some villages and through cultural programs.

Experiencing Dongba Culture in Lijiang

Dongba Culture Research Institute / Museum** (often associated with Black Dragon Pool / Jade Spring Park) — key site for manuscripts, exhibitions, and research.

Other places: Baisha Old Town (historical Naxi center with frescoes), Shuhe or remote villages, Dongba paper workshops, and cultural performances.

Look for ritual demonstrations, pictograph workshops, or traditional music.

Dongba culture remains a living (if transformed) expression of Naxi identity, emphasizing harmony with nature, ancestral memory, and a unique pictorial language that continues to fascinate scholars and visitors.

Blue Moon Valley, Lijiang 蓝月谷

Spruce Meadow (云杉坪 / Yúnshānpíng) is a stunning alpine meadow on the eastern slope of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yulong Snow Mountain), about 25 km north of Lijiang Old Town in Yunnan, China.

Here are the key highlights:

What It Is

A vast high-altitude meadow at ~3,240 meters, ringed by ancient spruce forests with snow-capped peaks as the backdrop.

In the Naxi language it’s called “You Wu Ge” (游午阁), meaning “land of love and death” — historically regarded as a sacred place where lovers would meet their end for love.

Getting There

From Lijiang Old Town, take the 101 bus (雪山专线) from Zhongyi Market for about ¥15, or a taxi for ~¥80–100.

Inside the park, you’ll ride a shuttle bus, then take the Spruce Meadow cable car (about 8 minutes) up to the meadow.

Tickets (2026)

Park entry fee: ¥100

Spruce Meadow cable car + shuttle bus: ¥60

Tickets can be booked in advance via the “丽江旅游集团” WeChat mini-program.

What to Do

Walk the 1.5 km wooden boardwalk through the meadow and surrounding spruce forest — the full loop takes about 45 minutes.

Take photos with the snow mountain, forest, and meadow layered behind you — especially beautiful in the soft morning light before 9 AM.

It’s often paired with Blue Moon Valley (蓝月谷) for a relaxed day trip, as it’s less crowded than the main glacier park.

Tips

Altitude is moderate (3,240 m), so altitude sickness is usually mild, but walk slowly and bring snacks/water.

UV is strong — bring sunscreen, sunglasses, and a hat.

Best light for photos is early morning; it gets busier after 10 AM.

If you’re planning a visit, it’s a great choice for a more relaxed, scenic experience compared to the high-altitude Glacier Park, with fairy-tale-like forest and meadow views.