Home of the ancient Dongba culture

Lijiang	Lijiang

The ancient city of Lijiang is located at the foot of the snow-capped Yulong Mountains, which is in the southeastern part of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau known as the "roof of the world" and the northwestern part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The ancient city is formed of three separate ancient towns, namely, Baisha, Shuhe, and Dayan. It is called the "soul of Lijiang" because the city itself is located where the Han, Tibetan, Nanzhao and Naxi cultures converge and has been a caretaker of civilization for over 1,O00 years. The ancient city of Lijiang is by no means a fossil. It is alive and full of vigor with its "poetic style of living", its aesthetic norms, its simple way of life, and its classic art of city construction.
 the Lijiang Ancient City, which is perfectly adapted to the uneven topography of this key commercial and strategic site, has retained a historic townscape of high quality and authenticity. Its architecture is noteworthy for the blending of elements from several cultures that have come together over many centuries. Lijiang also possesses an ancient water-supply system of great complexity and ingenuity that still functions effectively today. Lijiang City is surrounded by Lion Mountain in the west and by Elephant and Golden Row Mountains in the north. These mountains in the northwest shelter it from the cold wind. In the southeast there are fertile fields, which are dozens of kilometers long. The city is favored with plentiful sunlight, an east wind and clear spring water, which flows in three streams and reaches every family. The streets are paved with the local stone slabs, which do not get muddy in the rainy season and are free of dust in the dry season. Many stone bridges and arches in the city were built during the Ming and Qing dynasties and orderly roads and lanes extend to four directions from the central square. Residential houses are made of timber; most have a screen wall in front and some have a quadruple courtyard. Local people plant flowers in them.

The ancient traditional culture of the Naxi ethnic group is the Dongba culture, which is based on the Dongba religion. Believers practice witchcraft, are skilled in medicine and the culture is passed on through literature and art.The Dongba language has more than 1,300 separate words, which are written in primitive pictographic characters. There are more than 1,400 types of Dongba scriptures written in these characters and they take up 20,000 volumes. The scriptures cover religion, philosophy, history, local customs, literature, art, astronomy, medicine, the calendar, geography, flora, fauna, dancing, painting and music.

 Lijiang Prefecture is home to people of more than 2O minority ethnic groups, the bulk of whom are the Naxi. Each of these ethnic groups has a unique culture and history, which match into the beauty of the land, setting an example of a harmonious relationship between man and nature. Known as the "soul of Lijiang", the city formed a part of the cultural heritage of China presented by the Naxi cultures. The most typical example are the Dongba ("necromancer" or "sutra reader") culture and ancient Naxi music. The rich Dongba culture includes pictographic records, drawings on different sorts of materials, music, dance, sacrificial rituals and folk customs.Naxi music, called the Dongjing (Cave Sutra) music of Lijiang, is a combination of the quintessence of the ancient Naxi music with the Confucian and Daoist musical traditions of the Han people. It is considered a "living fossil of the ancient music of China".