Yunnan is geographically located in the remote southwest, so there has been a misunderstanding of it since ancient times and that it is a "barbarian land". In fact, this is not the case. Although the culture here is small, it has wonderful things that cannot be ignored.

Yunnan's sky and sky are one color, and the clear and clean sense of nature makes people ignore the "ethnic minority tribal culture" here. Yunnan has a ethnic minority tribal culture that is different from the unified Central Plains!

Ethnic minority tribal cultures that came from ancient time and smoke, and cultural relics that have gone through thousands of years of history have gradually withdrawn from the stage under the impact of modern civilization and been shelved by people.

I wonder if anyone still remembers the cultural symbols of various ethnic minority tribes?

Qiang, Pu, Dian, and Lao Xi are all tribes composed of ethnic minorities in Yunnan. Looking at the entire local history of Yunnan, they have a history of more than 2,000 years.

In the history of more than 2,000 years, Nanzhao, which has a history of more than 160 years, and Dali, which has a history of more than 300 years, have the most outstanding and profound histories, and their influence on Yunnan's local history is self-evident.

Therefore, Nanzhao and Dali also became the second and third minority tribes with far-reaching influence on Yunnan after ancient Yunnan.

During the rule of the Nanzhao and Dali tribes, Yunnan's economy and culture flourished unprecedentedly, and many objects with characteristics of the times appeared. They were cultural symbols representing the prosperity of Nanzhao and Dali. Three of them have become cultural relics. The impact of these three cultural relics on Dali cannot be ignored.

All three cultural relics have deep roots with the three pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali. One was built in 824 BC and has a history of thousands of years but still stands tall; the other was once hidden in the spire of the largest of the three pagodas. The replica and wood carving version of one are hidden in the Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall and hung on the right side of the Daxiong Hall of Chongsheng Temple respectively.

These three cultural relics are the pagoda buildings-the Three Pagodas of Dali, the sculptures-the silver-gilded roc and the golden-winged bird of Dali State in the Song Dynasty, and a picture scroll that reflects the Buddhist story and the foreign affairs activities of Dali State during the Dali State period-"Zhang Shengwen Picture Scroll".

Three Pagodas in Dali

The three pagodas in the Chongsheng Temple Three Pagoda Cultural Tourism Zone are both scenic spots and cultural relics with a history of thousands of years.

There are three towers. The three towers were built in different periods. Two of the three towers were small towers with no names. They were built in the Song Dynasty and have strong characteristics of Song Dynasty brick towers. The towers are 42.17 meters high and similar in height and shape. The style and construction method are the same. It is an octagonal hollow brick tower with dense eaves. The tower shape gives people a sense of elegance and agility.

Among the three towers, the large tower is 69.13 meters high and is named "Chihiro Tower"."Xun" was a unit of measuring height in ancient times, so it means that the tower body is very high. It is a typical Tang Dynasty dense eaves brick tower. The shape of the tower gives people a sense of simplicity and solemnity.

The two small pagodas and main pagodas from the Song Dynasty are distributed in an isosceles triangle, with the Chixun Pagoda in front and the two small pagodas in the back, which are symmetrically distributed.

From the front, because it is a looking up perspective, there is no vegetation around the tower body, so the sense of pressure brought by Chihiro Tower is infinitely amplified.

Looking from the back, for a top-down perspective, the two small towers are the first to see, and two-thirds of the tower body is blocked by evergreen vegetation all year round. Only a part of the tower body is exposed between the gaps in the woods. Dali Dam is used as a background, giving people a sense of ethereal and distant life.

In addition to its extremely high ornamental value and historical reference value, according to research, it has been found that it has ultra-high and more advanced construction techniques, and its construction concept is similar to the modern construction concept.

Among the three towers, the tallest tower is nearly 70 meters, and the lowest tower is more than 40 meters. It was built thousands of years ago. At such a high height, there is no foundation. After thousands of years of wind and rain, it does not collapse. It is just a slight tilt of the tower body. This is a miracle in Dali and even the whole country's tower construction project.

The construction and maintenance methods of the three towers gathered the supreme wisdom of the ancient working people. The three towers of Dali have become today's landmark buildings without any controversy.

Peng Golden-Winged Bird

The great roc golden-winged bird, the Buddhist name "Garuda", is a divine bird in the legends of ancient Indian Buddhist culture. It can eat 3000 dragons a day and is one of the "eight dragons" in Buddhist culture.

The full name of the Dapeng Golden-Winged Bird mentioned in this article is "The Silver Gilded Golden-Winged Bird of the Dali Kingdom of the Song Dynasty". It is a statue 18.5 centimeters high and weighs 125 grams. It is also a precious cultural relic that contains the spiritual beliefs of people in ancient Dali.

The Golden-Winged Bird is not only closely related to Dali, but also has a deep connection with the Chihiro Tower, because this statue of the Golden-Winged Bird was discovered on the spire of the Chihiro Tower and was later identified as an artistic treasure cast during the Dali Dynasty in the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, the silver-gilded and beaded golden-winged bird of the Dali State has a golden color. Its head is like an eagle, its claws are sharp, its eyes are glaring, it has a feathered crown on its head, its wings are spread out, and its tail is like a ball of upright burning flames, inlaid with transparent crystal beads. The entire statue has smooth lines, novel and unique shapes. The superb production skills can be seen from the details.

Although the statue of a golden-winged bird inlaid with beads in the Dali State of the Song Dynasty is now on display in the Yunnan Province Museum, the shape of the golden-winged bird can be seen in many places in Dali, because it has been the spiritual belief of Dali people since its appearance.

Dali was prone to floods in ancient times. Dali people, who were deeply influenced by Buddhist culture, believed that the floods were caused by dragons. Therefore, they regarded the golden-winged bird, which specialized in eating dragons and treating floods, as a god and placed it on the top of the Chihiro Tower, praying that Dali would not suffer from the chaos of floods.

Nowadays, Dali is no longer disturbed by floods, but the spirit of the Golden-Winged Bird has been passed down and has been sublimated into the environmental protection concept of protecting the Erhai Lake. This concept is deeply rooted and imprinted in the hearts of everyone in Dali.

"Zhang Shengwen's Picture Scroll"

Zhang Shengwen was a painter of the Dali State of the Song Dynasty. The "Zhang Shengwen Picture Scroll" was written by him. The picture scroll is also called the "Dali State Buddhist Picture Scroll".

This scroll is 1,635.5 centimeters long and 30.4 centimeters wide. There are 774 humanities on the scroll. It is a typical large-scale scroll painting.

The whole painting is divided into four themes: the first picture of the king's ceremony to Buddha (Emperor Lizhen), the second picture of the flow of the Dharma realm (hundreds of Buddhist figures), the third picture of the multi-dimensional and protecting national treasures (scripture written in Sanskrit), and the fourth picture of the kings of the sixteen kingdoms (the scene of kings from sixteen countries surrounding the Dali region paying homage to Dali during the Nanzhao persuasion period).

(Excerpts from Zhang Shengwen's painting)

In addition, the scroll is painted with landscapes such as mountains and rivers, courtyards, as well as animals such as dragons, lions, and elephants. The pen is smooth, the lines are round, the colors are bold, the colors are gorgeous, and the calligraphy is solemn. The whole picture is rich in content and resplendent in colors.

This painting is known as the "Treasure of the Southern Sky" and is also known as the "Double Beauty of the North and the South" together with "The Painting of the River on the Qingming Festival". This painting was originally hidden in the Palace Museum in Taipei, China.

(Excerpts from Zhang Shengwen's painting)

There is a replica of the scroll in the three pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali, and there is also a wood carving version carved with Jianchuan wood carvings in the Daxiong Hall. This is also the longest wood carving scroll in China and is very unique.

"Zhang Shengwen's Picture Scroll" not only has extremely high artistic value, but also has immeasurable historical value. The entire volume reflects Dali's political, economic, and foreign affairs activities at that time, and is a rare precious material for studying the culture of the Dali Kingdom.

(Zhang Shengwen's wooden painting scroll)

Although the three cultural relics, the Three Pagodas, the Golden Dapeng Bird, and the Zhang Shengwen Scroll are all related to the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple, their influence has gone beyond the scope of the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple and has long spread in Dali.

Text typesetting: Reading Yunnan

Yijing

Pictures: Some pictures come from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact and delete them.

Note: Please indicate the source for reprinting the article.