[2024 Dali Attraction] Travel Guide for Dali Prefecture Museum (Updated Oct)
Museums
Address:
No. 8 South Luohe Road, Dali City, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture
Opening times:
Opens at 09:00-17:00(Admission ends at 16:30)Open
Recommended sightseeing time:
1-2 hours
Phone:
0872-2124851
Walk into the museum to trace the historical footprints of the two ancient kingdoms of Nanzhao and Dali
The Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture Museum is located at No. 8 Erhe South Road, Xiaguan, Dali City. It is a national second-class museum with a total of 16,534 items (sets) in its collection, including 468 precious cultural relics (sets). Dali is one of the birthplaces of Yunnan culture and one of the earliest developed areas in the southwest of the motherland. Dali has a civilization history of more than 4,000 years. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the local dynasties of Nanzhao and Dali were established successively, and it was also the hub of the Southern Silk Road since the Han and Tang dynasties. Dali's splendid and long history, rich stories from the Tang frontier, thousand-year-old Yunnan, Nanzhao Kingdom to the Ancient Tea Horse Road, and the unique ethnic cultural customs of the Bai people are unforgettable.
The museum adopts a garden courtyard style of architecture that imitates the Tang style and incorporates the Bai people's "three rooms and one screen wall" and "four courtyards and five patios" residential buildings. The museum's basic exhibitions include the General History of Dali, Bronze Culture, Pottery Art, Bai Culture, Benzhu Culture, Nanzhao Kingdom Buddhist Art, and Marble Culture. The most regionally and ethnically distinctive exhibition is the Benzhu Culture Exhibition. Benzhu worship is a unique religious belief of the Bai people, originating from primitive society's nature worship, totem worship, and ghost worship, and formed during the Nanzhao period. The current temporary exhibition is the Chuxiong Historical and Cultural Exhibition.
In addition to the Dali Prefecture Museum, Dali also has the Dali City Museum (county-level city) located in the ancient city Du Wenxiu's Commander's Mansion, do not confuse the two. Dali has a long history and a developed cultural tourism industry, with many distinctive museums and bookstores for visitors to explore, such as the Dali Photography Museum (in the Dali Bed Sheet Factory Art Zone), Jiangzhi Collection - Dali Folk Art Center (Xizhou Sifang Street), Jiashe Collection Xizhou Agricultural Culture Art Museum (Xizhou Sifang Street), Cangshan Natural Image Museum (Yinqiao Town Taiwan Village), Dali Rural Film History Museum (No. 459 Fuxing Road), Dali Shuanglang Farmers' Painting Society (Shuanglang Huoshan Village 043 Township Road), Puzhen Bai Tie-dye Museum (Xizhou Zhou Village Cultural and Sports Activity Square), National Gazetteer Museum - Dali Stone Museum (B1, Longquan Square, South Gate of the Ancient City), Dali Prefecture Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum (Qunyi Hall), Cangshan World Geopark Museum (Dali Tianlong Babu Film City), Xiaguan Tuocha Museum (Yinqiao Town), etc.
Additionally, Dali's red tourism resources are also very rich. The Long March of the Second and Sixth Corps of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army passed through Dali, with Long March Memorial Halls, meeting sites, battle sites, and martyrs' memorial cemeteries available for patriotic education.
The Dali Prefecture Museum is located by the west side of Erhai Lake in Xiaguan, Dali City. It is in the urban area of Dali, with convenient transportation in front of the museum, close to the Erhai Lake cruise terminal and the popular Xing Sheng Bridge. It is very convenient for dining and shopping nearby.
BRIELLA BUSH
To quickly understand Dali, start with the Dali State Museum
Dali region has a civilization history of over 4,000 years. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the local dynasties of Nanzhao and Dali Kingdom were successively established here, and it was also a hub of the Southern Silk Road since the Han and Tang dynasties. The people of various ethnic groups in Dali, with the Bai people as the autonomous ethnic group, have created their own civilization history under the nourishment of the advanced culture of the Central Plains since ancient times. The cultural accumulation is very rich, and up to now, a total of 266 national, provincial, and county-level key cultural relics protection units have been announced, making it the autonomous state with the most cultural relics and historical sites among the 30 minority autonomous states in the country, and it is also a key area for archaeological excavations and research at the national and provincial levels.
The Dali State Museum focuses on the historical relics of the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdom periods. It is a local comprehensive museum with bronze, ceramics, and stone carving art as the main body, and featuring the ethnic folklore of the Bai people; it is the central institution of the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture engaged in cultural relics investigation, excavation, collection, exhibition, and research. Although the museum has been established for just over 10 years, its collection has already begun to take shape, with more than 7,000 pieces of historical relics, ethnic relics, revolutionary relics, and other materials and fine Dali marble products. Many of them are unique treasures of the museum, such as the Dali bronze drums, chime bells, cast stone molds, and copper axes with horse patterns from the Warring States period, water field models, pottery houses, pottery figures, pottery horses, and various inscribed utensils from the Western Han to the Jin dynasty, Buddhist statues of different materials such as Avalokitesvara, Maitreya, and Heavenly Kings and warriors from the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdom periods, as well as the Vajra Pestle, pagoda models, Dali Kingdom manuscript scrolls, Yuan and Ming dynasty porcelain, and fine natural Dali marble paintings such as 'Peacock Opening Screen' and 'The Birth of a Beautiful Monkey'. The exhibition is arranged in 12 exhibition halls, of which 8 are permanent exhibition halls, including 'Bronze Relics Exhibition', 'Nanzhao Dali Kingdom Relics Exhibition', 'Nanzhao Dali Kingdom Stone Carving Art Exhibition', 'Nanzhao Dali Kingdom Painting Art Relics Exhibition', 'Ceramics Exhibition', 'Dali Marble Fine Products Exhibition', 'Dali Modern Revolutionary History Exhibition', 'Bai Ethnic Folklore Exhibition', etc. These displays showcase the rich and unique historical culture of Dali.
Whimsical Emma~Simmons41
Dali State Museum + Xingsheng Bridge, citywalk first choice
Dali State Museum, Xingsheng Bridge, citywalk first choice 👍😻
Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture Museum (located on Erhe South Road, Xiaxia, it's a different place from the city museum in Dali ancient city)
⏰Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 9:00-17:00, stop admission at 16:30, closed on Monday
🎫Tickets: Free for visit!
🏃♀️Tour duration: about 1 hour
🪴Route: A total of 14 exhibition halls + a garden in the middle, there are guides in the exhibition halls, you can visit one by one, including Dali general history, bronze culture, ceramic art, Nanzhao Dali Buddhist art, marble culture, historical figures, Bai culture, Ben master culture, etc.
👀After the visit, you can also take a look at the nearby Xingsheng Bridge, located on the Er River.