10 September 2024
The first attraction we visited in Lijiang was the Black Dragon Pool (黑龙潭), located 1 km north of Lijiang Old Town. This park is best known as the place to view and photograph the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and its reflection in the water of the pool. As an avid photographer, I was looking forward to the visit.
Prior to entering the park, our guide in Lijiang took us into the Lijiang Museum which is next to the northwest gate of park.
The museum is free to enter and it was showcasing the Naxi Dongba Cultural Exhibition during our visit. It was a good place for the guide to quickly introduce us to the lives and history of the Naxi people and their Dongba culture.
Dongba is a form of shamanism that is practiced by the Naxi people. The term Dongba also refers to priests (shamans) of the Naxi people and who are masters of traditional culture, literature and Dongba symbols. The museum has more than 12,000 rare Dongba relics including unearthed cultural relics, paintings and calligraphy of all ages, Dongba scriptures and religious articles.
I enjoyed the sections on Naxi language which is based on pictograms or hieroglyphics. They are still in use! The 1,300 Dongba characters are the only living primitive pictographs in the world. There are good examples and explanations of the Dongba pictogram language and characters, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics. There are also comparisons of the Dongba hieroglyphics with ancient Mayan and Babylonians hieroglyphics.
The section describing the architectural style of the Lijiang traditional buildings found in the Old City was also quite interesting. These are quite similar to those we saw in Dali.
Our guide also explained how a Naxi chieftain Ajia Ade 阿甲阿得 (1311-90) swore allegiance to the Ming emperor. In return, Emperor Hongwu 洪武 (1328-97) granted him the Chinese name Mu De (木得) and appointed him the magistrate of Lijiang. From then on, the Mu family retained the position of native hereditary rulers and became the most powerful ruling family in the Lijiang area. One of the attractions within the Lijiang ancient town is the 木府 (Mu Fu) or Mu’s Residence. It is the mansion of the Mu family.
I came to the Black Dragon Pool with the expectations of shooting some nice photos of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Instead, we learnt so much about the lives and history of the Naxi people, their Dongba culture and their rulers. Thanks to our local Lijiang guide.
We then walked across to the southern end of the park where there is an observation deck to view the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain reflected in the pool. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and the mountain was shrouded in clouds. To make matters worse, it started to rain.
I was a bit disappointed that we missed the opportunity to take an epic picture of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain at this attraction.
Fortunately, the rain did not last long and we could take a few decent photos of the Moon Embracing Pavilion and the 5 Arch Bridge reflected in the pool.
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