Dali Dairy Diaries

I spent very little time in class before it was time to pack up and start travelling again: CET’s midterm trip to Dali, a city about six hours away from Kunming. Sitting on some very lucrative trade routes, Dali was the capital of the Nanzhao kingdom, a state that successfully repealed several Chinese invasions, resisted Tibetan expansion, and waged wars of its own in modern day Vietnam and Myanmar. After its golden age in the eighth and ninth centuries, Nanzhao fell to dynastic squabbles that led to the establishment of the Dali Kingdom, a somewhat less powerful state that fell to Kublai Khan in 1253. The indomitable spirit of the Yunnanese, however, was not extinguished. During the Panthay Rebellion of 1856-1873, Dali was the capital of a sultanate that for a long time held its own against the Manchu government. Like Nanzhao, it too was defeated, but not until a protracted bloody war that cost perhaps a million lives. (Much of this information comes from websites not blocked by the Chinese government, namely Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wikia: https://www.britannica.com/place/Nanzhao and https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Panthay_Rebellion).

Today, Dali is mostly known for its history, culture (the Bai people who founded Nanzhao still make up around two thirds of the city’s population) and dairy – allegedly popularised by the Mongol invaders. Incidentally, the yoghurt I had on the morning of our ride to Dali claimed to originate from Dali dairy farms.

We arrived in Dali around five o’clock and got to spend the evening as we pleased. I set off as soon as we checked in without really having any plan besides salvaging what was left of the day. After consulting the map application on my phone, I decided to go to Chongsheng Temple, whose three pagodas make it one of the most recognisable attractions of Yunnan. It was a rainy day, but not one of those ugly days with uniformly grey skies and no sunshine. At the northern edge of Erhai lake, the sky had started to clear up, while thick milky clouds lay languidly on the hills above Chongsheng Temple. It made for a wonderful scene. While visiting, I was awed to discover that there was much more to the temple than just the three pagodas: Behind it was a whole complex of massive structures, each housing some of the biggest and most magnificent Buddhist statues I have ever seen (I should perhaps qualify that by saying ‘indoor statues,’ because it’s difficult to compete with the Tian Tan Buddha or the many massive statues of Buddha dotting the landscape of Sri Lanka).

  A very tall pagoda on the way from Kunming to Dali

 Dali's architecture is known for employing white motifs.

 Chongsheng Temple from a distance

 Travelling monks taking pictures at Chongsheng

 The famous three towers of Chongsheng Temple

 Buddhist amulets

 The three towers from behind

Rainy Copper Guanyin Temple (part of the Chongsheng Temple complex)

 The upper part of Chongsheng Temple

 The gate to Chongsheng Monastery

 Ornate wooden beam for striking Buddhist bells

 Maitreya Temple

 Several storey-tall Maitreya 

A display of gifted Buddha statues

In the evening, I briefly popped in and out of Dali’s own town, which was in many ways quite reminiscent of the old town in Lijiang – with the exception that Dali has some very imposing city walls and towers. At a restaurant right outside the southern gate, my phone did not have enough power to be of any use in deciphering the menu, so I asked the waitress to recommend me a vegetable dish. To my surprise, I was given a plate of delicious okra, one of my favourite foods.

 A mosque in Dali

 Dali's old town

 Dali South Gate

 Dali South Gate at night

Dali's old town at night