Zhao passes down Dongba painting in Lijiang

Under the gaze of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in northwest Yunnan’s Lijiang city, 76-year-old Zhao Huang bends over a weathered sheet of Dongba paper, engrossed in his craft.

76-year-old Zhao Huang is engrossed in Dongba painting.

Using a bamboo brush dipped in mineral pigments sourced from the banks of the Jinsha River, he meticulously translates the Naxi ancestors’ reverence for nature and celebration of life into strokes of art.

As a representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage of "Naxi Dongba Painting," Zhao has devoted his life to revitalizing this once-endangered art form.

 

The Dongba paintings created by Zhao Huang

A Dongba painting by Zhao Huang 

Reporting by Li Tiecheng and He Xueyuan (Yunnan Daily); Trans-editing by Wang Shixue