Dali: The Buddhist Kingdom of the Southwest

High in the mountains of Yunnan Province, beside the shimmering waters of Erhai Lake, stands the ancient city of Dali. From the eighth to the thirteenth centuries, Dali was the capital of the Dali Kingdom, a Buddhist state that dominated southwestern China while the great dynasties of the north rose and fell. The Dali Kingdom was one of the most devoutly Buddhist societies in Chinese history, a place where pagodas pierced the clouds, kings retired to monasteries, and the traditions of India, Tibet, and China merged into a unique civilization.

The Founding of the Dali Kingdom

The Dali Kingdom was founded in 937 CE by Duan Siping, a military governor who overthrew the previous Nanzhao kingdom. The Duan clan would rule Dali for over three centuries, passing the throne through twenty-two generations — one of the longest-reigning dynasties in Chinese history. The capital was established at present-day Dali old town, at the foot of the Cangshan Mountains on the western shore of Erhai Lake.

The kingdom's territory covered most of modern Yunnan, parts of Sichuan and Guizhou, and extended into Myanmar and Laos. Despite its size, Dali maintained a generally peaceful relationship with its powerful northern neighbors — the Song dynasty — to whom it paid nominal tribute while maintaining full internal autonomy. The Song valued Dali as a source of horses, medicine, and Buddhist manuscripts.

Buddhist Culture and the Three Pagodas

The Dali Kingdom was fervently Buddhist, following a form of Esoteric Buddhism that blended Indian, Tibetan, and indigenous elements. The state religion was so central that nine of the twenty-two Dali kings are recorded to have abdicated to become monks, spending their final years in meditation and study. This tradition of kings renouncing the world for the monastery is almost without parallel in Chinese history.

The most iconic monuments of the Dali Kingdom are the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple. Construction of the main pagoda began in 824 CE during the Nanzhao period and was completed in the early Dali period. The three pagodas — one square sixteen-story pagoda of sixty-nine meters flanked by two octagonal ten-story pagodas of forty-two meters — have survived earthquakes, wars, and centuries of weather to become the symbol of Dali.

The Kingdom's Relations with Tibet and Southeast Asia

Dali's location on the trade routes between China, Tibet, and Southeast Asia made it a crossroads of cultures. Tibetan Buddhism influenced Dali's religious practices, while Southeast Asian artistic traditions shaped its sculpture and painting. The kingdom maintained diplomatic relations with the Pala Empire of India, the Pagan Kingdom of Myanmar, and the Khmer Empire of Cambodia.

The Dali Kingdom was also an important center for the transmission of Buddhism from India to China. Many Buddhist texts that were lost in the north during the Tang persecution of Buddhism survived in Dali's libraries. When the Song dynasty sought to reconstruct lost scriptures, they turned to Dali as a source. The kingdom's role as a Buddhist refuge preserved texts and traditions that would otherwise have been lost.

The Mongol Conquest and the End of Dali

The Dali Kingdom fell to the Mongol Empire in 1253–1254. Kublai Khan, before he became emperor of China, led a campaign across the Tibetan plateau and descended on Dali from the northwest — an invasion route the kingdom had not anticipated. The Dali king, Duan Xingzhi, was defeated and captured, but the Mongols, impressed by Dali's culture, allowed the Duan family to continue as local rulers under Mongol suzerainty.

The Mongol conquest of Dali was a crucial step in the encirclement of the Southern Song. By controlling Yunnan, the Mongols could attack the Song from the southwest while their main forces approached from the north. The fall of Dali thus contributed to the eventual Mongol conquest of all China.

Dali Under the Ming and Qing

The Ming dynasty abolished the Duan family's rule and brought Yunnan under direct Chinese administration. The Ming rebuilt Dali city with a massive wall and established garrisons to control the region. Many Han Chinese soldiers settled in Yunnan, changing the region's ethnic composition. The distinctive Bai ethnic group, who are the cultural descendants of the Dali kingdom, continued to practice their Buddhist traditions and develop their unique culture.

Under the Qing, Dali declined in political importance but remained a center of Buddhist learning and a hub for the caravan trade between China and Southeast Asia. The city's famous marble — Dali is the source of the Chinese word for marble, dali shi — was quarried and traded across China. The city's traditional architecture, with its white-walled, grey-tiled houses and stone-paved streets, dates largely from this period.

Modern Dali: Tourism and Preservation

Since the 1990s, Dali has become one of China's most popular domestic and international tourist destinations. The old town, with its cobblestone streets, traditional Bai architecture, and relaxed atmosphere, attracts visitors seeking an alternative to China's frantic big cities. Erhai Lake, the Cangshan Mountains, and the Three Pagodas form a scenic ensemble that has been celebrated by poets and painters for centuries.

Modern Dali faces the classic challenges of a historic tourist town: balancing economic development with heritage preservation, managing visitor numbers, and maintaining the authenticity of local culture. The city's status as a symbol of alternative lifestyles — attracting artists, writers, and hippies — has created tensions between different visions of Dali's future. Yet the ancient pagodas still stand, and the Erhai lake still mirrors the Cangshan snow, connecting modern visitors to the Buddhist kingdom that flourished here a thousand years ago.

The Nanzhao Predecessor

Before the Dali Kingdom rose, the same Yunnan heartland was ruled by Nanzhao, a powerful kingdom founded in the eighth century that often warred with Tang China and even allied with Tibet. Nanzhao built the first of the great pagodas at Chongsheng Temple and set the pattern of a centralized, Buddhist-leaning monarchy in the southwest. In 937 the military governor Duan Siping overthrew the declining Nanzhao successor state and founded Dali, taking the region's name rather than a new dynasty. The transition was unusually peaceful, and many local institutions carried over. Understanding Nanzhao matters because it explains how Yunnan became a distinct political world long before Dali, and why the southwest developed its own court culture at the crossing of Chinese, Tibetan, and Southeast Asian influences.

Dali as a Preserver of Buddhist Texts

A remarkable service of the Dali Kingdom was the safekeeping of Buddhist scripture. When the Tang court persecuted Buddhism in the mid-ninth century, many texts and teacher lineages were lost in the north. Dali, far from the center and devoted to Esoteric Buddhism, became a refuge where manuscripts and rituals survived. Centuries later, when the Song dynasty sought to reconstruct lost scriptures, it turned to Yunnan as a source, and Dali monks and merchants carried texts back into the Chinese heartland. The kingdom also kept ties with the Pala Empire of India, Pagan in Myanmar, and the Khmer court, sitting on a southern transmission route of the faith. In this way Dali was less a remote edge than a library of the Buddhist world, preserving and returning what larger empires had shed.