Here’s a woodblock-printed map of Yunnan province’s Jizu Shan (雞足山) – Chickenfoot Mountain – which peaks at 3240m east of Erhai Lake and the old walled town of Dali. According to the artist Huang Xiangjian, who painted a colour landscape scroll of the mountain in 1656, Jizu Shan got its name because “it is formed with three ridges in front …
Warlords and Rebellions: Dali, 1877
On his 1877 journey across southwestern China with Gill, Mesny spent about ten days at the historic town of Dali. It’s in a beautiful location in western Yunnan, on a richly farmed plain between the dark green Cang Shan range to the west and “Ear-Shaped” Er Hai Lake to the east, but they arrived in pouring rain to find the …
Pure Land Woodblock
I bought this woodblock – the actual block, not a print – at a market in Dali, Yunnan. The title is “A Prayer for Rebirth in the Pure Land”, mantra for a popular Mahayana Buddhist sect. Prints would have been used in their thousands at local folk festivals. Centre top is Buddha seated on a lotus, flanked by strings of silver and gold …