Dongba Culture is the soul of Lijiang ancient town. Dongba culture is an integral part of Naxi culture, referred to as the ancient culture of the ethnic Naxi. It is called so because it is mostly found in the Dongba religion, which is believed to be one thousand years old. It chiefly consists of scriptures, paintings, music, dances, ritual implements and religious services.
Dongba script, a kind of pictograph, possessing more than 1,400 characters, is believed to be the only well preserved living pictographic language in the world. It is a precious cultural heritage of mankind. About 40,000 volumes of Dongba scriptures have been found today, all written in Dongba pictographic characters. These scriptures are kept in the libraries or museums in Lijiang, Kunming, Nanjing, Beijing, Taiwan, the United States, Britain, Germany and France respectively. The Dongba dance chart, recorded in Dongba pictographs, is among the earliest of its king in the world. Dongba paintings are chiefly of three kinds: woods board painting, paper board painting and scroll painting. Among them, the scroll painting is best known with its representative work "The Sacred Journey".