Marble

Marble

　　Dali is located in the central part of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, along the shores of Erhai Lake. The marble in this county is mined from the Cangshan Mountain within the county and is found in abundant reserves. Of the 19 peaks of Cangshan Mountain, every single one contains marble.

　　These marbles spiral around the mountainside like a dazzling ribbon, extending as wide as the mountain itself. Although the stone materials and quality produced in Dali are largely similar, their colors each possess unique characteristics. Dali has long been known as the "Hometown of Marble."

　　 Marble, also called 础石 (foundation stone), is richly found primarily within the Cangshan Mountain Nature Reserve in Dali Prefecture. Among the local Bai people, there is a beautiful legend about marble: the weaver girl of heaven once angered the gods and was banished to the Emerald Creek of Cangshan, where natural green jade then appeared everywhere. She lived amidst the vegetation along the Emerald Creek. Later, when the gods decided to recall her, the weaver girl rode a phoenix back to the heavens, and the hair ornaments she left behind in the air turned into beautiful marble. Yang Qikun, the Qingping Official (equivalent to a prime minister) of the Nanzhao Kingdom in its later period, composed a poem based on this story titled “Emerald Jade Embedded in the Cliff”: *The Weaving Maiden was once banished from heaven’s green, With misty hair resting upon the grass and trees. One day she rode a phoenix up to the rosy clouds, Leaving her emerald hairpins and floral ornaments in the valley.*

　　 The local Bai people began mining and processing marble 1,400 years ago during the Tang Dynasty. In the early days, mining was carried out by individual Bai households, who manually cut, carved, and polished the stone into various patterns and objects. Carving patterns is a highly skilled craft. It is rare for a particular pattern to occur naturally on a single flat surface—most stones feature designs that emerge gradually during polishing, not confined to one plane. Deciding which color blocks to reveal, which to obscure, and what kind of pattern the stone will ultimately display is a process of composition and creativity, depending on the artisan's artistic taste and polishing skill. The resulting patterns are usually one-of-a-kind. Bai craftsmen not only create marble paintings but also produce a variety of items based on the stone’s texture and visual features, including screens, hanging scrolls, flowerpots, pen holders, vases, inkstones, seals, tea sets, mortars, as well as tabletops, stool surfaces, and chair backs inlaid into various types of furniture. Marble is now also widely used as a building stone. The marble handicrafts made by the Bai people of Dali have become a major tourism product in the local travel market.