Lijiang Ancient Trail Tibetan Family Museum

Three centuries ago, the ancestors of the Zeren family, a Tibetan Tusi clan from Shangri-La, raised a stone-and-wood caravan station along the Ancient Tea Horse Road in Shuhe. This sanctuary, known as Gudao Zangjia, offered shelter, trade, and Tibetan medical healing to exhausted travelers. Today, at No. 1 Cangjia Road in Shuhe Ancient Town, that historical refuge stands as Lijiang's first officially registered private museum.

The architecture spans seven mu, dominated by a traditional two-story Tibetan blockhouse with inwardly tapering stone walls and a three-story Northern Hall. Outside, vermilion walls glow under the Yunnan sun, while upturned Chinese-style eaves frame a white stupa and spinning prayer wheels. Inside, the air feels cool and quiet, holding the faint scent of aged wood and ancient ink.

In 2003, Zeren Nongbu, a descendant of the original founders, began a decades-long effort to rebuild and expand the site, culminating in its formal museum licensing in 2022. Under the current direction of Liu Shangying, the museum secured eighteen million RMB in 2026 from the Gucheng Rural Commercial Bank to restore the century-old station.

Within the 780-square-meter exhibition space, 1,403 ethnic artifacts reside, including 321 officially cataloged treasures. On the first floor, visitors walk through the cultural courtyard where caravan bells once clinked. The second floor houses the award-winning Four Medical Tantras exhibition hall, displaying eighty clinical thangka paintings that map human anatomy and herbal pharmacology. Nearby, the Eight Thousand Verses Buddhist scriptures and Naxi Dongba paper scrolls, such as the Tianyu Liufang, preserve the spiritual voices of Northwest Yunnan.

This space connects the past to the present. Visitors can touch handmade Dongba paper, trace the brushstrokes of traditional thangkas, or explore the galleries through digital AR tours. The museum remains a quiet sanctuary where the dust of the ancient trail settles into permanent history.