Editing ReignWulin:Dali (section)

= Culture =

The 11th king of Nanzhao established Buddhism as the state religion. Ten of the 22 kings of Dali gave up the throne and became monks.

The Dali Kingdom actively modeled its architecture, language, literature, mathematics, clothing, customs, and military equipment and tactics on the Song dynasty. The official written script was Chinese ('Han') characters, although numerous variant characters were used. Similarly, the standard spoken language of the elite was Chinese ('Han'), but with an accent and local variations in vocabulary.

They aren't very territorially invasive, and their national religion was Buddhism, which seemed to make their country not have any thoughts about snatching land from their neighbours. Unlike the Xia kings who called themselves emperors (huangdi) from 1038 onwards, Dali kings were content with the title of king (wang), and thus did not present a challenge to the Song ideology that there can only be one emperor in the world. Thus Dali was regarded as a vassal kingdom by the Song court, rather than a rival and competitor like Liao or Xia.

Erhai Lake is an important food source for the local people, who are famous for their fishing method: their trained cormorants catch fish and return them to fishmongers. The birds are prevented from swallowing their fish by rings fixed around their neck.

Dali is also famous for the many types of marble it produces, which are used primarily in construction and for decorative objects. In fact, Dali is so famous for the stone that the name of marble in Chinese is literally "Dali Stone"