The Dongba Cultural Research Institute located in Heilongtan, Lijiang. It was first started by a group of local Naxi scholars in 1954, to study, document and preserve the ancient culture of the Naxi people.
The original religion of the Naxi people of Lijiang is called dongba, after the name of their ritual spiritualists or religious shamans, who wrote the religious manuscripts of their tribe over the centuries in their own pictorial script. Only 30 or so dongbas are still alive today, and a handful of these men are attached to the institute. Researcher in the institute are engaged in the laborious work of translating the thousands of dobangjing in existence (dongba religious manuscripts) into Chinese.