The Museum of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture

The Museum of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture
恩施土家族苗族自治州博物馆

Address: Cultural Center, Jingui Dadao, Enshi city, Hubei province
Opening hours: 9 am-5 pm (last entry 4:30 pm)
Closed Mondays (except for national holidays)
General admission: Free

The Museum of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is the only regional comprehensive ethnic group museum in Hubei province. It serves as an important institution for the collection, preservation, research, and display of minority artifacts.

Three permanent exhibitions of the museum showcase the historical, cultural and material legacies of Enshi. The exhibition Footsteps of Wuling presents the production, living conditions, and social outlook of people from the Jianshi Homo erectus to various historical periods, reproducing the process of human evolution in Wuling region (an area spanning the borders of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou provinces and Chongqing in Central China). Through a large number of physical objects, photographs, and historical documents, the exhibition Memory of Enshi offers a panoramic view of local people of various ethnic groups in Enshi who fought bravely for national independence and rejuvenation, from the First Opium War (1840-42) to the founding of the People’s Republic of China (1949). Additionally, the exhibition Ecology of Enshi highlights the region’s precious natural and mineral resources.

The museum houses a rich collection of over 80,000 treasures, including historical and folk artifacts related to Ba culture, cliff burial culture, Tusi (local chieftain) culture, and local customs. It also preserves revolutionary artifacts, along with a variety of plant, animal, and mineral specimens.

A highlight of the collection is a bronze chunyu (percussion instrument) from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), featuring two tiger-shaped knobs. It’s the only known piece of its kind in China with a clear excavation time, site and intact structure, symbolizing the Ba people’s bronze culture and their adoration of tigers. This ancient percussion instrument was historically used in military settings to issue commands or in significant ceremonies.