The Guizhou Tang'an Dong Ethnic Eco-Museum was unveiled on June 6, which marks the formation of an ecological museum groups for the Miao, Bouyei, Han and Dong nationalities in Guizhou.

According to Xu Meiling, curator of the Suoga Ecological Museum, this is China's first ecological museum, which was founded in 1995 by China and Norway. It consists of 12 ethnic villages covering more than 120 square kilometers. The villages are still living in a natural economy where the men plough and the women weave. There is no writing. The people there record events by carving the bamboo. They have unique customs in wedding, burial, sacrificing ceremonies, music and dances.

The museum has no walls with each object, person and event being part of the collection. The villagers' articles for daily use, production tools and clothing and ornament are themselves exhibits. The only thing resembling traditional museum there is a simple database center where the past of the villagers is displayed in several wooden huts.

The ecological museum is a people-centered living museum, said Hu Chaoxiang, head of the implementation team of the Guizhou Ecological Museum Group. It is not an ordinary one since it is a community where the inhabitants share common language, common customs in dressing and building, common culture and mentality etc.

Su Donghai, a research fellow at the National Museum, said the core concept of the ecological museums is to protect a culture at its originating place. The economic conditions and high quality of citizens enable overseas governments and experts to withdraw from the construction of ecological museums once the initiation stage is over and the management falls on the inhabitants themselves.

However, since China's construction of ecological museums is still at the beginning the ecological museums will, in the foreseeable future, be mainly managed by the government and experts. Then with the proper training of the villagers and the elimination of poverty the villagers will become the true masters of their own culture.

By People's Daily Online