Entry № 174
Dali Calcite
Dolomitic Marble (Dali, Yunnan)
The banded marble that named a school of Chinese painting.
Chakra
Crown · Third Eye
Element
Earth
Zodiac
Cancer · Pisces

I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Dali calcite is worked with as a stone of contemplative sight, kept on the desk during writing, painting and any practice that asks a person to look at the landscape until it speaks. Practitioners hold it as a reminder that a still image can carry weather.
- Chakra
- Crown · Third Eye
- Element
- Earth
- Zodiac
- Cancer · Pisces
- Keynote
- The banded marble that named a school of Chinese painting.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Dali stone is a fine-grained dolomitic marble from the Cangshan range near Dali in Yunnan, in which alternating dolomite (CaMg(CO₃)₂) and calcite (CaCO₃) layers, together with trace iron and manganese oxides, produce natural landscape-like patterns. Slabs have been prized in China for over a thousand years as inset 'painting stones' whose figuring resembles ink-wash mountain scenery.
- Formula
- CaMg(CO₃)₂ (with CaCO₃ layers)
- System
- Trigonal
- Hardness
- 3.5 – 4 (Mohs)
- Provenance
- China — Dali, Yunnan Province
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- CaMg(CO₃)₂ (with CaCO₃ layers)
- Crystal System
- Trigonal
- Mohs Hardness
- 3.5 – 4 (Mohs)
- Density
- 2.84 – 2.86 g/cm³
- Refractive Index
- 1.500 – 1.679
- Provenance
- China — Dali, Yunnan Province
- Color Origin
- White to cream groundmass with grey and ochre ink-wash banding
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Dallasite
A green Pacific basalt healed with white quartz.




