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Farmer Tian Changjie from Changyang in central China's Hubei Province never questioned his origin in the Han ethnic group prior to 1983 when he discovered that he was a native of Tujia with the establishment of Changyang Tujia Autonomous County after the third census of China.

Spurred on by a natural interest in his own heritage, he began to collect evidence of his Tujia roots and gradually he found that collecting things fascinated him. 

He explored hundreds of caves, tombs and temples over a 20-year period. He spent more than 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) on colleting articles and so far he has gathered more than 1,600 items.

Tian has split his collection into eight categories including clothes, ornaments, sculptures, earthenware ceramics and the like. 

His most treasured find is a box covered with carved symbols of the Tujia ethnic group. The oldest of his many discoveries is a necklace thought to be 4,000 years old and there's a 600-year-old official uniform of the headman of a Tujia ethnic town. This is said to be the only one of its kind in China.

In 2000 he took 68 articles of Tujia clothing and ornaments to the first Ethnic Costume Expo in Kunming. He found that so many people were interested in Tujia culture that he set up his private museum when he came home. The museum is named Private Museum of Tujia Folk Cultural Relics.

Tian Changjie donated some cultural relics to the provincial museum and kept the others. Now he protects his discoveries with great care. 

Tian said the museum faced some financial difficulties but he's not willing to sell items from his collection to fund the project. He wants to leave all the articles to his family.

So far more than 3,000 people have visited the museum. There's no entry charge but visitors can donate something to help with the running costs. 

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Chen Lin, May 6, 2006)