In 1855, a dispute between Muslim and Chinese miners escalated into a full scale Muslim rebellion against Chinese rule. It raged on for almost 20 years. Muslims ransacked Kunming's old temples, burned its monasteries, destroyed Buddhist monuments and leveled most public buildings and large private homes. They set up their own capital in Dali.

Chinese troops finally crushed the rebellion with great cruelty in 1873, slaughtering Muslim men, women and children in Dali and sweeping on to massacre thousands more in smaller towns, killing many of the survivors. Yunnan was nearly depopulated for the second time in its history