After graduating from Southwest Minzu University in Chengdu, Sichuan province, in 1990, he dedicated his career to cultural heritage work. In 2007, he returned to Baisha to devote himself to the protection, management, and restoration of these irreplaceable artworks.

For Yang, preservation alone is not enough. His deeper mission is to make cultural heritage "come alive". He has organized exhibitions of Baisha murals in cities like Shanghai, overseen the compilation of art books, and promoted digital archiving as well as the development of creative cultural products inspired by the murals.

"We must not only protect them, but also allow mural art to enter people's daily lives in new forms," he says.

As dusk settles and the last visitors depart, Yang makes his final rounds. The setting sun filters through the leaves of old trees, casting a golden glow on the temple roofs and the vivid scenes depicted on the walls.

What weighs most on Yang's mind is completing the restoration of all murals in the ancient town before he retires.

"What I guard here is not just the murals," Yang says, adding that it is the history of how different ethnic groups met, interacted, and blended over centuries.