Tunpu culture is a derivative of the farming and warring economy in the feudal age and a heritage of the Jiangnan (region south of the Yangtze River) and Zhongyuan (Central Plains) cultures during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The culture features distinctive costumes, dialects, architecture, religion, arts and lifestyles. The people's ideology, ritual systems, ways of thinking, values, ethics and customs originated from the Yangtze-Huaihe river basin in the Central Plains.

Tunpu culture has been listed as one of Guizhou's first intangible cultural heritage items, and one part of its art–Anshun opera (Dixi opera)–has been one of the first on the national intangible cultural heritage list.