Dongba

The Dongba (Ba of the east) is a culture, a writing and old religion of China.

This culture is located in particular in the city-prefecture of Lijiang, province of the Yunnan and in the county of Muli, province of the Sichuan, in China.

The religion

The old religion of more than thousand years, left lamaïsé paganism. It is practiced by the Naxi of origin Tibetan, one of many the ethnic minorities of China (260 000 people). They live in the North of the province Yunnan, mainly in the prefectures of Lijiang, Weixi, Zhongdian, Ninglang and Yongsheng.

The traditional religion Naxi, Dongba, has many characteristics of the pre-Buddhist religion Tibetan Bonpo. It is a chamanic form of Animisme which draws its name from its priests, the “Dongba”. The faithful ones are invited to sing texts crowned at the time of the festivals and various ceremonies, like the marriages and the burials.

The priests, also known under the name of “wise men”, play a big role in the Naxi culture. They preach the harmony between the man and nature. The Tibetan influence is felt in their costumes; they carry images of the gods of the old Bonpo religion on their cover-chief. Flags Tibetans of prayer and offerings taoists can sometimes be seen in their ritual ceremonies. For Naxi, Zang (majority on the Plate of Tibet), the very Bai and they go down from the same couple formed by a man and from a goddess.

The worship of the ancestors and the forces of nature constitutes its dominant characteristic. The ritual ones, preserved thanks to Pictogram S, writings and tables religious, are the principal mode of expression. The priest is the heir-at-law to this culture.

Oracles dongba use ossicles for their divination.

The culture dongba uses totems in particular for the tombs. For Naxi, it is disrespectful to photograph the sculptures of the tombs.

In the culture dongba, one never should turn over behind on a borrowed way, the religious buildings thus have generally 2 doors, for the entry, another for the exit.

The writing

See also: writing dongba

The writing dongba is undoubtedly the only pictographic writing mainly used nowadays; certain characters are however used there commes syllabic characters. In the prefecture of Lijiang in particular, the panels are generally written in Chinese, dongba and sometimes in English. Penmanship dongba is always practiced, as well as the artisanal manufacture of paper and printing works by Estampe S. the manual writing is practiced with the Calame Bambou. There also exists of many mural representations of this writing, in low relief or painting.

One can find in the bookstores of the town of Lijiang of the dictionaries dongba - Chinese/English.

See too

External bonds

the culture dongba and the naxi

Naxi minority, Yunan, Clouded

Naxi writings on Omniglot.com

Random links: