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During a recent trip to Lijiang in northwest Yunnan Province,
some friends eagerly introduced a newly completed tourist
attraction named "Dongba Kingdom" at the foot of the Yulong (Snow
Dragon) Mountains close to the ancient town of Lijiang.
The Naxi people have held many important cultural activities in
the past few years, amazing the world with their ability to
preserve and promote their own culture.
It seemed that this new site would be another great place not
just for curious tourists but for the Naxi people themselves.
The "Dongba Kingdom" covers well over 100,000 square metres. It
has six major parts: Hieroglyphs Square, Five Grains Bridge and
Sacred Sea, Door and Religious Staff, Scroll of Sacred Road, Naxi
Totem Square and Ancient Naxi Village.
The entire kingdom is designed according to Dongba scriptures,
said designer Zhang Chunhe. Zhang is famous in and outside China
for incorporating hieroglyphs into innovative paintings.
"This is a grand project to rejuvenate the Dongba Culture,"
Zhang said. "The theme of the kingdom is to express the respect the
Naxi people have for life, for the harmony between man and
nature."
Zhang's claims are well founded.
History and religion
Lijiang has always been a beautiful place of peace and
auspiciousness. Many different religions, such as the Naxi people's
Dongba religion, Tibetan Buddhism and the Bon Religion of the
Tibetan people, as well as Catholicism spread here by Western
missionaries, peacefully co-exist in the region.
Over 1,000 years ago, the Naxi people, a branch of the ancient
nomadic Qiang people who originated in Northwest China, settled
along the banks of the Jinsha River in the Hengduan Mountains of
Southwest China.
In the long process of development, the Naxi people created
mysterious hieroglyphs which recorded objects in nature and the way
that people lived. Such hieroglyphs have been recognized as a
"living fossil" among the whole world's written languages.
Although 10 centuries have lapsed, the fascinating hieroglyphs
have been well preserved and are still revered by the Dongba
shamans in their religious ceremonies.
In the Naxi language, which is soft and musical, "Dongba" means
"sage who can make divination and chant scriptures." In fact, the
Dongba shamans are learned scholars in many fields: ancient
sorcery, medicine, arts and crafts, history and literature.
Throughout history, the Dongba shamans have been vital in
carrying on the cultural lineage of the Naxi people.
Although many Dongba shamans' skills were cultivated by their
fathers, any young man interested in the practice could also become
an apprentice and gain local people's recognition through years of
hard work.
One of the basic tasks that a novice must accomplish before he
could become a Dongba shaman is mastering the skill of writing the
Dongba scriptures, which are written entirely in hieroglyphs.
With a bamboo pencil, special ink and a kind of brown paper made
through a complicated process, the Dongba shamans paint the
hieroglyphs for different scriptures.
The Dongba scriptures are like an encyclopedia of Naxi history
and culture, as they record everything from details of religious
ceremonies to legends of the world's beginning, production and life
of the society, geology and astronomy, animals and plants, as well
as the fundamental belief that humans should co-exist with nature
in peace.
In 2003, Ancient Naxi Dongba Literature Manuscripts were
included in the World Memory Heritage List by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Before modern medicine and mass media reached the Naxi people,
locals relied on the Dongbas to hold various rituals with goals
ranging from grave matters such as paying tribute to Heaven and
Earth to trivialities like treating an ailment.
Dongba Religion can be seen as a primitive polytheism which
worships everything in nature. Although Dongba Religion was widely
practised, somehow it never developed into strict organizations in
temples as did Tibetan Buddhism, which has many branches and grand
monasteries.
Real kingdom
The "Dongba Kingdom" honours the great Dongba Culture with
well-designed exhibits.
On a long wall, most of the 1,400 commonly used hieroglyphs are
inscribed; a group of nearly 100 sculptures are dedicated to
renowned Dongba shamans who had made outstanding contributions to
the Naxi people before they passed away.
Among them is the sculpture of Dingba Shiluo, legendary founder
of Dongba Religion. It is said that in the mid-11th century, a
great religious master named Shiluo (Dingba means patriarch in
Tibetan) learnt Buddhism in Tibet and taught disciples to write
hieroglyphic scriptures at Baidi of Sanba Township in Shangri-La
County to the northwest of Lijiang.
Every year, on the eighth day of the second month in the lunar
calendar, people of the Naxi, Tibet, Yi, Bai, Lisu and other
minorities go to Baidi to attend grand ceremonies honouring the
Dongba Religion's creator.
But the most astounding sight at the "Dongba Kingdom" is the
Scroll of the Sacred Road. At 10 metres wide and 250 metres long,
it is claimed to be the largest stone carving in the country.
More important than the size of the scroll are its religious and
academic values. The Scroll of Sacred Road (Shenlu Tu) is a very
important part of the Dongba Culture and it reflects the Naxi
people's ability to assimilate other cultures while at the same
time, retaining their own.
There are many versions of the scroll, but generally it is
painted on a cloth scroll of about 30 centimetres wide and 10 to 20
metres long.
The scroll is vital for a Naxi funeral, when the Dongba shamans
must spread the scroll from the head of the deceased towards the
northeast a place where the ancestors of the Naxi people had come
from.
There are eight volumes of scriptures related to the Sacred
Road, which must be chanted by the Dongba shamans at the funeral to
guide the spirit away from the Sphere of the Ghosts (Gui Di).
Besides the Sphere of the Ghosts, the scroll also depicts the
Present World (Ren Jian) and the Regime of the Deities (Shen Di).
But some researchers say such equivalents of heaven, hell and Earth
were not an original idea of the Naxi.
Many details on the painting bear traces of the Taoism from
Central China, Tibetan Buddhism and the Bon Religion.
More interestingly, some parts of the scroll, such as a white
elephant with 33 heads, might have taken influence from Indian
Brahmanism.
It is interesting that while the Dongba shamans guide the spirit
through heaven, hell and Earth, they also point out specific names
of places near the homeland of the Naxi people. Returning to where
the Naxi people had come from is a deep-rooted concept of the Naxi,
which is reflected by many other scriptures as well.
Farsighted investors
"We carved the 'Scroll of the Sacred Road' onto rocks, so that
we can preserve it forever," said Zheng Lihua of the Lijiang Dongba
Kingdom Cultural Tourism Development Company, which invested 36
million yuan (US$4.4 million) in the project.
Through the two international Dongba cultural and arts festivals
held in 1999 and 2003, Lijiang has not only promoted the Dongba
Culture to the world, but also awakened the Naxi people's pride in
their own cultural heritage.
Three years ago, researchers, local entrepreneurs and government
officials began discussing how to better promote and preserve the
Dongba Culture. "Dongba Kingdom" is the result of this.
Tourists can attend religious ceremonies held by real Dongba
shamans and participate in Naxi village life, Zheng said.
Interested couples can enjoy a traditional Naxi wedding and get
wedding certificates made from Dongba paper, which "won't decay in
1,000 years," according to Zheng.
"We provide visitors with lively entertainment as well as sites
that represent Naxi culture," Zheng said, adding that over 600
tourists visit on an average day.
He Xuchun, chairman of the board of the Dongba Kingdom Company,
clearly remembers that he stayed on the project site for "three
years and one day" before its completion.
"Lijiang is famous in the country and in the world. There are
only about 320,000 Naxi people, but we have paid great attention to
preserving and promoting our ethnic culture," said He, who started
with a construction company and now runs the Naxi Grand Hotel in
the new area of Lijiang.
"I don't care much if I can't get the investment back," said He.
"I feel happy and content that I can contribute to the culture of
my own people, which is important for the whole world."
(China Daily July 24, 2006)
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