The term Dongba literally refers to the religious priests, the culture, and the script of the people, which exerts a great influence upon the lives of the Nakhi people, who are found in southwestern China.

Religion

The Dongba, also known as wise men, are believed to be the priests of the Bön religion. They play a major role in the Nakhi culture, and preach harmony between man and nature. Their costumes shows strong Tibetan influence, and pictures of Bön gods can be seen on their headgear. Tibetan prayer flags and Taoist offerings can be seen in their rituals.

Religious rituals are also conducted by the priests to propitiate the spirits, as they were believed to be living in every part of the natural world.

This can be evidenced from the fact that the core of the Dongba religion is the based on the belief that both man and nature are two half-brothers born of two mothers and the same father. This creates revenge from heaven, which befalls upon humans who use up too much natural resources.

Prior to Bön influence, it is suggested that the original priests were the female Llü-bu. At that time, statues of religious idols could be widely seen everywhere.

Script

The Dongba script, also known as Tomba or Dto-mba is an ideographic writing system used by the Dongba. It is about a thousand years old, and the only hieroglyphic writing system in use today. Used solely as an aid to the interpretation of ritual texts during ceremonies, it is reputated to have more than 2000 hieroglyphs in 20,000 religious scriptures.

The script is written on handmade paper, with sheets sown together at the left edge, forming a book. The pages are ruled horizontally with the hieroglyphs written in three or five sections within these rules.

The Ethnologue project claims that it is "not practical for everyday use, but is a system of prompt-illustrations for reciting classic texts", and there are believed to be only three people in Lijiang who are literate in the script.

External Links

• Gallery of Dongba