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Nakhi

Nakhi
Total population: 300,000
Significant populations in: Sichuan, Yunnan (People's Republic of China): 300,000
Language Naxi
Religion Dongba, Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism
Alternative names: Naqxi, Naxi, Na-khi, Nashi, Moxiayi, Mosha
Related ethnic groups Tibetan, Qiang, Mosuo

The Nakhi (Chinese: 纳西族 Nàxīzú;) are an ethnic group inhabiting the foothills of the Himalayas in the north-western part of the Yunnan Province, and as well as the south-western part of the Sichuan Province in China.

The Nakhi are thought to have descended from Tibet, and until recently maintained overland trading links with Lhasa (and thus India). They were brought to the attention of the world by two men, the American botanist Joseph Rock, and the Russian Daoist doctor Peter Goullart , both of whom lived in Lijiang and travelled throughout the area during the early 20th century. Peter Goullart's book Forgotten Kingdom describes the life and beliefs of the Nakhi and neighbouring peoples, while Joseph Rock's legacy includes diaries, maps and photographs from the region.

The Nakhi form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The official Chinese government classification classes the Mosuo as part of the Nakhi people, however despite proximity and similar origins in Tibet, the two groups remain culturally distinct.

Contents

Culture

The Nakhi culture is largely an syncretism of Tibetan and Han Chinese influence with some indigenious elements. Especially in the case of its musical scores, it acts as the foundation of the Nakhi literature.

Music


The syncretism of literary lyrics, poetic topics and musical tones of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, and as well as some Tibetan influences, the 500-year-old Nakhi Ancient Music has developed its own unique style and traits from merely stone-age Tibetan music. However, with the advent of modernism, most of the people are of elderly ages, and all of the instruments can be as old as more than a hundred years old.

Initially composing of three parts, namely the Baisha, Dongjing and Huangjing using traditional Chinese instruments, one can appreciate Nakhi music while reading a book.

The origins of the fine Baisha Music was an honoraria from the first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan. Upon his expedition to Dali, he was crossing with difficulty across the Golden Sand River and received help from Mailiang, the chief of the Nakhi people. To show his appreciation, Kublai Khan left half of his band and many musical scores, as a gift to the chief. Baisha Fine Music is one of ancient China's few large-scale, classical orchestral forms of music and has twenty four tunes, locally known as qupai. Although archaic, simple and elegant in style, modern Baisha is exquisite, euphonious and energetic in character.

Taoist in origin and fused with some indigenious elements, the Dongjing music was introduced to the Nakhi from the central Plains during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and as of today, it is the most well-preserved musical form in China. In addition to its intrinsic stateliness, purity and elegance, Dongjing Music incorporated the local musical elements, styles and the skills used in performances of the Nakhi ethnic group. This creates a feeling of transcendental artistic conception and charming folk flavor which can be easily appreciated. Originally an enjoyment reserved for the nobles, these shackles were eventually broken, owing to the ethnic passion for music.

Art and Architecture

Absorbing architectural styles of the Han and the Tibetan, the houses of the Nakhi are built in a unique vernacular style of one courtyard with five skylights, which have a crude and simple appearance and elaborate and delicate patterns in casements and doors.

One good example is the Delwada Temple, which is an excellent piece of architecture. The temples, though looking very stale and ordinary from outside, shows the carvings on poles, archs, idols of Gods, dancers, warriors, animals and birds, flowers and episodes from epics within the interior premises.

It noted that through their mural paintings, which depicts Dongba gods, derived from Tibetan influence.

Festival

It is known that the Nakhi celebrate the annual Torch Festival on June 24 and the Sanduo Festival on February 8, upon every lunar year. It is a festival that offer sacrifices to ancestors and the gods.

According to legend, Sanduo is a war god who defends the local people. In ancient times, a hunter discovered a strange snow stone on Jade Dragon Mountain, and carried the stone home. On his way home, he had to put the stone down for a rest owing to the fact that the stone was extremely heavy. When the man decided to continue his trip, he realized he could no longer lift the stone, and many thought that it was the embodiment of a god.

The Nakhi later built a temple to honor this god, whom they later named Sanduo. An immortal in a white coat and a white helmet, carrying a white spear and riding a white horse, they believed that the almighty Sanduo will protect the local people and their land. Owing to the fact that Sanduo was assumed to be born in the year of goats, a goat is sacrificed on this festival in order to honor this god.

Customs

Cremation has been a tradition since ancient times, although burial was adopted in certain Nakhi areas during the late Qing Dynasty. Religious scriptures were chanted at the funeral ceremony to expiate the sins of the dead.

Among the Nakhi in Yongning County in Yunnan and the Yanyuan County in Sichuan, existing remnants of a matriarchal family structure was evident until the eve of the democratic reform, when this was switched to the patrilineal lineage.

As the head of the family, the women gave inheritence to the children either through the mother, or to the nephews through her brothers. They also acted as the main labor force, thus they respected at home and in the Nakhi society.

Dress

The Nakhi women wear wide-sleeved loose gowns accompanied with jackets and long trousers, tied with richly decorated belts at the waist. Sheepskin is worn with sling over the shoulder, and one can find seven exquisitely embroidered stars, which included the sun and moon symbols. Reflecting on their admiration for diligence, as they are noted for people who started work early in the morning and stop only late in the evening. Especially in Ninglang County, the women wear short jackets and long skirts reaching the ground with several folds. Large black cotton turbans are worn around their heads, which were accompanied with big silver earrings. The Men's costumes resembles the Han Chinese.

The dress of the Dongba Lamas resemble the Bön priests of Tibet, who wears a conical head gear that resembles the Lamas of the Black Hat sect, and a piece of red garment accompanying it as well.

In modern times, however, the traditional dress are rarely worn among the younger generation, since most of them preferred to wear the Chinese dress instead. Even so, they are only worn on cultural demonstrations and special occasions.

Writing


The Nakhi have used a variety of scripts in the past, notably the Dongba and the Geba script.

Dongba

The earliest script used by the Nakhi, Dongba an intriguing pictographic script developed by the Nakhi. Although beautiful, the Dongba script is difficult to interpret and takes many years to learn. Thus, it is not practical for daily usuage.

In the past, the Dongba (Nakhi scholar-priests) learnt the script, and would pass it on to future generations by face-to-face instruction. With new generations losing interest in learning Dongba Script from their fathers, the script is now in danger of extinction.

With the establishment of Dongba Culture Research Institute (affiliated to Yunan Provincial Social Science Insitute), both Nakhi and Chinese scholars had sought to interpret existing scripts with help from numerous Dongba Priests residing in the remote rural villages.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, a Latin script was developed for the Nakhi language, although it didn't gain popularity. Today, Chinese is in daily use as an official language of the Nakhi. The formerly home-spoken Nakhi is eventually disappearing from Nakhi families as young parents usually speak Chinese at home to their children, thinking a good mastery of Chinese will benefit the future generation.

Geba

Structually similar to the Chinese characters with some new inventions and simplified pictographs from the Dongba script, the Geba script was the result of Chinese cultural influence. Unlike Dongba, Geba was not as widely used in comparison with Dongba, and it soon fell out of use. Today, Nakhi scholars did have a little knowledge of the Geba script.

Written in horizontal lines running from left to right, the phonetic values of Geba symbols are not fixed. Instead, each user, who is also literate in Dongba, had a tendency to use one set of readings over another. Symbols can have either various phonetic values, or one phonetic value, which can be signified by a number of different graphs. [1]

History

The Nakhi are believed to be the descendents of the nomadic Qiang, an ethnic group inhabiting along the Tibetan plateau since ancient times. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Nakhi were known as the Mosha-yi, or the Moxie-yi. Only after the Communist independence of China did they ever called as themselves Naxi, which means people who worship the black things of the nation.

Frequently harrased by neighbouring tribes, the proto-Nakhi then moved to the upstream of Nujiang River from the Jinsha and then to the Along River in the present-day province of Sichuan in west China. After being pushed south by other conquering tribes, the Nakhi finally settled in Baisha and Lijiang by 3 A.D.

It is a known fact that the Nakhi split into three groups while their ancestors were still in Baisha. The ones who remained were known as the Nakhi, those in Dali were known as Bai, and those living around the Lugu Lake were called the Mosuo. Even today, the three groups shared similar customs.

Between the 10th to the 13th century, agricultural production in Lijiang underwent marked changes, as agriculture eventually replaced livestock breeding as the main occupation of the people. Scores of agricultural, handicraft, mineral and livestock products were turned out, and the county presented a picture of prosperity. During that period, a number of slave-owning groups which existed in Ninglang, Lijiang and Weixi counties grew into a feudal manorial lord caste. Tibetan Buddhism got a foothold among the Nakhi from the 14th century onwards.

The Yuan Dynasty established Lijiang Prefecture in 1278, which represented the imperial court in Yunnan. A chieftan, Mude, was made the hereditary chieftain of Lijiang Prefecture, exercising control over the Naxi people and other ethnic groups during the Ming Dynasty. The hereditary chieftains from the Mu family collected taxes and tribute, which subsequently went to the Ming court in the form of silver and grains. In turn, the Ming relied on the Mu family as the mainstay for the control of the people of various ethnic groups in northwestern Yunnan Province.

With the development of the productive forces, leasing of the land began to take place, thus marking the beginning of an economy controlled by a landlord. However, during the Qing Dynasty, hereditary local chieftains in the Lijiang area was replaced by court officials in 1723. Thus, the Mu chieftain thus became the local administrator.

The ancient Nakhi town of Lijiang is now a major tourist destination, and its cobbled paths and running waters are extensively photographed by tourists. Some Naxi run shops cater to tourists, such as those serving traditional Naxi bread (baba).

Religion

Of Tibetan origin, the Nakhi are traditionally followers of the Dongba religion. Owing to both Han Chinese and Tibetan cultural influences, they later adopted Tibetan Buddhism, especially in the case of the Mosuo, and to a lesser extent, Taoism, in the 10th century.

Dongba

The Dongba religion was believed to be rooted in the beliefs of the Tibetan Animistic Early Bön religion of Tibet, and word Dongba literally means wise man in the Nakhi language. Tracing its origins to a Bön shaman from eastern Tibet named Dongba Shilo, he lived in a cave near Baishuitai 900 years ago. According to the Nakhi legends, he was said to have invented the Lijiang Mural.

Anthropologists claimed that many of the Dongba rituals showed strong influences from the Tibetan Bön religion and not native in origin, owing to the fact that many of them were believed to be the Bön lamas who had settled down among the Nakhi as farmers and began to practice exorcist rituals. In the process, they took it as a way to earn a little pocket money on the side, who were in competition with the native ritual specialists, locally known as Llü-bu, or Ssan-nyi.

Religious scriptures suggested that the Llü-bu was a female shaman who practice divination, exorcism, and other rites through rituals in a trance. By the early nineteenth century, the Dongba priests created such a huge proliferation of Dongba words accompanied by a variety of rituals, largely displaced the Llü-bu.

Adherents of Dongba had no places of worship, therefore, they were not officially recognized as a religion. A Dongba shaman is just merrily a part-time practitioner priest, who is literate in Dongba religious texts that were illeterate to the Nakhi, although he is a commoner. If they were to be asked for their religion, the Nakhi would presumably have identified themselves as Kagyu Buddhists.

The Dongba customs are related to the concept of "Nature and Man", specifically pointing to the concept of Nature and Human, who are two brothers born to the same father and different mothers, which deeply reflected in Dongba Religion. Especially in the villages of Yuhu, Yulong, Longquan and Shuming, elderly villagers knew the nature gods such "Shu", and the community's rituals such as "Shu Gu" were practiced to appaese the god.

Prior to the communist rule of China, many Nakhi villages had religious places for worship, most notably for nature gods such as Shu. From these beliefs and rituals, rigid regulations and customary laws were formed. Until recently, the concept between nature and Man the two half-brothers still remain in the mind of many villagers in the mountainous Shuming village of the Tacheng Township, which is located in Lijiang-Naxi Autonomous county. Shuming is located in forested areas of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which is not far removed from the main town of Lijiang.

One of the best examples tells about He Shun, a Dongba priest, strictly forbidden his three sons to be involved in any kind of logging for benefits, as he thinks that if one cut trees over his daily demand, it is definitely against the will of the nature gods, and the traditional custom. It is believed that logging will would bring disasters to his family and offspring.

One of the most widely practiced Dongba ritual, Zzerq Ciul Zhuaq, literally, to repay the debts of a tree, is often seen in the village of Shuming. The ritual would only be conducted on the condition that if somebody was stricken with illness or bad luck, consultation upon a Dongba fortue-teller priest to seek for divination would be made. On many occasions, the result shows that if they had done forest logging and washing of dirty things in the forest, the family or person concerned would have to ask the Dongba priest to hold the ritual nearby the spring or where they had cut the tree, and apologize to the nature god Shu.


The reason for the preservation of the forseowes to the fact that upon the beginning of Summer on the seventh solar term, when most temperate plants and wild animals regrow and reproduce after the long winter. Being conservative, the village people were prohibited logging, and the cutting of tree branches and gathering of dry-pined needles from the coniferous tres were not even allowed. Gathering of dry-pine needles is only allowed in July, when the forests were lush and green. However, only one person of each household was allowed to do this job by following to the village regulations, as the Makhi thought that was a good way to keep an equal balance between the households with more laborers or less laborers.

The Elders, locally known as Lao Min (老民), would watch the all these activities personally. These Elders also served for the public affairs of the village voluntarily. Traditionally, these elders play an important role, which is still influenced many villages at present. Successful management of forest resources such as those in the Yulong village of Baisha Township, uses the Lao Min of the village, and many elders of high prestige are members of the organization, which is very active to assist the villagers' committee, and the headman of the village is to protect the community's environment and resources.

Especially in Longquan, the villagers have a traditional custom for regulations for logging and firewood. Known as Jjuq-ssaiq or Jjuq-Hal-Keel by the local people, this refers to the regular logging of trees and firewood in every two to three years in the forested area near the particular village. A group of people comprises of the Lao Min, the village headman and the mountain guards, will organize the ritual in advance. Even in recent years, Nakhi villages still retain an organization who specially protects the forests, who were administered by the members of the village Committee. This necessarily include the heads of the agricultural Productive Cooperatives, the members of the female union, and the village mountain guard.

Until communism came to power in China in 1949, villagers who rigidly followed the traditional principles will try to use the natural resources consertatively, with the consideration for preserving the natural resources so as to give their future generations would to use when necessary. However, since the communist took control of China in 1949, serious cultural and social change dawned upon the Nakhi. The government encouraged forest logging around the area, which in turn led to the fact that rigid traditional forest preservation customs has became more relaxed.

One could see from it the traditional custom still has its own spiritual power to influence the villagers.

Lamaism

Owing to the fact that they are of Tibetan origins and their close proximity with Tibet, the Nakhi, especially the upper class, began to embrace the Kagyu lineage of Lamaism during the 14th century. Over the years, the Nakhi in Lijiang built Buddhist Gompas that act as the place of worship for the Nakhi Buddhist community. The first monastery, Ogmin Namling at Lashiba, was founded by the 10th Karmapa Choying Dorje . Religious Mani stones can also be found in some of the Nakhi households, especially among the Mosuo sub-group.

Historical sources stated the Nakhi king invited the eighth Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje to Lijiang in 1516. The concerned and curious king, who was worried about the safety about the safety of the Karmapa upon his long journey to Lijiang, dispatched an army of four generals and ten thousand soldiers to accompany the Karmapa.

On the third day of the fourth month, the Karmapa reached the border between Tibet and the Nakhi kingdom. Accompanied by his brother and his uncle, who were both riding elephants and escorted by many riders on horseback, the Nakhi king, riding on a made a palanquin horse, made a magnificent welcome. The king, while prostating before the Karmapa, the elephants broke their tethers and bowed down three times before him at the same time, and raising their trunks to the sky. Thunderclaps caused by the elephants' trumpeting were heard overhead as well.

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Last updated: 06-01-2005 21:47:26
Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13