Naxi Culture
The Naxi migrated out of the highlands of eastern Tibet into Lijiang County beginning in the 1st century A.D. The broad plain below jade Dragon Snow Mountain was then occupied by the Pu people and the Naxi began contesting them for it in the 8th century. By the beginning of the 13th century they had evicted the Pu, who thereupon disappear from history. They chose to help the Mongols against Dail, rather than try to resist their advance into Yunnan. As a result Kubilai Khan appointed their chieftain as his own governor. Throughout the Yuan Dynasty and its successor the Ming the Mu family remained a most dependable ally of the imperial throne. Naxi troops pacified the frontier and were the hardiest, most reliable troops in the campaigns against Burma.
Political loyalty allowed the Naxi cultural autonomy and during the Mu regency influences from both Han and Tibetan culture gradually augmented the aboriginal religion and directed the styles of its an and architecture. Native religion was based around the ritual specialist called the dongba, who conducted the rites honouring Heaven, various deities and natural forces. It originated with an individualist Bon shaman from eastern Tibet named Dingba Shilo, who lived in a cave near Baishuitai 900 years ago. He is said to have invented the pictographic script used in the ritual manuals.
These manuals, long and thin, not only gave instructions for the performance of the ritual, they also contained the myths, legends and history of the Naxi people. But as the pictographs are not full transcriptions of the narratives but coded summaries, it took many years to learn the system. Thousands of these books have now been collected and most are stored in the Dongba Institute in Black Dragon Pool Park. The last living dongbas from the Lijiang area are employed there to aid the translations.
During the Ming Dynasty the Mu rulers established relationships with the Karmapa (Black Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism. They sponsored the construction of several temples in the area-today's tourist attractions which as late as Joseph Rock's time were supporting hundreds of monks in each. Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism also found favour in Naxi culture, which simply grafted elements onto its own increasingly syncretistic religion.
Naxi sponsors lavished money on the temples. Many were embellished with interior frescoes. Most were destroyed in wars and political campaigns, but a few examples survive. The biggest and most famous set of frescoes, painted in the Ming Dynasty and restored after Red Guard damage, adorn the walls of Dabaoji Palace in Baisha village, several km north of Lijiang. A smaller temple in the same village has a less impressive collection from the Qing Dynasty. The other extant frescoes are in a neglected temple in Shaowu village, currently used as a stockroom for furniture and supplies belonging to the adjacent middle school. In their use of bright colours and cloud motifs the frescoes show the Tibetan influence, while in portraiture and subject they display the Han influence.
When the Qing Dynasty succeeded the Ming the Mu had no problems adjusting. The first Qing emperors continued the past policy of having local rulers govern on their behalf. But with the accession of Emperor Qianlong the Manchu court felt strong enough to start appointing its own magistrates to rule directly. This policy was inaugurated in Lijiang in 1723 and marks a major turning point in Naxi cultural history. The Naxi had been adopting elements of Han culture already, the architecture for example, but from 1723 the assimilation of Han, specifically Confucian, aspects accelerated. Burial replaced cremation, marriages were arranged, and gentlemen dressed in long black gowns and dabbled in poetry and calligraphy.
Naxi also began observing Han festivals, but occasionally they gave them a twist. The annual Han festival of welcoming their ancestral spirits, sometimes called Feeding the Hungry Ghosts, is held full moon of the 7th lunar month. But the Naxi begin three nights earlier, hanging ornate lanterns from their rafters and floating small lamps on the streams. On full moon they do nothing. They also have their own version of the Torch Festival, with a different origin story but the same activities.
For the Naxi people, though, the most important festival is the one honouring Sanduo on the 8th day of the 2nd lunar month. Sanduo is the war god and his temple, sited below Yufengsi at Yulong village, 12 km north of Lijiang, was the first erected in the area, dating to 779. Sanduo is said to have appeared in silver armour astride a white horse in the middle of a battle to turn the tide in the Naxi's favour. A statue of the god in his mythical regalia stands in the courtyard of the Five Phoenix Tower in Black Dragon Pool Park. The one in his temple is unmounted. On festival day the temple is thronged with worshippers, who afterwards pay a visit to Yufeng Temple on the slope above and pose for photographs in front of the ancient camellia tree, in full bloom at this time.
Afterwards they may picnic or form up into spontaneous ring dances. Urban residents may hire a village orchestra to play the music that the Naxi have preserved since the tunes were bestowed on them by Kubilai Khan. The typical orchestra comprises men on drums, gongs, flutes and stringed instruments. The Naxi ensemble differs from a classic Chinese one in two instruments. One is the Mongolian stringed instrument, played with a bow, called sugudu. The other is the high-pitched little flute made from the wingbone of a wild goose.
Naxi music was banned during the Cultural Revolution and the musicians forced to hide their instruments. When it was played publicly again in the early 80's it marked the first step in the revivalism that soon gripped the Naxi, as it did so many other ethnic groups in Yunnan. By the 90's Dayan's orchestra was performing regularly for tourists and by mid-decade had even played abroad. Other village orchestras re-formed and in the wake of the post-earthquake tourist boom were hired for regular performances in Lijiang, both within the old town and in the city's new hotels.
Beyond music, revivalism has been marked by the extensive use of dongba art motifs in painting, hotel frescoes, souvenirs and replica ritual objects. The younger generation of women has created a new ethnic costume, more feminine than that of their mothers. It retains the seven-starred cape, but exchanges the plain trousers for a long white pleated skirt, like the Mosuo, and a round head-dress with circular discs attached to it.
Even the new city has been influenced by the new ethnic awareness. Buildings going up nowadays utilise the architectural motifs and decorations inspired by Dayan houses. Foreign appreciation has abetted Naxi revivalism, to be sure, but it was already in place when Lijiang greeted its first foreign tourists.
TOP |
