A Study on the Current State of Dongba Religion in Lijiang
This article, a follow-up to the "Lijiang Dongba Religion Research" project, examines the current state and future prospects of Dongba religion, the indigenous religion of the Naxi people, historically intertwined with Naxi political, economic, and cultural life. Based on field surveys, the author identifies three critical problems. First, Dongba priests—traditional custodians and performers of the religion's rituals and culture—face generational extinction; political campaigns after 1949 branded them "superstitious professionals," halting practice and transmission, and only about 70 aging, scattered, poorly connected Dongba remain in Lijiang County, with knowledgeable elders dying without successors. Second, ritual activities have sharply declined from over 100 divination types and nearly 100 ceremonies to a handful of simplified rites (sky worship, ancestor worship, funerals, exorcisms, soul-calling). Third, Dongba scriptures and ritual implements have nearly vanished from folk hands, having been destroyed domestically or dispersed to foreign and institutional collections, despite historical documentation of roughly 10,000 volumes preserved abroad and domestically.
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