Questioning the Similarities and Differences between Bon Scriptures and Dongba Scriptures
This article questions the prevailing scholarly view that Dongba scripture and culture of the Naxi people were merely "influenced" by Tibetan Bön (Bon) religious culture. The author, while affirming the value of compiling and publishing the Bön canon for preserving Tibetan traditional culture, argues that Bön thought forms the true foundation beneath Tibetan Buddhism, with many indigenous myths, exorcism rites, spells, and protector deities absorbed from Bön rather than original Buddhism. Turning to Naxi culture, the author challenges the consensus that Dongba religion—a polytheistic, nature-worshipping shamanic tradition recorded in pictographic Dongba script—was only influenced by Bön. Drawing on historical timing (Dongba culture emerging around the 7th–8th centuries, coinciding with Bön's retreat from the Tibetan plateau under Buddhist pressure toward Yunnan's Tacheng/Naxi regions) and archaeological evidence of early Tibetan-Yunnan cultural contact, the author proposes that Bön and Dongba scriptures/cultures share a common origin or are in a source-and-tributary relationship, rather than a simple one-way "influence."
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