The Legacy of Ancestors: Cultural Concepts and Symbolic Metaphors in Mosuo Daba Scriptures
This article examines the Dabaism scriptures (Daba jing) of the Moso (Na/Naze) people, an ethnic group living around Lugu Lake on the Yunnan-Sichuan border in southwest China. Since the Moso have no writing system, their history, cosmology, and worldview survive through orally transmitted Dabaism texts recited by priest-specialists called Daba. These scriptures cover history, ethnic origins, migration, war, funerary "soul-guiding" rites, and ethical codes, and promote reverence for nature, matrilineal/maternal-uncle veneration, ancestor gratitude, communal harmony, tolerance, and rituals for fortune and disaster aversion. Based on fieldwork (2016-2020) in Moso villages in Ninglang, Yanyuan, and Muli counties, the author analyzes categories and content of Daba recitations and situates Dabaism within broader Himalayan religious traditions (comparing it to Dongba, Hangui, and Bön), arguing it embodies both local and translocal knowledge, shapes ethnic identity, and constitutes an endangered yet vital shared cultural heritage of both the Moso people and China.
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