Convergence and Dispersal: The Transmission and Spread of the Dongba Narrative Tradition
This article traces the historical formation and geographic spread of the Naxi Dongba narrative tradition. It argues Dongba pictographic script first arose in the Wuliang River basin, tracing genealogical and linguistic links between the Naxi and other Qiang-descended, Yi-branch peoples, and recounting the legendary/documented split between the unwritten Daba tradition of the eastern (Yongning/Muli) Naxi dialect area and the scripted Dongba tradition of the western (Lijiang) area. It holds that Dongba religion, though rooted in the Wuliang River basin, matured into a full ritual and mythological system at Sanba township in Diqing, under strong influence from Tibetan Bon religion during the Tang-Song period, before its center of gravity shifted south to Lijiang under the Mu chieftains in the Yuan-Ming-Qing period, where growing social complexity reshaped its narrative content. The article proposes two historical "convergences" (聚变) — at Sanba (Song) and at Lijiang (Yuan-Ming-Qing) — that built up the tradition, but argues political fragmentation, a weak economic base, and Dongba religion's own conservatism meant these convergences never let it fully leave behind its core theme of nature- and spirit-worship myth, so the tradition remained structurally "dispersed" even after two rounds of consolidation. A comparative table contrasts script, ritual, and scripture differences across five Naxi sub-regions (Lijiang basin, the "Five Districts," Sanba, the Wuliang River area, and the "Six Districts").
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