The Value and Exploitation of the Ancient Dongba Books of the Naxi Ethnic Group
This article examines the scholarly and practical value of ancient Naxi Dongba script texts, produced by Dongba priests during ritual ceremonies such as sacrifices and exorcisms. These carved, handwritten, and rubbed manuscripts cover politics, economy, military affairs, history, astronomy, calendars, medicine, metallurgy, education, literature, philosophy, ethics, religion, language, and folk customs, and are classified by function into sacrificial, funeral, exorcism, and divination scriptures, plus pictographic dance-notation texts. The author highlights their value across five domains: philosophy (primitive materialist cosmology and creation myths), history (records of the shift from matriarchal to patriarchal society and from group marriage to monogamy), literature, science/technology, and philology. The article argues that systematic cataloguing, annotation/translation, and scholarly exchange can unlock the deep cultural content embedded in these texts, thereby supporting scientific research and contributing to the economic development of the Naxi ethnic region.
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