Vol. 5, No. 4
This article by Zuo Zhengfei reviews scholarship from the past two decades on Dongba religion (东巴教), the traditional folk religion of the Naxi ethnic group centered in Yunnan's Lijiang region. The author explains that as a syncretic belief system shaped by the meeting of pastoral and agricultural civilizations and coexisting with Daoism, Tibetan and Han Buddhism, and Christianity, Dongba religion has profoundly influenced Naxi political structures, social life, and culture, making it a key subject in ethnology. The survey organizes research achievements into several major themes: (1) religious rituals—covering classifications such as blessing, exorcism, funeral, and divination rites, oral scriptures, deity genealogies, sacrificial dances, and life-prolonging ceremonies, drawing on scholars like Yang Fuquan, Bao Jiang, Shen Yufei, and Zhang Jueyao; and (2) concepts of the soul and ancestor worship, rooted in primitive beliefs about death, illness, and dreams. The article highlights how these studies illuminate Naxi ethnic character, cosmology, and social ethics.
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