Naxi people mostly live in the Naxi Autonomous County in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, while the rest live in Sichuan and Tibet. In the name Naxi (also spelled Nakhi), Na means 'senior' and honored and Xi means 'people'. In 2000, they were estimated to number over 300,000. The research paper 'Higher Levels of Neanderthal Ancestry in East Asians than in Europeans' (2013) discussed that the results of a study conducted by the Institute for Human Genetics showed that East Asian groups carried 40% more Neanderthal genes than modern Europeans. Among Eurasians it was shown that the Lahu and Naxi peoples are the closest living relatives of Neanderthal. Now, this doesn't mean I think they are modern-day Neanderthals; it simply gives what geneticists have said they have found in their DNA.
I'm very interested in the religion of ancient peoples in general but when I saw the 'art' of Dongba characters (shown below).
The Naxi say that originally the characters were written using bamboo pens and black ink made of ash.
I wanted to know more - and wondered if their Creation story and other stories found in what is called the Dongba Scripture could be found. It is said that the script was written around the 7th Century, but was it the result of writing down the oral traditions of the Naxi from ages past? The Dongba Scripture is read from right to left and is to be read orally, not silently. The Naxi have a creation myth that tells the story of how, after the heavens and the earth were separated, the people all came together to build the holy mountain Jjuqnalsheel’loq, which acted as an axis mundi, propping up the heavens. Once the mountain was completed, they used a giant iron chain to tie the sun to the left of the mountain and the moon to its right. Thus, in the Naxi cosmogony, the sun and moon rotate around the holy mountain, in between the sky and the earth, and these opening lines are a microcosm of the Naxi cosmogony:
“The stars shine bright in the sky
And today they shine brightest
The grass grows green on the earth
And today it grows greenest
The sun comes from the left, giving off its warmth
The moon comes from the right, giving off its light.”
Below is the part of the script that illustrates the above:
The three dots are the stars; the cross stands for 'to hang' (no doubt speaking of the stars); and below is the grass. The swastika means 'good luck' and we can see the sun and moon bestowing light on the two figures below. The Naxi believed that the creation of the world, etc. was accomplished by Nature and not by a god.
I'll relate the Naxi Creation Story in the next post - because it's rather long.
I'm very interested in the religion of ancient peoples in general but when I saw the 'art' of Dongba characters (shown below).
The Naxi say that originally the characters were written using bamboo pens and black ink made of ash.
I wanted to know more - and wondered if their Creation story and other stories found in what is called the Dongba Scripture could be found. It is said that the script was written around the 7th Century, but was it the result of writing down the oral traditions of the Naxi from ages past? The Dongba Scripture is read from right to left and is to be read orally, not silently. The Naxi have a creation myth that tells the story of how, after the heavens and the earth were separated, the people all came together to build the holy mountain Jjuqnalsheel’loq, which acted as an axis mundi, propping up the heavens. Once the mountain was completed, they used a giant iron chain to tie the sun to the left of the mountain and the moon to its right. Thus, in the Naxi cosmogony, the sun and moon rotate around the holy mountain, in between the sky and the earth, and these opening lines are a microcosm of the Naxi cosmogony:
“The stars shine bright in the sky
And today they shine brightest
The grass grows green on the earth
And today it grows greenest
The sun comes from the left, giving off its warmth
The moon comes from the right, giving off its light.”
Below is the part of the script that illustrates the above:
The three dots are the stars; the cross stands for 'to hang' (no doubt speaking of the stars); and below is the grass. The swastika means 'good luck' and we can see the sun and moon bestowing light on the two figures below. The Naxi believed that the creation of the world, etc. was accomplished by Nature and not by a god.
I'll relate the Naxi Creation Story in the next post - because it's rather long.