Working like an ant while living like a butterfly

I’m here in Lijiang working at the Dongba Culture Museum which highlights the regions Naxi people, their culture and religion: Dongba. An ethnic minority group they have lived in this area since the nomadic tribes began settling in 100AD. A main hub along the Tea Horse Caravan Route it became a major city of the western China. The Mu family ruled as chieftain of lijiang for 800 years until the emperor sent a Han governor in 1382.

The Dongba (priests of the Naxi’s religion) are the only ones who can read and write the Naxi pictographic language (the last one still in use). They also excel in chanting, dancing, divination, and the arts, including painting, sculpting and calligraphy. Although they work as farmers they are invited by communities and families in times of need to conduct sacrificial rituals. The major rituals include Worshipping the Heavens, Worshipping of Shu, the Nature God, and Worshiping the Wind Demons/rituals for suicides. These were once commonly performed after love suicides – when the feudal system was adopted and arranged marriages introduced many young couples chose to commit suicide together instead. It is believed that their souls were left wondering the earth and so this five day ritual is carried out to help them move on.

There were once nine brothers, who opened the sky and seven sisters, who opened the earth but the world was chaotic and there was a great flood. Only one brother survived but he had no was to repopulate the world, and so he went to the heavens to find a wife. He married the most beautiful goddess who had three eyes but she gave birth only to animals. And so it was he went back to the heavens to find another bride. This time his wife gave birth to three sons, a Tibetan, a Bai and a Naxi. They gave one the sky, one the earth, and the Naxi were left with the middle – and so they have always had to work hard, to build everything for themselves.

Still today you can see the hardworkingness of the Naxi people. The women do a lot of the manual labour and you see them in the fields or hunched over carrying corn stalks or wood on their backs. And yet they are some of the happiest people you will ever see! On a Friday afternoon you’ll always see them in the parks – playing tile games like mahjong, cards or just chatting. They love flowers and gardening, singing and dancing and picnicking. And so their neigbourhoods are always full of flowers and the sounds of music and laughter. 

Playing tile games in Black Dragon Pool Park