Ancestral origins
"The Long Road of Searching for Ancestors: An Investigation into the Ancestral Culture of the Na People"
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Pictured: Expedition team at the foot of Mount Kailash (taken in 2016)
Where am I from? Where to go? An eternal question prompts people of all nationalities to think about a question of finding roots, and also enables people to remember their ancestors, recall the history of the nation, record the course of national development and change, and think about the future of the nation. Cautiously chasing the distant and respecting the heavens and the ancestors is an excellent tradition of the Na people, this book is a long-distance investigation record that lasted 56 days and traveled 25,000 miles.
Where am I from? Where to go? An eternal question prompts people of all nationalities to think about a question of finding roots, and also enables people to remember their ancestors, recall the history of the nation, record the course of national development and change, and think about the future of the nation.
Respecting the ancestors of heaven and respecting the ancestors is one of the cores of the Na people's culture. The Na people call themselves "Naq xi mee biuq sso" and identify themselves as "naq xi mee biuq sso" as "nashi is the one who sacrifices to heaven." The biggest ritual sacrifice of Dongba religion is actually both the sacrifice of heaven and the earth and the worship of ancestors. It is an ancient ritual that combines the complex of nature worship and ancestor worship.
Note: The use of the word "Naren" in the text is based on the following considerations, the first is that the "West" in the "Naxi" of the Naxi people is the meaning of people, and the Naxi is the Na people; in addition, in addition to the Naxi people in Lijiang, Yunnan, Diqing River, Sichuan Muli Andya and other places call themselves "Naxi", there are also people who call themselves "Na", "Nahai", "Naheng" and so on. Sichuan salt originates from the Mosuo people called "Na", although it is the same ethnic group as the "Na" (Mosuo) in Ninglang, Yunnan, but it is classified as Mongolian in ethnic identification. The content of this book involves all these homologous Na people, so the title of "Na Ren" is used, which is recognized by all branches and ethnic groups.
The gods of heaven and earth are husband and wife, and the daughter of the god of heaven, Lin heng baimi, is the national first grandmother recognized by the whole people, and the first grandfather is Chongren Lien, a man from the earth. The two of them met under a plum tree at the junction of black and white, and the two fell in love at first sight. Although the daughter of the gods, Heng Bao Baimi, was promised by her parents to her uncle's son, Mirokokoshi, she fell in love with Chongren Lien, so she transformed into a white crane and brought Chongren Lien back to heaven.
Chongren Lien proposed marriage to the gods, and with the help of Linheng Baimi, he overcame all the difficulties of the old Apu of the gods, and finally successfully married Linheng Baimi and migrated back to the human world. This Naxi "Genesis" records that in the Naxi people's holy texts written in pictorial hieroglyphs, "Chongbantu" and "Chongbanshao" (the origin of human migration), generations of Na people, at the beginning of the new year, solemnly and solemnly held a ceremony to sacrifice the heavens, and the Dongba priests recited the sacred scripture "Chongbanshao", recalling the migration and entrepreneurial history of the ancestors, that is, educating their fellow people in national traditions, remembering where I came from and where I went. The Na people believe that after people die, they must return to the ancestral land, and they must send the souls of the dead back to the ancestral land with high mountains and rivers.
The Naxi people are a small ethnic group with a population of only more than 300,000, but because they have created the Dongba culture with pictorial pictographs as the carrier, and are good at widely adopting the multiculturalism of Bona, they have formed an inclusive but distinctive culture, so they have received widespread attention at home and abroad, and Naxue has also become an international prominent science.
The Naxi people originated from the ancient Qiang people who distributed in the Huangshui and Yellow River basins of Qinghai, Gansu, and gradually migrated to the places where they are now distributed, living and dispersing in the junction of Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet.
The Naxi people living in different places have different names: the Na people living in Yulong Naxi Autonomous County, Gucheng District, Weixi Lisu Autonomous County, Yongsheng County, and Muli Tibetan Autonomous County in Sichuan Province, Oya, Yanyuan County, Dazu, and other places call themselves "Naq xi", and the Na people living in Yongning, Cuiyi, Ninglang County, Yunnan Province, and the Yalong River Basin in Yanyuan County, Muli County, Sichuan Province, and the Na people on the banks of Lugu Lake in Muli County call themselves "Naq" (naq ssee, or transliteration "Naru") In addition, a small number of people who call themselves "Naq hi" (Naq hi) in Sanba Township, Shangri-La County, Yunnan Province; and a few who call themselves "Ma Lil Ma Sa" (living in Weixi County) and "Lulu" (lvl lv, also transliterated as "Lulu", living in Tacheng, Ludian and other places in Lijiang City).
Among the above titles, Naxi, Nari, Nahan and Naheng are the majority, especially those who call themselves Naxi account for five-sixths of the total Naxi population, so with the approval of the State Council, the naxi was officially designated as the Naxi in 1954. The word "Na" has the meaning of "big", "magnificent", "vast", "black", "Hessen", "black pressure", etc., "west", "day", "khan", etc. all mean "people". Naxi also means "Naren", and "Na" is the most basic root of the family.
I have been to many areas where the Na people are distributed in Yunnan, but I have not yet participated in a collective expedition to investigate the residences, migration routes and current settlements of the ancestors of the Na people. The origin of this expedition must start from the initiative with Mr. Changhong.
and Mr. Changhong
Mr. He Changhong is an excellent private entrepreneur of the Naxi ethnic group, in the early 1990s, he used the Yulong Snow Mountain under the Hongqing Spring, began to start a business, promote cultural and ecological tourism, after years of perseverance, the cause gradually developed and grown, its operation of Lijiang Yushuizhai Scenic Area won the title of national 4A level tourist scenic spot, in 2011, Yushuizhai Scenic Area was also identified by the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Tourism Administration as "National Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism Demonstration Point". In 2013, Yushuizhai was identified as "Yunnan Famous Trademark". In 2014, Hechanghong was awarded the title of "Sixth National Model Individual of National Unity and Progress" by the State Council.
What impressed me the most was the spirit of repaying the society with Changhong and the deep feelings for my own nation.
The most national characteristics, cultural value and international popularity of the Naxi people is the Dongba culture, so he chose to create a Dongba cultural heritage base, cultivate the dongba culture, and promote the protection and inheritance of the dongba culture in the countryside. Due to the changes in social life alone, the inheritance of Dongba culture in the countryside and the cultivation of Dongba people are facing many difficulties, and Dongba is forced to make a living, and it is difficult to carry out the inheritance of Dongba culture quietly. He Changhong took out money to establish the Dongba Cultural Heritage School, vigorously supported the Dongba cultural inheritance in various villages, set up several Dongba cultural heritage sites in various villages and towns in Lijiang City, and allocated more than one million yuan every year to support the holding of the "Dongba Meeting" to worship the ancestors of the Dongba sect and exchange experience in the inheritance of Dongba culture in various places.
Cautiously pursuing the distant and respecting the ancestors of heaven and the ancestors is the excellent tradition of the Naxi people, and Mr. Changhong has always been interested in building a "ancestral ancestral shrine" to inspire the Naxi people to remember the history of the ancestors who braved the wind and rain, cut through thorns and thorns, and made meritorious achievements through hardships and indomitable national spirit, so that today's people and future generations can remember the history of the matriarch. He talked to me about this idea and plan, hoping that I would also participate in this expedition group set up to build ancestral shrines.
Although the trip was long, I also had to reach places such as Ali and Tanggula Mountains in Tibet with an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters, but considering the significance and value of this trip, I gladly agreed. In this way, I became the oldest of the three expeditions.
Since December 2016, Yushuizhai has funded and organized more than a dozen Naxi scholars from Beijing, Kunming, Chengdu, Muli and Lijiang to form an expedition team of "Naxi Ancestral Culture Traceability and Collection of Five Elements sacred relics", which went to the ancestral residences of the Naxi people in the four provinces of Yunnan, Tibet and Qingdao and the areas closely related to the traditional culture of the Naxi people for a total of 56 days, traveling 25,000 miles, and retrieving the five elements of wood, fire, earth, iron and water that are crucial in the Naxi people's cosmology and life concept. This trip made me deeply feel the culture of the Ancestors of the Naxi People and the hardships of their ancestors' entrepreneurship.
The three expeditions mainly have the following contents: First, it is to investigate the areas where the Tibetans in Yunnan Chuan are more concentrated outside the ancient city area of Lijiang City and Yulong County, such as Bamei in Deqin County, Diqing Prefecture, Pantiange in Weixi County, Russia and Asia in Muli County, Sichuan Province, and Yanjing in Mangkang County, Tibet. The second is to investigate historical places along the general route of the ancestors of the Na people migrating from the Ganqing River (Yellow River) Huangshui (Huangshui) basin in history, such as the Yellow River and Huangshui River Basin, the Dadu River, the Yalong River, the Jinsha River, the Lancang River Basin, etc.; third, to investigate some places that are closely related to the source of the Na people's belief culture and mythological epics, such as Ali's Kailash Sacred Mountain, Mapun Yongcuo Lake, Qinghai Lake, as well as Qinghai's Anima Qing Mountain, Sichuan's Gongga Mountain, etc., these sacred mountains and naxi people's Gunashro Sacred Mountain, The Belief in lake Melidaghi is closely related. Fourth, the expedition team also went to some places in Lijiang City that few people had investigated in the past, such as the Amin LingDong in Runanhua in Yulong County, and the "Yuan Cross Ge Nang" at the junction of FengkeLabo in Yulong County and Ninglang County. Fifth, this trip also went to the area inhabited by the Lugu Hu na people (Mosuo), although due to some historical reasons, the Na (Mosuo) in Yunnan was identified as the Naxi ethnic group, and the Na (Mosuo) in Sichuan was identified as the Mongolian ethnic group, but all the Na are homologous and heterogeneous ethnic groups, and the place of soul return is the same "ancestral land", and it is very necessary and important to trace and study the history and culture of these ethnic groups.
In the current wave of global integration, ethnic minority cultures are facing many challenges, the mother tongue is gradually declining among the younger generation, and the traditional cultural memory is facing loss. The ancestors of the matriarchal family have made unremitting efforts to improve themselves under arduous historical conditions, and the spirit of hard work and entrepreneurship needs to be constantly re-warmed and inspired to be born, the road that the matriarchal ancestors have gone through through hardships needs to be understood, and the roots of the matriarchy need to be traced. This long-distance investigation across the four provinces and regions is also a cultural journey to find roots, the big rivers are still rushing, and many of the places where the Na people have migrated or lived have no trace of the Na people, and the Na people in some places have lost their mother tongue, but there are also many Na people who are far away from the core residential areas of the current Na people, but still adhere to their own culture and mother tongue, and try their best to continue and inherit their matriarchal culture. Along the way, we have a lot of emotions and emotions!
On January 27, 2018, the foundation laying ceremony of the Naren (Naxi) Ancestral Ancestral Ancestral Shrine and the Ancestral Worship Culture Symposium were held at the Naxi Cultural Heritage Base in Xinshan Village, Baisha Town, Yulong County, Lijiang City. Presided over by the highly respected old Dongba Yang Wenjie, we took out the five elements of wood, fire, earth, and molten iron from the hall dedicated to the ancestor of the Dongba Sect, Dong Bashro, and the distant ancestors of the Na people, Chongren Lien and Linheng Baimi. The location of the ancestral shrine was chosen on a hillside under the western foothills of Yulong Xueshan Mountain, and a circular earth pit had been dug in advance, and a dark brown stone was placed in the earth kang, on which was painted the "Golden Frog Metamorphosis Five Elements Diagram", that is, the Jingwei Five Elements Diagram, on which five clay pots were placed in the direction of the east, west, south, and north. In the chanting of the ceremony, the Dongba people put the five elements we retrieved into the clay pots one by one, and at this moment, our hearts are full of sacred feelings, which is also the first time that the five elements sacred relics taken from the four provinces of Yunnan, Tibet and Qingdao have been gathered under the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, symbolizing the identity, cohesion, unity and hope for the future of the People of Yunnan.
Here, it is planned to use the power of the people to build an ancestral shrine for the Na people, and to worship the ancestors of the various branches of the Na people. We envisage that in the future, this ancestral shrine should also be developed into a "Pantheon", and the deeds of the outstanding people of the Na people from generation to generation should also be displayed and introduced in the shrine, so as to inspire future generations to learn from these sages. Words, images, paintings, sculptures and other ways can be used to introduce the deeds of ancestors and sages, making this ancestral shrine a sacred place that unites people's hearts.
I can't help but sing with emotion:
Drive twenty-five thousand miles to search for the ancestral moon and clouds.
The ancestral shrine laid the foundation under the snowy mountain, and cautiously pursued the ancestors.
The five elements of holy relics are the foundation, and the priests pray for blessings to welcome the ancestral souls.
The western foothills of the Jade Dragon built an ancestral shrine and prayed for the return of the people.
The pioneers worked hard to start a business, and the shrine was built to forge ahead for future generations.
Yang Fuquan
In May 2018, it was under the Yulong Snow Mountain
Salt pan in Yanjing Naxi Nationality Township, Mangkang County, Tibet