Posted by: JPEG May 14, 2009
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As continued..............!
4. Sky-worship and Mu
When I visited a remote Naxi village, the villagers lamented the loss of the ritual for heaven, and the revival was a burning question. They were called ‘naxi-mupu-zo’, that is, the Naxi people are sky-worshipers. Although there is only one village beside Bai-shui-tai performing the rituals except the Dongba Institute, all the people know how important it is.
Sky-worshipers are not only the Naxi, but also the Qiang, Yi, Lahu, Hani, and the Tibetan. Most of these people call sky or heaven ‘mu’ or words including ‘mu’.
Therefore mu appearing in Tibetan documents may mean heaven. For example, mu-tak (dMu thag) was the rope linking heaven and earth, and by using it the seven Tibetan kings from Nyatri-tsanpo, the first king, could go back to heaven after death. ‘Mu’ (dMu or rMu) is one of the four clans in ancient Tibet and may be heaven worshippers. The holy mountain Murdo (rMu-rdo) in Kham (western Sichuan) especially for Bon-po may be related to heaven. Murge (dMu dge) is also a well-known place near Song-pan. We find a lot of place-names including ‘mu’ in the southeast of Tibet.
The journey of the soul to the resting place of the Naxi collected by Li Li-tsan (1984) shows several stopovers before the final place include ‘mu’.
Mulu-tokupua (Muli County) → Mulu-chikoru → Mulu-shujizu (Wu-liang River) → Junarualua (final place)
Those places exist in this real world, and same time, exist in the ‘mu’ heaven of the other world.
After the invasion of the Mongol troops in the thirteenth century, the Mu clan got the Lijiang area under its control supported by the Mongol. Why Mu Tusi (provincial chief) chose the name mu, wood in Chinese. In the concept of the five elements, wood defeats water, and fire defeats wood. I suppose there was an implication; metal (Jin Dynasty) was defeated by water (Mongol) and water is defeated by wood (Mu), if they had ambition.
Anyway, mu implied heaven. Mu Tian Wang, the king of heaven, whom people called, must have been heaven worshippers. And Moso, historical name for the Naxi, consists of mo (mu) and so (people). Most of the Tibeto-Burman peoples including the Limbu and Gurung in Nepal are heaven worshippers.
In the Dunhuang documents there is an important one. A messenger from Pya was sent to the country of Mu (dMu). The messenger left Tsang-mad (rTsang rmad), but lost the way. He reached the country of demon (Srin), and was told to go to southeast. While Zuiho Yamaguchi regards Mu as having been in the West Tibet, some Chinese scholars insist it was located in the southeast of Tibet. As mentioned above, we find a lot of ‘mu’ in eastern Tibet, but not in western and central Tibet. The Limbu shamans in eastern Nepal say Mu-den (the area of Mu) means Tibet, that is, eastern Tibet. It is possible the Mu country is located in eastern and south-eastern Tibet.
5. The Mysterious Dichotomy of Black and White
There is a dichotomy of black and white in the northwest and southwest of China. Most of the Tibeto-Burman peoples are classified black or white. And in Liang Shan, southern Sichuan, the ruling class was the Black Yi and the ruled class was the White Yi before 1956. At the same time there were many White Yi villages and Black Yi villages in Yunnan. What does it mean?
Recently I met an old scholar, Chen Zong-xiang, who has studied about this. According to him, White People are the sheep-worshippers whom the Jingpo, Dulong, Kelao, Pumi, Bai, Piao (Bama, ancient Burmese) belong to, and Black People are the Cow-worshippers whom the Monpa, Achang, Lahu, Lisu, Hani, Nu, Naxi, Yi belong to.
This dichotomy associates me with Levi-strauss’ dual organization. He found it among tribes in North America, South America, and Melanesia. Like this, we find dual organization in bigger scale. For example, the rival of the Naxi had been the Pumi and very often there were conflictions between them. As the Pumi worshipped white and selected the white side, the Naxi took the black side. Actually they are not black-worshippers, but white-worshippers.
Looking at the history of Central Asia, we can find names of some countries with ‘kara’ like Kara Kitai or Kara Khan. Kara means black and also great. In this sense, Naxi means na (black) xi (people), and same time na (great) xi (people).
How about the well-known myth of the Naxi ‘The Battle between Black and White’? Japanese scholar Tetsuro Suwa regarded black as nomads and white as peasants, and the Naxi scholar Hoo Shi-hua blamed at it. He claims that the original story is the battle between white (Shang Dynasty) and black (Xia Dynasty).
I agree to the dominant opinion of western scholars. This myth is from the cosmogony of the Bon religion, which is from the cosmogony of the Persian religions like Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. Both of myths begin with cosmic eggs, black egg and white egg. And both prefer the number 365. Black and white is not darkness and light.
The dongbas use this text when they treat patients or prevent disaster. It associates the modern treatment, the remedy of meditation. The procedure is to visualize the immune system and then to imagine white blood cells searching through the body to attack the cancer cells. Another method is to visualize white dogs consuming the cancer cells. (Kapleau 1989) Like this, in the imagination of a patient white defeats black, and this victory brings cure.
The Qiang have a story of the battle between the black god and the white god. Sipi (shaman) sings; the white god is good, the black god is evil. The black god asks, “What are you doing” The white god answers, “People need me. With me, everybody will be rich and happy. By the way, what are you doing?” “I made a deal with a demon and keep company with a devil. I brought disasters to people; married couples quarrel, wife and mother-in-law conflict, and many cattle die by epidemics.” “Oh, it’s you that caused disaster.”
Then the white god defeats the black god. It is the decided plot. At every ritual good defeats evil, and disaster and sickness are removed.
6. The Holy Number 9 for Men and 7 for Women
Every people have holy or lucky number. But the case each sex has a fortune number is very rare. All of the Tibeto-Burman peoples in China have such numbers 9 for men and 7 for women. For example, at a Naxi village at cremation the corpse is put in the pyre made of nine (for men) or seven (for women) tiered piles. If the deceased is man (woman), the bereaved families circumambulate the pyre nine (seven) times. Nine (seven) flags for the male (female) deceased are erected on the tomb mound. Nine (seven) chunks of meat are offered for the male (female) ancestors. Like this, we find the combination of 9 and 7 everywhere.
First of all we should check the custom of Han Chinese. The significant numbers of the funeral rituals are 9, 7, 5, and 3. According to the ‘Liji’ (The Book of Manner), the length of the flag for emperor on the tomb is 9 feet, for lords 7 feet, for higher officials 5 feet, and for lower officials 3 feet. Rice put into the mouth of the deceased is the same ratio. So the ratio of emperor to lord is man to woman. It is the typical discriminatory way of Confucianism.
We find similar concept in the Mongol. While the Nu (Tibeto-Burman) express ‘the nine heavens, the seven earths’, the Mongol prefer ‘the ninety-nine heavens, the seventy-seven earths’. Some of the Tibeto-Burman peoples prefer 99 and 77. The Moso recite, “On the heavens there are 99 gods, on the earths 77 humans” “Going through 77 rock caves and 99 forests”. (Namu-Gatusa 1999)
These numbers may be connected with the biorhythm found in the beginning of 20th century. There are emotional (female) cycle of 28 days and physical (male) cycle of 23 days. That time the ratio of still babies of boy to girl was almost 28 to 23. But we do not know what this ratio means except the period of the moon influential over women. Anyway, this ratio is close to the ratio of 9 to 7.
Recently I found there are these numbers in Nepal. At the funeral rituals the Tamu (officially Gurung) prefer the number 9 for men and 7 for women. The bereaved family put a bundle of nine (seven) threads on the neck of the male (female) deceased. They have nine male ancestors and seven female ancestors. In the holy place there are seven lakes surrounded by nine mountains. Apparently mountain represents man and lake represents woman.
To be continued...........!
4. Sky-worship and Mu
When I visited a remote Naxi village, the villagers lamented the loss of the ritual for heaven, and the revival was a burning question. They were called ‘naxi-mupu-zo’, that is, the Naxi people are sky-worshipers. Although there is only one village beside Bai-shui-tai performing the rituals except the Dongba Institute, all the people know how important it is.
Sky-worshipers are not only the Naxi, but also the Qiang, Yi, Lahu, Hani, and the Tibetan. Most of these people call sky or heaven ‘mu’ or words including ‘mu’.
Therefore mu appearing in Tibetan documents may mean heaven. For example, mu-tak (dMu thag) was the rope linking heaven and earth, and by using it the seven Tibetan kings from Nyatri-tsanpo, the first king, could go back to heaven after death. ‘Mu’ (dMu or rMu) is one of the four clans in ancient Tibet and may be heaven worshippers. The holy mountain Murdo (rMu-rdo) in Kham (western Sichuan) especially for Bon-po may be related to heaven. Murge (dMu dge) is also a well-known place near Song-pan. We find a lot of place-names including ‘mu’ in the southeast of Tibet.
The journey of the soul to the resting place of the Naxi collected by Li Li-tsan (1984) shows several stopovers before the final place include ‘mu’.
Mulu-tokupua (Muli County) → Mulu-chikoru → Mulu-shujizu (Wu-liang River) → Junarualua (final place)
Those places exist in this real world, and same time, exist in the ‘mu’ heaven of the other world.
After the invasion of the Mongol troops in the thirteenth century, the Mu clan got the Lijiang area under its control supported by the Mongol. Why Mu Tusi (provincial chief) chose the name mu, wood in Chinese. In the concept of the five elements, wood defeats water, and fire defeats wood. I suppose there was an implication; metal (Jin Dynasty) was defeated by water (Mongol) and water is defeated by wood (Mu), if they had ambition.
Anyway, mu implied heaven. Mu Tian Wang, the king of heaven, whom people called, must have been heaven worshippers. And Moso, historical name for the Naxi, consists of mo (mu) and so (people). Most of the Tibeto-Burman peoples including the Limbu and Gurung in Nepal are heaven worshippers.
In the Dunhuang documents there is an important one. A messenger from Pya was sent to the country of Mu (dMu). The messenger left Tsang-mad (rTsang rmad), but lost the way. He reached the country of demon (Srin), and was told to go to southeast. While Zuiho Yamaguchi regards Mu as having been in the West Tibet, some Chinese scholars insist it was located in the southeast of Tibet. As mentioned above, we find a lot of ‘mu’ in eastern Tibet, but not in western and central Tibet. The Limbu shamans in eastern Nepal say Mu-den (the area of Mu) means Tibet, that is, eastern Tibet. It is possible the Mu country is located in eastern and south-eastern Tibet.
5. The Mysterious Dichotomy of Black and White
There is a dichotomy of black and white in the northwest and southwest of China. Most of the Tibeto-Burman peoples are classified black or white. And in Liang Shan, southern Sichuan, the ruling class was the Black Yi and the ruled class was the White Yi before 1956. At the same time there were many White Yi villages and Black Yi villages in Yunnan. What does it mean?
Recently I met an old scholar, Chen Zong-xiang, who has studied about this. According to him, White People are the sheep-worshippers whom the Jingpo, Dulong, Kelao, Pumi, Bai, Piao (Bama, ancient Burmese) belong to, and Black People are the Cow-worshippers whom the Monpa, Achang, Lahu, Lisu, Hani, Nu, Naxi, Yi belong to.
This dichotomy associates me with Levi-strauss’ dual organization. He found it among tribes in North America, South America, and Melanesia. Like this, we find dual organization in bigger scale. For example, the rival of the Naxi had been the Pumi and very often there were conflictions between them. As the Pumi worshipped white and selected the white side, the Naxi took the black side. Actually they are not black-worshippers, but white-worshippers.
Looking at the history of Central Asia, we can find names of some countries with ‘kara’ like Kara Kitai or Kara Khan. Kara means black and also great. In this sense, Naxi means na (black) xi (people), and same time na (great) xi (people).
How about the well-known myth of the Naxi ‘The Battle between Black and White’? Japanese scholar Tetsuro Suwa regarded black as nomads and white as peasants, and the Naxi scholar Hoo Shi-hua blamed at it. He claims that the original story is the battle between white (Shang Dynasty) and black (Xia Dynasty).
I agree to the dominant opinion of western scholars. This myth is from the cosmogony of the Bon religion, which is from the cosmogony of the Persian religions like Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. Both of myths begin with cosmic eggs, black egg and white egg. And both prefer the number 365. Black and white is not darkness and light.
The dongbas use this text when they treat patients or prevent disaster. It associates the modern treatment, the remedy of meditation. The procedure is to visualize the immune system and then to imagine white blood cells searching through the body to attack the cancer cells. Another method is to visualize white dogs consuming the cancer cells. (Kapleau 1989) Like this, in the imagination of a patient white defeats black, and this victory brings cure.
The Qiang have a story of the battle between the black god and the white god. Sipi (shaman) sings; the white god is good, the black god is evil. The black god asks, “What are you doing” The white god answers, “People need me. With me, everybody will be rich and happy. By the way, what are you doing?” “I made a deal with a demon and keep company with a devil. I brought disasters to people; married couples quarrel, wife and mother-in-law conflict, and many cattle die by epidemics.” “Oh, it’s you that caused disaster.”
Then the white god defeats the black god. It is the decided plot. At every ritual good defeats evil, and disaster and sickness are removed.
6. The Holy Number 9 for Men and 7 for Women
Every people have holy or lucky number. But the case each sex has a fortune number is very rare. All of the Tibeto-Burman peoples in China have such numbers 9 for men and 7 for women. For example, at a Naxi village at cremation the corpse is put in the pyre made of nine (for men) or seven (for women) tiered piles. If the deceased is man (woman), the bereaved families circumambulate the pyre nine (seven) times. Nine (seven) flags for the male (female) deceased are erected on the tomb mound. Nine (seven) chunks of meat are offered for the male (female) ancestors. Like this, we find the combination of 9 and 7 everywhere.
First of all we should check the custom of Han Chinese. The significant numbers of the funeral rituals are 9, 7, 5, and 3. According to the ‘Liji’ (The Book of Manner), the length of the flag for emperor on the tomb is 9 feet, for lords 7 feet, for higher officials 5 feet, and for lower officials 3 feet. Rice put into the mouth of the deceased is the same ratio. So the ratio of emperor to lord is man to woman. It is the typical discriminatory way of Confucianism.
We find similar concept in the Mongol. While the Nu (Tibeto-Burman) express ‘the nine heavens, the seven earths’, the Mongol prefer ‘the ninety-nine heavens, the seventy-seven earths’. Some of the Tibeto-Burman peoples prefer 99 and 77. The Moso recite, “On the heavens there are 99 gods, on the earths 77 humans” “Going through 77 rock caves and 99 forests”. (Namu-Gatusa 1999)
These numbers may be connected with the biorhythm found in the beginning of 20th century. There are emotional (female) cycle of 28 days and physical (male) cycle of 23 days. That time the ratio of still babies of boy to girl was almost 28 to 23. But we do not know what this ratio means except the period of the moon influential over women. Anyway, this ratio is close to the ratio of 9 to 7.
Recently I found there are these numbers in Nepal. At the funeral rituals the Tamu (officially Gurung) prefer the number 9 for men and 7 for women. The bereaved family put a bundle of nine (seven) threads on the neck of the male (female) deceased. They have nine male ancestors and seven female ancestors. In the holy place there are seven lakes surrounded by nine mountains. Apparently mountain represents man and lake represents woman.
To be continued...........!