as continued.........!!


7. A dying person and a person who has just died

Beyond the hills I reached a quiet Naxi village beside Lugu Lake, and found there are a dying person and a person who has just died.

A dying person was the forty-seven year old breadwinner. He looked a tough guy, but a week ago suddenly collapsed by a stroke. Death was coming just around corner.

A small dongba performed a lot of kinds of rituals, but we did not expect immediate effect. As modern medical science gave up treatment, the family has to rely on a folk remedy.

At midnight I heard a shrill voice reverberated and broke the stillness of the night.

“Ata, lalou, ata, lalou”.

It means “Daddy, come back”. His daughter was calling his soul. His soul was lost, so if she fails to retrieve his soul, he never comes back.

A person who had just died was a sixty-three year old man. The funeral rituals performed by a dongba and Buddhist monks continued whole three days. In a sense it is a compromise between Buddhism and folk religion. But how and where on earth do they send the soul of the deceased?

8. The Funeral Rituals of the Naxi

In a space, at the same time, a Naxi dongba and Tibetan Buddhist monks (ethnically Moso) perform for the same purpose, sending the soul of the deceased. The dongba is called bubu, corrupted form of bonpo. They perform in the Bon-po style holding a shang (Bon-po’s bell) and worship Tiba-shala, corrupted form of Tonba Shenrab, the master of the Bon religion. So the rivalry of Buddhism and Bon has reappeared here.

I entered the house of the deceased and in the courtyard found a cow tied by a hemp rope. I traced the rope and was led behind the main room. The other end of the rope was connected with the corpse which was put in the pit.

After a while the cow was dragged out to an empty lot and slaughtered. People believe that the cow is accompanied by him and is paid to officials as a bribe. While it was slaughtered, the bereaved family made a coffin and painted on the four sides. One of the four pictures painted is the portrait of the deceased.

The monks set up an altar hanging some thankas on the second floor of the stable. After reciting, they came to the main room and sat around the hearth on the higher floor. Then the dongba entered the room and stand on the lower floor reciting the dongba texts. These two performances are completely independent.

After the monks went back to their village, the dongba danced the special animal dance. He looked possessed by spirits and the atmosphere was spooky. And then young people went outside to courtyard, and danced around the fire with paper hats and holding paper swords.

Next morning the ritual of washing horses was held. Several horses decorated with papers of five colors were tethered on the shore of the Lugu Lake surrounded by onlookers, and the dongba and his two assistants (young apprentices) beat the drums and made people wait for the great moment. One of the horses suddenly began trembling. The shouts of joy arose from the people. It was the sign the deceased rode on the horseback. According to Yang Fu-quan, this ritual is the vestige of horse sacrifice on the basis of the Dunhuang documents. Probably it uses to be a custom of the ancient Tibeto-Burman peoples.

In the morning of the final day the funeral procession left the village for the cremation place on the foot of Mt Shizi (lion) or Mt Gumu (local goddess), a few kilometers away. All of the women fell down on the ground weeping because they were not allowed to join the cremation. The other people went on holding the house-like coffin and a long white hemp cloth on the shoulders. The monks were waiting for the procession at the cremation place and began drawing a mandala using colorful sand. This day dongbas did not join the rituals. In Lijiang area dongbas do everything, but here, performances are shared between dongbas and monks. The monks put the nine layered pyres on a mandala drawn on the ground, and the bereaved family and relatives moved the corpse in it. The deceased man bounded by a white cloth, in a posture of embryo, looked mummy. The monks had set an altar on the ground, recited prayers, and performed the Homa ritual. And a monk ignited the pyre and it flared up.

9. The Funeral Tells

After the man breathed a last breath, the bereaved family put a silver coin in his mouth. I found similar customs in the Tujia, Pumi, Hani, Lisu, Yi, Achang, Bai, Limbu, Magar, and so on. Actually it seems this custom came from far west. In ancient Greece and Rome coins were put under the tongue of the dead for the deceased must pay to the ferryman at the Styx River going to the Hades, the other world. In Central Asia and India also this custom was seen. (Kotani 1989)

Sheep is very important for the Tibeto-Burman peoples. Especially for the Qiang, if one dies, a sheep must be slaughtered. The sheep of guidance is called La-par-sar-ma-tchi in Qiang language. A male sheep for man, a female sheep for woman is prepared. The blood flowing down is received in a cup and infiltrated into straw grass. The priest daubs grass containing blood on the left (right) palm of the male (female) deceased. He noticed that a sheep guides him to the other world.

The sacrifice of sheep is important also for the Pumi. The traditional funeral ritual is called rangpi which is divided into three; 1) rangpi (offering sheep) 2) guidance for the soul of the deceased 3) burial

First of all they choose white sheep (male for men, female for women), and purify them by pure water from spring and smoke from burning juniper. The Sipi (priest) urge the sheep into the room of the dead. The bereaved families make sheep drink wine and slaughter them. They collect the heart and lever of sheep and thirteen pieces of bones, and put them in a hemp bag and make offering to the dead man who is estimated to ride on horseback. The Sipi send the soul, reciting the journey to the other world. After burial, they take hearts and levers from the bag and put these on the rod, and erect the rod on the tomb. If these are eaten by bird, they believe, it is auspicious. If not, it is ominous and brings disaster.

Some of the Yi and Naxi still have the sacrificial rites of sheep, but in the south of Yunnan it is difficult to get sheep and have changed its custom. They go a long way to buy sheep, otherwise use goats, cows, pigs, or chickens instead.


10. The Route Found by Li Lin-tsan

While Joseph Rock (1884 - 1962) is the best scholar on the Naxi study from the West, Li Lin-tsan (1913 - 1999) is chosen from the other side. He was born in Henan Province, moved to Taiwan, and lived in comfort in Canada for the rest of his days. One of his major contributions is the finding of the routes of the soul. He showed two texts of the welcoming of ancestors and funeral rituals have routes of the soul and these are also migratory routes. These two routes are just in reverse order.

There are 102 place names in the text he found. The first is the Bai-luo village the deceased lived. And then the soul goes to a cave, under a big tree, the temple, hills, rivers, villages, and so on. We can not identify these names with real places, because descriptions are too much in detail.

The last five names are interesting.

Li Lin-tsan identified Mu-ru-to-ku-pur and Mu-ru-tsi-ko-zu with Muli, and so concluded that Mu-ru-shu-dzi-zu is the Wu-liang-he River and Ju-na-rua-rua is Mt Gongga (Gangs dKar).

As mentioned already, in this area many names contain ‘mu’ and the soul is almost reaching the celestial sphere. Li Li-tsan himself heard from a monk of the nyingmapa order that Ju-na-rua-rua is Guru Tise, Mt Kailash.

Probably Ju-na-rua-rua is identical with Mt Sumer. Juna, yina, or yuna means a big mountain (in Naxi, Namuyi, or Baima), and rua-rua may be from ri-rab (Sumer in Tibetan). Mt Kailash had been regarded Mt Sumer in India since ancient time.