The Dongba, Tomba or Tompa or Mo-so symbols are a system of pictographic glyphs used by the Dongba (Bon priests) of the Naxi people in southern China. In the Naxi language it is called ²ss ³dgyu 'wood records' or ²lv ³dgyu 'stone records'.He, 292 The first artifacts with this script on them originate from approximately 30 CE.
The glyphs may be used as for abstract words which do not have Glyph. Dongba is largely a mnemonic system, and cannot by itself represent the Naxi language; different authors may use the same glyphs with different meanings, and it may be supplemented with the geba syllabary for clarification.
Origin and development
| Facing pages of a Naxi manuscript, displaying both pictographic dongba and smaller syllabic geba |
The Dongba script appears to be an independent ancient writing system, though presumably it was created in the environment of older scripts. According to Dongba religious fables, the Dongba script was created by the founder of the Bön religious tradition of Tibet, Tönpa Shenrab (Tibetan: ston pa gshen rab) or Shenrab Miwo (Tibetan: gshen rab mi bo),He, 144 while traditional Naxi genealogies attribute the script to a 13th-century king named Móubǎo Āzōng.Ramsey, 268 From Chinese historical documents, it is clear that Dongba was used as early as the 7th century, during the early Tang dynasty. By the Song dynasty in the 10th century, Dongba was widely used by the Nakhi people people. It continues to be used in certain areas; thus, it is the only pictographic writing system in the world still actively maintained.
Chinese historical documents referred to Naxi 納西 as Mosuo or Moso (麽些 mósuò, "tiny little"), The Dongba script was called Les Mo-So: Ethnographie des Mo-so Écriture by Jacques Bacot on 1913. Dongba means Priest.
After the conclusion of the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, the use of Dongba was discouraged.
In 1957, the Chinese government implemented a Latin-based phonographic writing system for Naxi.He, 313
During the Cultural Revolution, thousands of manuscripts were destroyed. Paper and cloth writings were boiled into construction paste for building houses. About half of the Dongba manuscripts that survive today had been taken from China to the United States, Germany and Spain.
Today Dongba is nearly extinct, and the Chinese government is trying to revive it in an attempt to preserve Naxi culture.
Usage
The script is also present in modern settings, especially in the Ancient City of Lijiang, where tourists may see Dongba used alongside Chinese and English on business signs and public spaces. This usage emphasizes its role as a cultural symbol that represents the Naxi people's heritage.
Today, Dongba continues to be used in religious contexts, such as ceremonial chants and rituals, while also appearing in artistic and commercial forms. Dongba symbols are incorporated into local crafts, souvenirs, and artwork, providing a visual link to Naxi cultural identity. This integration supports its visibility and contributes to local cultural tourism.
Structure and form
Examples of Dongba rebus include using a picture of two eyes (myə3) to represent fate (myə3), a rice bowl for both xa2 'food' and xa2 'sleep', and a picture of a Nemorhaedus (se3) stands in for an aspectual particle. It has two variants (玛里玛莎文) and / (阮坷文).
Writing media and tools
See also
- XU Duoduo. (2015). A Comparison of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions Between Dabaism and Dongbaism. «Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies», 3 (2015) 2: 61-81 (links: 1. academia.edu; 2. Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies);
External links
- Edongba Input Dongba hieroglyphs and Geba symbols.
- Dr. Richard S. Cook, Naxi Pictographic and Syllabographic Scripts: Research notes toward a Unicode encoding of Naxi
- Lawrence Lo, Ancient Scripts: Naxi
- 建立东巴文象形字典语料库的构想
- 我们将会更加了解东巴文字
- 云南民族出版社
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