Exploring the True Meaning of the World Memory Heritage under the Snow Mountain —— Interview with Lijiang Dongba Cultural Research Institute

Dayan Ancient Town in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, located under Yulong Snow Mountain, as a world cultural heritage, attracts a large number of tourists from home and abroad every year. When people from all over the world and different cultures come here, they will be attracted by the magical Naxi culture. Especially when visiting Old Town of Lijiang, you can see road signs, propaganda slogans written in Dongba characters, the Naxi world memory heritage, and cultural and creative products made by Dongba.

Dongba is very old and difficult for ordinary people to understand. However, there is such a professional organization that has been quietly conducting special research for decades.

Through the Black Dragon Pool Park in Lijiang, we walked into the Dongba Cultural Research Institute in Lijiang, which is surrounded by mountains and rivers and covered by green trees. Li Dejing, dean of Naxi nationality, greeted us at the door early.

"Dongba" is a "wise man" who combines witchcraft, medicine, art and craft in Lijiang Naxi mountain village and folk. They can not only write and draw, but also sing and dance, which permeates all aspects of Naxi people's lives. They are not only the main inheritors and advocates of Dongba culture, but also communicators and social and cultural people.

Dongba hieroglyphics, as the carrier of Dongba culture of Naxi nationality, is a writing symbol created by ancient ancestors of Naxi nationality and has been used to record Naxi language so far. The original painting characters are formed by pictographic, knowing and borrowing power. Naxi dialect calls Dongba characters "Silu", which means "wood marks and stone marks". When you see wood paintings, you can see stone paintings.

The research shows that there are 1500 kinds of ancient books (Dongba Sutra) written in Naxi Dongba hieroglyphics, reaching more than 30,000 volumes, among which History of Creation Poetry, Love Poetry, Lurao Poetry and War Poetry are famous, and the related research has now developed into an international discipline-Dongba Culturology.

Ren said: "Dongba ancient books and records recorded by Dongba culture are encyclopedias of ancient Naxi society, which record the animistic concept in primitive religion and the unique religious rituals of Dongba religion, and are of great artistic value to the study of primitive cultures such as religion and writing."

Mr. Ji Xianlin thinks: "Dongba literature is a document that records the origin of human beings and the relationship between man and nature with pictures and hieroglyphs."

After the founding of New China, the protection and research of Yunnan traditional culture has been highly valued and supported by governments at all levels. In the early 1960s, the then Lijiang County Committee allocated special funds, organized professionals, hired a group of Naxi scholars and Mr. Dongba, and set up Dongba Classic Translation Group in the county cultural center to collect, sort out and translate Dongba cultural ancient books.

198 1 year, in order to rescue and study the Dongba culture of Naxi nationality in time, the Dongba Culture Research Office was established with the approval of Yunnan Provincial Party Committee. 199 1 year was changed to Dongba Culture Institute of Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, and in 2004 it was changed to Lijiang Dongba Culture Institute, and the brand of Lijiang Branch of Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences was added. The main responsibility is to rescue and scientifically study the Dongba culture of Naxi nationality.

Li Dejing said that over the years, the institute has overcome many difficulties such as insufficient manpower and funds, and has mainly done research on the collation of Dongba classics, the inheritance and protection of Dongba culture, and the research on Dongba literature and art, and achieved remarkable results.

The most outstanding achievement is to save Naxi Dongba culture. The Institute has compiled and published the complete works of Naxi Dongba ancient books 100, the Yanjing Society of Harvard University has collected Naxi Dongba classics 1-6, and Naxi Dongba ancient books 1-3. In 2003, Dongba ancient books successfully declared the world memory heritage. In 2009, four Dongba ancient books were selected into the first batch of national precious ancient books list, and the Naxi volume of China ancient books was completed, becoming the first minority to complete the project.

Since 2002, the Institute has cooperated with the School of Ethnic Culture of Yunnan University for Nationalities, and jointly established a master's degree authorization point of "China Minority Languages and Literature" with the School of Literature of Southwest Normal University, which has enabled Dongba culture to enter the university hall and explored a feasible way for the inheritance and education of national culture.

At the same time, the college has made great efforts in cultivating Dongba descendants and inheriting Dongba culture. Over the years, we have explored an ancient "two combination" road that combines teaching with the guidance of researchers, and combining graduate study with folk practice. Some newly cultivated Dongba have become outstanding among Dongba's inheritors. They can hold various Dongba ceremonies for the people, teach traditional cultural knowledge in various places of inheritance, and travel as cultural messengers to the United States, Germany, Belgium, Thailand and other parts of China for cultural exchange and publicity.

On 20 1 1, the institute began to implement the construction project of "Lijiang Dongba Culture Research Institute Field Protection Research Base", which was listed in some villages where Dongba culture is well preserved or recovering Dongba cultural ecology. Its purpose is to enhance the local people's awareness of protecting culture, arouse their enthusiasm, give guidance on the inheritance of traditional culture, and take the base as the research object to explore and protect national culture. At present, research bases for the field protection of Dongba culture have been established in Yulong, Ninglang, Sichuan, Tibet and Naxi inhabited areas, providing professional guidance and support for Dongba cultural heritage sites and cultural inheritors, and giving help in terms of funds, learning materials, costumes and learning tools.

In order to help the public intuitively feel Dongba culture, Dongba Ancient Books and Documents Museum, a world memory heritage, was built next to the Institute. The ancient Dongba culture has once again entered people's daily life with the help of modern science and technology.

It is reported that Lijiang Dongba Cultural Research Institute won the 7th China Book Award, the 5th National Book Award and the 8th Yunnan Excellent Achievement Award in Philosophy and Social Sciences. Awarded "Outstanding Contribution Award" by Lijiang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, and commended by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission as "National Advanced Collective of Ancient Books Work of Ethnic Minorities" 20 10.