Naxi Dongba
CENSUS: Dongba Manuscripts General Catalogue
CENSUS, a general catalogue and index of Dongba manuscripts
Introduction to CENSUS categories
Manuscripts belonging to Dongba pictographic tradition are religious scriptures, dedicated to certain ceremony of Naxi Dongba religious tradition. This is a foundamental and common feature to all manuscripts which CENSUS means to reflect into manuscripts' general index implementation, thus this structure shoud be reproduced into manuscript's catalogation and layout.
Moreover, being CENSUS a global catalog of Dongba manuscripts, and because of existence of many collections of Dongba manuscripts organized and implemented with criteria and solutions, one independently to the others, CENSUS aims to be convergence system, a resuming resource-point of Naxi - Dongba manuscripts.
This, in practice, consists in implementing a new type of archive, a databse system projected directly on the whole manuscripts' corpus of Dongba tradition, and not just implemented over a local collection, which the wider it could be, it always could be considered as a partial representation of Naxi - Dongba pictographic literature.
CENSUS thus is thougth to be implemented grounding on Dongba ceremonial corpus, which to every pictographic manuscripts written was dedicated, so adopting this skeletons as its architecture CENSUS system is implemented as a meta-system, able to cross-over the etherogeneity and differences made by peculiar approaches used by idependent collections and various institution which possess Dongba manuscripts.
The first step for CENSUS architecture implementation then consisted in understanding the local colections' architecture for catalogation and layout of manusctipts; again the pilot resources because of web-availability of data were the Library of Congress and the Harward Yenching Library, which evinced the following cathegories:
- The Harvard Yenching Library Naxi Manuscript Collection
- Worship to Dongba Shiluo
- Worship of the Dragon King
- Worship to the Wind
- Prayers for Long Life
- Worship for the Worthy
- God of Victory
- Worship to the House Gods
- For the Living
- Remove Filthiness
- Closing the Door to Death
- Venerating the Dead
- Divination
- Lingza Scripture
- Scrolls
- The Collection of Naxi Manuscripts of the Library of Congress,
Asian Division, Washington, D.C.
- Sacrifices to Heaven - Ji tian
- Sacrifices to the Highest Deity - Ji shi luo
- Sacrifices to the Serpent King - Ji Long wang
- Romance and love-related ceremonies - Ji feng
- Blocking malicious ghosts - Guan si men
- Prayers for longevity - Qiu shou
- Aspirations for wisdom - Ji xian
- Sacrifices to the God of Bravery and Victory - Ji sheng li
- Ancestral worship - Ji zu
- Casting out evil spirits - Chu sui
- For a better reincarnation - Ti sheng
- Divination - Zhan bu
- Ghosts and Spirits - Gui shen lei
- Naxi pictographic art - Hui hua
- Harrison Photostat Collection
Analysys and cross-study of manuscripts and manuscripts' indexes of the two collections permitted the identification of the following concordances:
Library of Congress |
Harward Yenching |
| Sacrifices to Heaven - Ji tian |
|
| Sacrifices to the Highest Deity - Ji shi luo | Worship to Dongba Shiluo |
| Sacrifices to the Serpent King - Ji Long wang |
Worship of the Dragon King |
| Worship to the Wind |
|
| Blocking malicious ghosts - Guan si men |
Closing the Door to Death |
| Prayers for longevity - Qiu shou |
Prayers for Long Life |
| Aspirations for wisdom - Ji xian |
|
| Sacrifices to the God of Bravery and Victory - Ji sheng li |
God of Victory |
| Ancestral worship - Ji zu |
|
| Casting out evil spirits - Chu sui |
For the Living |
| For a better reincarnation - Ti sheng |
|
| Divination - Zhan bu |
Divination |
| Ghosts and Spirits - Gui shen lei |
|
| Naxi pictographic art - Hui hua |
|
| Harrison Photostat Collection |
|
| Worship to the House Gods | |
| Remove Filthiness | |
| Sacrifices to the Deceased - Ji si zhe |
Venerating the Dead |
| Worship for the Worthy |
Such concordances then were cross-referred to Jospeh Rock classification of Naxi - Dongba ceremonies with the following scores:
Joseph Rock |
Library of Congress |
Harward Yenching |
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) |
Sacrifices to Heaven - Ji tian |
|
| Funerary ceremonies |
Sacrifices to the Highest Deity - Ji shi luo | Worship to Dongba Shiluo |
| Propitiation of Nagas 1Ssu, serpent spirits |
Sacrifices to the Serpent King - Ji Long wang |
Worship of the Dragon King |
| 2Har 2la 1llu 3k'o - propitiate soul of suicides or people died
an unnatural death |
||
| Romance and love-related ceremonies - Ji feng |
Worship to the Wind |
|
| Prevention of Evil arising from the Sky and Land |
Blocking malicious ghosts - Guan si men |
Closing the Door to Death |
| Prolongation of life |
Prayers for longevity - Qiu shou |
Prayers for Long Life |
| Aspirations for wisdom - Ji xian |
||
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) |
Sacrifices to the God of Bravery and Victory - Ji sheng li |
God of Victory |
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) |
Ancestral worship - Ji zu |
|
| Propitiation and eviction of demons |
Casting out evil spirits - Chu sui |
For the Living |
| For a better reincarnation - Ti sheng |
||
| Books of divination |
Divination - Zhan bu |
Divination |
| Propitiation and eviction of demons |
Ghosts and Spirits - Gui shen lei |
|
| Naxi pictographic art - Hui hua |
||
| Harrison Photostat Collection |
||
| Ceremonies for prosperity of family and herds |
||
| Propitiation of Mountain and Tutelary spirits |
||
| Marriage ceremony |
Worship to the House Gods | |
| Purification |
Remove Filthiness | |
| Funerary ceremonies |
Sacrifices to the Deceased - Ji si zhe |
Venerating the Dead |
| Funerary ceremonies |
Worship for the Worthy | |
| Inviting ancestors |
||
| Elimination of accumulated sins |
||
| Ceremonies performed by Llu-bu or San-nyi |
According to identified concordances CENSUS General Cataolgue cathegories were deduced, implementing wider set named according to Rock wider groups of Naxi Dongba ceremonial corpus and labelled with capital roman letter, nesting inside such wider gropus smaller sets labelled with lower roman letters implemented according to Dongba ceremonial corpus subdivision and collections' internal classifications.
| Joseph Rock categories | Zhu Baotian (Library of Congress) | Harward Yenching Library | CENSUS MAIN | CENSUS sub | CENSUS Id |
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Sacrifices to Heaven - Ji tian | Nature ancestral ceremonies | Sacrifice to the heaven | Aa | |
| Funerary ceremonies | Sacrifices to the Highest Deity - Ji shi luo | Worship to Dongba Shiluo | Funerary ceremonies | Cult of Dongba Shilo | Hb |
| Propitiation of Nagas 1Ssu, serpent spirits | Sacrifices to the Serpent King - Ji Long wang | Worship of the Dragon King | Ceremonies for serpent - Naga cult | F | |
| 2Har 2la 1llu 3k'o - propitiate soul of suicides or people died an unnatural death | Funeray ceremonies for innatural deaths | Violent death | Oa | ||
| Romance and love-related ceremonies - Ji feng | Worship to the Wind | Funeray ceremonies for innatural deaths | Suicides | Ob | |
| Prevention of Evil arising from the Sky and Land | Blocking malicious ghosts - Guan si men | Closing the Door to Death | Ceremonies for prevention of evil coming | D | |
| Prolongation of life | Prayers for longevity - Qiu shou | Prayers for Long Life | Ceremonies for longevity | L | |
| Aspirations for wisdom - Ji xian | Undefined | Aspirations for wisdom - Ji xian | Ra | ||
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Sacrifices to the God of Bravery and Victory - Ji sheng li | God of Victory | Nature ancestral ceremonies | Sacrifice to the spirit of victory | Ab |
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Ancestral worship - Ji zu | Nature ancestral ceremonies | Ancestral rituals | Ac | |
| Propitiation and eviction of demons | Casting out evil spirits - Chu sui | For the Living | Ceremonies for propitiation and evicting of demons | N | |
| For a better reincarnation - Ti sheng | Undefined | For a better reincarnation - Ti sheng | Rb | ||
| Books of divination | Divination - Zhan bu | Divination | Divination | M | |
| Propitiation and eviction of demons | Ghosts and Spirits - Gui shen lei | Ceremonies for propitiation and evicting of demons | N | ||
| Naxi pictographic art - Hui hua | Undefined | Naxi pictographic art - Hui hua | Rc | ||
| Harrison Photostat Collection | Harrison Photostat Collection | Harrison Photostat Collection | S | ||
| Ceremonies for prosperity of family and herds | Ceremonies for prosperity | B | |||
| Propitiation of Mountain and Tutelary spirits | Ceremonies for propitiation of tutelary spirits | C | |||
| Marriage ceremony | Worship to the House Gods | Ceremonies for marriage and family | E | ||
| Purification | Remove Filthiness | Ceremonies for purification | G | ||
| Funerary ceremonies | Sacrifices to the Deceased - Ji si zhe | Venerating the Dead | Funerary ceremonies | Cult of ancestors | Ha |
| Funerary ceremonies | Worship for the Worthy | Funerary ceremonies | Cult of the Worthy | Hc | |
| Inviting ancestors | Ceremonies for ancestors | I | |||
| Elimination of accumulated sins | Elimination of accumulated sins | P | |||
| Ceremonies performed by 2Llu 1bu or 2Ssan 1nyi | Ceremonies performed by Lu-bu or San-nyi | Q | |||
| Scrolls | Scrolls | Scrolls | T | ||
| Lingza Scripture | Undefined | Geba titlepage | Rd |
Finallly, from previous resuming table implemented doruing CENSUS categories identification, an ordined list of CENSUS cathegories of Dongba manuscripts corresponding to the left navigation main menĂ¹.
CGC - Census General Catalog Categories
- Nature ancestral ceremonies
- Sacrifice to the heaven
- Sacrifice to the spirit of victory
- Ancestral rituals
- Ceremonies for prosperity
- Ceremonies for propitiation of tutelary spirits
- Ceremonies for prevention of evil coming
- Ceremonies for marriage and family
- Ceremonies for serpent deities (Naga cult)
- Ceremonies for purification
- Funerary ceremonies
- Cult of ancestors
- Cult of Dongba Shilo
- Cult of the Worthy
- Ceremonies for ancestors
- Ceremonies for longevity
- Divination
- Ceremonies for propitiation and evicting of demons
- Funeray ceremonies for innatural deaths
- Violent death
- Suicide
- Elimination of accumulated sins
- Ceremonies performed by shamans Lu-bu and/or vegents San-nyi
- Undefined
- Aspirations for wisdom - Ji xian
- For a better reincarnation - Ti sheng
- Naxi pictographic art - Hui hua
- Harrison Photostat Collection
- Geba titlepage
- Scrolls
- Funerary scrolls
- Naxi Dongba art
Xiulong - Stefano Zamblera, 02/01/2010 h. 10:34