This is a draft 1.2 release of CL.A.U.D.I.A., acronym for Computational and Updatable Dongba Iconographic Archives.

CL.A.U.D.I.A. is an interdisciplinary project of Human Technology application focused about Dongba pictographic writing system of Naxi people of South-West China, implemented and uploaded on Web for an on-fly demo (1.0) during Kunming’s 16th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (29 – 31 July).

This is just a short introduction page to CL.A.U.D.I.A.; for more details and starting browsing iconographic index plates please visit dedicated page.

I wish to underline importance of Updatable features of CL.A.U.D.I.A. system – which I feel is needed – because of continuous evolution of academic scores in studying Dongba and Geba writing systems and Naxi culture…and myself.

On Your left side, You can see the two main resources of Claudia: Index Plates of Dongba Pictographs and dictionary.

Index plates consist in a tree of family and sub-family of pictographs stored and gathered by ICONOGRAPHIC features. Please visit dedicated page for correct usage. Each plates of pictographs are implemented as index archives of pictograph, labelled by capital key-letter for Family and minus keyletter for sub-Family of pictographs, then each elements has its own identification number.

CL.A.U.D.I.A.’s dictionary is then implemented with 3 main resources:

1. At first, from top, a fast free-keywords search-engine is realized, to lunch specific and fast interrogation query on pictograph database. Please, note that EACH QUERY WILL GENERATE 2 MAIN FILEDS OF DATA RETRIEVING: on the top a DIRECT MATCHING SCORE, with the output of the whole pictograph directly matched in its translation to the keyword of research; down an INDIRECT MATCHING SCORE, constituted by the group of pictographs retrieved because of their indirect matching – but existing relation – with the keywords of the query lounched. Such Information Retrieval System is yet implementing.
2. English – Dongba dictionary by keywords. Keyword queries will generate direct and indirect matching pictograph retrieving.
3. Naxi pinyin sillables search form: by clicking of Naxi syllable CL.A.U.D.I.A.s. will retrieve pictographs which latinization contains searched syllable as initial or inside thw whole pinyin transcription. Syllable ortography specify IPA phonetic equivalences.

Dictionary page is better introduced here in English <–> Dongba cidian page.

I am implementing such resource under PHP <–> MySql couple, that’s because I feel MySql as the best database instrument I know for building digitals archives and structured databases as Dongba pictographs corpus, and PHP as the dearest and the most flexible instrument to me for managing and generating intelligent and dynamic queries targeting Dongba pictographic writing system significants corpus stored in MySql database; some hidden fields of database should work as Ontology for hierarchy relationship between family, subfamily and single pictographs.

Xiulong

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presents

Créatures mythiques animales dans les manuscrits naxis

Complete study made for Arras Congress: “Les signes d’animaux et de créatures mythiques en Orient et en Occident“

Table of contents

• Introduction to the script
• Iconography of reptiles deities
  • The serpent deities and their cult as evinced from Dongba manuscripts
    • The Ssù nature and relationship with humans
    • A preliminary cross-study between Naxi – Dongba, Tibetan and Indian iconology of serpent-like deities
  • Lu – Dragon
  • Shi-Zi – Serpent
• Iconography of Eagle-winged deities
  • Khyu-t’khyu
  • Dter-gko
  • Yu-ma
• Bibliography
• List of Naxi – Dongba manuscripts consulted

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A selected bibliography focused on Naxi – Dongba and Lijiang  is however  available  online on author’s website:

• History of Lijiang city, region and Naxi people: http://www.xiulong.it/4.0/Dongba/bibliography/historybibliography.htm
• Naxi language: http://www.xiulong.it/4.0/Dongba/bibliography/naxilanguagebibliography.htm
• Dongba tradition: http://www.xiulong.it/4.0/Dongba/bibliography/dongbatraditionbibliography.htm

After official publication of the acts of the congress I’m going to upload other materials and papers derived directly or indirectly to such studies.

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Bibliography

Selected bibliography is available online on author’s website:

• History of Lijiang city, region and Naxi people: http://www.xiulong.it/4.0/Dongba/bibliography/historybibliography.htm
• Naxi language: http://www.xiulong.it/4.0/Dongba/bibliography/naxilanguagebibliography.htm
• Dongba tradition: http://www.xiulong.it/4.0/Dongba/bibliography/dongbatraditionbibliography.htm

Specific bibliography for Arras

• AA. VV. “Naga tradition in ancient India” http://sites.google.com/site/kalyan96/NagaandNagini.pdf?attredirects=0 [ → 14/06/2010]
• AA. VV. “The Naga and Buddhism” http://www.usamyanmar.net/Buddha/Article/The%20Naga%20of%20Buddhist%20Religion.pdf [ → 14/06/2010]
• AA. VV. “Tibetan Spirits: The Sadak” http://www.tibetan-astrology.net/sadak.html [ → 09/06/2010]
• AA. VV., “Buddhist Iconography Identification Guide “ http://www.buddhistdoor.com/BuddhistArt/LineArt_4.html [ → 07/06/2010]
• AA.VV. “The Garuda Purana (Saroddhara)”, in The Sacred Books of the Indus Translated by various Sanskrit Scholars – vol. 9, edited by Major B. D. Basu, I.M.S., published by The Panini Office, Bhuvaneswari Asrama, Bahadurganj, printed by Panch Kory Mittra at the In
• An-Che Li,
  • 1947 “Dege: A Study of Tibetan Population” in Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Winter, 1947), pp. 279-293 Published by: University of New Mexico
  • 1948 “Bon: The Magico-Religious Belief of the Tibetan-Speaking Peoples” in Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring, 1948), pp. 31-42 Published by: University of New Mexico
• Angela Falco Howard, 1990 “A Gilt Bronze Guanyin from the Nanzhao Kingdom of Yunnan: Hybrid Art from the Southwestern Frontier”, in The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, Vol. 48 (1990), pp. 1-12 Published by: The Walters Art Museum
• Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland by Trübner & Co., 1873 “The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland” Volume 2
• Anukul Chandra Banerjee Gangtok, “Bon-The Primitive Religion of Tibet” http://www.scribd.com/doc/20594161/Bot-Bon-Religion-of-Tibet [ → 07/06/2010]
• Bacot Jacques,
  • 1910 “Correspondance”, in T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1910), pp. 312-313 Published by: BRILL
  • Bacot Jacques, 1913 “Les Mo-so. Ethnographie des Mo-so, leurs religions, leur langue et leur écriture” Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1913.
• Beér Robert
  • 1999 “The encyclopedia of Tibetan symbols and motifs”: Shambhala Publications
  • 2003 “The handbook of Tibetan Buddhist symbols” Serindia Publications, Inc., 2003

• Bellezza John Vincent,
  • “The Ancient Amluets of Tibet: Thogchags, a collection of Miniature Masterpieces” http://www.tcoletribalrugs.com/article24TibetThogchag.html [→ 07/06/2010]
  • “Metal and Stone Vestiges, Religion, Magic and Protection in the Art of Ancient Tibet” http://www.asianart.com/articles/vestiges/index.html [ → 11/06/2010]
• Benedikter Laura, 2009 “Cadre général du Dongba : entre mythographie et notation phonétique” Mémoire de Master 2, Sous la direction de Mme Xu Dan, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales
• Bezacier Louis, 1961 “Attitude inhabituelle commune aux arts čam et viêtnamien du Dragon-makara et du Lion” in Artibus Asiae, Vol. 24, No. 3/4 (1961), pp. 207-218 Published by: Artibus Asiae Publishers
• Bhagavatprasad Natvarlal Bhatt, 1973 “Śrīkaṇṭhacaritam: a study” M.S. University of Baroda research series 14- University of Baroda (Baroda) : 45, 72 – 74
• Blondeau Anne Marie “Tibetan mountain deities, their cults and representations” papers presented at a panel of the 7th seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz, 1995. Edited by Anne-Marie Blondeau, Wien 1998
• Bradley David, 1975 “Nahsi and Proto-Burmese-Lolo”, in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
• Bunce Fredrick W., 1994 “An encyclopaedia of Buddhist deities, demigods, godlings, saints, and demons with special focus on iconographic attributes” Volume 1 – D.K. Printworld, University of Virginia
• Burgess, James,
  • 1879 “Notes on the Bauddha Rock Temples of Ajanta, Their Paintings and Sculptures,” Archaeological Survey of Western India, 9 (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1879).
  • Burgess, James, 1895 “The Gandhāra Sculptures (with 100 plates)” London, 1895
• Carter Martha L., 1998 “Three Silver Vessels from Tibet’s Earliest Historical Era: A Preliminary Study”: 27, in Cleveland Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 3: 22-47
• Chavannes Edouard
  • 1911 “L’Inscription Funeraire de Ts’ouan Pao-Tseu: Reponse A M. Farjenel“, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (Jan., 1911), pp. 75 -108 Published by Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
  • 1912 “Documents historiques et géographiques relatifs a Li-kiang”, in T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 13, No. 4 (1912), pp. 565-653 Published by: BRILL
• Cheng Chien,Cheng Chien Bhikshu, 1993″Manifestation of the Tathāgata: Buddahood according to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra” Wisdom Publications
• Choskyi Ven. Jampa, 1988 “Symbolism of Animals in Buddhism”, Buddhist Himalaya, VOL. I NO. I http://buddhim.20m.com/1-7.htm [ → 11/06/2010]
• Chung Tan, “A Sino-Indian Persèective for India-China Understanding”, in Across the Himalayan Gap http://ignca.nic.in/ks_41019.htm [ → 09/06/2010]
• Conan Michel, “Sacred gardens and landscapes: ritual and agency”, published by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C.
• Cordier Henri, 1908 “Les Mo-sos. Mo-sié 麼些”, in T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 9, No. 5 (1908), pp. 663-688 Published by: BRILL
• Couteau Jean, “From Myth to National Symbol” http://goarchi.com/archo/mag/garuda.html [ → 11/06/2010]
• Dan Martin, 2001 “Unearthing Bon Treasures. Life and Contested Legacy of a Tibetan Scripture Revealer, with a General Bibliography of Bon” Brill Academic Publishers; annotated edition
• Danliélou, Alain, 1991 “ The Myths and Gods of India”. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 1991;

• Das Sarat Chandra, Graham Sandberg & Augustus William Heyde, 1995  “A Tibetan-English dictionary, with Sanskrit synonyms. 1st Edition - Calcutta, 1902. Reprint: Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi, 1989 and Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979, 1983, 1991, 1995 and 2000. 

• de Lacouperie Terrien, 1885 “Beginnings of Writing in and around Tibet”, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Jul., 1885), pp. 415-482 Published by: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
• de Nebesky-Wojkowitz Rene, 1956 “Oracles and Demons of Tibet. The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities” the Haufe: mount & Co.,
• Dineschandra Sircar ,1971 “Studies in the religious life of ancient and medieval India‎” Motilal Banarsidass Publications
• Donald A. McKenzie, 2005 “Myths of China and Japan‎” Kessinger Publishing,
• DuBose Hampden C., 2006 “The Dragon, Image and Demon Or the Three Religions of China: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism” Kessinger Publishing, 2006
• Dutt M. N., 1908 “Rediscovering india the garuda Purana“ republished in November 12, 2006 by Hesperides Press
• Farjenel Fernand, 1910 “Une Inscription du Yunnan (Mission d’Ollone) Traduite par M. Chavannes”, inh Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (Oct., 1910), pp. 1077-1102 Published by: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
• Fergusson James, 1868 “Tree and Serpent Worship. Illustrations of mythology and art in India in the first and fourth centuries after Christ” London, 1868. Cunningham’s Reports, i. and iii. (Reliefs from Buddha Gayā);
• Francke August Hermann,
  • 1966 “Antiquities of Indian Tibet” Asian Educational Services. New edition edition 1 Aug 2002
  • “gZher-Myig a Book of the Tibetan Bompos. Tibetan Text according to the Berlin Manuscript Edited and Translated by A. H. Francke” http://www.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/~asiamajor/pdf/1926/1926-321.pdf [ → 07/06/2010]
• Fredrick W. Bunce, 1994 “An encyclopedia of Buddhist deities, demigods, goblings, saints, and demons with special focus on iconographic attributes” Volume 1
• G. Elliot Smith , 2007 “The Evolution of the Dragon” BiblioBazaar, LLC
• Georgette Meredith,
  • 1967 ‘The “Phurbu”: The Use and Symbolism of the Tibetan Magic Dagger’, in History of Religions, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Feb., 1967), pp. 236-253 Published by: The University of Chicago Press
  • Georgette Meredith, 1967 “The “Phurbu”: The Use and Symbolism of the Tibetan Magic Dagger” in History of Religions, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Feb., 1967), pp. 236-253;
• Grünwedel Albert,
  • 1893 “Buddhistiche Kunst in Indien”, Berlin
  • 1900 “Mythologie des Buddhismus in Tibet und der Mongolei”, Führer durch die lamaistische sammlung des fürsten E. Uchtomskij. 1900, F. A. Brockhaus (Leipzig) : 190
• Guenther Herbert Von, 2001 “The jewel ornament of liberation sGam.po.pa” Shambhala ed, Boston & London
• Gunapala Piyasena Malalasekera, “Encyclopedia of Buddhism” edited by G. P. Malalasekera, Volume 1
• Hardy R. Spence, 2003 “Manual of Buddhism” Kessinger Publishing, LLC (May 20, 2003)
• Hearn Maxwell, Fong Wen, 1973 – 1974 “The Arts of Ancient China”, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 32, No. 2, The Arts of Ancient China (1973 – 1974), pp. 231-280 Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Helmut Hoffman
  • “Quellen zur geschichte der Tiberischen Bön-religion”
  • 1961 “The religions of Tibet” Macmillan publisher
• Himalayanart.org (http://www.himalayanart.org)
  • A Nāga King (item no. 65439) Collection of Rubin Museum of Art. Gently concession of Himalayanart.com http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm/65439.html
  • ཁྱུང་ཆེན Khyung-chen,1800 - 1899, Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton. Collection of Rubin Museum of Art (acc.# F1997.51.1) – retrieved from [20/12/2009 h.10:29] http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm/200031.html
  • गरुड Gāruḍa,1900 - 1959, Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton – retrieved from [20/12/2009 h.10:29] http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm/81667.html
• Howey M. Oldfield, 2005, “The Encircled Serpent a Study of Serpent Symbolism in All Countries And Ages‎ “: 262
• Hummel Siegber,
  • 1960 “Der Gottliche Schmied in Tibet” in “Folklore Studies”, vol. XIX(1960); 251 – 272, published by Nanzan Institute for religion and culture.
  • 1949 “Geheimnisse tibetischer Malereien. Leipzig”, O. Harrassowitz.
• Jackson Anthony,
  • “Naxi Studies: Past, Present & Future” http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/35/3500177.pdf [ → 07/06/2010]
  • 1973 “A Na-Khi Folk-Tale”, in Folklore, Vol. 84, No. 1 (Spring, 1973), pp. 27-37 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
• Jayant V. Narlikar, “Bhutas Some Reflections on Modern Scientific Concepts and Traditional Indian Thoughts”, in The Nature of Matter http://ignca.nic.in/ps_04003.htm [ → 10/06/2010]
• Johnston Sir Reginald Fleming, 1986 “Lion and dragon in northern China” with an introduction by Pamela Atwell. Published in 1986 by Oxford University Press, New York; originally published in London,: J. Murray, 1910
• Johnston William M., 2000 “sTompa gShen-rab” in Encyclopedia of monasticism, Volume 1‎ – pg. 1690
• Karmay Samten Gyaltsen
  • 1972 “The treasury of good sayings: a Tibetan history of Bon”, in School of Oriental and African Studies, Volume 26, University of London. London Oriental Series, Oxford University Press
  • Karmey Samten G., 1975 “A General Introduction to the History and Doctrines of Bon”. Memoirs of the Research Department of the Tokyo Bunko, No. 33. Tokyo.

• Karmay, Samten Gyeltsen, Watt Jeff, 2008  "Bon: The Magic Word The Indigenous Religion of Tibet"  Philip Wilson Publishers

• Keith Dowman, 2003 “The flight of the Gāruḍa: the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism” second edition, compiled and translated by Keith Dowman. Wisdom Publications, Sommerville MA, USA
• Kern Hendrik, 1901 “Histoire du bouddhisme dans l’Inde” annales du Musée Guimet, Bibl.. d’Etudes, X et XI, Col. I: 310(295)
• Kern Johan Hendrik Caspar, 1896 “Manual of Buddhism” in Bühler’s Encyclopædia, pp. 91-96, Strasburg
• Kleeman Terry F., 1994 “Mountain Deities in China: The Domestication of the Mountain God and the Subjugation of the Margins”, IN Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 114, No. 2 (Apr. – Jun., 1994), pp. 226- 238 Published by: American Oriental Society
• Kloppenborg Ria, Hanegraaff Wouter J., 1995 “Female stereotypes in religious traditions” editions E.J. Brill, Leiden – the Nederlands
• Laufer Bertrold,
  • 1914 “Bird Divination among the Tibetans (Notes on Document Pelliot No. 3530, with a Study of Tibetan Phonology of the Ninth Century)”, in T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1914), pp. 1-110 Published by: BRILL
  • 1914 “Bird Divination among the Tibetans (Notes on Document Pelliot No. 3530, with a Study of Tibetan Phonology of the Ninth Century)”, in T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1914), pp. 1-110 Published by: BRILL
  • 1916 “The Nichols Mo-So Manuscript”, in Geographical Review, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Apr., 1916), pp. 274-285, by: American Geographical Society
• Little Stephen, 1992 “The Arhats in China and Tibet”: 273 in Artibus Asiae Vol.52 n. 3/4: 255 – 281
• Lopon Tenzin Namdak, 2006 “Bonpo Dzogchen Teachings according to Lopon Tenzin Namdak”, by Vajra Publications – Kthmandu, Nepal
• Lopon Tenzin Namdak, 2007 “Bonpo Dzogchen Teachings. according to Lopon Tenzin Namdak” intro by John Myrdhin Reynolds, Lopon Tenzin Namdak, edition
• Malla B. L., “Water Resources and their Management in Kashmir” in The Cultural Dimension of Ecology http://ignca.nic.in/cd_07008.htm [ → 10/06/2010]
• Mastromattei Romano, 1995 “Tremore e potere: la condizione estatica nello Sciamanesimo Himalayano” Franco Angeli editore
• Mathieu C., 2003 “A History and Anthropological Study of the Ancient Kingdoms of the Sino-Tibetan Borderland – Naxi and Mosuo “ Mellen Studies in Anthropology, 11, Edwin Mellen Press
• McKhann Charles Fremont, 1992 “Fleshing out the Bones: Kinship and Cosmology in Naqxi Religion. Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the division of the Social Sciences in Candidancy for the degree of doctor of Philosophy” Depratment of Anthropology – Chicago, Illinois, 1992
• McKhann Charles Fremont, 2003 “Icon and Transformation: (Re)Imaginings in Dongba Art”, co-curated with Zhang Yunling and Yang Fuquan; presented at Whitman College Sheehan Galley (Jan. 17-Feb. 27), Walla Walla Carnegie Center for the Arts (April 1-April 30), Multnomah County Library Collins Gallery (May 3-June 15), University of Washington School of Art Jacob Lawrence Gallery (July 1-July 30).
• Meyer Fernand, 1990 “Tibet: civilisation et société” Colloque organisé par la Fondation Singer-Polignac – Paris, les 27, 28, 29 Avril 1987. Editions de la Fondation Singer-Polignac and Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 1990
• Mingun Sayadaw. “The Kala Nāga King Story, Extract from The Chronicle of Gotama Buddha” http://www.usamyanmar.net/Buddha/Article/The%20Naga%20of%20Buddhist%20Religion.pdf [ → 10/06/2010]
• Moor E., 1810 “The Hindu Pantheon” London, 1810
• Moor, Edward, 1976 “ The Hindu Pantheon “ Los Angeles: Philosophical research society, 1976;
• Morris R., 1891 “The Garuḍa and Other Fabulous Giant-Birds”, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (Apr., 1891), pp. 344-345 Published by: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
• Mumford Stan, 1989 “Himalayan dialogue: Tibetan lamas and Gurung shamans in Nepal” The University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin
• Omacanda Hāṇḍā 2001 “Temple architecture of the western Himalaya: wooden temples‎ ” Indus Publishing
• Omacanda Hāṇḍā 2004 “Naga cults and traditions in the western Himalaya” Indus Publishing
• Prabhupada A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, 1987 “Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)”, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
• Prabhupada A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, 1989 “Sri Caitanya-caritamrta” Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
• Prabhupada A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, 1992 “Mukunda-mala-stotra: The Prayers of King Kulasekhara” Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
• Ramble Charles, 1993 ” A Ritual of Political Unity in an Old Nepalese Kingdom. Some preliminary observations”, in Ancient Nepal 130/133: 49-58. Kathmandu.
• Ramesan, N., 1961 “Glimpses of Buddhism” Andhra Pradesh Government archaeological series, no. 2 Arch. series [Hyderabad] Govt. of Andhra Pradesh
• Rao N. Lakshminarayan, Sircar D.C., 1987 “Epigraphia Indica”, Vol. XXX, (1953-54), ed., (reprint 1987)
• Reynolds John Myrdhin, 2005 “The oral tradition from Zhang-Zhung: an introduction to the Bonpo Dzogchen teachings of the oral tradition from Zhang-Zhung known as the Zhang-Zhung snyan-rgyud” Vajra Pubications
• Rice, Edward., 1978 “ Eastern Definitions: A Short Encyclopedia of Religions of the Orient “ Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1978;

• Rock Joseph, 1936 “1Hä 3la = the killing of the soul” in “Journal of the West china B.R. Soc.”, Vol VIII, 1936: 53 – 58; 1937 “Na-khi 1Hä zhi p’i” in “BEFEO XXXVII”, fasc. 1 : 55.
• Rock Joseph, 1937a “The Nichols Mo-So Manuscript of the American Geographical Society” , in Geographical Review, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr., 1937), pp. 229-239 Published by: American Geographical Society
• Rock Joseph, 1937b “The Birth and Origin of Dto-mba Shi-lo, the Founder of the Mo-so Shamanism, According to Mo-so Manuscripts”, in Artibus Asiae, Vol. 7, No. 1/4 (1937), pp. 5-85 Published by: Artibus Asiae Publishers
• Rockhill W. Woodville, 1891 “Tibet. A Geographical, Ethnographical, and Historical Sketch, Derived from Chinese Sources “, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (Jan., 1891), pp. 1- 133 Published by: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
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• Hummel Segbert, 1992 “gShen” in Bulletin of Tibetology 1992 No.3, Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology – Gantok, India

• Sherry Garland, 1993 “Shadow of the dragon‎” Graphia edition, October 31^st , 1993
• Sir James George Frazer, 2005 “The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion”. IV. Part 3. “The Dying God”, Volume 4: 107.
• Skilton Andrew, 2009 “How the Nagas Were Pleased by Harsha & The Shattered Thighs by Bhasa”, Clay Sanskrit Library, New York University Press & jcc fOUNDATION
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• Tenzin Pasar Tsultrim,Changru Tritsuk Namdak Nyima, Gatsa Lodroe Rabsal, 2008 “A Lexicon of Zhangzhung and Bonpo Terms” in Bon Studies 11, edited by Yasuhiko Nagano and Samten G. Karmay, National Museum of Ethnology – Osaka
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  • 2009a “Dongba pictographic and Geba writing systems iconographic and thematic index plates and classification” in “THE 16th WORLD CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES – Paper Abstracts Vol. 4 – Cultural Diversity in Multi-disciplinary Research”, Chinese Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences , July 2009.
  • 2009b
    • http://www.xiulong.it/4.0/Dongba/CLAUDIA/intro.php [→ 07/12/2009]
    • http://www.xiulong.it/4.0/Dongba/CLAUDIA/readme.php [→ 07/12/2009]
• 习煜华 Xi Yuhua,
  • 2002 “Shu: Naxi Nature Goddess Archetype” , in Gender Technology and Development 2002; 6; 409
  • 2004 “东巴象形文异写字汇编 Dongba xiang xing wen yi xie zi hui bian – A collection of Dongba pictographs in different forms” 昆明市 : 云南美术出版社 Kunming shi : Yunnan mei shu chu ban she, 2003



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Among such attestations I’ve also included a  which resume and gathers all manuscripts dedicated or related to “Serpent-cult”: such sheet also contains a cross-reference plates among Joseph Rock and Harvard-Yenching numeration system, with available url of Harvard-Yenching online collection.

All item here listed are available as an htm page to be browsed, and as .xls ( Excell ) and .ods ( Openoffice ) editable files.

• ANIMAL BASED ICONOGRAPHIES PICTOGRAPHS ASSOCIATED TO DEITIES
  
  • All pictographs with animal-based iconography, directly associated to deities:    .xls -  .ods

• • REPTILE BASED ICONOGRAPHY
    • All reptile-gods:    .xls -  .ods
    • Manuscripts of Ssù (serpent-gods) cult:    .xls -  .ods
      • The Ssù (Naga) :    .xls -  .ods
      • The Lu (Dragon):    .xls -  .ods
      • The Shizi (Serpent):    .xls -  .ods

• • BIRD BASED ICONOGRAPHY
    • All bird-gods:    .xls -  .ods
      • The Khyu-t’khyu (the Garuda):    .xls -  .ods
      • The Dter-gko (the Thugs-dKhar):    .xls -  .ods
      • The Yu-ma (the Wer-ma):   .xls -  .ods

Study of iconographies and contexts directly form Naxi Dongba Manuscripts evinced many common aspects and features with Tibetan, Indian and Chinese tradition, thus I also implemented such cross-iconographics plates for crossing references among different deities attested.

See You in Arras…

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Among such attestations I’ve also included a  which resume and gathers all manuscripts dedicated or related to “Serpent-cult”: such sheet also contains a cross-reference plates among Joseph Rock and Harvard-Yenching numeration system, with available url of Harvard-Yenching online collection.

All item here listed are available as an htm page to be browsed, and as .xls ( Excell ) and .ods ( Openoffice ) editable files.

• ANIMAL BASED ICONOGRAPHIES PICTOGRAPHS ASSOCIATED TO DEITIES
  
  • All pictographs with animal-based iconography, directly associated to deities:    .xls -  .ods

• • REPTILE BASED ICONOGRAPHY
    • All reptile-gods:    .xls -  .ods
    • Manuscripts of Ssù (serpent-gods) cult:    .xls -  .ods
      • The Ssù (Naga) :    .xls -  .ods
      • The Lu (Dragon):    .xls -  .ods
      • The Shizi (Serpent):    .xls -  .ods

• • BIRD BASED ICONOGRAPHY
    • All bird-gods:    .xls -  .ods
      • The Khyu-t’khyu (the Garuda):    .xls -  .ods
      • The Dter-gko (the Thugs-dKhar):    .xls -  .ods
      • The Yu-ma (the Wer-ma):   .xls -  .ods

Study of iconographies and contexts directly form Naxi Dongba Manuscripts evinced many common aspects and features with Tibetan, Indian and Chinese tradition, thus I also implemented such cross-iconographics plates for crossing references among different deities attested.

See You in Arras…

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Yang Yihua

Southwest University Research Institute of Chinese Language Documents

Dongba Culture has been a most favorite subject for research in the field of minority studies nowadays. However, there’s still lack of research into the life and scriptures of Dongbas who are the founders and successors of Dongba culture. Therefore, this paper is undertaken to investigate into the life and scriptures of two famous Dongbas: He Shijun and He Wenzhi.

This paper is divided into three parts: first, the life of the two Dongbas is introduced,based on previous studies and field research as well as interviews; second, the scriptures of these two Dongbas in the book An Annotated Collection of Naxi Dongba Manuscripts are discriminated through signatures, handwriting, postscript, etc.; third, the characteristics of their scriptures during different periods are studied through comparing with scriptures copied by other Dongbas in terms of handwriting, contents and so on so as to discover the historical changes of Dongba scriptures.

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Yang jie-hong  Yunnan University

Abstract: There are three main viewpoints to the nature of Naxi nationality’s Dongba religion: a primitive religion; a primitive polytheism religion, a transitional religion which from the primitive religion to the artificially founded religion. Owing to above different views of the Dongba religion’s nature, The paper again discussed this problem which Based on principles of historical development hierarchical, polytrophic, and Come to a conclusion that the nature of Dongba religion is a primary religion of Naxi nationality, which regarded the God worship as it’s core, and it including nature worship, ancestor worships, sacrificial offering activity and others corresponding system. This article unifies the cultural theory of relativity viewpoint, proposed owns view that how to treat; appraise a national main body culture in dialectically, and historically.

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Seaver Milnor

University of Washington

The Naxi Dongba pictographic script is strikingly different from Chinese characters in the complexity of graphs. To draw an analogy with ancient Egyptian, even the traditional Chinese characters still in use in Hong Kong and Taiwan are like a simplified ‘hieratic’ or ‘demotic’ script when compared with hieroglyphic Dongba texts. In terms of the environment for their genesis, Chinese and Dongba pictographs could also not be more different. Whereas Chinese writing was a new invention ex nihilo, Dongba pictographs developed in the presence of other scripts, including an alphabetic one. Nonetheless, the central thesis of this paper is that the inventors of the Dongba script followed the same process for creating graphs as has been well established for Hanzi. William Boltz’s The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System (1994) forms the theoretical framework for how writing systems develop. Data demonstrating the structural graphic similarities is drawn from Naxi xiangxing wenzi pu 納西象形文字譜by Fang Guoyu and He Zhiwu (1995).

Pictographs—drawings of “things”—are the first graphs to appear in a fledgling script. Paranomasia, also known as the Rebus Principle, allows one to write words for abstract concepts by using the graphs for homophonous or nearly homophonous words—at this point true writing, rather than inchoate proto-writing, is possible. Disambiguation occurs when various semantic classifiers are added to a phonetic component to distinguish words with similar pronunciations; these xingsheng 形聲or xiesheng 諧聲 graphs comprise the vast majority of modern Chinese characters and an important category of the liushu 六書 of Xu Shen’s Shuowen jiezi 說文解字 (ca. 100). From this point, Chinese and the Naxi Dongba script diverge because the former was needed for pragmatic daily use and simplified over the centuries whereas the latter maintained its complexity, I argue, for aesthetic purposes because its use was limited to ritual texts.

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Stefano Zamblera, University of Pisa

My aim is writing a complete system of iconographic and thematic index plates, with the purpose of studying, collecting and classifying the whole Dongba pictographs and Geba significants corpora in a complete Dongba Geba annotated catalogue.

Each plate will be tagged by a letter; and each Geba/pictograph gathered within a plate will be progressively numbered. Thus each entry is identified by a compound label (letter + number), and it will show latinization and transcription (following [IPA] standard), and a list of references and quotations from major Dongba/Geba dictionaries available at present.

Pictograph plates resources conception is derived directly from Egyptian Dictionary structure written by Sir Alan Gardiner in its landmark work “Egyptian Grammar”, where he settled some indexed categories under which he collected Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Iconographic and semantic indexed plates of Gardiner’s Egyptian Dictionary constitute a very useful tool for faster identification of hieroglyphics, and its adoption (once fitted to the Dongba pictographic system) will systematize other researcher’s efforts in documenting the Dongba written language.

It is important to keep apart Gebas characters and pictographs because of the structural differences between these two writing systems, while the last is pictographic the former is syllabographic. Such distinction has also to be preserved in their classification and grouping, because appropriate and efficient solutions in exposition and classification of pictographs could not be as good as for Geba symbols.

Pictographs will be then classified by their own characteristics, of which the most important seem to be: 1. iconography and (for unidentified pictograph) 2. shape. Both will be indexed.

1. Iconographic classification of pictographs should coincide with the identification of the prominent pictographical aspect of the significant operation, in other words what the analysed pictograph is depicting (in ex. The head of a bird, part of human body, a craft, etc…) must be identified
2. By Grouping of unidentified pictograph by shape an operation is meant, founded on a preliminary aesthetic/geometric normalization of dubious and unidentified pictograph to fit them into a geometric standard whole, as round, vertical, orizzontal, crux, elliptic, dots, etc… Such classification should be the most useful and the only efficient for attested but unidentified or uncertain pictographs.

Gebas will be presented by a double plate system too: Gebas should be sorted in a 1. syllabary and by 2. number-of-stroke plates. Both will be indexed.

Each entry in Pictographs and Gebas plates will show, from top to bottom

• Significant representation,
• latinization
• [IPA phonetic standard] transcription
• references and quotations of the main Dongba/Geba dictionaries work:

方国瑜; 和志武 – Fang Guoyu; He Zhiwu, 1995 “纳西象形文字谱 – Naxi xiang xing wen zi pu” 云南人民出版社

Dragan Janekovic, 2005 “Na-si: srpski recnik” – Beograd: Narodna biblioteka Srbije

Joseph Francis Charles Rock, 1963: “A 1Na-2Khi-English encyclopedic dictionary”, Serie Orientale Roma, XXVIII

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