Dongba Script

One surprising aspect of Naxi culture is their system of writing. I have been exposed to numerous Chinese dialects and varied as they may be, one thing unites them – writing. It is fascinating how they have managed to accomplish something like this. Whether it is Fujian dialect, Shanghainese or Cantonese they are all written the same way, give or take a few extra characters which are not common at all but for the most part they are the same. This was quite important in the unification of China when the Chinese writing system was introduced, for the first time people from the south can understand people from the north. This innovation overcame such a tricky situation and enabled China to prosper throughout the years despite it incredible diversity. Now I come across something which is quite different, in fact totally different.

The Dongba script 东巴 is used by the Naxi people who live in this area, Yunnan in particular. The culture of the Naxi were so prevalent that they had their own system of writing. However, one look at the writing and you will realize that this is not something Chinese at all, you may even want to call it hieroglyphics or pictographs. The words of the Dongba script are all drawn much like how Egyptian hieroglyphics were. It was fascinating that this kind of writing still exists, in fact, it is probably the only hieroglyphic language still in use. You can see the writing all over the town of Lijiang. Shops who sell Naxi stuff would usually have Dongba scripts written on them. Unfortunately, the script was almost killed off during the cultural revolution when numerous manuscripts were burned by over zealous revolutionaries. Today, the Dongba script use is encouraged by the government to preserve Naxi culture.

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