ART AND CULTURE

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Naxi's Ancient Music

Since the 14th century under the influence of  the culture of the Central Plains(the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River), Confucianism, Taoism and  the ancient music of  the Han people, the  Naxi Nationality created the ancient music  of  Naxi. To a miracle, the Ancient Naxi Music  has passed  from generation, till now  after 500 years of trials and hardship.It is called the " living fossils of  the ancient Chinese music".

The Ancient Naxi Music with a beautiful,elegant,  fresh and old melody has a rich local colour of the Naxi people.People of  Lijiang, both  young and old,like it very much.And it plays and important part in their cultural life.
With the deeping of the open-door policy, the Ancient Naxi Music becomes know to more and more  people, who welcome it and like it more than ever before.It has an ever increasing influence all over the world.The orchestra of the Ancient Naxi Music has been to Beijing for many times  to give performances,and was invited to the United States and some Western-European countries. Holland, Japan, and several other countries once  sent  special delegation  and experts to Lijiang to make investigation on the music.

As for the tourists from home and abroad to Lijiang,the Ancient Naxi Music is a window through  which  they can  have a better understanding of Naxi culture. When they enjoy the ancient music, they can also savour how wide and how deep the mental attitude of the Naxi people is.
Dongba Culture

The Dongba culture denotes the old traditional cultures of the Naxi Nationality. Dongba in the Naxi dialect is " wise men". These " wise men" have a wide knowledge, and are very good at singing and dancing, and know very well astronomy, geography, agriculture and animal husbandry, medicine and etiquette.
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The Dongba characters are some primitive pictographic characters. There are altogether 1,300 words. The Dongba characters are also called  the Naxi  pictographic characters.Each line, each symbol,and  each drawing has a special meaning.  Now it is "the only living pictographic characters in the world"

"The Dongba Scripture" is a scripture written in the Dongba characters, and consists of 20,000
volumes.The  contents  involves  religion,  philosophy,  history,  folk  costumes, literature, art, astronomy,  geography,  medical science, animals,  plants, birth, music, dance, painting, etc. So it is an encyclopedia of  the ancient Naxi culture and society.

Since the beginning of  the 19th century,  the Dongba culture  has drawn  much attention of  the scholars. There are collections of  " the Dongba Scripture"both  at   home  and  abroad.  At home Lijiang  Library and Beijing Library  have the richest collection.In the world  now there are only 20,000 odd copies of  the "Dongba Scripture"