manuskript

Manuskript bestående av 25 blad med piktogram.

Naxi-folket, också kallat Mosu, bor i Yunnan-provinsen i södra Kina. Befolkningen uppgår till knappt 250.000. Naxi-folkets religion anses överensstämma med den förbuddhistiska tibetanska Bön-religionen, men har även inslag av buddhism. Deras skriftspråk är piktografiskt, det består av bildtecken. Hur gammalt detta skriftspråk är vet man inte. Det utövades av en religiös elit och är idag på utdöende, då det nästan enbart är gamla präster som fortfarande behärskar språket. Det finns i huvudsak två stilar, dels den helt piktografiska, dels en mer förenklad variant som gradvis håller på att övergå till en syllabisk skrift. (Exempel på denna förenklade skrift kan ses i manuskript 1946.34.6 A.) De manuskript som ingår i denna samling är religiösa texter, skapelseberättelser och myter. De är tämligen enkla i sitt utförande och är förmodligen skrivna någon gång under 1800-talet. Det förekommer också mer utarbetade varianter där hela texten är färglagd./CR

Naxi Handmade Paper and Writing Instruments

Making handmade paper is an important part of the traditional transmission of a Dongba(shaman)’s knowledge, from father to son.

Producing the paper entails collecting materials, cooking, rinsing, beating, mixing, calendering and sun-drying. In the dry season (November to May), it takes around 2 or 3 days to make the paper, while in the rainy season (June to October), it can take 5 days to complete production.

Naxi paper is made from a type of shrub that grows on the hills of the Yunnan plateau at altitudes of over 2000 metres. The Naxi name for this shrub is Azhuazhua (in Latin, wikstroemia lichiangensis). It is generally about one metre tall. The Dongba typically select robust trees with as few branches as possible, taking branches from the middle, cutting off the ends and grouping them together in order to obtain more fibres easily.

Azhuazhua contains toxic substances, and this toxicity complicates the production of handmade paper. But this manual labor creates a writing surface that can be transmitted from generation to generation because this toxicity acts as an insecticide, helping preserve religious manuscripts. By making paper, Naxi shamans transform natural materials into writing surfaces to be used permanently for their religious activities, but to do this they must overcome the pain caused by the material's toxicity. The pain often lasts one or two days. When first learning to make paper, a Dongba’s disciples often find it very painful, but once they become accustomed to it, they feel it less.

Traditionally, ink is made from soot from the hearths of traditional Naxi wooden houses. The Naxi people of Baidi in Yunnan's Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture mainly use oak as firewood. As it burns, smoke fills the house and releases soot that settles on the bottom of the pots. To make ink, this soot is mixed with water and animal fat (often pig fat).

The bamboo stylus is called a pɯ˩ly˧ in International Phonetic Alphabet. To this day, the Dongba still use the pɯ˩ly˧ to copy manuscripts, and they make it by hand. Its manufacture requires a piece of bamboo around 20 cm long, the end of which is cut to obtain a hollow elliptical cross-section. To increase the stylus's surface area and its capacity to absorb ink, the sides of the elliptical cross-section are re-cut and the tip hollowed out with a knife on a length of approximately one centimetre. It takes less than ten minutes to make a stylus.