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The last place on earth where people write with pictures
Cover story | The last place on Earth…
...where people write with pictures
12
E. SAMPERS, ANNIE REFFET/HO/HOA-QUI/EYEDEA
Dongba, the only living pictorial script in the world
SOME 8500 years ago, people in what is now China started using written symbols to communicate and store knowledge. At first they used pictures to represent words and ideas – a characteristic shared by other early scripts such as cuneiform and hieroglyphs. These pictographic scripts have since fallen into disuse, superseded by more abstract writing systems such as the one you are reading now. All except one, that is. In the mountains of south-west China, a dwindling number of priests practising an animist religion still read and write with pictures. Theirs is the last living pictographic script anywhere in the world. The writing system is called Dongba and it has been used for about 1000 years to record and guide the religious traditions of the Naxi, a 300,000-strong people living in Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet. The Dongba script has more than 2000 pictographs, including dagger-wielding demons, 44 | NewScientist | 16 June 2007
giant birds and ferocious tigers. These take on different meanings depending on where they are in relation to others, but are hugely literal. To write the word “snatch”, for example, Dongba uses a bird falling prey to an eagle’s claw. For “absorb”, it depicts a man sucking from a bowl. The script is too complex for everyday use; it is used in religious ceremonies, as a prompt for storytelling. In Naxi society only shamans learn to read and write the script. Historically, the skill was passed down from priests to their sons. During China’s Cultural Revolution, Dongba was suppressed and thousands of ancient manuscripts destroyed. Today fewer than 60 scholar-priests remain, the vast majority of them aged over 60, says Yang Fuquan of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences in Kunming, China. Efforts are under way to keep the Dongba script alive. Since 1981, when Yunnan’s provincial government formed the Dongba Culture Research Institute in Lijiang, elders have translated more than 1000 texts into modern Chinese. The institute has also started formal apprenticeships lasting six to seven years to teach the script and religious practices. Yang, himself a member of the Naxi, estimates that as many as 200 young Naxi are studying to become Dongba priests. Even so, Yang remains concerned that the language and culture are being lost amid China’s rapid modernisation. “It’s very easy to encourage students to write some basic characters,” he says. “The difficult thing is to preserve a living culture with master Dongbas in the communities.” Phil McKenna www.newscientist.com
...where people write with pictures
12
E. SAMPERS, ANNIE REFFET/HO/HOA-QUI/EYEDEA
Dongba, the only living pictorial script in the world
SOME 8500 years ago, people in what is now China started using written symbols to communicate and store knowledge. At first they used pictures to represent words and ideas – a characteristic shared by other early scripts such as cuneiform and hieroglyphs. These pictographic scripts have since fallen into disuse, superseded by more abstract writing systems such as the one you are reading now. All except one, that is. In the mountains of south-west China, a dwindling number of priests practising an animist religion still read and write with pictures. Theirs is the last living pictographic script anywhere in the world. The writing system is called Dongba and it has been used for about 1000 years to record and guide the religious traditions of the Naxi, a 300,000-strong people living in Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet. The Dongba script has more than 2000 pictographs, including dagger-wielding demons, 44 | NewScientist | 16 June 2007
giant birds and ferocious tigers. These take on different meanings depending on where they are in relation to others, but are hugely literal. To write the word “snatch”, for example, Dongba uses a bird falling prey to an eagle’s claw. For “absorb”, it depicts a man sucking from a bowl. The script is too complex for everyday use; it is used in religious ceremonies, as a prompt for storytelling. In Naxi society only shamans learn to read and write the script. Historically, the skill was passed down from priests to their sons. During China’s Cultural Revolution, Dongba was suppressed and thousands of ancient manuscripts destroyed. Today fewer than 60 scholar-priests remain, the vast majority of them aged over 60, says Yang Fuquan of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences in Kunming, China. Efforts are under way to keep the Dongba script alive. Since 1981, when Yunnan’s provincial government formed the Dongba Culture Research Institute in Lijiang, elders have translated more than 1000 texts into modern Chinese. The institute has also started formal apprenticeships lasting six to seven years to teach the script and religious practices. Yang, himself a member of the Naxi, estimates that as many as 200 young Naxi are studying to become Dongba priests. Even so, Yang remains concerned that the language and culture are being lost amid China’s rapid modernisation. “It’s very easy to encourage students to write some basic characters,” he says. “The difficult thing is to preserve a living culture with master Dongbas in the communities.” Phil McKenna www.newscientist.com