dongba

Definitions

A priest of the Nakhi people.

Examples

“By 1949 there were dongba practising only in the rural areas of Lijiang. We have⟳ no figure⟳ on the exact number⟳, but according to interviews many Naxi villages had a dongba at that time, or would invite⟳ one from a neighbouring village. After the Communist take-over the dongba's activities were prohibited as expressions of feudal superstition (mixin), and partly for this reason⟳ there are extremely few dongba today.”

“Dongba of the Baisha schoolwere skilled and prolific in the script, and they could read⟳ and write⟳ geba script as well. In an analysis of the title pages of seven thousand dongba books in Western libraries, Pan and Jackson found 1,233 written by some forty-five authors from the Baisha school.”

“When the Buddhist monks and the dongbas went to the west to seek⟳ the sacred scriptures, the dongbas won the race⟳ and got the pants. This is why Tibetan Buddhist monks only wear⟳ robes, while we dongbas wear⟳ robes and pants.”

CEFR level