The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Casting Out Evil Spirits

The Naxi, an ethnic population, employ a language that is unlike any other in their native China. Their pictographic writings look more like the writing systems of the ancient Egyptians and Mayans, and they often describe religious rituals and shamanistic ceremonies, such as this manuscript (right), which shows how to conduct a ceremony for casting out evil spirits. Naxi is the world's only living pictographic language.

[Warrior riding a white cow]. Naxi Collection, Asian Division.

[Casting out evil spirits]. Naxi Collection, Asian Division.

"Selections from the Naxi Manuscript Collection," a presentation of unique items from the Library of Congress' Asian Division, is now available on the Global Gateway Web site at http://international.loc.gov/intldl/naxihtml/naxihome.html.

This presentation features ceremonial writings of the Naxi people of China's Yunnan Province. The Library's Naxi collection is the largest outside of China and is considered one of the finest in the world. This online presentation features 185 manuscripts, a 39 ½-foot funerary scroll and an annotated catalog of the entire collection.

The Naxi are one of 56 ethnic national minorities in China. Located in the remote mountain valleys of the Yunnan province in southwest China near the Tibetan and Burmese borders, the Naxi Kingdom flourished from the eighth century until 1724, when it came under direct Chinese rule. Today the Naxi population is estimated at 295,000.

Naxi pictographs differ from Chinese characters -- appearing more like Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphs, with many recognizable figures of animals and objects. Practicing Naxi priests, called dongbas, use a simplified pictographic system to produce manuscripts, which are used for standard ceremonies such as funerals and blessings. The dongbas create the manuscripts on coarse, handmade paper (usually in the form of booklets) and use them as prompts for religious rituals and shamanistic ceremonies. During the ceremonies, the edges of the books are burned so that the smoke transmits the message of the book to the heavens. When the priests die, the sacred books are buried with them in mountain caves and sometimes burned in funeral pyres, which accounts for the rarity of the Library's Naxi collection.

The Library of Congress Global Gateway Web site of international collections and links to international Web sites is available at http://international.loc.gov/. "Selections from the Naxi Manuscript Collection" is under the link "Individual Digital Collections," which includes links to presentations of other international materials.

A. [Warrior riding a white cow]. Naxi Collection, Asian Division. Reproduction information: Call No.: LC Number: 421; Rock No.: 525; Zhu No.: NZO028. Digital ID: asnaxi nzo028; http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.asian/asnaxi.nzo028. Photographic reproductions of these manuscripts are not available. Prints from the digital images of this collection can be obtained by contacting the Library's Photoduplication Service at http://www.loc.gov/preserv/pds.

B. [Casting out evil spirits]. Naxi Collection, Asian Division. Reproduction information: Call No.: Zhu No.: NZK237; Digital ID: asnaxi nzk237; http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.asian/asnaxi.nzk237. Photographic reproductions of these manuscripts are not available. Prints from the digital images of this collection can be obtained by contacting the Library's Photoduplication Service at http://www.loc.gov/preserv/pds.