1. The Naxi Pictograph

  When the Han language had already separated itself from pictograph in Chin and Han Dynasty and became a kind of abstract symbol, there was still a pictograph pure and original in Yunnan, southwest China. Thousands of years ago, the ancestors lived in Lijiang Old Town created the Naxi Pictograph, and this is the only pictograph alive in the world. The Naxi people are still using it today.

View of Yunnan Lijiang

  The Naxi Language was created by the Naxi nationality, "Na" means "black" and have the extended meaning "large", "xi" is "people" or "nationality". So "Naxi" means "the people who advocate black" or " the great nationality". It was first written on wood or carved on stones. After paper was invented, it could be written on papers. Since the pictograph was mastered and propagated by "Dongba"(people who held the memorial ceremonies in Naxi Nationality), it has the name "Dongba Language" as well. According to the experts, the Dongba Pictograph is a kind of ancient pictograph based on pictographic symbols, and was made up with both phonetic and ideograms.

  The interesting thing is, some of the characters in the Naxi Pictograph is colored. This is rare in the history of philology all over the world. Through these beautiful colors, we can see the love to the purity of the nature that Naxi people have, and the instinctive and unique feeling they have for art. There are over 2200 characters in the Naxi Language, every character stands for an object, an affair or a meaning in simple and childish strokes. The believer of the Dongba religion wrote down about 1500 volumes of classics for the religion. It is the very precious material to do further researches on the Naxi Language, the Naxi Pictograph, the religion, astronomy and geography, literature and art.

  And here are some examples of the Naxi Characters: