Ancient Dongba paper-making has been making a revival in Lijiang in
southwest China's
Yunnan
Province, a town inhabited predominantly by the
Naxi
ethnic group.
Skills for making the paper, on which has been recorded the world's
only living pictograph, Naxi Dongba pictograph, have been dying
out. He Shengwen, 53, the only expert remaining, owns a workshop to
produce the legendary Dongba paper in Yunnan.
He
said that around the period of Three Kingdoms (220AD -- 280AD), the
skill of Dongba paper-making was introduced to Yunnan as Naxi
people's ancestors settled in Lijiang.
Dongba paper is mainly used to record Dongba scriptures, the main
means over generations of passing down Dongba pictograph, also
known as a "living fossil of character."
"Although it is made with the original tools and crafts, Dongba
paper has a high quality of being mothproof and resistant to
natural erosion," He said.
However, during the so-called Cultural Revolution, many Dongba
classics were burnt. Now there are more copies scattered abroad
than kept at home.
Even though the Naxi pictograph is still used by older people, few
of them know how to make Dongba paper.
The local government started to look for successors of the ancient
paper-making skill in 1990. Finally, the Dongba Cultural Research
Center found He Shengwen.
He
immediately returned to his hometown, Kenpeigu Village, a main
producing area of Dongba paper, where grows a special plant that is
the main raw material of Dongba paper.
With the support of the local government and the teaching of his
father-in-law, a master of the paper-making skill, He succeeded in
making 23 pieces of paper in the first year of his
experimentation.
Those finished products were sent to Lijiang and approved by
experts and older Naxi people.
Traditionally, the process of Dongba paper-making involves several
steps including boiling cortexes, rinsing, pestling and airing.
He
has set up his own workshop and his products are mainly used for
research by some institutions and for transcription of old Dongba
scriptures.
His daughter, 22-year-old He Pizhen, has a good command of this
skill now.
"I
hope the ancient Naxi Dongba culture can be passed on," the girl
said.
Apart from its unique hieroglyphs, the Naxi ethnic group is also
famous for its ancient music.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization put Lijiang, home to most Naxi, on the World Cultural
Heritage list in 1997.
(Xinhua News
Agency October 24, 2002)