The purpose of studying these manuscripts is not simply to describe an extinct tradition, but to try to breathe life into a cultural edifice that was once on the precipice of extinction. Digitizing the books and bringing them back to the Naxi areas allows for their continued use.

One set of books in the UBL collection was of great interest to Dongba Xi Shanghong: Or. 25.259 and Or. 25.260. In an interview with Zhang Xu･Tayoulamu, Naxiologist and the President of the ADCA, Xi Dongba said:

“When I found out that these manuscripts brought from the Netherlands by the ADCA contained books from the ancestor sacrifice ceremony, I was very excited, because, apart from when I attended such a ceremony when I was very young, I have not seen these books. This is the first time I have seen them up close. In Sanba, you can’t find such books anymore. Now that I can see the contents of the books, I can make copies and read them, and this already long-lost tradition can be revived in the local area."

The ADCA team presented a printout of the Leiden manuscript to Xi Shanghong, and conveyed to him the hope that he can revive this already forgotten tradition in the Naxi villages. In this way, the ancient traditions that were interrupted during the Cultural Revolution, and the writing system that is still on the verge of extinction, can be brought back to life. Many of the manuscript traditions found in the UBL collection have already been lost in the Naxi areas. The deciphering of the manuscripts, alongside their digitization, will allow for the revival of these traditions once thought lost.

The image at the left on the cover of Or. 25.259 (see the image below) can be translated as yuq-ngvl, the name given to a deceased after the performance of the funerary ceremony – the deceased (represented by the pine branch) has now become an ancestor to be propitiated; yuq, the monkey’s head, is a phonetic marker for yuq, ancestor.

Continuing the tradition
 

An example of the revival of the ancient traditions would be the new copies of the digitized manuscripts in the collection. Because the cover of Or. 26.034 (Calling on the Ghosts to Accept the Sacrificial Offerings / Mu yuq kvq) has been damaged and can no longer be easily deciphered, Xi Shanghong rewrote the cover based on his understanding of the manuscript contents, thus “completing” the manuscript and reviving the tradition. These manuscripts can now be re-copied in the Naxi villages of Baidi and used in ritual performances once again.

The image on the left shows the damaged cover of Or. 26.034. The image in the

middle shows the rewritten version of the same cover.

New copies allow the tradition to be passed on and help us to research the manuscripts. Now that a new cover has been written, we can translate it (see also the image on the right): This book belongs to the “dol keel” ceremony (graph 1), an apotropaic rite of averting calamities that can be traced back to ancient Bon Tibetan practices. Graphs 2, 3 and 4 are the title of the contents of the book, inviting [the ghosts] to accept offerings. The ghosts and demons are invited, but not named on the cover. Graphs 5 and 6 have no real meaning, and serve as emphatic exclamations.