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Foreword
Mention William Shakespeare and it’s hard not to think of his famous play Romeo and Juliet. This timeless love story tells of the love between a young man and a young woman who end up as tragically heroic sacrificial offerings due to the enmity between their two families. Coincidentally, the Naxi people of Yunnan province also tell a moving story about a young man and woman who could not be together leading to the suicide of the young woman in the name of love.
To release the souls of the many, many people who have killed themselves for love from purgatory the Naxi Dongba (the Naxi priest) recited the “Migration of Youth” scripture, in the hope that the souls of the dead could rest in peace in the legendary Jade Dragon Snow Mountain promised land. The scripture tells of people living happy lives there after death. Many Naxi young people longed to go to the promised land and this helped create a fashion for lovers to commit suicide.
To halt the growing fashion for lovers to commit suicide in the name of love, at one time the reciting of this kind of classic book was banned, however this helped make “Migration of Youth” the most famous scripture in the Naxi wind sacrifice ceremony. The main focus of this paper is the Naxi scripture in the Institute of History & Philology’s (this institute hereafter) collection “Migration of Youth”, summarizing the contents of the story and discussing and analyzing its themes. The aim is, by examining this topic, to acquire a further understanding of Naxi marriage, love and death concepts. To allow readers to understand the Naxi’s “Dongba” and the “Dongba scriptures” written by Dongbas, this paper will begin by asking “What are the Dongba scriptures?” (To be continued)
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