Dongbaism

The Nakhi people of northwestern Yunnan, around Lijiang, also call their priests dongba. Their faith is held to descend from the Bön religion of Tibet, and by Nakhi tradition it came to Yunnan with a Bön shaman from eastern Tibet, Dongba Shilo.

Dongba priests perform the rites that propitiate the many gods and spirits of nature, among them sacrifices to Heaven and funerals. At the core of the faith is the belief that humans and nature are two half-brothers born of two mothers and one father. The priests alone kept the pictographic Dongba script.

Lijiang, the Nakhi heartland, submitted to Khubilai Khan in 1253, and from 1382 its hereditary Mu chieftains ruled it under the Ming until the Qing replaced them in 1723. Nakhi temples mix Dongba and Buddhist art.