Guo Dalie continues to spread Dongba culture

Guo Dalie gives a lesson about Naxi Dongba language and culture.

Participants in a summer camp aimed at protecting intangible cultural heritage visited Guo Dalie, an expert on the Naxi Dongba language and culture, on July 5.

During the activity, jointly organized by the Yunnan provincial department of education and the China Daily Yunnan branch, students from the Primary School attached to the Yunnan Normal University attended a lecture by Guo Dalie about the Dongba culture of the ethnic Naxi group, who live in southwest China's Yunnan province.

Dongba is considered to be an important aspect of China’s historical and cultural heritage, and Guo said that scripts and languages are an indispensible part of cultural heritage, adding that Dongba culture includes hieroglyphics, scriptures, paintings, music and dance.

Dongba hieroglyphics are considered to be the only such living system in the world, and Dongba culture attracts attention from scholars around the world.

Guo spoke to the young visitors about the hieroglyphics and the students then tried to write some themselves.

Following his retirement, Guo receives foreign students and tourists who are interested in Dongba culture in his home.

Guo Dalie is a member of the Naxi group and he was born in Hongwen village, Lijiang Old Town, in Yunnan.

He was a researcher at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, and also the director of the Institute of Ethnology at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, in addition to his role as chairperson of the Yunnan Nationalities Association.

He has written about 10 books on Chinese ethnic issues, Naxi culture and other topics.

Edited by Niva Whyman