Symbol And Meaning: Yeh Village Naxi Religious Services Research

What is - in a religious context - the meaning of going down on your knees? What is the meaning of taking your hat off? What is the meaning of offering some flowers? This is the kind of simple question, but it's not easy to interprete, which I want to explore in this research.This dissertation explores the cosmos and the concept of personhood in Naxi, an ethnic group living in the border area between Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, and only from which the ritual representations could be completely understood. Sa, Ohen, Si are three fundamental key concepts in the cosmos and the concept of personhood in Naxi. SA refers to the energy inside Mu the sensible part of all reproductivable things in the world, and it is without stable shape. Ohen refers to the supernatural part of human being, and that is generally inside Gvmu, which is the sensible part of human being. Si, which means the living, is composed of Sa and Ohen and Mu(Gvmu), but the concept of Ohen is only related to human being in ritual representations. Human being makes a cultural living in the world. While Ohen consumes the Sa part of products, Gvmu does the non-Sa part of theirs. Ohen sometimes leaves the cultural space including Gvmu, house and village, for that is decided by its supernatural essence. The short-term separation will result in illness, if the travelling Ohen is opposed by Shi (the supernatural leader in the nature world) or Tsi(the devil). The long-term separation leads to the end of Si that is implied their separation forever. Ohen may go back to its ancestors' land where is in the upward world after the funeral, and become a member of the ancestors. Meanwhile Gvmu goes back to the nature world after burning. Otherwise Ohen has to stay in the middle or downward world, and becomes one of the devils if there is no funeral for it. There are two kinds of fundamental cosmos space in Naxi: the stable one and themovable one. In the stable space the cosmos is composed of three worlds-theupward belongs to gods and ancestors, the middle to Shi (the leader in the nature world), and the downward to the devils. Human being makes a cultural living in the middle world as a passing guest. For it there are two kinds of future, in which it accents to the upward world or descends to the downward one. Accenting or descending is due to having been a funeral or not. Ohen itself has no power to choose a positive future accenting to the upward after death. The power is in the hand of its descendants and Dongba priests who are organizers for the funeral. According to the cosmos and the concept of personhood in Naxi, god, ancestor and devil are the different forms of Ohen decided by their specific space belongings. The upward vs the downward, the inside vs the outside are two fundamental ways to percept the world including the natural, the cultural and the social. Both ways derive from the concept of Sa and Ohen, but they take two opposite routes: the first one is with a space-contracted model that is from macrocosms to microcosms, and the second with a space-expanded model from microcosms to macrocosms. Cosmos is the unique cosmos, and I am the unique I, but the symbolized and conceptualised cosmos and I are multi-structured and multi-layered, so they supply a flexible space for individual in specific context.The meanings of going down on your knees, taking your hat off and offering some flowers refer to respect visually. But they base on the different cosmos dimensions: the first representation bases on the dualism between the upward and the downward; the second one on the concept of personhood that Ohen is inside Gvmu, and Ohen's door is on the top of head; and the third one is related to the concept of Sa, the implying meaning-of offering flowers is offering the blooming Sa of flowers, which is without stable shape, even though there appears no-Sa symbols such as flowers made of babboo and paper, and fir boughs taken from high plateau in ritual representations.