Quentin Roosevelt's China : ancestral realms of the Naxi ; [published in conjunction with an exhibition organized and presented by the Rubin Museum of Art, May 13-Sept. 19, 2011

Published in conjunction with an exhibition organized and presented by the Rubin Museum of Art, May 13-Sept. 19, 2011. Cover Contents Foreword Notes to the reader Quentin Roosevelt’s China: Eighteen years in the making Acknowledgments Introduction The Naxi Naxi history The Naxi religion Joseph F. Rock Dongba art and Dongba art collections The Dongba religion since the Communist revolution The Roosevelt legacy 1. A memorable journely to the Naxi: Quentin Roosevelt’s legacy Adventure: In the footsteps of his forefathers Collecting Pictographs and funeral scrolls 2. A brief history of the Naxi people 3. My experience of Dongba religion and art My original interest in Dongba art My training in Dongba calligraphy, painting, dance, and other artistic activities My understanding of Dongba artistic standards My understanding of Dongba artistic styles The relationship between Dongba ritual and art 4. The Dongba religion An overview of the Naxi Dongba religion Tools of ceremonies and rituals Art and iconography Ceremonies Dongba beliefs and moral teachings Funerals and concepts of souls Cosmology and cosmography The spirit world Time, space, and numerology Dongba books and their scripts Reading the pictographic books Dongba mysteries: theories and interpretations of Naxi history and religion The Dongba tradition as it appears in the manuscripts Rock’s theory: the Dongba religion is an ancient Bon tradition The old Naxi kingdom and the Dongba religion The ancient names of the Mu genealogy The Mu chiefs and the ancient Bon The Mu chiefs and the Bon of Shenrab Mibo Bon and the mystery of the Dongba books On the origins of the Dongba manuscripts The distribution of the manuscripts and its implications for Naxi history The Dongba manuscripts, rock art, and the expansion of the Mu kingdom Concluding remarks on the pictographs and feudal dominion Conclusion 5. Pictographs and the language of Naxi rituals Introduction Naxi books and the Naxi language Evidence of the age of to-mba characters The origin of ’strange’ words and turns of phrase in to-mba rituals Concluding perspectives 6. Naxi women and the Dongba traditions The feminine in Dongba mythology Female ritual specialists in the Dongba religion The position of Naxi women from the early Qing dynasty to the Republican period (1912-1949) Naxi women in contemporary Lijiang 7. On the Mosuo Daba religion Daba ritual specialists Former ritual specialists Ancestors, ghosts, and illness All things in the universe have a soul 8. Interview with Professor Yang Fuquan 9. Joseph Rock: Restless Spirit CATALOG The realm of the priests The realm of the great gods The realm of nature A soul’s journey through the six realms of existence Bibliography Index A comprehensive introduction to over a thousand years of Naxi culture, art and religion, which presents the outstanding objects of the Quentin Roosevelt Collection, the most complete collection of Naxi Dongba art in the world.