An Investigation on the Use of Dough Figures in Naxi Dongba Rituals

Dongba rituals are one of the im-portant expressions of Naxi polytheistic worship, and they reflect the Naxi ancestor's view of ani-mism.Relying on a large number of manuscripts written using Dongba pictographs which contain the content and procedure of Dongba rituals, a com-plete religious ritual system has been formed.A-mong the large number of Dongba ancient manu-scripts, there are many descriptions of the dough figures depicting deities, ghosts and animals, the materials for making them, and the way to use them in the rituals.This shows clearly that the dough figures, a traditional style of art, are very popular in Dongba rituals.Because the materials for making the dough figures used in Dongba rituals are mostly fried wheat flour, buckwheat flour and highland barley flour, they are called as “haxi duoma” by the local people, meaning “dough fig-ures of deities and ghosts made of grain”.