The first 50-volume set of "The Completed Translated Works of Dongba Scriptures," with 45 million words, will be published in October.

Dongba scriptures are believed to be as old as the inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells from the Shang Dynasty (16th century - 11th century BC).

They were created to record the tribe's history, mythology, religion and social customs by ancient dongbas, the religious leaders of Naxi people living around Lijiang County in northwestern Yunnan Province.

These types of characters are now virtually extinct. Influenced by the Han people, Naxi people began learning the Chinese language and its characters.

Also, Naxi's religious activities were regarded as superstitious and were forbidden in the 1950s. Subsequently, few young Naxi people turned to the dongbas to study the scriptures and religious rituals.

Only a few dongbas who wrote and used the unique characters are still alive. That makes the scriptures all the more precious, said Zhao.

Since the institute was established in 1981, Zhao and his staff have preserved such cultural relics, and made the abstract language more understandable to the world.

Chinese experts began collecting copies of these scriptures in the 1950s. Foreigners had been collecting them since the 1920s.

More than 25,000 copies of such scriptures, in 1,000 categories, have been discovered. Half of these, however, are believed to have been taken abroad by botanist Joseph Rock.

The scriptures he sent back with his plant specimens were preserved in libraries and museums in the United States, Britain and other European countries.

Some Chinese libraries and museums _ including Beijing, Nanjing and Kunming _ have several of these original documents.

Lijiang has 6,500 copies of Dongba scriptures, recording the Naxi culture over a 1,000-year period.

The institute, in addition to collecting as many copies as possible, began translating the scriptures three years ago.

But the 12 researchers encountered difficulties. Two dongbas _ He Kaixiang, 76, and He Jigui, 73, _ were invited by the institute to help translate the scriptures.

The work was tough.

Although only 1,400 symbols were used, each had numerous sounds and meanings.

"Each symbol usually has several pronunciations according to context, and every pronunciation has a distinct meaning," Zhao explained.

The character's abbreviated forms posed additional challenges.

Since the scriptures were written and handed down by many dongbas throughout the generations, they changed gradually during the centuries.

For example, if one dongba shortened a five-symbol sentence to a two-symbol one, his followers did the same. But the changes were not always understood by others.

The publishing house, because the contents presented by the institute were difficult to understand, did not proofread or edit the materials.

Each volume of the opus is composed of four parts: 10 or more Dongba scriptures; each symbol's pronunciation marked in the international phonetic alphabet; literal translation of each symbol; and a translation of each sentence or paragraph.

An additional 50 volumes will be published next year, Zhao said.

The institute will work on other projects to preserve the Dongba culture, releasing tapes of Dongba chants and videotapes and CDs featuring Dongba religious rituals.

The institute, Zhao said, will thoroughly research materials collected and translated about Dongba culture.

A Dongba Art Festival will be held in Lijiang _ featuring workshops, art shows and Naxi traditional cultural activities _ in October.

"We must try to do something as soon as possible because the remaining living dongbas are very old," Zhao said.

"No other people could ever understand the scriptures and culture as the priests do," he added.

(from China Daily)