Naxi Pictographic Characters 5, a photo from Yunnan, South

Photographer's Note

Last in a series of five on pictographic characters of the Dongba writing style.

The DongBa Valley around the ancient city of Lijiang is the domain of the Naxi, one of 56 minority groups in China. This is the last in a series of five on a writing style which has been in use for thousands of years. The characters were mainly used by priests for conveying special messages and were not used by the general population. More information on these pictographic symbols appear with the earlier uploads.

A Chinese friend kindly wrote the meaning of each and I list them here verbally as received from him:

Top Left: Making iron tools
Top Middle: Comfortable/relax
Top Right: Building a house
Bottom Left: Work animal skin
Bottom 2nd Left: Hungry
Bottom 2nd Right: Full (Eating)
Bottom Right: Down

lousat, delpeoples, COSTANTINO has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

lousat (57724) 2012-04-19 8:37

Hi Neels,a new and beautiful page of this very interesting serie,they seems not difficult like the egyptian gerogliph to understand..ehehe...i like your perfect pic and the interesting translation too.Have a nice day and thanks,Luciano

delpeoples (45018) 2012-05-02 4:38

Hi Neels

What a fascinating subject matter, well-photographed, great light and contrasts. Your note is intriguing and informative aswell.

Thanks for sharing, have a great day
Lisa

mayjayne (2792) 2012-10-21 8:58

Dear Neels,

Interesting study on the Dongba pictographic characters. Reminds me of Thailand, where they use 'pictographic characters' to depict something else (if you catch what I mean) at Patpong Street...

TFS,
May

COSTANTINO (42746) 2012-11-03 23:00

Hello
original photo with interesting details
I like shots of this kind and your notes
are very useful about pictographic
characters of the Dongba writing
style,your earlier uploads
are also useful notes
regards
Costantino