Dongba is a primitive hieroglyphic, which is mainly taught and used by Dongba believers to write Dongba scriptures, so it is called Dongba. Naxi dialect is called "Silu", which means "wood trace and stone trace". See wood painting wood, stone painting stone. Dongba was founded in the Tang Dynasty, with a history of more than 1000 years, with about 1400 characters. It is still used by Dongba (priests), researchers and artists. It is considered by scholars today to be more primitive and quaint than Babylonian cuneiform, ancient Egyptian sacred script, Central American Mayan script and China Oracle Bone Inscriptions. It is the only hieroglyphic still existing in the world, and it is regarded as a valuable cultural heritage of all mankind. This kind of ancient writing has high academic value for studying comparative philology and human cultural history, and is a "living fossil" of the origin and development of human social writing.

Development:

With the development of Naxi society and the mutual influence of national culture, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a phonetic symbol named "Goba" evolved from Dongba hieroglyphics also appeared. "Goba" is the disciple's meaning, "Gobawen" is the character created by Dongbashro descendants, and "Gobawen" is the transformation and development of Dongba. Dongba also used it to write about 200 scriptures. This kind of writing has simple strokes, one word and one sound, which is a step further than the pictographic Dongba language. Geba has more than 2,400 symbols, but there are many repetitions, and only more than 500 words are commonly used. Phonetic symbols are not standardized, homophones and near-sounds are replaced, and they are not widely used. Naxi people have created two kinds of ancient Chinese characters, which are still in use today. This is indeed a miracle in the history of world writing development.

Research:

Since the 1920s, Dongba has attracted the attention of academic circles at home and abroad. French scholar Barker was the first foreign scholar to study Dongba culture. He introduced 370 Dongba hieroglyphs he collected in Lijiang in Some Studies published by 19 13. The two-volume Naxi Encyclopedia of English compiled by American scholar Locke also contributed to the collection and research of Dongba characters. Chinese scholar Li Lincan's Dictionary of Some Pictographs, Fang Guoyu's Dictionary of Naxi Pictographs and He's Dictionary of Wu Zhi represent the high level of Dongba characters research.