Inheritance And Change:a Research On Heaven-worshipping Ritual Of Naxi Ethnic Minority In Lezhu Village

This thesis treats the Heaven-worshipping ritual of Naxi ethnic minority in Lezhu village as a case study, representing a path of an interpretation of Naxi culture, then constructing the social reality of Naxi village in Lijiang. Meanwhile, it discusses how a typical Naxi village within a specified area maintains and restores its unique ethnic traditional culture during the changes of social realities, and presents its characteristics of small geographical culture inherited and developed in the process of cultural exchange and change.Specifically, the contents of the thesis are as follows:in the first part, it gives a general introduction of Heaven-worshipping ritual of Naxi ethnic minority from the aspects of original Heaven-worshipping ritual as well as the ritual restored after the Reform and Open Policy; In the second part, according to field work of the author and description in ethnography, it describes the Heaven-worshipping ritual restored in Lezhu village, and discusses the reasons of its restoration; In the third part, it discusses the relationship between inheritance and change of Heaven-worshipping ritual in Lezhu village and its inheritance and change respectively; It explores, in the last part, the diversification of Heaven-worshipping ritual. The Heaven-worshipping ritual of Naxi ethnic minority restored by Lezhu village has helped to develop and promote the diversified ethnic identity drawn from survival power and space of Heaven-worshipping ethnic identity, and the models of ethnic identity of Naxi ethnic’s Heaven-worshipping. Moreover, it concludes that the Heaven-worshipping is the important manifestation of living wisdom of Naxi ethnic minority through the analysis of the role the Heaven-worshipping ritual played in the relationship between villages and those from other village, Naxi ethnic minority and other ethnics, even man and nature.