9. The Cold Funeral of the Nisu Yi
Li Yongxiang
The Nisu, whose population exceeds one million, are one of the seventyodd branches of the Yi and are scattered in wide areas of southern Yunnan and some countries in Southeast Asia. The language of the Nisu is a southern dialect of the Yi language, has its own ancient scripts, and is rich in literature (see David Bradley, chapter 12 in this volume). The famous creation myth The Chamu Epic and The Shuangbo Yi Medicinal Gazetteer, which has been praised as “a jewel of the Yi nationality,” were actually translated from ancient Yi documents of the Nisu. Because this Yi branch is concentrated in the Ailao mountain range and the Hong River basin, it is known to scholarship as the Ailao Yi.
Specifically, the Nisu are distributed in Kunming Municipality and nearly thirty counties and cities in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Honghe Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yuxi Prefecture, and Simao Prefecture of Yunnan. Because of geographic differences and influences from ethnic interaction, there are variations and differences in culture, customs, and language among the Nisu of different areas. This essay examines the Nisu of Zhuyuan Village in Laochang Township of Xinping Yi-Dai Autonomous County in Yuxi Prefecture and analyzes a characteristic ritual sequence called ka-dji-da-le, or “cold funeral,” and related cultural phenomena.
THE CONCEPT OF THE COLD FUNERAL
There are two varieties of funeral rituals among the Nisu: cha-ma-da-le (the warm funeral) and ka-dji-da-le (the cold funeral). In the warm funeral, as soon as a person dies a day is selected for the funeral to send the soul across to Ngomi, the spirit world, back to where the Yi's ancestors used to live. The cold funeral, however, is selected in circumstances where it is not possible
Why do people perform the cold funeral ritual? The Nisu believe that there is only one spirit attached to one's body when one is alive, but that after one's death the one spirit turns into three: one spirit returns home to become an ancestor, one stays in the graveyard to watch the tombstone, and the third is sent by local priests, or bema (equivalent to bimo in Liangshan), to Ngomi, the World to Come, to be reunited with ancestors. There are no human beings in Ngomi, which is inhabited only by ancestors' spirits. But if no funeral rite is performed after one's death, the third spirit will not be reunited with those of the ancestors, and this is a taboo. Therefore, as long as a dead person has not yet undergone the funeral rite, the cold funeral rite will be performed, no matter how long ago he or she died. According to Zhou Juzhang, the bema of Zhuyuan Village, ka-dji means “cold” and da-le means “performing the funeral ritual.” Ka-dji-da-le means a ritual that is “left to be cold,” that is, a “cold funeral.” This name originates in the idea that people think this activity is comparable to eating cold rice and cold dishes.
It is not possible to perform the cold funeral ritual for a dead person who has undergone a funeral rite, because the third spirit has already been sent to the land of the ancestors. What is there to send off? Therefore, bema Zhou said, one dead person cannot experience two funeral rituals, and such a thing has never been heard of. Both warm and cold funerals are funeral activities and they have many things in common. Moreover, the important rituals—ngo-dzo-de, fighting offdemons; dzo-mo, showing the way to Ngomi; lo-she-dzuo duo, trampling the grasses; chi-dza-dzo-chuo, eating a small nighttime meal; and mi-sho, obtaining a grave site—are all performed the same way in both types of funerals. But the cold and the warm funerals are each of a piece and have many different characteristics. First, the site of the ritual is different: the great majority of warm funerals are held in the home of the dead person, and only rarely are they held at the grave site; almost all cold funerals take place beside the mountain grave, and the participants eat and sleep on the mountain, with only one ritual, that of calling the soul, taking place in the home. Second, the numbers and points of emphasis of the rites are different: warm funeral rites are numerous and detailed—there are rites for ablution of the corpse, dressing the corpse and laying it in the coffin, and cremation. During a cold funeral, these rites are not performed because the person has already been dead for some years; but many rites that the warm funeral does not have are added, such as the she-ka-tsi, which re-creates the circumstances of the time of death. Third, when three years have passed since a warm funeral, there is a “three full years” (sa ku de) rite, whose purpose is
There are many reasons for holding a cold funeral—for instance, when a person dies, it may take several years before a funeral can take place because an auspicious day cannot be found. Or the family may be experiencing economic hardship; after having waited for some years, they will have made financial preparations and will perform a cold funeral.
THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN DIMI AND NGOMI, AND THE LAND WHERE THE ANCESTORS LIVED
In the traditional view of the Nisu, the cosmos is divided into two worlds: Dimi and Ngomi. The former is inhabited by living human beings and is where they live and reproduce; the latter is inhabited by spirits, who must go there. This concept is similar to the division of the yin world and the yang world in the Han cosmology. Certainly there are some differences, because the Nisu have a very vague idea about Ngomi, and bema cannot clearly explain what that world is like. But bema know that there is a land in that world, where Yi ancestors used to live. Therefore, the core of funeral activities is the act of escorting the spirit from the place where the dead person lived to the place where the ancestors are said to have lived. The cold funeral is no exception: held at the grave site, it entails sending the spirit from the grave site to the land of ancestors. It is said that the spirit will meet with many difficulties on its journey, and so it is necessary to have the advice and assistance of the bema. And how does the bema know when the spirit has entered Ngomi and reached the land where the ancestors lived? How does the bema know where the boundary is between Dimi and Ngomi and the location of the place where the ancestors lived? The bema has an array of methods and thought models.
On the matter of the boundary, the Yi classical books are full of material. For example, the Ngo-dzo-de Prayer (Fighting the Demons Prayer), which is read during the rite of what is called “fighting off demons,” mentions a place called the Street of the Intermingling of Yin and Yang Forces (she-shu tsi-li-dze). This street is the boundary of the two worlds; beyond it is Ngomi and this side of it is the world of the living. And the two are opposed worlds in the Dzo-mo Prayer (Prayer of Showing the Way). Human life is Dimi and existence after death is Ngomi. Even if the spirit is still at home, it is, according
However, in actuality the boundary perceived by the bema is not too consistent with the one described in the classical texts. They believe that the top of ngo-di-dje, meaning “the tree of entering Ngomi,” an enormous paper tree used in the cold funeral, is the very boundary. Inside the ngo-di-dje, there is a piece of blue cloth (in some places white cloth) hanging vertically, and this provides the way across. The spirit climbs up along this piece of cloth, and when it crosses the top, it has reached Ngomi. The construction of the ngo di-dje is very particular and precise. It is divided into twelve platforms, symbolizing the twelve months of the year. Its “body” is covered with little openings, which are “windows” through which the spirit takes leave of its friends and relatives; as the spirit climbs up the cloth, he or she can see the living world through these windows, but the world of the living cannot see the spirit. And when the spirit has crossed the top, he or she enters Ngomi.
On the matter of the boundary, the shamans have their own set of explanations. They believe that the points of interconnection between the two different worlds are located just below their own ears. Shamans claim that they can call out to spirits to communicate with the human world through themselves, and that the spirits they summon are located just below their ears, so that only they can hear what the spirits say. Similarly, they can relay people's requests and hopes to the spirits.
As for the land where the ancestors once lived, the bema refer to it generally as “the place where the King of the Underworld of the Universe [mu-mi tze-lo-wa] resides.” The path described in the classical Yi Dzo-mo Prayer leads from the grave toward Mount Ailao, to Xinping City,to Mount Lukui, to Eshan City, to Yixi City, to Mount Xi, to Kunming, and on northward. Regardless of who has died, the Yi invariably direct the spirit to take this route back, which dovetails neatly with the belief among scholars that the Yi came from the north. Clearly, the Nisu funeral rites contain much that reflects their history.
As for how the rite of showing the way (dzo-mo) in the cold funeral relates to the place of the ancestors: one takes the head, skin, limbs, and tail of the ox used in the ritual of fighting off demons (ngo-dzo-de) and presents them completely intact at a spot some fifteen meters from the grave; two sticks of incense are stuck into the ox's nostrils, with the whole head facing the sky; the bema, holding a golden-bamboo staff and wearing a bema headdress, and starting in front of the grave, recites the Dzo-mo Prayer while walking slowly toward the ox's head. When the bema reaches the head, the prayer is finished, and the bema pokes the head with the staff so that it faces the ground. This poke signifies that the spirit has reached the land of the ancestors; and then, while calling to the spirit, the bema walks back toward the grave and returns to the world of the living.
The Nisu believe that in Ngomi there are also mountains, waters, a sun, a moon, rice, cows, sheep, chicken, pigs, and so on. The spirits work and produce subsistence materials for their living.
SACRIFICE OF ANIMALS, MONEY, AND OBJECTS
Regardless of who passes away, the Nisu must send that person's spirit back to the land of the ancestors to be reunited with them. The spirit, of course, needs advice and assistance from the bema. But according to etiquette, the bema cannot send back the spirit empty-handed. Furthermore, the Nisu believe that the spirit needs an assortment of things in order to live in the other world, such as livestock, money, and tools, and that if the living do not give them to him or her, there is no way for the spirit to obtain these. Hence people make sacrifices of livestock (such as cattle, goats, pigs, chickens), money (paper money or various paper trees), grain, and tools. Superficially these things are used in sacrifice, but in fact they are given to the spirit.
The question of what things should be given to the spirit is decided by the host family, based on what resources are available; once decided, this cannot be changed, especially with gifts of livestock. It once happened that the host family had decided that a few chickens were to be sacrificed, but then changed their minds; all the chickens died anyway. The bema explained that the spirits of those chickens had been snatched away by the soul. In today's cold funeral, decisions of this kind cannot ordinarily be altered.
In the cold funeral there are two rituals related to gifts of livestock—cattle, goats, pigs, or chickens—that are offered to the spirit. First comes the shu-pu in the second part of the ritual. The expression shu-pu is translated as “handing over alive” by some, as “sacrifice” by others, but in any case the meaning is the same: the livestock are offered to the spirit. The bema recites the Shu-pu Scripture, which must be finished before the animals can be killed. The prayer tells where these livestock came from, where the knife came from, and the difficulties of killing the animals. The other ritual is called dji ti, which is difficult to translate neatly: dji means “everything, all things,” and ti means “to inform”—that is, to inform the spirit about all the activities taking place as part of the cold funeral, including who is taking part and their kinship relation to the dead person, what gifts they have brought (livestock, money, objects, and so on), and such matters.
Money given to the spirit is made of paper; and of the five large paper trees used in the cold funeral activities, four represent money. These four trees are the baitian wang, the ertian wang,
[1] These terms are of Han origin and have no Yi language equivalents. The Han terms are used in the ritual.
the “gold tree” (she-dze), and the “silver tree” (tu-dze). The baitian wang is given to the King of the UnderworldGrain and tools are also a part of the offering to the spirit. First, the bema gives the spirit a pair of chi-che (gourd ladles) as tools for drawing water in Ngomi. The bema also represents the spirit in the “trampling the grasses” (lo she-dzuo-duo) rite and asks for things from the daughter of the dead person—things such as money, towels, clothes, shoes, tobacco, liquor, grain, and meat. She must hand over immediately the gifts she has prepared. Only after the bema has the requested items can the “trampling the grasses” rite begin.
Not only does the bema give things to the spirit on behalf of the host family, he even instructs the spirit in their use. With the gu, for instance, the bema tells him or her, “The gu is important in the Underworld: in hot weather merely put the gu on your head and you won't feel hot, but cool; in the rain, hold up the gu and your clothes will remain dry while other people are getting drenched; in the winter, the gu can be worn as clothing, so that when other people are cold, you will be warm.” The same thing happens with the ngo-di-dje—the bema tells the spirit, “There are seas, rivers, and mountains in Ngomi just as there are here; when you come to the sea, the ngo-di-dje will turn into a boat; when you come to a river, into a bridge; when you come to a mountain, into a ladder; as long as you have it, you can overcome any difficulty.” Of course, the spirit cannot take all the gifts with him or her; a portion is left as inheritance for his or her descendants.
The purpose for holding the cold funeral is to offer paper money, livestock, and objects to the spirit. It seems very normal for the Nisu—things that the spirit needs in Ngomi have to be brought there from Dimi. It is the same with the birth of a person—all he or she needs in the living world, such as money, livestock, grain, and clothes, are brought from Ngomi.
THE RITE OF FIGHTING OFF DEMONS
When the bema escorts the spirit to the land of the ancestors, it is by no means smooth sailing all the way. It is necessary for the spirit to be psychologically prepared in order to complete a successful journey. Aside from having to climb steep inclines, cross seas and rivers, be buffeted by the wind and rain and baked by the sun, the spirit also has to fight off all sorts of demons along the way. These demons include some in human form and some in animal form. They hold areas in the road, and the spirit can reach its destination only if they are fought off.
As in other rites, it is mainly the bema who drives them off, because it is
While fighting off the human demons, the bema chants the Ngo-dzo-de Prayer, which tells of a girl named Gu-dji-ni-pa who could not enter Ngomi because she had not been married in the human world. She does nothing but wait by the road to grab men's spirits and make them marry her, and the bema must drive her off in order to give the spirit free passage. This prayer is not read for the spirit of a dead woman, nor are demons in human form driven off.
It takes two bema to fight off demons; the two represent Aji and Ajuo, who are brothers. They were orphaned as children and grew up together. After they grew up, Aji married and began to change. He forced his younger brother to divide their family property, of which he took eight of the nine parts, leaving the least desirable ninth for his brother. Ajuo sent the goats, cattle, pigs, and chickens that had come to him off into the mountains, sent the ducks into the sea, and then ran off to the Street of the Intermingling of Yin and Yang Forces (she-shu-tsi-li-dze) and indeed to Ngomi itself. When Aji, the elder brother, learned of this, he grieved beyond all reason, but it was too late. Three years later, after Aji eventually died, he still had not entered Ngomi, and his brother, Ajuo, finally came forward to drive off demons, allowing Aji to enter.
The rite of driving off animal demons is necessary because, in addition to the female demon, there are all manner of animal demons on the road to Ngomi, such as the Red-Tailed Tiger (lo-nu-mo), Long-Necked Leopard (tsi-mo), Short-Tailed Dog (tsi-me-du), and Great White Fowl (ji-tu). The only way for the spirit to reach the land of the ancestors in peace is for the bema to make all of them disappear.
When the rite of fighting off demons begins, some people beat gongs and drums and begin doing a dance of offering. One of the two bema holds a beef rib pierced by a sharp-tipped knife: the knife is for killing human demons, and the bone is for the tiger and leopard to eat. The other bema holds the golden-bamboo staff (vu-du). The bema with the knife plays the part of Ajuo, the one with the staff, Aji. The ritual starts at the grave with the bema playing Ajuo saying the Ngo-dzo-de Prayer and then breaking into wild dance. The bema playing Aji immediately starts saying the Ngo-dzo-xo Scripture. While this is going on, the daughter of the deceased pretends to be a tiger trying to seize the beef bone to eat, and the other bema, watching the time closely, does the ritual for driving off demons in animal form. The whole demon-fighting rite goes on for half an hour, and then beside the ox skin the bema breaks a small white bowl that has been offered, signifying that the demons have all been dispersed.
There is another demon-chasing ritual in the funeral ritual, called ni-mi. The ni-mi is different from the ngo-dzo in that it chases away all unpropitiated ghosts not connected with the cold funeral, “sweeping clean” the funeral area. With demons of somewhat greater power or importance, one uses a spirit horse (sa-mo) to escort them away.
PEOPLE'S IDEAS ABOUT THE COLD FUNERAL
In the funeral ritual, various participants—the bema, host family, and members and assistants of different troupes of mourners—all present different states of mind. Here I will discuss two common states of mind in the ritual.
The first of these is found in dancing reverential dances. Ritual dancing is an important constituent of the cold funeral; not only are there sections consisting only of reverential dancing, but many other sections also involve ritual dancing. Rituals made up entirely of dancing generally begin at 7 p.m. or later and last until 3 a.m., with as much as eight hours of continuous dancing. What is more, the mourners compete to see which troupe can dance the longest and most beautifully. According to the custom, the longer and grander the dancing, the more successful the cold funeral ritual.
But why dancing? There are different explanations. The bema believe that reverential dancing shows the King of Ngomi that the world of the living still needs people to go on multiplying. The dancing in a number of specific rituals signifies the greeting or sending off of divine entities—as for instance when the bema protects a god. Ordinary Nisu people say that ceremonial dancing boosts courage for the participants. They believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits, and the idea of ghosts and spirits is constant throughout the ritual. The fear of spirits is so deeply embedded in people's minds that they almost turn pale at the mention of them. In their view, ghosts always follow people—in fields, at the edges of fields, on roads, and so on. Ghosts throw sand in the woods and make one hear the noise; or they make strange howls (they howl only once on a mountain, traveling to a different mountain to howl again; day breaks after they howl three times); or they imitate cries of children or women; or they follow humans or livestock at some distance behind. The Nisu who walk outside at night feel very nervous. They point the flashlight backward and turn the radio on really loud. And they believe that by doing so, ghosts and spirits dare not follow them. Every time someone dies in the village or in a neighboring village, people usually do not go out in the evening, women and children especially. In the ritual, people are involved with ghosts and they get edgy during the night. But after the reverential dancing, their courage is boosted and they feel more relaxed.
The second type of psychological state is found in calling spirits. The bema is the person who communicates between the Dimi and Ngomi worlds. But even with the protection of the bema's spirits, the bema are still in a state of