8. On the Nature and Transmission of Bimo Knowledge in Liangshan
Bamo Ayi
In the mountain fastness of Liangshan, the traditional clan society, which had no centralized government, adopted a slaveholding system that persisted until 1956; the efforts of successive dynasties to control the area ended in failure. Because of the geographic barriers and the special characteristics of the slave system, foreign scholars referred to Liangshan as an independent area and to the Nuosu people as the “Independent Lolo.”
In 1956, Liangshan began to undergo the Democratic Reforms and the slave system was abolished. Since then, there have been great changes in politics, economy, and culture, particularly during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966—76), when traditional Nuosu culture and religion became targets of campaigns to “smash the Four Olds” and “root out superstition.” Clan leaders (suyy), respected mediators (ndeggu), and priests (bimo) were scorned, and all were subjected to socialist reeducation. Clan meetings and other clan activities were forbidden, religious texts were confiscated and burned, and all kinds of ritual activity were prohibited. Nevertheless, in remote mountain villages in the core area where Nuosu are concentrated, Nuosu people preserved many aspects of their original way of life, and traditional religious beliefs and rituals continued in secret at that time.
Since the early 1980s, when minority policy turned away from promoting assimilation of Han ways, Nuosu people from the countryside and the cities have been spontaneously working toward the revitalization of traditional Nuosu culture. In the villages, the movement for cultural revitalization is characterized by the resurgence of the clans and the revival of traditional religious activities. With the redistribution of the land to households in the early 1980s and the administrative reforms of the 1990s, government power in the villages has been severely weakened. Agricultural cooperation is now undertaken
The bimo are religious professionals who guide the spiritual life of mountain Nuosu villages. In the Nuosu language, bi means to recite or chant a scripture or to perform a ritual; mo is a person of knowledge or accomplishment. Bimo are the bridge between people and spirits. They perform and direct all kinds of rituals, perform ceremonies to spirits and ancestors, exorcise ghosts and evil spirits, and cure illnesses. In the course of the historical development of Nuosu religion, the ranks of the bimo have developed their own system of reproducing themselves and of recruiting and training new members through a combination of inheritance and education.
BIMO AND THEIR PLACE IN SOCIETY
As religious professionals, bimo perform and direct all kinds of rituals to propitiate gods and ancestors, exorcise ghosts, call spirits, appease spirits, and cure illnesses. In traditional Nuosu belief, the human life course, wealth and poverty, peace and conflict are all the result of the influence of gods, ghosts, ancestors, and spirits. Bimo are the mediators between human beings and these supernaturals, representing their clients in their ceremonies and prayers to the supernaturals and even controlling people's access to health and wealth through supernatural intervention. As a Nuosu proverb says, “Where the crane flies over, the sky will be clear; where the bimo arrives, people will be fortunate.”
As village intellectuals, bimo wereformerly the only literate group in Nuosu areas; even today, they are the only ones who can read and understand traditional scriptures and old documents, compile historical scriptures, and write new texts relating to philosophy, literature, history, astronomy, medicine, agriculture, arts and crafts, rituals, religion, and ethics. There is a proverb that says, “The knowledge of a bimo is limitless.” The bimo are the
Suyy, ndeggu, and bimo are like the three stones that hold up the cooking pot over the fire pit in a Nuosu household: they are the triple pillars of Nuosu traditional society. Suyy are secular political leaders; ndeggu are like judges, specialists in mediation and dispute resolution between individuals and between clans (Ma Erzi 1992). But bimo are both leaders and mediators. As spiritual leaders, bimo deal with people's faith and guide the spiritual life of mountain Nuosu villages. As religious mediators, they are the bridge between people and supernaturals. Because of their complex role in Nuosu society, bimo became a distinct professional stratum very early in history. Their professional activity was not subject to control by secular authorities, but they sometimes joined forces with secular authorities, using the power of gods and ancestors to help solve or deal with otherwise insoluble questions; they thus became an important bulwark of the Nuosu clan system. For example, if a clan wants to divide into two because it is too large, or so that distant clan mates may marry, it is necessary to have a bimo perform the ceremony called nimu ajie; if two clans who have divided want to combine again after their strength has been reduced by natural disasters or wars, a bimo must perform the ceremony called nimu ate. When two clans form an alliance, a bimo performs the ceremony called lendu (bashing an ox) to consecrate the alliance and emphasize its permanence; when someone who had committed a serious violation of customary law is expelled from the clan, a bimo will perform the ceremony of loyycy (expulsion from one's clan), which calls on the ancestors to witness the expulsion. And when a case is so difficult that a ndeggu cannot solve it, a bimo may be called upon for an oracular solution.
Because of the services they offer to the population, bimo have a distinct and honored place in society. In the past, there was a custom described as nzy la bi a de, or “even when a tusi arrives, a bimo does not have to get up,” and even today when a bimo arrives the best seat is given up for him. In the course of Nuosu history, the ranks of the bimo have developed their own system of reproducing themselves and of recruiting and training new members through a combination of inheritance and education.
SUCCESSION TO BIMO STATUS
The status and social role of bimo, particularly in relation to religious activities, are inherited. It is a natural law that senior bimo will become old and eventually die. To whom will the bimo pass on their status and social roles? Who may qualify for the bimo profession to receive training and to carry on the tradition? Let us look at the principles and customary rules for the succession of the bimo.
Succession by Males Only
The bimo social stratum is a male social group, one whose inheritance is passed on to males only. Females have neither the right nor the opportunity to receive bimo education or engage in bimo professional activities. The notion of “polluted females” is internalized in religious beliefs of the Nuosu people, so females are prohibited from becoming priests, touching religious instruments and texts, or participating in certain religious ceremonies. Thus, the bimo, as sacred interlocutor between humans and supernatural beings, naturally exclude the “polluted” females. The Yi classic The Origin of Ghosts links the origin of ghosts to a beautiful girl. And it is said that there was only one female bimo in Yi history—Lazzi Shysi, a daughter of the eminent bimo Ashy Lazzi.
Even though Lazzi Shysi learned the highest-level magic from her father, understood the most powerful and complicated classics, had unusual talent—a horse she painted could fly; a bird she painted could sing; a dragon she painted could dance—and was able to suppress demons, banish ghosts, and rescue people from dangerous accidents, she still had to dress in male clothing when she performed as a bimo, so that no one knew she was female. This example shows the principle that the inheritance of the bimo excludes females.
Two Ways of Transmitting Bimo Status
The Primary Method: Inherited Status. Some Nuosu clans—for example, the Jjike, the Shama, the Ddisse, and the Jynyi—have produced bimo for many generations, as indicated in their genealogical documents, which demonstrate that their clans have practiced the rituals of bimo for dozens or even more than one hundred generations. In my own fieldwork, I discovered one clan in Meigu that claims to have practiced bimo arts for about 136 generations. According to customary rules of bimo succession, bimo status is inherited within one clan, particularly among nuclear family members, usually patrilineally from father to son. This kind of inheritance is conservative and thus has some limitations.
This type of succession within a clan that has traditionally produced bimo is statistically much more common than extraclan inheritance, for several reasons. First, hereditary bimo retain privileges when they offer services in the religion of ancestral worship. Nuosu people believe that ancestors are the source of disaster, fortune, prosperity, and disease, and thus they often require that ceremonies be performed to propitiate the ancestors. They cannot do these ceremonies themselves; the bimo must perform them. Usually a hereditary bimo will be asked to accept the honored and privileged position of performing such a ceremony. In addition, a hereditary bimo also dominates in other major ceremonies, such as calling souls, pronouncing curses, and ghost-cursing. In contrast, any nonhereditary bimo, no matter how
Second, because hereditary bimo are protected by their bimo ancestors and possess inherited ceremonial books and instruments, the Nuosu people believe them to have powerful abilities, and they trust them. They, as a dominant force in the bimo social group, are also very influential in Nuosu society generally.
Finally, hereditary bimo receive the highest compensation for performing a ceremony. They are the most authoritative, and their position in the bimo social class is the highest.
In order to preserve the status and the profession of the bimo within one's clan, a hereditary bimo is responsible for training younger generations; every male who is born in the nuclear family of a hereditary bimo is also responsible for learning bimo knowledge and associated skills and engaging in the bimo profession. Normally, if there is a bimo in the father's generation, there should be at least one bimo among the sons' generation. Thus the profession and status of bimo are continuously transmitted according to this customary rule.
A Secondary Method: Apprenticeship. Nonhereditary bimo are apprentices, called zzybi in Nuosu, of hereditary bimo. Zzy means “mixed” and “impure”; bi means bimo. Zzybi indicates that apprentice bimo are not pure and not authentic. There are two ways of becoming an apprentice bimo: the path may be determined by oneself or determined by divination. When a son is born, if his mother's rotating horoscopic compass currently points toward the east or the west, this indicates that he meets the bimo spirit and the bimo's protective eagle spirit, and thus is qualified to become a bimo. In fact, he should become a bimo, otherwise the bimo spirit and bimo eagle might become angry with him and cause diseases and disasters. If he becomes a bimo, the spirit will protect him and ensure his success in learning and performing ceremonies. Some parents voluntarily send their son to a bimo family to study; others do so after they get sick or after a disaster occurs: these parents, by means of divining, realize that the bimo spirit and the bimo eagle have caused the disease or disaster. This seems to imply that every Nuosu male has the opportunity to become a bimo, but because nonhereditary bimo or apprentice bimo can perform only small-scale ceremonies and have limited income, and because these bimo are not protected by their ancestors and do not inherit ceremonial books and instruments, they are not completely trusted and authoritative; thus they can perform only certain ceremonies. Apprentice bimo do not play an important role in transmitting the bimo status.
What accounts for this pattern of succession by males but not by females, and of limited powers for those who learn their skills by apprenticeship? It seems to me that the system of bimo inheritance is determined by blood relationships
From the Nuosu point of view, the bimo profession is sacred: the profession and its social status can be inherited only within one clan so that the clan will maintain its respected status as a hereditary bimo clan. The respected bimo status cannot be transferred to one's affines. This is the essential reason for the rule of male inheritance.
The bimo social status group is partially open to those males whose do not come from hereditary bimo clans, but this is only possible under the condition that it does not cause any damage to the principle of agnatic relationships. There is a clear line between hereditary and apprentice bimo. An apprentice bimo cannot be in charge of ceremonies such as ancestral worship, human-cursing, ghost-cursing, or soul-directing. Furthermore, an apprentice bimo cannot have his own bimo genealogy and transform his family into a hereditary bimo family. In Liangshan, we can often hear hereditary bimo families distinguish themselves by saying, “We have proof of being a bimo family” or “Our ancestors were bimo.” An apprentice bimo does not pass his status on to his sons. In my own fieldwork, I found that the greatest number of bimo generations in an apprentice bimo family occurs in the Hielie family in Chengmendong Village, Yanyuan County, which has four bimo generations. Even this family, however, still lives in the shadow of inauthenticity and cannot perform ancestral worship ceremonies, and each generation must acquire priestly knowledge anew from a hereditary bimo. Therefore, the bimo—as a self-perpetuating professional stratum—are limited to blood relationships.
In sum, not only does the system of bimo form its own inheritance mechanism, but it also clearly shows its conservativeness and exclusiveness. This
THE CONTENT OF BIMO EDUCATION
If the system discussed above regulates succession to the bimo's social position and roles, the bimo education constitutes the process of transmission. Bimo education aims to produce qualified bimo to take charge of religious ceremonies in order to avoid disasters and bring fortune. As we know, Yi religion is a complicated system that focuses on ancestral worship and incorporates nature worship, spirit worship, and belief in ghosts. Because of the numerous sacrifice and magic rituals, the complicated nature of ceremonial procedure, and the difficulty of ritual texts in the Nuosu language, in order to become a qualified priest one must have specialized knowledge and the ability to communicate with supernaturals. Let us examine the bimo education.
Bimo education focuses on the specialized knowledge and skills of bimo practice. As a professional priest, a bimo is in charge of practicing sacrifice rituals, medicine, and divination. He conducts ceremonies such as peacemaking with ancestors, escorting ancestors, preventing disasters, expelling ghosts, treating disease, asking for fertility,guiding souls, praying for fortune, divining, making alliances, passing judgment in the name of the gods, and so on. As an intellectual, a bimo is the repository and disseminator of ancient Yi history and cultural heritage. In order to ensure that a bimo is able to perform his duties, bimo education covers the following subjects.
Knowledge about Ancestors, Gods, Spirits, and Ghosts
Nuosu generally believe that everything has a soul, or yyrhla, and commonly believe in apu abo (ancestors), mulumuse (nature gods), jjylukuhxo (spirits), and nyicy hamo (ghosts). Belief in the ancestors is the most important. Nuosu believe that anyone, male or female, who has sons becomes an ancestor after death, returning to the world of the ancestors, where they should receive offerings of their patrilineal descendants in perpetuity and where they take on the responsibility of protecting their descendants. People who are childless or have only daughters become only ghosts after death, cold and hungry without a permanent abode. Gods are primarily the spirits of the natural world, such as spirits of heaven, earth, mountains, bodies of water, rain, cliffs, and so on. Different gods influence people's livelihood in different ways. Spirits belong to particular individuals or households, and they influence them in different ways.
Because bimo mediate between humans and supernaturals, they must know great amounts about these supernatural beings, and they often portray them as having diverse images. The hero-ancestor Zhigealu, who assists a bimo in treating insanity and in cursing humans or ghosts, is portrayed as wearing an iron helmet, carrying the sun and the moon on his shoulders, holding an iron bag in one hand and an iron fork in the other. The ghost Tusha, who haunts domestic animals until their death, is portrayed as having a long jaw, carrying a cutting board on the top of his head, wearing sheepskin, holding a small ax in his hand, and carrying an old bamboo basket on his back. In addition, spirits and ghosts have diverse personalities. The spirit Gefi, who is in charge of fertility, enjoys playing in forests and on lakes, which sometimes permits difficult birth and early death. Thus the ritual for directing Gefi symbolizes calling the spirit back from forests and lakes. The rheumatism ghost loves to dress up. In the ceremony of deporting the ghost, the ghost will not leave until he receives colorful clothes, a comb, hair pins, and a pretty triangle wallet. A bimo student should understand the images of supernatural beings, their personalities, and the disasters, diseases, and benefits caused by them in production, life, and health. As a result, a bimo can make his religious service smoother and control gods and ghosts in rituals when he prevents disasters and brings fortune.
Knowledge about Ceremonial Texts
The Nuosu have their own variety of Yi writing and have produced numerous classic documents. The bimo control Nuosu-language documents and ceremonial books. Although most books are religious, some of them deal with philosophy, literature, ethics, and morality. These books tell a bimo how to perform a ritual. “Narrating the origin” is an important part of aritual, based on The Book of Origins (Hnewo teyy) (see Wu Jingzhong, chapter 2 in this volume). This book discusses many issues, from the formation of the universe to the creation of the sky and the earth, from the origins of objects to the origin of humans, from the development of a society to the formation of human activities, from natural phenomena to human ones, and so on.
As a key to the bimo's education, his ability to understand ceremonial books is related to his cognitive ability and knowledge structure. The content of a bimo's recitation in a ceremony determines how the ceremony is arranged and how it progresses. That is, a ceremony is performed during the process
Knowledge about Genealogies, History, and Geography
A bimo must be familiar with genealogies of all families, lineages, and clans, the migration direction of their ancestors, and all associated important events, as well as the natural environment and topography of the Liangshan region. During a large-scale ancestral worship ceremony, a bimo usually has to narrate the origin of the group and its history. All bimo conducting ancestral worship rituals in different Yi regions have to narrate the history of their remote, original ancestor, Apudumu, and the history of the tribes of the “six ancestors.” In addition, historical documents such as The Division of the Six Ancestral Tribes and The Enlightenment of the Six Ancestors' Souls are important in bimo education. During a death ritual, a bimo has to narrate the text Soul-Directing in order to lead the soul of the dead to pass all places the family (and their ancestors) lived and eventually to arrive at the original ancestral home. In order to lead the soul to pass places easily, a bimo must describe the natural environment and typology of every site the family has lived in; he also has to tell the soul of the dead about important historical events associated with each place and its name, and about achievements of ancestors. In addition, a bimo, in every ritual, has to narrate the text Inviting Gods to assist his performance. Most spirits in this text are mountain spirits, each of whom is associated with one particular natural environment.
Knowledge about the Calendar and Astrology
The bimo excel at controlling supernaturals in a given time and space. The Yicalendar and the Yipeople's knowledge about the universe are very closely related to the cycles and rules of religious rituals. The Yi calendar is clearly shaped by the ritual calendar. When Yi people observe the universe, they in fact predict what happens in the world of humans. Knowledge about the calendar and astrology, as an important aspect of the bimo education, provides a powerful means for a bimo to communicate with supernatural beings in ceremonies.
Knowledge about Medicine and Disease
Bimo medical practice is characterized by a combination of treatment and divination. Nuosu believe that diseases are caused by disease ghosts. Diseases are
Knowledge about Arts and Crafts
One important aspect of bimo education is arts and crafts: drawing, straw weaving, sculpture, carving, and paper cutting. Yi books usually include drawn images of ghosts and illustrate the skills of gods. In some books, drawings illustrate text, while in others text explains drawings. Straw weaving and sculpture are normally used to portray the ghost to be displayed in rituals such as escorting ghosts and cursing ghosts. Paper cutting is a basic skill used to make images of objects to be sacrificed symbolically, such as the sun, moon, stars, animals, plants, objects used in everyday life, and domestic animals. When a bimo makes religious instruments and ancestral totem figures, he also needs to be a skilled wood carver.
Knowledge about Ritual Procedures
The ultimate goal of bimo education is to train a student to take independent charge of a ritual. One characteristic of Yi religious ceremonies is the combination of sacrificing and controlling, or the combination of sacrificing and black magic. The procedure of aritual is formalized; all customaryrules must be strictly followed. Choosing the time for a ritual, for example, one must pay attention to the year, month, date, and specific time. A sacrificed animal must be chosen according to its sex, hair color, age, and quality. An animal used in a sacrificing ceremony may be living, slaughtered and cooked, slaughtered but not cooked, and with or without blood or horns. A qualified bimo should know all the rules and procedures of rituals.
Knowledge about Folklore
In order to perform rituals, a bimo should know Yi folklore and oral traditions included in rituals, such as mythology,traditional songs, epics, folktales, and proverbs. Many bimo in Yunnan and Guizhou, as well as in Nuosu country, are famous for their singing; they are very knowledgeable about Yi folklore and oral traditions. They absorb folklore and oral traditions in order to enrich the content of their narration in rituals.
In sum, the content of bimo education derives fundamentally from Nuosu rituals and includes knowledge about supernatural beings, Nuosu language and texts, genealogies, history,geography, the Yicalendar, astrology,arts and crafts, ritual procedures, and folklore. Such systematic knowledge is required for a bimo in conducting rituals.
PEDAGOGY
There is no formal institution for bimo education in traditional Nuosu society. A junior bimo is trained by a senior bimop.[1] A senior bimop is an experienced and knowledgeable elder who knows how to conduct a ritual, while a junior bimo, or bisse, is an inexperienced student. A bisse can be called bimo only when, after a few years, he completes his study and can independently run ceremonies. A bimop may teach either one or many bisse at one time. Whether or not one comes from a hereditary bimo family, one has to study under a bimop. The relationship between a student and a teacher or between learning and teaching has the following characteristics.
First, there are no fixed time and place for teaching and learning. The most important duty for a bimo is to conduct rituals. Other duties cannot interrupt religious activities. Rituals are numerous in Nuosu regions, and a bi mop, when summoned by a host family, takes his bisse with him, from one family to another and from one village to another, to conduct rituals. Thus the time and place are not fixed for a bimop to teach his bisse.
Second, teaching is mixed with performing rituals. A bimo often has to teach his student(s) at intervals between rituals, but more important, he teaches his student(s) during ceremonies, when a student may become his teacher's assistant. As a student, a bisse should ask questions of his teacher, observe the procedure of a ritual, understand the meanings of a ritual, and practice it sometimes. Not only does each ritual become an opportunity for a bimop to teach, but it also becomes a process of learning for a bisse.
Third, the relationship between teacher and student is also shaped by other factors. In the Yiregion, some students take the initiative to study from a particular teacher; some learn from their fathers, grandfathers, or uncles. A bimop teaches without being paid. A teacher takes care of his student, while students respect their teachers. The quality of a student's work affects the future of both the student and the teacher. Therefore, both teachers and students work very hard in teaching and learning.
In such a master-apprentice relationship, a bimo normally teaches on an individual basis; he does not have formalized pedagogy. He teaches according
Bimo texts are also important in the bimo education. Learning them starts with the Nuosu script. Each Yi character represents both one word and one sound. There are many variations for a word in traditional Nuosu writing, making it difficult to learn.[2] An experienced bimop trains his students to show interest in discovering the relationships between a written word and a sound, between a written form and the meaning, and between one written word and another. After learning some basic writing, a student begins to study bimo texts. The study of a bimo text includes reading, reciting, and copying. There is no punctuation, and there are many specialized and archaic religious words and phrases in Nuosu texts. Literary words used in texts are different from words used in ordinary speech. These make reading a bimo text quite difficult. Therefore, when a teacher performs a ritual he usually reads a text first, then his students follow. Recitation is very important because it makes communication between a bimo and supernatural beings smoother and easier. If a bimo cannot recite everything from a text, the ritual is ineffective. After a student can read and recite a text, he copies the text so that he can learn the format and writing style. At the same time, he also has to learn how to make a brush and ink and how to make a scroll-style notebook. Because what he reads, recites, and copies is what he will use in the future when he conducts rituals by himself, a student usually is very serious about his study. One major problem for bimo education today is that some teachers require their students only to recite texts and do not pay enough attention to the explanation of their contents and sociohistorical contexts. This has caused some students to learn to read and recite texts without understanding their meanings clearly.
In addition to the religious scriptures are some textbooks written especially for students, which have emerged in the course of bimo education. These include the Suosi teyy, a compilation of the names, natures, and characteristics of various ghosts and spirits; the Bijie teyy, which narrates the order of various rituals as well as the ritual instruments texts and charts use, and the Mguvangeyima, which is a collection devoted especially to charts of the ritual space of various ceremonies. These textbooks are designed especially for students and are concerned with the effectiveness of pedagogy. Taking language as an example, religious texts are usually written in poetic language,
Some bimo teachers are good at using proverbs and pithy formulas in teaching. In their long history of ritual practice, the bimo have accumulated many proverbs and formulas of bimo knowledge and used them in education. For example, in selecting animals for sacrifice, we have “For exorcising ghosts, a black hen; for calling souls, a brown hen”; “For cursing ghosts, a black billy goat; for presenting offerings, a white ram”; and so forth. In these sayings, “exorcising ghosts,” “calling souls,” “cursing ghosts,” and “presenting offerings” are all different steps in the ritual of sending off the ancestral soul; the sacrificial animals used in each stage are different species and different colors. In another example, in planting spirit branches, there are sayings such as “A spirit branch has to be peeled at the base; if you don't peel it, it can't become a spirit branch”; “In mge ndi[the name of aritual], seven bimo[plant seven spirit branches to represent seven bimo ancestor spirits]; in chy ke, twelve bimo[plant twelve spirit branches] above the Heavenly God White Father, below the Earthly God Black Mother, in the middle of all the Star Ancestors,” and so forth. There are also formulas for choosing auspicious days for rituals: “Sending off the ancestor in the first half of the month; wedding in the second half of the month”; “Send off the ancestor on a dragon day; conduct a wedding on a rat day”; “On a horse day, don't build a house; if you build it, don't move in”; “On a sheep day, don't perform a cure; if you perform the cure, the sickness won't be over with”; and so forth. Proverbs are also a way of educating students in the principles of bimo education, such as “No matter how poor the person who invites you to perform a ritual, you must still go happily”; or “The rule of a tusi is the same inside and outside the city walls; when bimo perform rituals, it is the same for relatives or nonrelatives”; “You can kill a bimo who fails an appointment to perform a ritual”; and “A bimo should listen in back of him for three days [after a ritual]; is there really peace and content?” Using proverbs and aphorisms helps students more effectively master bimo knowledge and ethics.
Demonstration and practice are often a part of bimo education. A teacher demonstrates how to carve a ghost statue, cut paper, make mud figures, draw ghosts, and sing different tunes. During his demonstration, a teacher explains key skills and procedures. A student practices: under guidance he copies and repeats what his teacher did. When a student is skillful, he will be allowed to perform and practice in a real ceremony. Demonstration and practice are essential for students to apply what they study.
In sum, the bimo educational style and its pedagogy are based on the master-apprentice relation. Bimo education is practice-oriented. In teaching, not only does the method focus on the guidance of the teacher, but it also pays attention to the participation of the student. This method deals with both knowledge and its application. This practice-oriented, master-apprentice education is an effective way of training younger generations to succeed elder bimo and is essential to reach the goal of bimo education.
In the course of historical development, the persistence of the bimo—as both practitioners of a religious profession and as intellectuals among the Yi—is possible only through inheritance of the bimo's religious status and social roles, and through teaching successive generations the bimo knowledge and skills. It is in their educational and religious activities that the bimo preserve and disseminate their indigenous religion and, at the same time, enrich the traditional Yi culture.