Yumengga

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In her youth she studied under Baye Mengke, a veteran papermaker of her own village. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dai Naxizushougongzaozhijiyi in Lincang, Yunnan: Among the Dai and Naxi handmade-paper crafts in the area of Lincang, Yunnan, the Dai papermaking is especially notable, while the Naxi Dongba paper is preserved in Baidi Village, Sanba Naxi Township, Shangri-La County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The Lincang Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center is the protecting unit for the item. Baidi Dongba paper is white in color and thick in substance, not easily damaged by insects, and can be preserved for the long term. According to a survey in the 1940s, the Dongba classics written on it numbered more than five thousand volumes.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in May 1939 in Gengma Dai and Va Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, she is of Dai ethnicity. She is a national representative bearer of Dai and Naxi Handmade Papermaking Craftsmanship, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She is a handmade papermaking technician. Mangtuan Village in Mengding Town is the village where the local handmade papermaking craft has been preserved most completely. More than thirty households in Mangtuan Village make paper all year round, but the largest operation and the finest quality are found in Yumengga's own household. In more than forty years of practice she has mastered the five-stage, eleven-step Dai handmade papermaking process, and she handles key stages such as the timing of material gathering, the proportion of ash mixed in, the heat of steaming, washing and sheet-pouring with great precision. Dai handmade paper is commonly used for sacrificial paper bundles, for copying Buddhist scriptures in Dai temples, for banknote wrapping paper and for packaging Pu'er tea. The paper she makes is of superior quality and fairly priced, and is widely praised by traders. She actively teaches apprentices, and her daughter-in-law Binghelin and her granddaughter Yinggong have already mastered the papermaking craft. Within the documented technical tradition of Dai Naxizushougongzaozhijiyi in Lincang, Yunnan: The Naxi Dongba paper, also called Baidi paper, has a rather unique manufacturing craft, now preserved in Baidi Village, Sanba Naxi Township, Shangri-La County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Baidi (that is, Baishuitai) is the birthplace of Naxi Dongba culture. Dongba paper is the most important paper for sutra-writing in the Dongba tradition and has long enjoyed a great reputation among the various ethnic groups of northwest Yunnan. The raw material of Dongba paper is gathered from a locally unique plant called "Adangda," identified as the Daphne family's Lijiang wikstroemia (Wikstroemia lijiangensis). Its papermaking process consists of the steps of gathering raw material, sun-drying, soaking, steaming and boiling, washing, pounding the material, pounding again, sheet pouring, sheet pasting, and sun-drying, with the main tools being the paper screen, wooden frame, drying board, and wooden mortar. The movable paper screen of Dongba paper is rather special; the sheet-drying process clearly shows the influence of the pour-molding method while also bearing traces of the dip-molding method—the result of a synthesis of Chinese papermaking and the papermaking of the Indian-subcontinental region. Baidi Dongba paper has made outstanding contributions to the promotion of Dongba culture, and from the perspective of craft history it is also a rare example for the study of China's handmade paper. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Documented Process Steps": Its papermaking process consists of the steps of gathering raw material, sun-drying, soaking, steaming and boiling, washing, pounding the material, pounding again, sheet pouring, sheet pasting, and sun-drying, with the main tools being the paper screen, wooden frame, drying board, and wooden mortar.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2009, Yumengga was announced in the third batch of national representative bearers for Dai Naxizushougongzaozhijiyi, with Lincang, Yunnan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Dai Naxizushougongzaozhijiyi in Lincang, Yunnan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Lincang, Yunnan as its declared area, and Lincangshi Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Yumengga · National Representative Bearer Archive