He Shixian
Lineage & School of Heritage
He is the seventh-generation bearer of a Dongba family. He began studying Dongba painting with his father at the age of seven and has practised the art for seventy years.
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Born in December 1942 in Yulong Naxi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, he is of Naxi ethnicity. He has created thirty-five scroll paintings of Dongba deities, one hundred and two wooden plaque paintings, sixty-six divination card paintings and illustrations for more than one hundred and fifty Dongba scriptures. He has collected more than a hundred Dongba scriptures and Dongba paintings dating from before the Republican period. Throughout the year he independently and completely presides over a range of sacrificial rituals. In addition, he serves every year as a training teacher at the Dongba painting transmission base, passing on the craft. He enjoys high prestige among the Naxi Dongba and is revered as a grand Dongba master.
Honors & Recognition
He is a national representative bearer of Naxi Dongba Painting, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He has accepted eight disciples, including Yang Jun, He Wanqiao and He Xiushan, who have now mastered the Dongba painting skills indispensable to Dongba sacrificial ritual.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Naxi Dongbahua Ⅶ-13
Profile
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