Paper of Shangri-La: Yunnan's Nashi people carry on papermaking tradition

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04:26

In southwest China, Yunnan Province is home to the Nashi ethnic group, who have lived for centuries in the foothills of the Himalayas. As part of their distinctive culture, the Nashi people have their own papermaking tradition. Today, let's meet a couple who are carrying on the centuries-old craft in the modern world.

Nestled in the mountains of northwestern Yunnan province, the Baishuitai Village (白水台) is home to a plant that is an essential part of the Nashi ethnic culture.

For centuries, the bark of the shrub known as the Rao Flower has supplied the paper on which the Nashi people's Dongba culture is recorded.

LI XIUHUA NASHI PAPERMAKER "This is the Rao flower. Its bark is slightly poisonous and repel worms. So paper made from it can last very long."

Baishuitai, or White Water Mountain is where the Nashi identity first emerged. According to Nashi legend, the picturesque valley of Baishuitai caught the eye of a Nashi priest-scholar returning from a study trip in Tibet.

In the quiet village the priest established the religious and literary practices later known as the Dongba culture, and taught locals the craft of papermaking.

At the Baishuitai village, Dongba paper is still hand-made, as it was centuries ago. After being removed from the branches, the inner bark of the Rao Flower has to be completely dried, before being steamed and boiled in water laced with ashes, which can reduce toxicity and make the paper harmless to people.

After bleaching and repeated beating, an off-white pulp will be produced containing evenly distributed fibres. Then, the pulp turns into paper, under a wood-framed mesh screen that leaves a distinctive surface texture, different from anything coming out of a paper mill.

Li Xiuhua's father-in-law was the local high priest and papermaker and left a collection of age-old scriptures and books, some more than 200 years old, and all written on Dongba paper.

LI XIUHUA NASHI PAPERMAKER "These booklets are all about telling fortunes. They used to be very popular with my father's generation."

The Nashi people also have a language of their own. With less than 1500 pictograms, the script can generate hundreds of thousands of words and express a range of subtle linguistic nuances. The ancient writing system is the world's only pictographic language known to still be in active use.

The abstract symbols inscribed on the Dongba paper resemble birds, animals, fish, and plants. Apart from instructions about folk rituals throughout the year, they also record the tales, legends and myths of the Nashi community.

Baishuitai was once home to some 20 papermaking workshops. But today the tradition has come under great pressure.

HE YUYONG NASHI PAPERMAKER "Our workshop is the only one in the county still making paper by hand. There is another in nearby Lijiang city. But Dongba paper is not made anywhere else."

He Yuhong is Li Xiuhua's husband, also a papermaker. In recent years he has turned his workshop into a training and teaching establishment. Here, apart from the papermaking craft, people can also learn how to write the ancient script.

HE YUYONG NASHI PAPERMAKER "My father actually opened such a school a decade ago. My school has trained a dozen people or so. I am going to take in another class soon."

In recent years, Dongba paper has received local government support and has been included in China's list of national intangible heritages. The workshop of Li Xiuhua and He Yuhong has been commissioned to copy scriptures on the Dongba paper by researchers and museums from around the country.