An Analysis of the Dongba Arts and Culture in the Context of Tourism

Goal and objectives of the dissertation GoalTo provide a critical analysis of the relationship between the dongba culture and the tourism industry Objectives 1.To investigate the history, structure and current characteristics of tourism development in the ethnic area -Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China.2. To assess the role of the dongba culture in the Naxi traditional mountain rural society, and the major influence of tourism development upon their way of life.3. To examine the extent to which the dongba cultural elements, e.g.dongba, pictographs and handicrafts, figure as tourist assets in the tourism industry, and the process of commodification in relation to these cultural units.4: To scrutinise the dongba culture in the process of developing the Naxi identity in the light of the emergence of tourism as a major factor in Lijiang. MethodologyThe key feature of this study is ethnography, using extensive and detailed descriptions obtained from fieldwork, unpacking social phenomena, e.g.people's behaviour, values and beliefs in the context of a very specific setting.The primary data was collected from a seven-month-long fieldwork, conducted between September 2007 and April 2008, during which the researcher visited 42 Naxi families and attended 12 cultural and religious occasions with permission, such as family parties, festivals, social gatherings, farming activities and one dongba funeral.The researcher also recorded each unexpected event and incident generated from the people interviewed, the families stayed with and the villages observed.The fieldwork was mainly based in the urban centre of Lijiang, and three