Dongba (Nakhi: dtomba) art refers to the art originating from the aboriginal religious cultural life of the Nakhi (Naxi) minority in southwestern China. The Nakhi live mainly in the basin of the Jinsha, Wuliang, and Yalong rivers and a small number of Nakhi people dwell elsewhere, such as in White Salt Well, Markam county, and the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Nakhi population is approximately 300,000 of which more than 200,000 live in the Lijiang Nakhi autonomous county.

The Nakhi’s aboriginal religion takes its name from the priests who are called “dongba.” The various cultural activities and phenomena that take place within the Dongba religious sphere are known as Dongba culture. Dongba culture is an important component of Nakhi culture and has made a significant impact on the social and historical developments of the Nakhi. Dongba culture is rich and encompasses its own writing system, scriptures, literature, music, dance, and painting. The artwork is an expression of feelings and the pursuit of beauty through an unadorned yet vivid artistic style. Patterns are drawn, paintings are made on wooden plaques, and drawings are done on paper cards and scrolls for various religious rituals. Votive offerings are woven, sculpted or hand-molded and may be made from a variety of materials including paper, wood, mud, or flour. Sacrificial rituals are accompanied by a great number of dances.

Dongba music mainly refers to the chanting of scriptures at ceremonial occasions, as well as the singing by the Dongba and the ritual participants. In modern times, Dongba rituals and scripture chanting are accompanied by bells, drums, horse gongs, cymbals, conch, and yak horns. The music they produce is simple with a steady rhythm but without any melody. The themes of Dongba painting include gods, spirits, demons, people, flora and fauna, as well as various stories and legends of the Dongba religion. These paintings are mainly used in religious ceremonies, and therefore are strongly colored by the religion. Thanks to their own indigenous writing system, the Dongba produce books and documents recording local occurrences and social happenings. Dongba scriptures are the encyclopedia of the Nakhi’s ancient society. They record the natural environment of the Nakhi, and contain rich information about their lives, as well as the knowledge handed down from their ancestors. They also preserve ancient Nakhi art such as painting, music, and dance. A number of complete ancient Nakhi literary works still survive. These works differ from Nakhi oral literature, as well as those written in Mandarin by Nakhi writers. They were written by the Dongba and were used in ritual chanting. Scholars refer to them as Dongba literature. These works describe religious stories and create a variety of artistic images based on mythological figures such as gods, deified humans, personified deities, birds, and animals, numinous men and beasts of fantasy, as well as demons. Dongba sculptural art is mainly reflected in the masks and figurines they make. There are more than thirty different ceremonies in the Dongba religion, and the priests must hand-make all of their necessary masks. The mask images fall into three categories: gods, ghosts, and spirits. The raw materials differ for each of these categories: fried highland barley flour is used for gods and spirits, while fried buckwheat flour is used for ghosts. The masks are usually completed one day before the rituals begin. The number and form of the masks vary according to the different rituals, some of which require almost a hundred masks on a single occasion. In the ritual, masks of the gods are placed on the highest altar, arranged corresponding to the scroll paintings of gods hung on the altar. Masks of ghosts are placed in the “ghost village” closer to the ground.

Dongba culture and art represent the Nakhi’s exploratory and philosophical reflections on nature and the course of human life. They employ unique explanations and solutions for issues regarding the relationship between humankind and nature, man and society, as well as issues about human beings per se.