A comparison of the twenty-eight lunar mansions between Dabaism and Dongbaism

Abstract

The present study compares the twenty-eight lunar mansions of Dabaism and Dongbaism, from the perspective of pronunciation, writing, and star atlases, with new data of Daba calendars collected from my fieldwork. I try to decipher the questionable Dongba stars documented by scholars before according to Daba stars, since they share similarities, with reference from the commonly shared 28- lunar mansion systems among Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese. One of the differences between Dabaism and Dongbaism is the choice of starting lunar mansion. According to records about the stars ― "on duty" on the first day of each month in Dongba classics, I suggest the star from the constellation ― "human" should be in agreement with the Dongba tradition. In this case, the starting lunar mansion in Dabaism could be an additional written proof of this tradition.

Keywords

• dabaism; dongbaism
• calendar
• twenty-eight lunar mansions
• the starting lunar mansion