Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2015, 3(2), 61-81
DOI: 10.24411/2310-2144-2015-00004
A comparison of the twenty-eight lunar mansions between Dabaism and Dongbaism
Xu Duoduo1
1Southern Division of Chinese, HSS, NTU, Singapore, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332; Email: duoduo001@e.ntu.edu.sg
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.
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