AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF NAXI FOLK MUSIC: TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN TRANSITION

บทคัดย่อ

This research article aims to investigate the development of Naxi folk music through an interdisciplinary perspective of traditional wisdom in transition in Lijiang, Yunnan, China. The research study collects data from ten purposively selected people, including provincial-level heritage inheritors, music educators, and community elders; analyzes the data using thematic coding based on a qualitative research design and ethnographic fieldwork.

The research results found that:

          1) Naxi folk music has evolved through five distinct socio-historical stages, beginning with the Foundational Era where music served as a sacred medium for Dongba rituals and ancestral lore.

2) The Era of Intercultural Exchange along the Ancient Tea Horse Road transformed the music into an oral museum by absorbing new instruments, linguistic elements, and melodic scales from neighboring cultures.

3) During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the integration of Han literary traditions introduced sophisticated poetic structures and Mandarin lyrics, reflecting a scholarly transition in Naxi traditional wisdom.

4) The 20th century introduced radical socio-political shifts that forced traditional songs into the private sphere for survival, demonstrating the resilience of hidden transmission during times of crisis.

5) In the modern era, the transmission of Naxi music has transitioned toward institutionalized safeguarding through specialized ethnic schools, which serve as contemporary sites for passing down traditional wisdom.