Monba people: names decided by god

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Naming Tradition

Monba people take naming a baby as a very important issue. An auspicious name is always expected. Three days after the baby is born, the host removes a "no entry" sign from the house and invites a lama to the house. By telling the lama the date and hour of the baby's birth, the lama can make calculations and suppositions. Then the baby's origin can be traced, either from the heaven or the dragon's empire. Or, the baby is the reincarnation of an animal such as a pig, dog, cow, or snake. This supposition is followed by naming the baby. If the baby was born on Sunday, then would be named Ni Ma if it is a boy, but Ni Ma Cuo Mu, Ni Ma Zhuo Ma or Ni Ma Qu Zhen if it is a girl; if born on Monday, then he would be called Da Wa, and she would be called Da Wa Cuo Mu or Da Wa Zhuo Ma; if born on Wednesday, he would be called La Ba or La Ba Ci Ren, and she would be called La Ba Zhuo Ma.

After the process of naming the baby, the grandmother from either of the paternal and maternal sides would carry the baby outside the house with the lama. The lama would take a burning firewood, a bowl of clean water, a piece of iron farming tool and a handful of soil to walk clockwise around the house three times before he throws the objects away. This implies that the flesh is borrowed from the soil, the blood is borrowed from the water, the breath from the fire, the bone from the iron and the heart is borrowed from the sky. The hosts of the house are thankful to the gods by endowing them with such a good baby who will be a good hunter or skillful lady when the baby grows up. When the objects are thrown away, one person would jump out of the house with a corn-flour-made peacock in his hands. The person would follow the baby and nod to the baby constantly, meaning the lucky bird would eliminate possible danger on this baby, helping him/her grow up healthily.

From then on, the baby could be carried to go out and the parents are no longer worried about the baby being infected by evil spirits.

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Monba people: names decided by god

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