Heng Ri Pi

Picture Story

I. Heng Ri Pi

When my father died, I washed his body, dressed him in new clothes, and laid him on the bed.

In Naxi tradition this must be done by the son himself — only the hands of kin can polish the eyes of the soul, only the touch of the same bloodline can let the father's body “recognise the road.”

“Heng Ri Pi” is Dongba, meaning the soul-path scroll — the long scroll unrolled by the Dongba priest to guide the departed soul through the realm of ghosts to the land of the ancestors. My two hands are the first bridge: from the breath stopping to stepping onto the soul-path, from flesh to the hemp-cloth effigy, from this shore to the other.

In the painting, a body lies peacefully within a dim, arched space — a bed, a coffin, a womb, and in Dongba myth the “ghost gate” every soul must pass through. The vermilion line running through the picture is the cloth-strap knot the son ties for the father, the wick of the eternal lamp, the ritual cord held by the priest in the “opening the road” rite — leading the soul, keeping it from losing its way.

Father washes son: heaven and earth decree it. Son washes father: the cycle is complete.