Bai · deity · Bai traditional religion; continuing · deity
Xinuluo (reigned by tradition c. 649-674) was the Mengshe chieftain credited with founding the Great Meng polity from which the Nanzhao kingdom later grew, and whose descendants united the Erhai region. Across the peoples of the Dali and Weishan area he is remembered as a founding ancestor and enshrined as a mountain lord, most prominently in the Mountain-Inspecting Hall on Mount Weibao, the legendary site of his origins; he is counted among the deified historical rulers who serve as tutelary benzhu of Bai communities. His veneration is shared with the neighbouring Yi, among whom he is also honoured as an ancestral figure, reflecting the layered ethnic memory of the Nanzhao founding.
Domains
kingship and founding
mountain guardianship
Powers
to found and legitimate royal rule over the Erhai region
to guard the sacred mountain and its shrines
Epithets
奇嘉王
Sources
Charles Backus, The Nan-chao Kingdom and T'ang China's Southwestern Frontier (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
Megan Bryson, "Baijie and the Bai: Gender and Ethnic Religion in Dali, Yunnan," Asian Ethnology 74, no. 1 (2015): 205-229.
Megan Bryson, Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016).