The Dongba are the elders (shamens) of the Naxi minority group. Dongba is the ancient written language of the Naxi people similar to hieroglyphs in the sense that it written in Naxi picto-graphs. Only a handful of Naxi people can read and write the dongba script, and all of them are over 70. In order to preserve this ancient pictographic language, efforts are being made to teach the young.