people and other ethnic groups (particularly the Eastern Tibetans inhabiting the region of Kham) during the Ming dynasty. The hereditary chieftains from the Mu family collected taxes and tribute, which then went to the Ming court in the form of silver and grains. The Ming relied on the Mu family as the mainstay for the control of the people of various ethnic groups in northwestern Yunnan Province. In 1723, during the Qing dynasty, hereditary local chieftains in the Lijiang area were replaced by court officials, and the Mu chieftains were included in this group retaining position as local administrators. The ancient Nakhi town of Lijiang is now a major tourist destination. In the old town, the Nakhi rent buildings to Han merchants who run shops catering to tourists. Religion The Nakhi are traditionally led by their native Dongbas in matters pertaining to religion. Through both Han Chinese and other cultural influences, Tibetan Buddhism has gained widespread respect (especially in the case of the Mosuo). Taoism, and particularly its "fengshui" practices have been widely practiced since the tenth century. Dongba Dongba religion is rooted in the beliefs of the Tibetan Bön religion; the word "Dongba" literally means "wise man" in the Nakhi language. Nakhi legend traces Dongba's origins to a Bön shaman from eastern Tibet named Dongba Shilo (丁巴什罗), who lived in a cave near Baishuitai during the 12th century. Anthropologists claim that many of the Dongba rituals show strong influences from the Bön religion, and are not native in origin. Bön lamas are believed to have settled among the Nashi as farmers, and to have begun to practise exorcisms as a way of earning a little money on the side; they were thus in competition with the native ritual specialists, locally known as Llü-bu, or Ssan-nyi. This is disputed, largely because the Bon religion is so adulterated by Tibetan Buddhism today that it is difficult to find pure and authentic practitioners to use as a basis for comparison. Religious scriptures suggest that the Llü-bu were female shamans who practised divination, exorcism, and other rites in a trance. By the early nineteenth century, the Dongba priests had created a huge religious vocabulary accompanied by a variety of rituals, and had largely displaced the Llü-bu. This is certainly the case with Yi shamans, but the connection to Dongba practices remains unclear. Adherents of Dongba had no places of worship, and so they