Shamanism

• Shamans are seen as becoming the "son-in-law of the spirits" by marrying the daughter of the spirits during their initiation. (Although they are often married to a human wife, too, who may act as an assistant.)
• The whole clan is involved in the initiation process since being a Shaman is a community-oriented practice.
• Shamans have to keep farming and doing their day jobs and then have the extra burden of performing shamanic rituals at night. This is a tough life!
  
  Sample Shaman Treatment
• Shaman makes a safe space by consecrating the room in which the ceremony will take place. Often an altar is made with flowers, grain, eggs, and purified water and dough is shaped into mini-mountains to represent local deities/spirits. The Shaman often uses a Buddhist rosary with 108 beads.
• The Shaman may conduct a pulse reading and a rice divination to determine the cause of the illness or malady of the affected person.
• The Shaman goes on a ritual journey or "spirit flight." The Shaman journeys to the next word/ spirit world to explore the causes of sickness and to communicate with the dead/ spirits. The Shaman chants aloud about this journey, citing many geographical details of his journey.
• The spirit enters the Shaman or talks with him. Only the Shaman can be a bridge between the spirits and the human world. The Shaman calls the spirit and at the same time pushes the spirit back.
• Trance induction - The Shaman alone or togther with the affected person undergoes a trance to induce an altered state of consciousness. The Shaman utilizes chanting, dancing, fasting, and rhythmic drumming to undergo trance. Himalayas Shamans do not use psychoactive drugs to achieve trance.
• The Shaman communicates with supernatural beings such as spirits, ghosts, demons and ancient ancestors. Often the Shaman's voice changes as he acts as a conduit for the spirit.
• The Shaman releases evil and restores balance. This may involve giving chicken blood or rice to the spirit as an incentive for the spirit to release its hold on the affected person. It may involve the Shaman biting or sucking the affected person to remove the evil spirit. Or it may involve spirit hooking, in which the Shaman finds the lost soul of an affected person and lures it back into place.
• If the Shaman is unsuccessfull, the affected person may get a second treatment from the same Shaman or seek another Shaman in a neighboring village for assistance.

For more information:

Link to Spirit Possession in the Himalayas - from Lewis & Riccardi, The Himalayas - a Syllabus, pages 221 and 222 .

To gain a better understanding of the spirit world of the Himalayas, see this link to a table of life forces of the Yolmo people of Nepal - life force table - exerpted from Desjarlais, Body and Emotion.

Photo gallery:

Woman Shaman of the Himalayas - note the bell and drum in each hand.

The Shaman is going into trance to contact the spirit world.

Here a Shaman uses a scarf to suck evil spirits from someone's stomache.

This is what the Shaman has sucked out of the affected person.

photos courtesy of Charles Ramble, 2006