Himalaya
Himalayan Traditions
jhākri · dhāmi · bombo · pau · lhapa
Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Ladakh and adjoining regions
EthnographyComparative
Across Himalayan valleys, oracles, mediums and healing specialists operate alongside Buddhist and Hindu institutions — sometimes in tension, often in a working division of labour over which problems belong to whom.
Ritual specialists
- Village oracles who host deities and speak in their voice
- Healers treating affliction attributed to witchcraft, spirits or displeased land powers
Cosmology
- Territorial deities of soil, water and mountain
- Pollution, obstruction and blockage as illness models
Ritual practice
- Drum and bell séance
- Diagnostic rice and pulse divination
- Offering and substitution rites
History and pressure
- Long coexistence with Buddhist monastic and Hindu Brahmanical institutions
- State medicine and migration reshaping demand for ritual healing
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