Himalayan Shamanism and Buddhism

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Himalayan Shamanism and Buddhism

• I. Critical approach to shamanism
• 2. Exchange versus Conquest
• 3. Kham-Magar Shamanism

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I. A Critical Approach to Shamanism

• History of the Concept

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I. A critical Approach to Shamanism

• History of the Concept
• Shamanism is demonised, medicalised, idealised

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I. A critical Approach to Shamanism

• History of the Concept
• Shamanism is demonised, medicalised, idealised
• The problem of trance

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I. A Critical Approach to Shamanism

• History of the Concept
• Shamanism is demonised, medicalised, idealised
• The problem of trance
• A prototypical shaman

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II. Himalayan Shamanism and Buddhism Exchange
versus Conquest/Taming

• Samuels two polarities
• Tibetan history is a continuing interplay of the
  two forces the academic, scholarly, monastic and
  clerical polarity and the yogic,shamanic and
  visionary

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• Lamas versus shamans?
• - The Lepchas (G. Gorer, 1938)
• The Sherpas (C.Fürer-Haimendorf, 1953)

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• The Sherpas (S. Ortner 1978)
• Eradication of shamanism
• The Sherpas (S. Ortner 1995)
• No Individualism, no Relationalism

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• The Gurungs (S.R. Mumford, 1989)
• The contest between
• Milarepa and the Bonpo

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• The Lhopos of Sikkim (A. Balikci, 2008)
• Weak monarchy
• Lack of celibate monasteries
• Persistence of the shamanic world view

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• Eradication of shamanism among the Sherpas
• Rivalry between shamans and lamas among the
  Gurung
• Pacific co-habitation among the Lhopos