Nepalese Shaman Oral Texts

Abstract

This work is a bilingual (Nepali an English) edition of three complete, representative repertoires of shaman texts collected over the past 20 years in Jajarkot district, western Nepal. Throughout that area, shamans continue to fulfil important therapeutic roles, diagnosis problems, treating afflictions, and restoring order and balance to the lives of their clients and their communities. Each of these efforts incorporate extensive, meticulously memorized oral texts, materials that not only clarify symptoms and causes but also detail the proper ways to conduct rituals. These texts preserve the knowledge necessary to act as a shaman, and confirm a social world that demands continuous intervention by shamans. This volume includes both publicly chanted recitals and privately whispered spells of the area's three leading shamans, annotated with extensive notes. Containing over 250 tests, this work endeavour to provide a comprehensive documentation of a non-western healing system through the material that sustain and preserves that tradition, demonstrating that shaman texts remain thoroughly meaningful.