Practices Laid to Waste: Symbolic Classification, Healing and Pandemic Ritual Transformation in a Bhutanese Village
Dendup Chophel, Barbara Gerke, Sangay Thinley
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies December 16, 2025 DOI: 10.22439/cjas.v43i1.7628 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Photo essay Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | The village of Ketokha in the Chhukha district of southwestern Bhutan, especially the nejom Tandin Om |
| Topics | Buddhism Shamanism |
| Keywords | Prosperity Negotiation Pandemic The symbolic Order exchange Anthropology Field mathematics Environmental ethics Gender studies Aesthetics Ethnology |
| Key points | Documents the decline of shamanic traditions in Ketokha and the establishment of a refashioned protective ritual called Aum Bogum as the primary marker of the community's ritual identity. |
Abstract
This report from the field in the form of a photo essay explores the shifting religious landscape of Ketokha, a village in the Chhukha district of southwestern Bhutan. Historically, Buddhist and shamanic traditions coexisted in Ketokha, negotiating varied positions of power, influence and healing. The nejom (female medium) and pawo (male medium) played pivotal roles in ritually protecting the villagers’ health and prosperity until 2018, when, with infrastructure development and through modernist discourses, Buddhism became the dominant religion and mediumship was discontinued. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transformation, marked by the decline of shamanic traditions and the establishment of a refashioned protective ritual called Aum Bogum as the primary marker of the community’s ritual identity. This report focuses on this ritual and the life story and perspectives of 94-year-old Tandin Om, the then oldest living nejom, and examines the laying to waste of the community’s archaic shamanic practices. Using insights of Discard Studies that treat waste as a system of symbolic classification and moral politics, this essay unpacks the marginalisation of elderly ritual practitioners as community elites propagate the adoption of what they consider a more progressive socio-religious order of Vajrayana Buddhism. The photographs document elements of these shifts, offering visual cues of Ketokha’s changing community and ritual lives.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |