Transcendence, Power and Regeneration in Tamang Shamanic Practice

Abstract

This article analyzes (1) the production of magical or symbolic power and (2) symbolic processes of transcendence in the rituals of Tamang shamans of highland Nepal, rituals that seek to transform the afflicted from abject subjects to active agents. In convergence with Terence Turner’s theoretical contributions to the study of ritual, this article argues that magical power produced by Tamang shamans in curative soundings as well as collective pilgrimages is a form of ‘alienated consciousness’ made possible through ritual processes of symbolic transcendence. I argue that shamans or bombo, through their transcendent moves, deconstruct orders produced elsewhere in socio-ritual life and, in the process, expose the constructedness or arbitrariness of those orders, laying the groundwork for transformation of afflicted subjects from abject to agential states both individually and collectively.