CHAPTER FIVE

THE SHAMANS

The Sikkimese shamans are the ritual specialists in charge of keep- ing good relations with the households’ and the lineages’ ancestral gods. Until the end of the nineteenth century, each patrilineage had its personal pawo or nejum responsible for his or her ’s and its households’ ritual needs. In addition to each household’s biannual harvest offerings, which are still performed today, all members of the lineage used to gather once a year in their respective shamans’ houses for a four-day retreat which was a celebration of their common ances- tors and lineage protectors. In case of illness, the troubling spirits were invited to express their grievances while possessing the pawo, after which apologies and offerings were made in order to appease them. In those early days, we have seen that the bon ritual specialists in Sikkim were numerous and powerful and was still confi ned to the mon- asteries, their surrounding villages, the capital and the Palace. Follow- ing the growth of Buddhism and the general decline of the lineage’s importance, it is now very rare to fi nd more than one pawo or nejum, if any, per cluster of villages. After much questioning, in addition to those found in Tingchim, I have only come across a handful of pawo and nejum in Sikkim.1 Although Buddhism has now taken over much of everyone’s ritual needs, it is evident that where their own shamans are no longer avail- able, Lhopo villagers have instead been consulting those of other ethnic communities, particularly Tibetan, Lepcha, Limbu, Tamang and Rai, who perhaps still fi nd it rewarding to exercise their ritual skills.

1 In West Sikkim, the son of late Chongpung Ajo Pawo—despite his job in the police—still offi ciates three times a year on the occasion of his annual retreat held dur- ing the fi rst lunar month, on the occasion of natsi for his pho lha mo lha during the 3rd lunar month and biatsi for his mo lha during the 7th lunar month. In North Sikkim, there is a young pawo at Lachung—two or three pawo passed away in the Lachen- Lachung area in the late 1990s and early 2000s—a Lepcha nejum at Singhik and another one a Tingvong, a nejum at Seyam and a pawo at Namok. There is one pawo at Bara Pathing in East Sikkim, although there may be more pawo and nejum in the villages of South and East Sikkim, areas I am less familiar with. 146 chapter five

Today, the Tingchim pawo and nejum still perform the biannual harvest rituals for every household with the help of the bongthing, but will do so irrespective of lineage affi liation. These bon ritual special- ists are now mainly consulted for ritual healing, the only service over which they have maintained their monopoly although they do share it, up to a certain point as we have seen, with the village . While healing is the service for which they are now most often consulted, for the pawo and the nejum the most signifi cant rituals remain their own initiation and annual retreat in honour of their ancestral gods, even though these are now very rarely performed. During fi eldwork, I had the chance to attend Tingchim Pawo Nadu’s one-day ritual held in honour of his mo lha on the occasion of the biatsi rice harvest , and the last annual retreat performed by Pawo Nadu in honour of all his pho lha mo lha before he passed away in 1997. The details of this four-day ritual are summarised in chapter 11 along with a discussion about an interesting debate that unfolded during the retreat between, on the one hand, the spirits of previous Tingchim shamans expressing themselves through the medium of the present pawo and, on the other hand, my teacher Lopen Dugyal who had just returned to the village after nine years of higher . The debate, which was the only one to capture the interest of the whole audience, focused on the of bon over the failings of Buddhism in dealing with the nöpa and, surprisingly, ended with a temporary victory of the bon ritual specialists. The debate exposed the extent to which village level Buddhism and bon are well integrated locally and the threat a renewal of conventional Buddhist thought represents for the lineage, the community and the practice of bon in the village. This chapter will fi rst describe the selection and qualifi cations of a new pawo, his training and initiation and the minimal infl uence Bud- dhism has had over his practice. I will then discuss the question of communication with ancestors and compare shamanism as found in Tingchim with that of Mongolia and Siberia in an attempt to relate Sikkimese shamanism to North Asia.

1. Who gets initiated as a PAWO or a NEJUM

In most cases, a pawo is born within a descent line of pawo so that his father or grandfather or if not, an earlier male ancestor of the same patrilineage, will also have been a pawo. Nejum by contrast tend to