Nepal officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is a landlocked central Himalayan country in South Asia. It has a population of 26.4 million and is the 93rd largest country by area. Bordering China in the north and India in the south, east, and west, it is the largest sovereign Himalayan state. Nepal does not border Bangladesh, which is located within only 27 km (17 mi) of its southeastern tip. It neither borders Bhutan due to the Indian state of Sikkim being located in between (Wikipedia).
Religion
The overwhelming majority of the Nepalese population follows Hinduism. Shiva is regarded as the guardian deity of the country. Nepal is home to the famous Lord Shiva temple, the Pashupatinath Temple, where Hindus from all over the world come for pilgrimage. According to Hindu mythology, the goddess Sita of the epic Ramayana, was born in the Mithila Kingdom of King Janaka Raja. Lumbini is a Buddhist pilgrimage site and UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Kapilavastu district. Traditionally it is held to be the birthplace in about 563 B.C. of Siddhartha Gautama, a Kshatriya caste prince of the Sakya clan, who as the Buddha Gautama, founded Buddhism. The holy site of Lumbini is bordered by a large monastic zone, in which only monasteries can be built. All three main branches of Buddhism exist in Nepal and the Newa people have their own branch of the faith. Buddhism is also the dominant religion of the thinly populated northern areas, which are mostly inhabited by Tibetan-related peoples, such as the Sherpa.
The Buddha, born as a Hindu, is also said to be a descendant of Vedic Sage Angirasa in many Buddhist texts. The Buddha’s family surname is associated with Gautama Maharishi. Differences between Hindus and Buddhists have been minimal in Nepal due to the cultural and historical intermingling of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. Moreover, traditionally Buddhism and Hinduism were never two distinct religions in the western sense of the word. In Nepal, the faiths share common temples and worship common deities. Among other natives of Nepal, those more influenced by Hinduism were the Magar, Sunwar, Limbu and Rai and the Gurkhas. Hindu influence is less prominent among the Gurung, Bhutia, and Thakali groups who employ Buddhist monks for their religious ceremonies. Most of the festivals in Nepal are Hindu. The Machendrajatra festival, dedicated to Hindu Shaiva Siddha, is celebrated by many Buddhists in Nepal as a main festival. As it is believed that Ne Muni established Nepal, some important priests in Nepal are called “Tirthaguru Nemuni”. Islam is a minority religion in Nepal, with 4.2% of the population being Muslim according to a 2006 Nepali census. Mundhum, Christianity and Jainism are other minority faiths(Wikipedia).
while mainly Sunni, constitute a heterogeneous group of Madhesi Race. Their ancestors arrived in Nepal from different parts of South Asia and Tibet during different epochs, and have since lived amidst the numerically dominant Hindus. About 97% of the Muslim community live in the Terai region, while the other 3% are found mainly in the city of Kathmandu and the western hills. The community numbers 971,056, about 3.7% of the total population of Nepal. Districts with large Muslim population include Rautahat (17.2%), Bara (11.9%), and Parsa (17.3%) in the central Terai bordering the state of Bihar, Kapilbastu (16.8%) and Banke (16%) in the western Terai and Sirahi (7%) and Sunsari (10%) and Saptari (10%) eastern Terai. Muslims have lived in Nepal for long period of time and have shared common historical experiences with the Hindu majority, and as such have developed a stronger identification with the Nepali state. However, the Terai Muslims, on the other hand, like other Terai communities, also continue to have strong ties across the border and receive cultural sustenance from the larger Muslim population of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Shamanism
Nepal is country with many ethnic groups, mixed religion and traditions ranging from northern Indian Hindu practices to Bon and Tibetan Practices that have existed in the land since time eternal. Among the many practices and rituals Shamanism has always been a matter of curiosity in the whole world. It is a healing method, a gateway to the spirit world and an integral part of the daily life. We have many trips to different places of Nepal in which you can meet the local shamans and see, experience and be a part of their practices of healing and interaction with the world of spirits. People who practice shamanism try to reach the altered states of consciousness and they interact with the beings in the spirit world, which is a superstition for many in the normal world. The practicitioner of shamanism are believed to have access to, and influence in the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits. Shamanism in Nepal is practices with the following beliefs:
Spirits exist and have important roles to play in day to day human life.
-The person practicing shamanism (a Shaman) has ability to interact and communicate with spirits.
-Benevolent or malevolent are the two types of Sprits that exist.
-Shamans can cure sickness or diseases caused by malevolent spirits.
-The shaman can employ trance inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy and go on vision quests.
-The shaman’s spirit can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers.
-The shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message-bearers.
Shamanism in Nepal is practiced mostly by people who have association with the Tibetan culture but there are also pure Hindu practices prevalent in Nepal. This is also true today when most Tibetans are practicing Buddhists– their Buddhism being a religious culture deriving from ancient and medieval India. In Tibet, however, this Indian Buddhism has been amalgamated with the ancient indigenous shamanism and pagan animism of that country, thus giving Tibetan Buddhism its unique and especially colorful character and influences of those practices in Tibet has been widely found in the northern Himalayan region of Nepal and the high hills. The function of Shamanism in the Nepalese society is to please the bad spirits and cure the ill effects caused on Humans or animals by such spirits. The therapeutic expert or professional in this regard was the Bonpo shaman-healer who treated and cured not only the diseases of the physical body, but more especially the illnesses of the soul, in order to bring the psyche of the afflicted individual back from fragmentation and alienation into wholeness and well- being. The shamans are primarily healers in the Nepalese society and in addition to that they also have gained popularity as the guide for journey beyond the present life through perilous Bardo until a human being reaches his/her next life. As believed the Shamans are the masters of alternate states of consciousness, there are many stories and folklores where shamans explore the landscapes of the mind, the collective unconscious psyche, and return thence with treasures of knowledge and power in order to benefit humanity.
According to the Shamans the physical and mental problems/disorders are the result of disharmony or break in the natural order and in the moral order of the world, as well as from an imbalance in and weakening of the personal energy field of the human individual. The shamans perform rituals to balance and bring the order into harmonious interaction. This balance and harmony existed primordially, from the time of the beginning, but has been interrupted and shattered by the thoughtless and sinful actions of mankind. To rediscover and re-establish this lost primordial harmony, all obsessive and negative thinking which serves to block the free flow of the energy within the individual must be dissolved. In this way, the individual can come into the realization of his full innate potentiality, manifesting his energy in the world about him without disrupting the natural order of things.
The Newari shamans (Jankri) say that “the way of the shaman is the way of love”. They seek to bring love, harmony and peace to those who suffer from diseases of a spiritual nature since, like most shamans, they recognize that disease can be caused by other, more physical, mechanisms and leave such cases to medical doctors. As in other cultures, the shaman’s role is recognized by the community, not claimed by the individual: he is a Jankri only because others are healed by him, not because he says he can heal them.
The Newari shamans (Jankri) say that “the way of the shaman is the way of love”. They seek to bring love, harmony and peace to those who suffer from diseases of a spiritual nature since, like most shamans, they recognize that disease can be caused by other, more physical, mechanisms and leave such cases to medical doctors. As in other cultures, the shaman’s role is recognized by the community, not claimed by the individual: he is a Jankri only because others are healed by him, not because he says he can heal them. The primary duties of a Kirat shaman (mangpa) are invoking spirits, remembering his own roots in nature, and putting his actions to the service of the good; this is mundum, the path of the shaman. Both groups believe that the Path of the Shaman was brought to the world by Shiva, and that people are called, rather than choose, to be shamans. The chosen person may try to avoid the call because he knows it will mean a difficult life; the Jankri have everyday occupations like everyone else, but must make themselves available for healing work at the “transition times” of the day: at daybreak, or just after sundown.
There are many tools and objects that the practitioners of Shaminism use in Nepal.Incense are an important part of every shamanic ritual, and there are many kinds in Nepal, each appropriate for a different purpose or healing. Jankri also use a wide variety of medicinal plants, such as wormwood, mugwort, cannabis, various datura species, ganoderma and other mushrooms. Interestingly, in the course of their work, they also consume alcoholic beverages (rakshi) without suffering the usual deleterious effects. Instead, the shamans neutralize the alcohol and transform it into nectar also known as amrit, the elixir of life, from which they receive their power (healing energy).
Besides the all-important Phurba, many other objects find their way into shamanic rituals such as: denguru (shamans drum); dhunga (stones & crystals); mala-bead necklaces (made from seeds, stones or bones); a chindo or calabash, a vessel made from a gourd; bones; feathers; and so on. Thangka are beautiful, elaborate and sometimes frightening drawings or paintings depicting the gods, demons and spirits in the Other Realities. They are thought to have been inspired originally by shamans and their visions of the spirit worlds. Today the creation of Thangka is a highly sophisticated Nepalese art form not Tibetan, as is commonly thought.