7   Shamanic healing

A jhāñkri in the city

Deepak Shimkhada and Adam D. Pave

Introduction: the scene

A man is clothed in white. His garments roll like a wave from his shoulders to the floor. Bells, dangling from his waist and chest, swish and jingle as he crosses the room, preparing himself for the task at hand. Eyes closed shut in a posture of deep meditation, he sits cross-legged on the floor and invokes various Hindu deities while rhythmically moving his head left and right in front of an oil-lit lamp and a tray full of offerings consisting of fruits, flowers, and rice. The scent from burning incense and oil lamp fills the room and his patient waits anxiously for the man to begin the healing ritual. He first tosses a few grains of rice to his left and right and then bows with his hands together in a namaskāra mudrā. As he invokes his guru and the names of deities, he touches various parts of his body with a blunt knife in the manner of consecration. He then makes the motion of piercing the heart of the person sitting in front of him. He picks up a hyāñgro (drum) and beats it with an s-shaped baton (gajo) in a droning rhythm. The drone vibrates the floor as the man allows his body to receive divine messages, to become one with the energies that he has named. After beating the hyāñgro for a few minutes, his body starts to shake, punctuated by a few quick and violent shudders. Eyes closed, he then chants in a language known only to him. Within the chant, he invokes deities, mountains, rivers, trees, animals, clouds – practically every living and non-living being in the environment, much in the fashion of the dhyauha śānti mantra from the Ayurveda (36: 17), an old Vedic hymn that calls for peace in everything in nature. The invocation chant is a welcome to the energies that will inhabit him and allows him the power to heal. The hopeful patient waits for healing from Kedar Baral, a jhāñkri from Nepal (Figure 7.1).

A “jhāñkri” is the name or title given to a specific type of spiritual healer in Nepal. Usually males, jhāñkris are typically from rural Nepali villages. Jhāñkris, who traditionally do not belong to a specific Hindu vara (caste), normally attain their status not by self-identity but by public recognition of their abilities to heal others. Remote, inaccessible villages all have their healers who travel through mountains, forests and into areas where the convention of modern medicine has not yet arrived. Only recently large urban centers – both in Nepal and abroad – have their jhāñkri.

Figure 7.1 jhāñkri Kedar Baral seen here in the fashion of a Hindu renouncer (source: photo courtesy of Kedar Baral).

Note

A jhāñkri has his own official robe as described in the chapter. However, since Baral is currently traveling in the US without his jhāñkri accoutrements, he chose to appear in a “sadhu garb” with which he feels most comfortable. He is now presenting himself as “Guru” Kedar Baral rather than “Jhāñkri” Kedar Baral, a title which he used in the beginning of his career.

This chapter is an interweaving of Kedar Baral, his work, and the historical and traditional role of jhāñkris in Nepal. Though jhāñkris are usually found in villages, far from cities with the comforts of modernity, Kedar Baral is a jhāñkri in the city who has brought traditional ritual practices to modern city dwellers in the form of alternative healing. While this one shaman or faith healer exemplifies what it means to be a jhāñkri, he also presses forward into modernity. As a “jhāñkri in the city,” Baral bridges the gap between the old and the new. He is a modern man who does not stay in a remote village, isolated from city dwellers. His seemingly archaic methods are highly sought after. Further, as a jhāñkri, he is not taken lightly. He is believed to have been endowed with supernatural power. He is feared by most people. Ancestral religious beliefs and fear are naturally blended in the case of the jhāñkri. Though this chapter is mostly about Kedar Baral and his work, the authors will also discuss “jhāñkrism” in Nepal as an indigenous phenomenon that traces its tradition and orally transmitted practices back to centuries ago. While keeping the focus on Baral’s teachings as well as that of other spiritual healers in a traditional Nepali context, we will also explore what a jhāñkri’s teaching means for non-Nepali audiences, with special reference to the US.

Following the path of Śiva: becoming a jhāñkri

Although a jhāñkri has been called by many names, including “intercessor,” “medium,” “folk healer,” and “witch doctor,” most anthropologists prefer to use the term “shaman.” The name jhāñkri is exclusive to Nepal and is usually associated with mountainous regions of eastern Nepal. Macdonald, who conducted a field study in eastern Nepal in the mid-1970s, describes a jhāñkri as:

a person who falls into a trance, during which time voices speak through his person, thereby enabling him to diagnose illnesses and sometimes cure them, give advice for the future and clarify present events in terms of their relationship to the past.

(Macdonald in Hitchcock and Jones 1976: 310)

As it is evident from Macdonald’s description as well as from the descriptions by other anthropologists, a jhāñkri is one who acts between the sick and the spirits. His tradition is passed down orally. There is no doctrinal text, although manuals are believed to have existed. In the case of Baral, he normally uses neither manuals nor texts. Every chant, call, step, mantra, history, genealogy and names of herbs and plants have been memorized by heart while he claims to be guided by the gods, or his guru, during a trance. This lack of textual sources results in our reliance on anthropologists’ findings and Kedar Baral’s own words. It also indicates that much of a jhāñkri’s work is done through a powerful, though secret, connection with the divine, primarily the god Śiva. Baral’s guru, a ban (forest) jhāñkri, refers to a tradition that does not use any text to teach their disciples. Instead every teaching is transmitted by memory and the information is passed down orally from a ban jhāñkri (teacher) to his chelā (disciple). Jhāñkris follow the same pattern and retain by heart the information received only to recall it during healing rituals. In Baral’s case, however, there is a manuscript made of loose leaves, datable to the eighteenth century, written in what Baral suspects to be blood. From the use of blood in writing the manuscript, Baral argues that the manuscript must be of Tantric origin. But because the blood has been smeared to the point of being illegible, he has two theories about it: either the owner did not wish the contents to be divulged (hence the writing was deliberately wiped off all the twenty-nine pages) or the pages were rubbed off due to ravages of time. Whatever the reason may be, this manuscript is proof that some jhāñkris have left behind written works that may be considered a ritual manual for teaching purposes.

As for his knowledge, Baral has complied information about herbs, minerals and mantras to be used for the purpose of teaching that he may publish at a later time. Such information is believed to have been transmitted by some jhāñkris in the distant past and originally it was revealed by Śiva himself. All jhāñkris point their lineage to Mahādeva, i.e., Śiva. It is thus not surprising that Baral too summons Mahādeva to descend on to him before getting into a trance. Gellner, in his initial study of jhāñkris in Nepal, says that jhāñkris as practitioners “go to the gods” (Gellner 2001: 27). This, however, seems not to be accurate. Jhāñkris often bring the gods to themselves by inviting them to descend, as it is evident by Jhāñkri Sukra Bahadur Tamang’s invocation before going into a trance:

Come my guru, come!
Sri Gorakhnath, teacher
Gauri Parbati, Lord Mahadev!
Change into fire and flames
Come
jhāñkri spirit
Come.

(in Sidky 2008: 26)

Baral too calls on his guru and the gods beginning with Śiva and Pārvatī. According to our findings, and contrary to Gellner’s description, jhāñkris seem able to carry the spirits of the gods by inviting them to come down in their bodies before they sit down to cure a patient. In other words, it is the god who – after being invoked – descends on to the practitioner and not vice versa. As for his healing skills, the jhāñkri allows himself to be a vessel of power. In this way, by calling upon the power of the original ban jhāñkri, the jhāñkri is a conduit (and quite literally, a seat) for the god himself. He brings the power down, and only then he has the power and authority to heal. The jhāñkris cannot keep power for themselves and use it at will. Only upon being enveloped by the energy of the gods (deutā chaepachi) are they considered possessed by the gods and ready to tackle the evil spirit that is supposed to be menacing the healthseeker. Otherwise jhāñkris do not dare to meddle with an individual who is possessed by a spirit, an entity that is usually considered malevolent and harmful.

In order to protect himself from such malevolent spirits, Baral starts the ritual session by lighting up an oil lamp and sixteen incense sticks, which represent sixteen kinds of gods and spirits, namely Sūn-dhūpi, Bhairav-dhūpi, Lae-dhūpi, Burki-dhūpi, Sinki-dhūpi, Gokūl-dhūpi, hākur-dhūpi, Raktā-dhūpi, Bhairam-pāti, Seti-dhūpi, Jal-dhūpi, Sugan-pāti, Hikki-pāti, Lohā-dhūpi, Vajra-dhūpi, Serra-dhūpi.¹ Then Baral sets out to close all the sixteen dhokās (doors) through which the spirit may enter the body and harm it from within. The place on which he sits and the place in which he is surrounded are also properly secured by reciting mantras. With the following invocation he calls on his guru, his surroundings, and the gods:

Oh my great guru come to me
Great God listen to me
Guru Rudra
Vadra guru
Śakar’s darling Gaurī protect me
Great Mahādev come to me.²

The terms Rudra and Śakar refer to Śiva. Then Baral recites 108 different names of Śiva when he prays. Miller, while writing about the faith healers in the Dolakha district of eastern Nepal, reports that: “this jhāñkri comes without warning in the middle of the night. No one sees him coming, then suddenly he appears at the shrine of Mahadev” (Miller 2002: 140). All jhāñkris, no matter from which district they come, associate themselves with Mahādeva one way or the other, making him their tutelary god. Even further, for jhāñkris, Śiva is the primordial guru (ādiguru). Sidky provides an insightful story from Nir Bahadur Jirel, a jhāñkri in the Jiri-Shikri Valley of eastern Nepal:

Mahadeu was the first jhāñkri, the original one, who performed all the services we perform today. It was he who created the ri-phombo (ban-jhāñkri), who lives in the forest, to be his first disciple. He then created other jhāñkris and taught them tantra-mantra and magical skills to heal people when demons and witches strike. He sent them to the four corners of the world. What Mahadeu the healer did is now the task of the human jhāñkris, whose body becomes the vessel for the gods and spirits. This is why jhāñkris worship Lord Siva, wear his rudracche mala when they perform, and paint his trident (trisul) on their drums (dhyangro).

(2008: 44)

The above account corroborates the abduction story provided by Baral about how he became a jhāñkri. Baral received his jhāñkri title after he was abducted by a ban jhāñkri when he was only seven years old. One night he was sleeping in his room when a ban jhāñkri suddenly appeared and carried him away on his shoulders through the window. He remembers all these vaguely since he was asleep when he was taken. According to Baral, the ban jhāñkri took him by the route of the Pokali waterfall, the landmark of Okhaldhunga, and he came to his senses when the water hit him as the ban jhāñkri jumped from the waterfall while carrying him. Baral screamed out of fear. However, he was assured that he was in the arms of a ban jhāñkri, a powerful gaa (attendant) of Śiva.

The ban jhāñkri confided to the boy that he was an aachirinjibi, one of eight immortal gaas of Śiva, who – according to local traditions – were lost when the seven of his brothers and eight of his sisters went grazing sheep. Unable to return to Mount Kailāśa where Śiva has his abode, they got trapped forever in the mountains of Nepal. This is now their home and the place where they bring children to be taught on how to heal people afflicted with various illnesses. Baral was kept by the ban jhāñkri in the mountain cave for seven months. Since the young boy was missing and did not return home within a reasonable time, everyone in the village assumed he was dead. Baral – a Brahman by caste – had previously undergone a vratabandha ceremony (a ritual vow that binds him to caste duties) so his father performed a kāj-kriyā (death rite) for him. In the meantime, Baral was receiving extensive training in various aspects of jhāñkri kām (work), including the methods of spirit possession, inner traveling, spirit channeling, exorcizing evil spirits, and healing.

Baral’s induction into jhāñkrism

The circumstances under which Baral was taken away by a ban jhāñkri are similar to those reported by other anthropologists working on other faith healers of Nepal (cf. Hitchcock and Jones 1976: 312). Traditionally, a ban jhāñkri lives in a remote forest – often in a gufā (cave) – out of reach of people. A cave provides a secret hiding place. Even the abductees do not remember where the cave is located after they are returned to their homes. A ban jhāñkri selects his recruit to be trained in the art of healing. All jhāñkris feel and believe that they have been chosen by god (cf. Sidky 2008: 57). Although there are instances where young men choose a jhāñkri profession and find another jhāñkri from which to learn, in most cases (like that of Baral) a practitioner does not choose jhāñkri as a profession. According to them, the profession chose them or rather it was forced on to them. The recruit is usually young, preferably between seven and fifteen years old. He can be from any caste, although most jhāñkris come from the Magar, Gurung, Thakāli, and Tāmāñg ethnic backgrounds. Baral, however, is a brāhmaa and in that sense he represents an anomaly.³

When a young boy is taken, he is in for a life-transforming initiation into the world of spirits. After the training is completed, the recruit is returned home as a totally transformed person (Hitchcock and Jones 1976: 311). As for Baral, when he returned from the forest cave to his home in Leti, a small village in Okhaldhunga, eastern Nepal, he spent fifteen years in the village performing healing rituals on both humans and animals while attending school. Amongst the many narratives, he remembers one day when he was pulled from the classroom by a local farmer whose cow was suffering from a strange ailment. When Baral – just twelve years old at the time – went to the cow’s den, she was on the ground kicking her legs in every direction. He successfully cured the cow and similarly he also healed a young woman (who turned out to be his own classmate’s wife) when she was having bouts of tremors. After these two incidents he earned great notoriety in the village as a young but powerful jhāñkri.

Despite his success, his father was not happy with the way Baral was curing sick animals and mentally compromised individuals. After all, he was the son of a Brahmin whose duties were to study the sacred texts and officiate Hindu rituals. He was, in the eyes of his father, spending more time on jhāñkri activities than on his studies. Jhāñkrism is perceived by Hindus as a “non-Vedic” tradition even though jhāñkris themselves would argue that there is, in fact, a Vedic connection with their tradition in that healing practices involve mastery over a cosmic power which extends from the Vedas, specifically from Śiva. According to Baral, as well as other spiritual healers, ban jhāñkris are Śiva’s gaas. All jhāñkris use tantra and mantra and pay homage to Śiva, the great god in the form of Mahādeva. By means of their association with Śiva, the practice of jhāñkrism is thus justified as part of Hinduism, or a practice tainted by Hindu tradition. In spite of such exegesis, another reason for Baral’s father’s objection is a practical one: going to a jhāñkri is not the first choice for healing purposes among the more educated, who tend to prefer Western (allopathic) medicine. People go to a jhāñkri as a last resort, if and when Western medicine is not available or if it proved unsuccessful in dealing with their affliction. In order to avoid Baral spending too much time in treating people perceived as insane and sick animals in the village, his father, after graduation from high school, sent Baral to a college in Kathmandu. However, as the fate would have it in 2005, Baral became involved in solving a case for the Royal Nepal Army in which a murder weapon (a rifle) was missing. He helped to locate the gun. This was a highly publicized incident (Joshi 2005; Associated Press 2005). He was also involved in a second case: while still residing in his village he had a vision in which large numbers of people were killed. He told this to the villagers and two days later a soldier from the Royal Nepal Army killed eleven villagers, including some Maoist insurgents. When the Maoists heard about Baral’s prediction they believed he was a government spy and took him in for questioning. However, after determining that he was a jhāñkri and was capable of having such visions, he was released.

Śiva, the ādiguru of jhāñkris

As we discuss Śiva’s power and influence in jhāñkrism, we should point to the human gurus from which Baral and other jhāñkris draw their power. The guru is a śakti (powerhouse, seat of energy) that a jhāñkri taps into when performing healing sessions. To keep in constant touch with his guru, Baral carries a small bone of a ban jhāñkri given to him as a parting gift by his guru. According to the jhāñkri tradition, the bone of a ban jhāñkri, if harvested within twenty-four hours after the guru has taken samādhi, can be very powerful and is often passed down from teacher to disciple. Further, in keeping the tradition of the ban jhāñkri’s physical appearance, Baral keeps one long band of his dreadlock as a symbol of his ban jhāñkri lineage. His dreadlock (jaā) goes beyond his guru – in fact connects him with Śiva, who is considered, among other things, the archetype yogi besmeared with ashes and with long matted hairs.

As Kedar Baral, all jhāñkris act as a conduit by which Śiva’s power pass through their bodies to that of the patient. Early anthropological research conducted in Nepal (Hitchcock and Jones 1976; Macdonald 1975) has primarily focused on healing rituals and the actions performed by the jhāñkri, yet they neglected the importance of Śiva.

Śiva’s origin can be traced back to pre-Vedic times and is connected with nature (humankind and animals) on a number of levels. He is an extremely popular deity. Furthermore, because Śiva is also revered as a god of the chthonic world, he has authority over all worlds. Mount Kailāś, his abode, is located on the roof of the world, and all mountains in Śaiva mythology represent his conduit to access the forces of the universe. More than any other pan-Hindu god – such as Viu, Ka, Rāma, or even Vedic gods as Indra and Varua – Śiva is the one that appears most prevalently in jhāñkri’s prayers and legends. As jhāñkris traditionally belong to the earth and work for the people, then it is natural for them to tap into the energy of Śiva by summoning him in their invocations or prayers through sound (in the form of mantras) and imitative actions: carrying a trident, trisūla, or a knife, and playing the hyāñgro (drum).⁴

Most jhāñkris, including Baral, plead to Śiva to make them successful in battle against evil (or otherwise unwanted) spirits. They do this by asking him to unlock the Gaurī parvat ki bāchā (the word of Gauri Mountain), that alone has the power to let a jhāñkri enter into the world of spirits. Tantric powers, whose knowledge belongs to and was originally transmitted by Śiva, are used by the jhāñkri according to the situation: amongst these, secret mantras, the practice of samādhi (deep meditation) and the performance of mudrā (hand and body gestures). Clearly according to Baral, the spiritual, temporal, and psychological connections between Śiva and a ban jhāñkri are strong and as a jhāñkri himself he draws power from Śiva directly as well as from his guru. It is in this sense that Baral puts both Śiva and a ban jhāñkri in the same lineage. While Śiva is Mahādeva, the great god, a ban jhāñkri is an aachirinjibis, one of the eight immortals in the form of Śiva’s gaas (attendants).

Doors and details: visualizations and the specifics of
jhāñkrism

In order to make a healing ritual work, a jhāñkri puts on a spectacular show in front of his patient, who is often accompanied by his/her family members and neighbors. Accoutrements consisting of costume, sound, smell, and ritual practices – besides their healing power – are also powerful aesthetic performances to impression the audience as well as the patient. The jhāñkri appears wearing a long, white garment called jāmā, fitted with belts and bells. For his headdress he wears a muku (crown) adorned with long peacock feathers. When he moves or shakes his body – dancing standing up or sitting down in meditation – the bells jingle and the peacock plumes sway in the air. The jhāñkri also beats his hyāñgro drum while shaking his body; together they create an eerie sound that transports the patient to an altered state. All of these are likely to add powerful and mysterious qualities to the work of the jhāñkri as well as his persona. By utilizing the power of sound (speech, mantras, bells, and drum) and smell (incense), and through the enactment of ritual itself, a jhāñkri creates the atmosphere required for the successful healing of the patient.

According to Baral, there are fifty-two inner doors called hokās in the life of a human being. When a person travels through all fifty-two doors, he/she comes to the end of his life and enters into the fifty-third dimension. In a lifetime an ordinary person is able to see only four doors, located in each cardinal direction: east, west, north and south. However, with his perfected power a jhāñkri can see sixteen doors while alive.⁵ This is the difference between an ordinary person and a jhāñkri. As these doors are shut, a jhāñkri must open all sixteen doors before a healing session can begin. Of all the sixteen doors, the kula hokā, the one that belongs to the ancestors, is the most powerful. The jhāñkri asks the permission of the guru and the deities to allow him to open the kula hokā and pass through it. This is obtained through a special invocation, the “calling” (Peters 1981: 45). Through the calling, the jhāñkri readies himself to take on the task of removing the ill effects that the spirits have caused to the patient.

Not all jhāñkris have the same powers. In fact, there are seven types of jhāñkri – ban jhāñkri, kula devatā, jagali, bijuva, vāyu, devī, budeni – each following its own lineage. Kedar Baral, as he was trained by a ban jhāñkri, traces his lineage to the ban jhāñkri type, a chirinjibi.⁶ During a healing ritual, Baral blows air on the patient’s body to remove evil spirits. As he does not know what kind of spirit may be creating chaos in the mind and/or body of the patient, he does not want to take any chances. In his invocations he calls on the spirits of the mountains, trees, waterfalls, seas, lakes, rivers, skies, and rocks so as to cover the entire universe. These spirits will bestow power on him, yet only if properly invoked. Baral also uses in his healing ritual practice the five core elements of nature – water, fire, air, earth, and ether. While the former four elements are used as they are in nature, the symbolic constitution of ether during a healing session is more complex. In order to represent it, Baral uses either a broom or a knife. Then he beats the hyāñgro and rings a bell. The sounds created by these objects are believed to come from the sky, the realm of ether because sound travels through it. When all the five elements have been recreated and the healing ceremony is completed, Baral asks the spirits to leave by pronouncing the words: diirgha hāl (long shield), dirgha kalaś (long water pot), and dirgha batti (long oil lamp) in an invocative and respectful manner.

Spirits (bhūt or pret) are generally of a malevolent nature and can cause serious physical and psychological harm. According to Baral, individuals who are physically and mentally weak are susceptible to the negative forces of nature and tend to become their victims. A spirit is deeply rooted in the local landscape because it is believed to be attached to a specific place by birth, choice or traumatic events (e.g., violent death). Because of this attachment, the spirit claims its territory by guarding it. If a person happens to cause a certain disturbance in the spirit’s realm by polluting it, he/she then comes under its influence and becomes ill. The symptoms of such illnesses are usually mental delusions or bodily convulsions followed by sporadic tremors, loss of appetite, and sleep. When asked about the causes of such ailments, Baral says that vomiting, fainting, and insomnia are caused by the disturbances (vikti) of vāyu (air/wind). Similarly, bodily rashes can occur due to nāga doa, the effects of the serpent spirit. In this case the gross body cannot see or feel the presence of a spirit. A suma (subtle) body with an elevated consciousness is thus required. Through voluntary ritual possession Baral is able to let his gross body be transformed in subtle one that will deal with the spirits and therefore “healing” his customer(s). During such an event, the jhāñkri recurs to tantra (ritual magic) and mantras (cf. Kihara 1957: 58), a practice that Baral looks at as beneficial in that it creates healing vibrations in the atmosphere and has the power to summon deities and spirits.

Baral’s influence in Nepal and beyond

As we examine the folk healing tradition of Nepal through the eyes and work of Baral, the state of shamanism in Nepal should also emerge – its history, its present state and where it is heading in the future now that Nepal has gone through radical political changes.

As Śiva’s gaas, the a achirinjibis are siddhas, realized beings, who gained supernatural powers (siddhi).⁷ After they are trained in the art of oracle and healing, jhāñkris live in the village in which they were born and dedicate their lives to treating the sick and the troubled. A jhāñkri must then take an oath in front of his guru that he will not misuse his powers (Muller-Ebeling 2002: 24). Now a young man in his mid-twenties, Baral has embarked on the path of healing people afflicted with mental illnesses. He believes that illnesses are caused by many factors. While many are curable by modern medicine, some are not, especially those that are related to the nervous system and at the origin of seizures, fainting, panic attacks, and somatoform manifestations. According to Baral these ailments may be caused by spirits. By recognizing the connection between health and mental problems in the lives of people, and in order to help them, Baral founded in 2001 a spiritual center in Kathmandu called Ashram Nepal.

In the Ashram, Baral treats various types of psychophysical imbalances. The majority of people who visit him display signs of mental illness. On his official website (www.gurukb.com) there are testimonials by some of the individuals who have been helped by Baral. From their backgrounds it is evident that these people are educated and productive members of society who, at some point, showed signs of discomfort that had not been addressed properly by allopathic medicine. One such case is that of Sangeet Deuja, a college student majoring in science. Mr. Deuja says:

I had some problems for which I went to the doctors but my problem did not get solved. I never had faith in such things [i.e., jhāñkri healing], but when I came to Guruji [Baral] slowly I am getting cured. In the past one year there has been a vast difference in my life.

This and other cases we have examined all point to the fact that Baral is believed to have some sort of healing power. A jhāñkri can and will cure individuals with mental problems or histories of addictions although he usually shies away from treating anyone with physical problems and terminal illnesses.⁸ Delusion, insomnia, body shaking, fainting, panic attacks, gastroenterological ailments, and most phobias are classified by jhāñkris as “mental illness” and as such they are treated. As there are no specific medicines that can target these diseases directly, the goal of the jhāñkri is to restore the individual’s health by recreating inner balance. Yet since these ailments are considered psychosomatic, a jhāñkri’s treatment may also serve as a placebo or, in other terms, “symbolic healing” (Dow 1986: 56).

The Ashram Nepal website claims that Baral has trained thirty-five disciples from around the world. They are called dhāmi. A dhāmi is a direct disciple of a jhāñkri because he/she displays all the traits of his teacher. When Baral is away or does not have the time to tend more than 100 people on a given day, the quota allocated to him by the Nepali government,⁹ the dhāmis come in the picture by taking over Baral’s slack. Baral says that his Ashram is registered as a Tantric institution and it is the first of its kind in Nepal. It pays taxes to the government from its earning and is also responsible for supporting children’s education, school building, and library projects in the Okhaldhunga district and the village of Leti, where Baral was born. Clearly, by registering the Ashram as an NGO, the government is tacitly recognizing faith healing as a legitimate profession. It is, however, not clear whether the present government, socialist in character, is giving sanction to religiously inspired faith healing or it is doing it just for the sake of collecting revenues.

Before Baral started to train individuals interested in shamanic healing, jhāñkrism was restricted to the realm of the supernatural. According to the tradition, a young boy would be abducted by a ban jhāñkri and taken to the forest for training. However, Baral is now promoting his healing techniques by teaching both men and women how to be possessed by spirits so that they may heal the sick. This looks like a radical change in the tradition of faith healing in Nepal. Since 2008, Baral has been touring the United States, staying with various Nepali families. Although he has not been asked to cure anyone’s mental or physical ailments in the United States as he does in Nepal, he has entered into the homes and lives of many Nepalis and non-Nepalis. When someone moves into a new house, condo, or apartment, Baral is consulted to remove any evil spirits from the premises and to bring good luck. He also does face reading of a client and tells his/her past and present events with a cautionary remarks about what may lie in the future in terms health, wealth, career, and family.

Where modern amenities are unavailable, a village jhāñkri is the only option for healing purposes. However, Baral’s case is different. He lives in Kathmandu rather than a traditional rural setting. The kinds of people who come to him and the problems they bring shed light on the types of illnesses with which people are afflicted in contemporary Nepal. Additionally, they offer a chance to observe the current cultural shift in that diseases usually serve as good indicators of the mental and physical health of a nation. “People moved into the cities, but they still have concerns about their mental and physical health because everyone likes to live in peace and harmony,” says Baral. When he sits in samādhi, a spirit enters his body, making it tremble and shake. At that moment he is an oracle who gives predictions about the person’s future. While the place has changed, the mentality of the Nepali people – no matter where they live – has changed little. For example, inside the modern home of a successful Nepali who is living the American dream in the suburb of San Diego, Baral carries on a folk tradition that goes back hundreds of years in the mountain villages of Nepal. Recently, he has also been involved in giving training sessions to non-Nepalis on spirit possession. He claims that he has successfully caused some of the participants to be possessed by a spirit. When a non-Nepali subject is possessed by a spirit, he/she begins to speak in the language of the jhāñkris rather than his/her native tongue. According to Baral, this happens, however, only after the person has undergone full training, or experienced a shamanic journey.

Conclusions: healing for today

Faith healing in modern society seems to experience a considerable renaissance. Many centers have opened their doors to outsiders. Baral is no exception. His notoriety is now prevalent online and in non-Nepali communities within the United States. Baral may perhaps represent a drastic shift from the rural shamans to modern faith healers. Furthermore, Baral’s increasing recognition outside Nepal may be a response to the decreasing recognition of jhāñkris in Nepal. Although Nepal’s economy has not changed significantly, its outlook has been transformed with influences coming from the West and new political assets. Since Western medicines are readily available today through governmental and non-governmental agencies, the profession of jhāñkri is dwindling and consulting a jhāñkri is considered the last resort for many villagers. This feeling is shared by many jhāñkris (Pettigrew 2000: 30), including Baral, who feel their profession is being threatened by many factors.

It is true that in general the shamanic tradition is on the decline. Baral is one of a small number of individuals who is maintaining the shamanic practice but he is also adapting it to the needs of modern city dwellers. However, jhāñkris still play a central role in rural Nepal. The jhāñkris’ role in many of the annual festivals of the Dolakha district is well documented. In his study Miller (2002) reports several jātrās (religious festivals) in which jhāñkris play an integral part. These festivals are attended by thousands of people from the local and nearby villages and serve both as religious as well as social functions. Festivals provide an outlet for bringing people together and to rejuvenate life. Nepali villages are isolated and separated by miles. Attending jātrās thus gives a chance to meet other people (including friends and relatives) and celebrate a special occasion. Especially in the Dolakha district, jhāñkris play a crucial role to make the event lively with their performances. Shamanic ceremonies are still performed in remote villages of Nepal, drawing large crowds of people from nearby villages. These may be purificatory rites performed for the benefit of the entire village, but also smaller sessions for the benefit of an individual suffering from a certain illness. While Western allopathic medicine has been widely accepted in the Himalayan country of Nepal as a way of life, the ancient tradition of folk healing known as jhāñkrism has not completely left the soil from which it sprang.

Yet how is it possible to explain the reason for the maintenance (and arguably the resurgence) of the public trust and involvement of the government in regulating faith healing as a trade? Does this show an acceptance of an ancient tradition rooted in the land as a viable solution to treating certain types of illnesses that are not successfully dealt with by allopathic medicine? Or is it a matter of superstition, i.e., the people of Nepal are backward, illiterate, or simply unwilling to change? Even if we attribute these traits to Nepal, how do we then explain Baral’s increasing popularity as he travels through major cities of the United States, teaching spirit possession and healing to non-Nepalis who are not illiterate and – supposedly – neither superstitious nor backward? Why are some Westerners embracing belief in folk healing and spirit possession? Macdonald, who calls a jhāñkri an “interpreter of the World,” says: “He is [...] both a privileged intermediary between spirits and men; between the past, present and future; between life and death, and most importantly between the individual and a certain social mythology” (Macdonald in Smith 2006: 77). Since so many human beings are concerned with issues of spirituality and the need for physical, mental and spiritual healing in daily life, we can argue that these concerns are crosscultural although deeply embedded in local vernacular traditions. In trying to address the “roots” of healing, there is no doubt that modern society has more to offer than many ancient ways. Modern medicine and modern technology increase the quality and length of life. But when people are ill, physically, emotionally, spiritually, there seems to be no end to the number of diagnoses and prognoses. The “hanging on” or even rebounding of “educated” peoples who seek alternative methods to modern medicine speaks of possible repercussions for global health consciousness. Baral believes that spiritual healing is conducive to a global consciousness on health issues and through his ritual techniques he teaches us that we need to reframe our current understandings on matters of physical and mental imbalance and include ancient healing rituals as a viable solution for the twenty-first century human being.

Notes

1  Interview conducted by Deepak Shimkhada with Kedar Baral (November 2009).

2  Translated by Deepak Shimkhada.

3  Besides Baral, only a few jhāñkris have been reported to belong to the katriya caste.

4  Śiva too plays a amaru (kettle drum) to summon his gaas and to symbolize the end of time with the beat of his drum. Jhāñkris, similarly, use their hyāñgro to summon the spirits with its sound.

5  The sixteen hokās (doors), as cited by Baral, are: (1) kāla, (2) mūla, (3) dewā, (4) dirgha, (5) vasa, (6) lohā, (7) vajra, (8) satya, (9) agni, (10) rakta, (11) sarmā, (12) māhā, (13) thalo, (14) ārjan, (15) haśa, (16) soramūli.

6  Baral also follows the devī and kula devatā traditions as all jhāñkris must invoke devī (the goddess) and the ancestors during a healing session and seek their aid in case something goes wrong. In particular, the goddess is widely believed to act as an agent who rescues a jhāñkri from trouble when he wrestles with evil spirits.

7  Parallel traditions regard ban jhāñkris as the embodiment of Hanumān, the red-faced monkey-god son of Vāyu (Wind) celebrated for his tremendous power and devotion. Besides traditional narratives emphasizing Hanumān’s devotion (bhakti), the god is also well known for being a powerful healer. Further – according to the jhāñkri tradition of Nepal – he is one of Śiva’s gaas.

8  Muller-Ebeling (2002: 24) reports of an incident where a jhāñkri was consulted to cure a sick man in Baudha, Kathmandu. When the jhāñkri arrived and examined the patient, he left without saying anything. When asked later why he did not intercede, he said that the patient was dying and nothing he could do to save him. If he had agreed to perform a jhāñkri ritual that day, his reputation would have been stained by his inability to cure the man. The man died a week later. Jhāñkris often refuse to treat/heal individuals with terminal illnesses, broken body parts, and diseases caused by bacteria or viruses because these ailments are beyond their expertise.

9  One day, the chief of police had to stand for a long time and he proposed that Baral see no more than 100 visitors per day. His proposal has now been enacted as a government order and Baral sees no more than 100 visitors a day while the rest are seen by his disciples.

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