Parallel landscapes: ritual and political values of a shamanic soul journey

Abstract

Tamu (Gurung)1 shamanic practice is linked with the landscape in a multi-dimensional physical and conceptual relationship. Simultaneously the setting for ritual practice and the site of ordinary activities, the shamanic landscape also incorporates the historic map of the ancestral world. Shamanic journeys reach upwards from the town and villages towards the uplands (hye) just as the trails of people do.