Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas

First of all, I'm not going to pretend to have read all of this book.I've had it about ten days, and each day I've been dipping into it and reading a section or two, and savouring the pictures. There are photographs of Nepal and of the many wonderful, fascinating rituals performed there by shamans and tantrikas-many of these rituals have never before been described in the West.This is a testament to the integrity of the two German authors-one an anthropologist and art historian, the other a world-renowned ethnobotanist- they won the trust of many local shamans who then allowed them into their world.There are also many tangkas-Himalayan religious paintings-featured in the book, most of them by a contemporary artist. EVERYTHING in a tangka is significant-the pigments used, the objects depicted, the body posture and facial expression of the buddhas, bodhisattvas, beasts and demons.This subject alone could fill whole volumes. Then there are the sections on healing and sacred plants, many of which are hallucinogenic.It need hardly be said that the shamans concerned use these plants with caution and with wisdom, and that it takes many years to build up the necessary knowledge.Again, much of the information here is provided by shamans themselves,often in their own words.(Short biographies of 5 shamans are included in the back of the book. They are, in many ways, co-authors.)

If you are looking for an academic treatise on the subject of shamanism, Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Mircea Eliade is a good choice-his range of sources is extraordinary, and he explores shamanism wherever it is found, Amazon as well as Himalayas, Indonesia and Australasia as well as Siberia.His book is considered to be THE book on shamanism. But-and this is a big but-he never actually encountered a real-live, breathing, practising shaman.The authors of this book,on the other hand, have spent many years in the field and have, as I've mentioned already, witnessed many shamanic ceremonies AND the day-to-day life of several Nepalese shamans(women as well as men, by the way.)They have seen how shamans often work side-by-side with conventional Western-trained doctors in Kathmandu's hospitals.And they are wary, rightly so, of the current trend in some New Age circles that promotes shamanism-and tantra,come to that-as some pleasant, feel-good activity -it is hard work, and some of it is not very pleasant-being dismembered, for example, or smeared with blood, or sitting on a Himalayan summit all night getting rather cold !

I can't praise this book enough.It is well-researched, well-written, beautiful and wise. My thanks and respect to everyone involved.

Claudia Muller-Ebeling, Christian Ratsch, Surendra Bahadur Shahi

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