This month I learned more about shamanism which many Hmong follow. I went to my friend's house. Her father is a shaman. She described the ceremony that her father performs and some of the things in her house that are used for that ceremony. I didn't take any pictures myself, but I found pictures of the things that I saw and pasted them below.
The ceremony is performed when a soul is in need of retrieving. The soul may have wondered off, it may be sleeping, or it may be held captive by an evil spirit. It needs to be called back to the body so the person can be made whole again. So this ceremony is often performed when a person is ill, but it may also take place on other occasions. The shaman must find out where the soul is and try to call it back.
Here is a shaman in the middle of the ceremony. He is standing on a table. The table represents the flying spirit horse that he is mounting as he goes into a trance to enter the spirit world. People are near him in case he needs help staying up while fighting the evil spirits. He wears a covering over his head to protect him from the evil spirits.
The buffalo horns are tossed on the ground. The manner in which they lay indicates the location of the lost soul is in the spirit world.
The bells are put around the shaman's fingers during the ceremony and shaken. The sound of the bells is used to awaken the lost soul.
Bamboo tree and strings are hung from the ceiling. The strings represent a bridge. The shaman believes he is traveling through the strings and bridging into the spirit world.
The shaman's sword is used as a weapon to fight off evil spirits on his journey.
To entice the soul to come back, the shaman uses the soul of a sacrificed pig or cow to take the place of the soul that is missing. Once the soul has returned to the person, the soul of the sacrificed pig is released by burning the jawbone. The shaman then keeps this jawbone.
I really enjoyed time at the annual retreat. Every year it is an encouragement to hear from others who are working in this part of the world. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach of the Gulf of Thailand. Both the water in the pools and in the ocean felt like bath water...Thailand is HOT in April :) On our "free day", there was a group of 10 of us who went on a little motorcycle trip to the "Largest National Park in Thailand". It was much more about the journey than the destination :) A journey that included 3 of the motorcycles falling down...1 cycle running out of gas...and another cycle with a flat tire among other things. By the time the day was over, we had gotten a chance to know each other better, enjoy God's creation, meet some new Thai friends, watch the sunset, and arrive safely back. (I'd rather not talk about the owners at the motorcycle rental place and how NOT happy they were with the condition of the cycles).
