yet another mysterious being in the Himalaya

Ban Jhakri (Shaman of the Wilderness)

yet another mysterious being in the Himalaya

Many  stories and beliefs one encounters in the Himalaya includes Yeti the snowman, Wind Horse, Holy Mountain, self arisen deities in the rocks which once used to spoke and many other supreme phenomenon  that inspire some people and sounds mere story to some others.   Among such mysterious belief system based on a supernatural being is the belief of 'Ban Jhakri' which literally means 'shaman of the wild'.  Nepal, poor and politically very fragile country of current time is an oasis of different cultural groups that includes priestly tribe Bramhin of Hindus to untouchable groups and few dozens of Routes who don't have permanent homes and makes living in the nature by hunting and wandering in the jungles.  There are the Buddhist groups of Tibetan origin and Kirats who follows nature and ancestor worship cult defined in recent times as Kirant Religion.  Despite the difference if their religious beliefs and daily life there is one common thing most Nepalese believe in - the practice of 'shamanism'  which prevail in all Nepalese societies.  According to the cultural experts Shamanism is one of the oldest spiritual practices in the world that prevail even in developed countries like Europe or north America especially among the native societies.  In Nepal (and other Himalayan countries) it's said that there are tens of thousands of shamans across the country who volunteer helping people to heal from different diseases, misfortunes and bad karmas.  

Shamans in their Pilgrimage - Photo > Rajendra Lama

The word shaman is translated in Nepali as 'Jhakri' and also as 'dhami'.  The jhakri or dhami belief is so strongly rooted in Nepali daily life that it's common to avoid modern medication in the remote villages as they believe that taking modern medication such as injection make their deities angry causing the death of sick person.   Like the village where I come from, even the health workers at local health post can't deny the jhakri's way of treatment.  So what they do is allow some time to the family to go to jhakri and only if a jhakri fails the health workers take over.  In some families elaborated prayers are recited  before taking the sick person to the health posts. 

Even though it may sound superstitious, the matter of fact is that large numbers of Nepalese people depend on jhakris to get rid of diseases and bad health as in many villages either the health facilities doesn't exist or the health workers don't prefer to serve in such places.  More important fact is that jhakris are volunteer and they serve to local people occasionally more than once for same patient who may come from any cultural or economic background. 

A Shaman in Trance Photo > Rajendra Lama

The process of becoming of jhakri or dhami is equally amazing.  No matter from which tribe or caste the jhakri belongs to, generally there are two kinds - one is the self learned (without human guru / teacher) and second is the one trained by a teacher.  It's common to train a new jhakri by a senior one. There has been good amount of research on jhakri or shaman or shamanism in this part of the world by the scholars from renowned universities included their first hand involvement of learning to be jhakri during the process of their research.  I have heard that there are good numbers of American jhakris in Colorado trained with Nepali jhakris in the Himalaya!  This is the second type of jhakris learning from the senior ones.  

Well the mysterious phenomena I am trying to mention here is connected with the first kind of Jhakri who is neither trained by family nor by a teacher.  He/she is trained by supernatural being called 'ban jhakri' the shaman who lives in the nature (in the jungle or waterfalls).   My grandfather's older brother was well known jhakri who was not trained by anybody.  His grandfather used to be equally well known jhakri too.  My grandfather used to tell a story (actually different stories) that how a potential jhakri is taken away by this supreme being to his cave or water fall.  But I never penetrated the information how his brother became a jhakri because I had no idea what it meant in those days.  Well, few years ago I happened to interview Maili Tamang, one of the self learned jhakris who is a female shaman and her story revealed that she was taught the shamanism by a 'ban jhakri'.  While she was seven, like any other village kids, she was herding her animals beyond the village.  Suddenly she was grabbed by something big wrapped by huge blanket or furry like thing and when she came in consciousness she was in front of a ban jhakri in an unknown wilderness! She found herself not worried, crying or missing family but followed what the ban jhakri said.  She was fed special fruits brought by the ban jhakri and she was hidden in separate cave as the female ban jhakri could eat the human being.  She was taken to bath, put in fast and taught different mantras and rituals to tame the spirits, mountain gods and so forth.  After a week she was brought back to the family without notice by anyone.  Now she was different than common kid - talking very little, eating only pure (not shared in same plate) food and started to feel the spirit in her body in special occasions such as on the day of full moon.  Family and villagers of Okhaldhunga district where she comes from were not surprised by all this as even though it's rare but it was not uncommon news of kids being taken away by a 'ban jhakri'.  During the interview with me, she recalled that she was taken for the second time while she was 16 and this time she did the ritual with ban jhakris in a graveyard which seems certain type of perfection to control the spirits.   After the second by 'ban jhakri' she transformed herself to full time shaman.  Healing local people from different dieses, performing family deity pujas and obstacle removing pujas for those who need it, became her daily life.  She also recalled that some western enthusiasts approached her to become her disciple and she did train them to become a jhakri.  Now a days she actually travels to her disciples places in Europe and America. 

Training by Ban Jhakri to a common shaman found in Ban Jhakri Park Darjeeling

After  hearing Maili Tamang, obviously, I became curios that what type of being is a 'ban jhakri'.  According to the stories and experience by someone like Maili Tamang ban jhakri is basically a shaman, not a human neither an animal.  Another common fact is that 'ban jhakri' looks like human with more hair including in the faces and hands.  Ban jhakri is also told as very kind and persist in teaching and protecting his disciple.  Unlike her male counterpart female ban jhakri doesn't learn or teach anything.  She just doesn't like human being, very aggressive and can swallow a young kid brought by her husband in one gulp.  It's surprising that the story of mysterious ban jhakri is more widely told than of the story of another mysterious being yeti.  It can be interesting to find out more about this mysterious being by the scholars of modern times.  Who knows that one may encounter 'ban jhakri' before meeting a yeti in the Himalaya or won't be surprising to learn the connection of these two mysterious beings!