Ecstasy, Madness and Spirit Possession in the Nepal Himalayas.

An itinerary – only apparently circular – furrows the universe of Kulunge Rai shamanism in Nepal. A nomadic religion, generated within the space of a double geography that weaves vivid visionary foreshortenings into the flat weft of reality.

An extraordinary journey through the principal places composing the universe of shamanic reality: the “call” by the spirits of the wood. The dreams and initiatic visions; the vocational sickness and flight into the forest – mandatory steps on the path to obtaining powers; the praxis of healing and funerary rituals, centered on the experience of a “magic journey” accomplished by crossing different regions of the cosmos; the body’s function and corporeity within the choreutic-musical world of shamanism: a body acting as temple and simulacrum for a divine epiphany. As a frontier between worlds. A vocal and sonorous body capable of starting up the great shamanic machine.

Martino Nicoletti, Shamanic Solitudes, Le loup des steppes, 2015

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