Shaman and Soul Guide: Himalayan Masks of the Spirit World
Shamanism is best understood not as a specific religion but as an animistic worldview, a term commonly applied to the belief systems of European cave painters, minority tribes in Asia, and indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Origin of Primitive Shaman Masks is referenced in this context. As for the character in question, it is thought to be a talkative macaque. In local mythology, animal figures frequently act as intermediaries. Whether this character aligns ethically with good or evil cannot be clearly determined.
Although the etymology of the term "shaman" (samān) was long thought to derive from the Tungusic languages of Siberia and to be a native Altaic word, it is also believed—though this claim is disputed—that reindeer hunters chasing prey carried shamanism from Siberia to the New World near the end of the Ice Age (Pleistocene epoch, roughly 15,000 BCE).
According to certain scholars, such as Mircea Eliade, the origin of the term may be more intricate. It has been proposed that Siberian tribes may have adopted the word "śramaṇa" (samaṇa—"wandering Buddhist monks") from East or Central Asia, even though that term generally refers to non-Vedic, non-Brahmin religious practitioners. These linguistic links might indicate that Siberian peoples observed South Asian beliefs—mainly Buddhism—with respect, and the borrowed word could have been employed as a special title for their own native practices.
Later I will elaborate on how certain elements in Buddhism stem from established rituals and shamanic practices. Across all regions, shamanic traditions display consistent characteristics; for instance, a tribe’s shaman is not chosen from among its greatest warriors, even though those warriors might seem more fitting. The book was originally published in France in 1951, while its Chinese edition appeared in 2018.
If the summoning fails, the shaman permanently loses the opportunity and may even be forgotten or erased from tribal memory. This summoning, which must be performed during the solitary days and nights after the shaman has left the community to live in isolation, involves calling on natural spirits—such as "animal totems" (referring to the spiritual power or symbolic energy of a designated animal)—and using them as sacred vessels for self-healing. An individual who bears physical or psychological trauma is often regarded as better suited to the role of shaman.
Imagine a more optimistic outcome: after a rebirth that is grotesque and mysterious, the shaman is allowed to return to the community. Having undergone a "transformative experience," they are often regarded differently by the villagers. The painter of the earliest known depiction of a Siberian shaman called this figure a "priest of demons." What part do shamans play in their communities? First, they must carefully appease the ancestral spirits, which frequently reside near villages and keep watch over the following of traditions and taboos.
Shamans, considered “outsiders” in the mortal world, achieve a more authentic existence in the spiritual dimension. Since supernatural forces permeate nature, they use esoteric practices to act upon the hidden side of life—the spiritual realm, where malevolent spirits must be subdued and where all human suffering originates. Fertility and coping with “life crises” are paramount for animists and form the basis of every shamanic ritual.
Shamans are relied upon during critical transitions—collectively termed "life crises"—such as birth, adolescence, marriage, social ascension, and death, at moments when the old "self" has died but the new one has not yet emerged. Acting as soul guides and bridges between this life and the next, they escort the vulnerable across uncertain existential gaps, opening every possible route to rebirth. In the Sherpa context, the "Chief" represents ancestors, typically regarded as figures combining heroic and sage attributes.
In Eastern Nepal, a Shaman Mask embodies a guardian spirit that stands watch at the threshold separating life from death, a divine presence that malevolent souls hold in fear. For shamans, belief is a prerequisite for action. Acting as empowered intermediaries, they don these masks to "become" the entities they call forth, a process of possession frequently expressed through ecstatic trances. Alongside masks, shamans carry a range of other ritual instruments, including specialized ceremonial clothing, weapons, drums, and certain psychoactive substances, among them fly agaric and cannabis.
Indigenous herbal knowledge within folk medicine frequently carries considerable weight in the overall medical system. Most shamans, meanwhile, fulfill dual functions: tribal priests who traverse different realms and professional healers, underscoring the shaman-healer unity. Their understanding of medicinal substances is applied not only to physical healing but also to rituals such as mask-based exorcisms.
The book offers an excellent account of Asian folk medicine and charts the growth of several prominent indigenous medical systems in Asia. For generations, shamans have served as ecological guardians, entrusted with safeguarding this medical wisdom. With regard to shamanism in the Himalayan region, multiple early archaeological studies show that Central Asian shamanism pervaded Bronze Age settlements stretching from Tibet to Ordos, western China, and southern Siberia, chiefly via horseback.
An artistic tradition now termed the 'animal style' was mastered by the warlike pastoralists (e.g., Scythians, Xiongnu, Mongols), who depicted venerated animal idols such as steppe tigers leaping onto deer, symbolizing victor and vanquished. This region was typically inhabited by two culturally opposed groups—the sedentary farmers and the aggressive nomadic tribes—and notably both adhered to animism, relying on their shamans to mediate spiritual realms.
Centuries before the Christian era, the ancestors of Tibetans engaged in agro-pastoralism in the borderlands of eastern Central Asia and northwestern East Asia, likely joining and contributing to the diffusion of Central Asian shamanic culture. At the same time, settled communities were often subjected to cavalry raids, which left enduring marks of survival strategies and "refuge" mythology on their descendants living in valleys. Many Himalayan scholars contend that the ancient non-Han Qiang nomadic tribes were the progenitors of modern Tibetans, though this view remains debated.
Tibetologist R.A. Stein (1911–1999) observed that material evidence of prehistoric shamanism survives in Tibet today: stone-circle monuments and tombs dot the southern fringe of the Changtang lakes, while metal objects—such as knives, stirrups, and belt buckles—embellished with "animal-style" motifs (seen as well in Ordos bronzes and Scythian steppe art) have been found in regions like Derge and Amdo. Meanwhile, certain ethnic minorities in Nepal who are believed to have originated in the central Tibetan Plateau still preserve archaic linguistic features of the Tibetan language.
Indigenous tribes in central India, such as those in Rajasthan, have preserved South Asia’s native shamanic traditions. Because of their geographical proximity, the shaman masks of these tribes show the closest stylistic similarity to masks from the Tarai plains. Nepal’s primitive shaman masks, meanwhile, bear so strong a resemblance to Siberian shaman masks that their origins must be traced to Neolithic Tibet. Some scholars argue that deep insights into pre-Buddhist Tibetan culture can be gained from studying Nepal’s Magar and Gurung peoples. Author: Thomas Murray