ethnicity or caste.
Part III
Initiation into the fold
Buddhi Kumar ‘Gurujyu’ does not reveal his caste, but one can guess from the fact that his original house is in Tokha near Budanilkantha, Kathmandu, and that he speaks Newari fluently, he must be a Newar. He has been living and practicing shamanism in Kutisawagal of Lalitpur, some 15 minutes walk from Patan Durbar Square, for almost 11 years. He calls himself ‘Shiva Tantric’ and sits below a canopy of colorful wooden snakes. The shelves on his left hold numerous deity figures while, on his right, stand shelves of plastic bags with different herbs and small vials of ‘Himali Oil’ (an all purpose ayurvedic oil). Two women (apparently mother and daughter-in-law) and a frail child of about five sit cross-legged facing the shaman across a low brass topped counter. Picking up the child on her lap, the younger woman says, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He keeps on crying all the time.” The older woman hands over a plastic bag with some rice in it. The shaman pours the rice on to a brass plate, picks up a few with his finger tips and lets it fall on the plate. He does this a couple of times and flicks a few grains on the plate. He looks up, murmurs, “runche bimari (cry baby syndrome),” and offers some of the rice to one of the deities, then flicks some on the child. Then he blows quite forcefully on the child’s face. The young mother can be heard murmuring, “Doctor said….pneumonia….” The shaman repeats, “runche bimari”. He again flicks some rice grains at the child, waves a black feathered broom over her and then blows forcefully twice more on his face. The women gets up after thanking the shaman. The frail child, meanwhile, is