the eyes of Shiva). The Ban Devi was his wife, the Goddess Parvati.”
So this is how Buddhi Kumar acquired the powers of a shaman. But, the story does not end here. Let’s listen to him. “After four days in the forest I returned home and sat down to eat. I ate two pathis (approximately 6.4 kg) of chiura (beaten rice) in one sitting. People around me were amazed and convinced that a demon had taken refuge in my body. They even talked about throwing me into a nearby river.” After this incident Buddhi Kumar found himself increasingly isolated and suffered a great deal of hardship. “I used to wear clothes discarded from corpses in cremation sites. I used to steal salt. Once I even went around wearing cardboard designed as a shirt. We were extremely poor. Oh yes, I suffered much during my childhood,” Buddhi Kumar says. “During the Jan Andolan (People’s Movement) of 1990 I went into crowds in areas with the most trouble. I had a death wish. I didn’t care for my life but somehow or the other, I never got hurt although people all around me were getting beaten or shot.”
Although he had always known that he was different from others, it was actually only in 1992 that the realization really dawned on Buddhi Kumar that he was endowed with great powers. From then on, he started to practice shamanism professionally. His story could easily enough be one more for Ripley’s ‘Believe It or Not’ series, but the fact that he treats a large number of people every day and, by many accounts, cures them as well, points towards something more tangible. He says, “There are many patients who come here after getting no relief from doctors’ treatments.” People coming to him are usually afflicted with ailments like uric acid, gout, arthritis, digestive disorders,