other attendants each dressed as a different animal, they would perform the “Bear Dance” which was meant to drive away evil spirits.
Bird Deities in China, Waterbury, F.
According to his book, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Eliade recounts that a Shaman must from time to time perform a ritual known as The Spirit Dance. Well known among Native Americans, accounts of this practice also date back 4,000 years in Chinese records. During the Spirit Dance, the Shaman moves in imitation of his animal spirit to call on its powers. It is said that the animal spirit actually takes possession of the Shaman’s body and imbues the Shaman with superhuman strength. This is principle is also mirrored in the martial arts. Performing the movements of Tai Chi is said to generate a spiritual energy – Chi. Like the shaman’s infusion from his animal spirit, Chi also bestows superhuman strength. Could it be that performing the stylized movements of a Tai Chi form, is based on the ancient Shaman’s practice of dancing the spirit?
The Ka-ren belong to the Thai linguistic group whose origins lie in southwest China, possibly Yunnan or Szechwan. In the twelfth century the Mongols drove whole populations in China southwards. The social upheaval this caused helped to bring to an end fabled empires of Pagan and Angkor. The Thai tribes that had been displaced southwards initially settled in the wilderness hill country that bounded these two empires, but when Mongol incursions and civil wars finally destroyed the kingdoms, the Thai came down from the hills and established their own kingdom on the ruins. But not all the tribes came down from the hills. While their cousins went on to found the Thai