The Diversity and Versatility of Spirit Possession in Nepal - Marie Lecomte-Tilouine

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Medium of the infant god Latinath, Darchula, Far Western Nepal

When considering practices of spirit possession in Nepal, there is neither a starting point nor an endpoint, but rather a series of observable transformations that can be apprehended only in what is necessarily an arbitrary manner. Misunderstandings and misperceptions arise either because possession is approached on the basis of predetermined categories, derived from a supposedly universal anthropological worldview, or because, at the other end of the spectrum, the analysis is wholly dependent on vernacular categories, the validity of which may be restricted to a few individuals only. Alternatively, problems may arise because these practices are approached through an arbitrary selection of facts and practices in time or space. I will address the remarkable versatility of spirit possession in Nepal and the difficulties in trying to generalize about it, whether along a geographical axis, on the one hand, or along a temporal one, on the other, by paying attention to the vocabulary, the experiences as they are recounted by participants or others, and the context of occurrence.