Lecture by Davide Torri (Sapienza Università di Roma) "Buddhism and Shamanism among the Hyolmo of Helambu (Nepal)" on March 8

Guest Lecture by Davide Torri (Sapienza Università di Roma)

"Buddhism and Shamanism among the Hyolmo of Helambu (Nepal)"

March 8, 2022 at 16.15, Ülikooli 16-214 and via Zoom (https://ut-ee.zoom.us/j/94773637867?pwd=dWVMajVHSUtnUm1JWEpuTDdDQ0YzQT09 Meeting ID: 947 7363 7867
Passcode: 516404).

Abstract:

The Hyolmo people, in an effort to define their identity, claim ancestral bonds with a specific portion of the Nepalese landscape, i.e. the Helambu Valley (Yolmo). To this valley, they link their origin as a gropu, their mythology and their cultural specificity. Helambu is conceived, in fact, as a sacred “hidden valley”, a popular topic in Himalayan folklore, linked to the mystical activities of renowned Buddhist masters and saints of the past. The landscape, here, appears not only sanctified by the actions of those saintly figures, but also – well before and perhaps beyond their activities – a  sanctuary of other-than-human entities, variously localized and emplaced in the geographical features of the area. For the Hyolmo people, Buddhism, by itself, seems to provide legitimacy to their claims of specificity and appears to be the single most visible element of their identity. But to describe Helambu, and the Hyolmowa, only from a Buddhist perspective, will not be totally correct. A significant part of their religious life is, in fact, articulated along a different set of practices and beliefs. Shamanic religious specialist compete and in fact coexist with the lamas, in a unified yet asymmetrical system characterized by crucial entanglements and debates over the ritual field, which is constantly negotiated by all the actors involved: shamans, lamas, their sponsors and even the other-than-human entities involved.

 Bio-note: 
Davide Torri is Senior Researcher at the Department SARAS (Sapienza University of Rome) where he teaches Transhimalayan History and Anthropology, Himalayan Religions and Religions and Philosophies of India and Central Asia. He was previously (2009-2013) Lecturer at the University of Chester (UK), and then Researcher at the Cluster of Excellence Asia and Europe in a Global Context, Heidelberg University, and KHK Research Fellow at the CERES (Centre for Religious Studies) of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany). In 2019, he was substitute Professor at the Ethnology Department of the South Asia Institute (Univ. of Heidelberg).
His research interests include dynamics of entanglement between world religions and religious expressions of marginalized groups (i.e. indigenous people, minorities, etc.). In this context, he explored dynamics of religious survivals and revivals among the minority
groups of Nepal and India. He devoted particular attention to religious dynamics in times of crisis, including wars, natural disasters, climatic changes or political upheavals.

Among his recent publications:
2021 Dealing With Disasters: Perspectives from Eco-cosmologies (co-edited with Diana Riboli; Pamela
J. Stewart; Andrew J. Strathern), Palgrave: New York
2021 The Shamaness in Asia: Gender, Religion and the State (co-edited with Sophie Roche),
Routledge: London and New York
2020 Landscape, Ritual and Identity among the Hyolmo of Nepal, Routledge: London and New York
2019 “Religious Identities and the Struggle for Secularism: The Revival of Buddhism and Religions of
Marginalized Groups in Nepal.” Entangled Religions, 8. https://doi.org/10.13154/er.8.2019.8355
2018 “Religious Revival and Artistic Renaissance across the Himalayas: An Introduction” (With
Markus Viehbeck), European Bulletin of Himalayan Research vol: 52 (2018)

Information: Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore, liilia.laaneman@ut.ee