Paper Short Abstract:

This paper tries to understand how the shamans of the Lepcha community through their ritualistic practices are continuously engaged in creating and emptying social spaces and identities. This process is fluid and often shaped through social interactions within the indigenous community and beyond.

Paper Abstract:

The Kalimpong district of West Bengal, India is home to multiple ethnic and indigenous communities like the Lepchas, Sherpas and the Nepalis. The Lepchas or the “Mutanchi Rumkup Rongkup” claim indigeneity to the region which is imagined as “Mayal-Lyang”. The indigenous Lepcha religion which is monotheistic revolves around offerings to Idbu-Dibu-Rum or the Creator while it has aspects that are rooted in the local physical and the cultural space. This paper discusses the idea of religiosity and ritualistic practices by the Mun-Boongthing or Lepcha shamans which shapes spaces going beyond community identities. The Mun-Boongthing are shamanistic healers as well as the spiritual guides not only for the Lepchas but also for the different ethnicities that inhabit the same space and place. While doing so they create social spaces where the Shaman empties their identity as just an indigenous person and creates a syncretic religious sphere where social interactions are continuously shaped. This paper examines the oral history of Shamanism and how the identity as a shaman evolves alongside with their indigenous identity. It focus on how ritualistic practices followed by Mun-Boongthings create a social space where various ethnic identities interact hence making indigenous spaces fluid and not rigid religious and social structures. Using ethnographic methods of interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, this study tries to decipher the relationship between the indigenous identity, religious practices and the social space that is created and shaped through ritualistic practices where the shamans often transcend beyond their community identity.