The Shaman Festival Tour 2013 brought us to Tongren, a remote place in the Amdo-Tibetan area in the province of Qinghai. Tongren is not on the list of the classical must-see places of China, but the festival is a juwel for everyone intersted in ethnology and archaic religious practices. The Shaman Festival is a kind of a thanksgiving festivity and also a collective prayer for the next season from sowing to harvesting, typical for a population living on farming and agricultural products.

 

Bands of drummers, mostly young men dressed up in colorful costumes were marching/dancing around a fire in the center of a village square, complemented by sacrifications where agricultural products were thrown into the fire. The culmination of the festival took place when a local shaman concentrated on entering into a state of trance with all the observable signs and symptoms coming along with this specific state of mind, thus connecting to a specific mountain god of the village. What for? When the shaman falls into trance the mountain god is present amongst the community of the villagers. This is taken as a good sign, a signal that the the offerings are accepted and that supernatural, spiritual powers are protecting the village in the next season. As an addition some young men underwent ritualistic mutilation, they had their scalp sliced until blood was flowing, thus showing their devotion to the mountain god. Such events are hard to immediately understand for non-Chinese-speaking westerners, the understanding lives from expalanations and interpretations.

 

And exactly this was the overall title of the project: Trying to understand China. We were travelling as a group. Under John’s organization, guidance and protection we felt not only very well taken care of, but also so well informed about China, from early history to current circumstances. And apart from the informational value it was fun. My personal curiosity grew to such an extent that I decided to make a second trip to China, again organized and supervised by John, and I am already looking forward to it.

 

Dr. Ewald Krainz

Professor for Group Dynamics and Organization Development,

University of Klagenfurt, Austria