Buchen as Storytellers: Reading, Telling and Acting out Edifying Stories

Pascale Dollfus (1)

1 CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes

A few priests, native of the Valley, are appointed as caretakers of Buddhist temples and every winter, on the invitation of local Buddhist families, religious practitioners join them to chant religious scriptures and to perform rituals. Among them are the Buchen (Tib. bu chen) described in early literature as "magicians [...], whose performances consist of a medley of prayer, song, miracle play, and stone-breaking feats" (Shuttleworth 1922: 254).

Mots clés: nomadism; Storytellers

Mots clés: Conteurs; nomadisme

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Géographie

Pascale Dollfus. Buchen as Storytellers: Reading, Telling and Acting out Edifying Stories. Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, 2017, The Spiti Valley Recovering the Past and Exploring the Present: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Spiti, 41, pp.323-348. ⟨halshs-01694823⟩