Martino Nicoletti: Shamanic solitudes (käytetty)

An itinerary- only apparently circular - furrows the universe of Kulung Rai shamanism in Nepal. A nomadic religion, generated within the space of a double geography that weaves vivid visionary foreshortenings into the flat weft of reality.

An extraordinary journey through the principal places composing the universe of shamanic reality: the "call" by the spirits of the wood. The dreams and initiatic visions; the vocational sickness and flight into the forest - mandatory steps on teh path tp obtaining powers; teh praxis of healing and funerary rituals, centred on teh experience of a "magical journey" accomplished by crossing different regions of the cosmos; teh body's function and corporeity within teh choreutic-musical world of shamanism: abody acting as temple and simulacru, for a divine epiphany. As a frontier between worlds. A vocal and sonorous body capable of starting up the great shamanic machine.

Martino Necoletti (Perugia - Italy, 1968) has for over ten years been a specialist in the ethnography of the Himalayas and history of religions of southern Asia.
In the autumn of 2000, after an absence of nearly five years, he decided to revisit the Kulunge Rai of Nepal, an ethnic group amongst whom he had lived, carrying out research on mythohlogy and rituality.
The experience of his return to the field provides an opportunity for a reflection on his own experience as a researcher, opening the way to self-criticism and to the choice of abdication. A sole snapshot portrays the author of this volume together with the reality of which he is a witness.