15 Dec 2011
15 min 56 sec
Video Overview
Creators:
Unknown
In the village of Yanjakot in May 1992, the Macfarlanes watched a ghato ritual at which older Gurung shamans were training younger men. Note the close-up footage of the young Gurung girls going into trance. With the memorial service (pae), the Ghatu is the most purely Gurung institution and hence worth a fuller description. Pign's account is necessarily brief since he never saw the dance performed. The dance is inaugurated on Magh Sirpanhimi (the crescent moon in Magh, i.e. near the end of January). Parts of it are danced from time to time until the full moon in Baisak (end of April).