The shamanic practices of the Tampuan people. Based on the archival materials of M.V. Stanyukovich

Abstract

The Tampuans are the indigenous people of Cambodia, living mainly in the northeastern province of Ratanakiri. It was there, to the places of the Tampuan people, that in summer 2015 a group of scientists (specialists from ILS RAS, IL RAS, MAE RAS) made an expedition in order to collect information about the language, culture and life of that people. The cultural aspect was studied in detail by M.V. Stanyukovich (MAE RAS). During the expedition, folklore material and several interviews with natives of the Tampuan people were recorded, including, very extensive interviews with the local shaman Saryan and his daughter, who live in the village of La’en Kraen. Shamanism today continues to play a large role in the daily life and culture of the minorities in Cambodia. In the report, we would like to talk about shamanism through the example of how that traditional form of religion survived among the Tampuan people. In everyday life, the Tampuans communicate with each other using their native language, but at the same time they also speak the state language of Cambodia - Khmer. M.V. Stanyukovich does not speak Khmer, so she worked with the help of Khmer translator Saat So. Until last year, the interviews were not transcribed and analyzed. After a long work on transcribing two interviews, we managed to ascertain that the shamanism of the indigenous people of Cambodia Tampuan is a combination of the following elements: initiation into shamans, performing rituals of sacrifice, treatment of sick people.