Part 1 - The sacrifice to Nahangma

Nahangma is a warrior divinity. Hangma has, more or less, the meaning of "queen", or, at least of a mighty woman. Besides, the word hang repeatedly recurs during the ritual: hang sit lang, the central pillar of the house; tumia hang, the head of the house; yet hang, yet hang, the eight founding kings, one of whom is the ancestor of the sacrificer. Although it is very rare, it would seem that Nahangma can appear in dreams. She is a very beautiful woman. She is armed: a bow, a sword, a shield, sometimes a helmet. It is said that she sits in a bright and elevated place, East of the Other World, co lung, atop a snowy mountain actually existing in the region. Approaching her kingdom, there are springs of great purity, different ones for priests and for laymen, which meet together at one point, sum lamdoma. There are also huge stretches of flowers. Each flower stands for a human destiny. It is a life's "vegetal-twin", its double, its external soul its "flower-soul", phung sam.

Head Held High/163. In principle, each household head, tumia hang, offers up a sacrifice to Nahangma twice a year, once at the beginning of the "rising season" and once at the beginning of the "declining season". In 1966-71, these households were nuclear, or conjugal, ones. They grouped together from four to six persons. The ritual could start around three o'clock in the afternoon and end around midnight. Apart from the people of the house and the neighbours' children, there were few other participants. The cult involved Nahangma, but also the ancestors (Theba Sam, Lumaeppa) and the gods of the lineages (Manguenna). Nahangma is also present elsewhere in Limbu country. . Her cult seems to be very ancient. But it seems to have given precedence to the cult of Yuma, who has become the greatest of Limbu divinities. To tell the truth, in the myth, Nahangma and Yuma tear one another to pieces when they meet. Perhaps this is not just an accident. 1 2 Let us recall the main outlines of the ritual. The "tribal priest", the phedahgma, directs the feast. Through a shamanistic type of journey he will establish contact between the world of human beings and the world of the gods. But first, at ca. 3 p.m., he erects altars in a terraced field situated a bit lower than the house. He faces the river. He starts by offering left-overs to the spirit of the Monkey: thus he has had his share, let him remain quiet! Then he invokes the Buzzard and the Wild Cat, sorcerers of the Other World, always in quest of blood, and who run up as soon as a human being starts 1. 2. The data were collected in the North of the country, in the Taplejung District. Nahangma's cult is mentioned elsewhere among the Limbus by CHemjong, 1966, p. 22, 40, 79, and Campbell, 1940, p. 600. Nowadays, it no longer seems to exist in the South, where Caplan, 1970, and Jones, 1976, worked. This ritual, in its relation to the religious calling, was described by Sagant, 1976, p. 76-85. We have summarized some of its most striking features here.

164/Kailash F sacrificing a beast anywhere: let them go back where they belong and stay there! Lastly, he offers an egg or a chicken to each of the great masters of the fallow lands: the Spirit of the Forest (Tampungma), the Spirit of the Crests (Toksongba), the Spirit of the Waters (Warokma) etc... so that they also shouldn't come and disturb the feast. All this can happen in broad daylight and last one or two hours. At the end, the altars are destroyed. It is said then that the way to the house is closed, lam sakma, and its access forbidden. -A The sun has disappeared behind the crest, darkness has spread over the valley. Night is here. The priest takes his place on the verandah, near the main door. He offers incense to Yuma. She shouldn't be cross, she shouldn't be jealous. very beautiful invocation introduces the summons of the masterspirits, guru, or the auxiliaries who will assist the priest on his journey: "To the North, the yak's baby has fallen asleep, the marmot has fallen asleep, etc. In their homes, the Tibetans are sleeping. Now is the time, Masters, to start the sacrifice. It's time for you to get up". The long recitation is repeated from the beginning for each of the cardinal points, then for the place where the shaman is sitting. At the end of the summons, the central pillar of the house has become the centre of the World. The four corners of the house coincide with the four orients of the Universe. The house, whose entrance has been shut since afternoon, is raised up/tho, compared to the space around it. The priest enters. The ancestors' altar, that of Manguenna, and that of Nahangma are built against the crest-or summit-side wall. Nahangma's altar is the nearest to the main exit, towards the East of the Other World. Among other items, it bears the decorated arms of the head of the house, which are the same as those of Nahangma: the bow, the sword, the shield. Five ritualistic sequences are going to take place within three or four 1

Head Held High/165 hours. They alternate between the cult of Nahangma and the cult The ancestors' cult will take place only afterof Manguenna. wards. 40% The priest first sings of the appearance of the divinity and of the ten kings, the eight warriors and the two priests, founders of the group, in front of Nahangma's altar. He remains constantly seated, cross-legged. . He next takes up his place in front of Manguenna's altar. In the same manner, he sings of the Ten Kings' migrations on the Tibetah plateau. One of them is the head of the house's ancestor. It is for the household chief's benefit that a sacrifice is being offered tonight: his name, his clan name, the name of his hamlet are mentioned; his filiation to one of the Ten Kings is recalled. Back, in front of Nahangma's altar, the priest starts his journey to the Other World. He carries with him the soul, mukumasam, of the sacrificer, "like a yak carries its load". The long voyage begins at the central pillar. It leads to the Junction of the Three Roads, at the meeting of the Three Springs, sum landoma, where the fields of flowers stretch out endlessly. The gestures made at this point inside the house must be emphasized: they correspond to the actions undertaken in the kingdom of Nahangma. ● The priest approaches the head of the house, who is standing in front of the altar: he gives him the sword. For an instant, he places the live chicken on the layman's left shoulder, then on his right, on his head and feet, in back and in front. ● Several acts of divination are carried out: the tossing of stones which either split or not; the examination of the flowersoul, phung sam, symbolising life in the Other World: is it faded, is it withered? Which way does the chicken go when it is

166/Kailash released on the beaten earth of the house in front of the altar? Will it go to the left or to the right, like a priest? Or straight ahead, like a warrior? "There are many people in the co lung. You must fight for your place. The chicken picks at people's feet so that they should move aside. If you can't make room for yourself in the co lung, you die". Because of the chicken, the layman's soul, mukuma sam, lies for a while in the realm of Nahangma. The man still stands before the altar. With the point of his sword, the priest traces a circle around him on the earth. The head of the house then starts to howl, stamping his feet on the ground. He rends the air with his sword. He beats his chest. He jumps up and down, stamps his feet, whirls around several times. ● The chicken is killed with one blow of a club on the spine: there is no blood, except for a few drops from its beak falling on two banana leaves. "Has blood flowed?" cries the anxious family. "It has!" answers the priest. They read the oracles in the creature's appearance. • Some feathers are pulled out: from the tip of the wings and the tail, from the feet, from the neck of the chicken, and placed upon the altar. ● The chicken is emptied. Again the inspection of the entrails involves divination. The offal are roasted and shared among the assistance, beginning with the head of the house. This is the first communion meal. After a pause, the priest finishes the ritual of Manguenna. Another pause and it is the end of the cult of Mahangma and the journey back. All through this long sequence, the priest has held in his hands the turban of the sacrificer. At the end, the head of the house, standing in front of the altar, receives Nahangma's dish in his left hand, the sword in his right. His

head is bound with the turban. Head Held High/167 The priest slips one of the chicken's feathers between the folds: this is the "pennant", nisan, the mark of power. For one moment, he imposes Nahangma's pure water on the layman's head. Once more, wearing the turban, the head of the house stamps his feet, shouts and jumps up and down. It is said then that the soul has entered, sam lingma, that its primary force has been restored. The chicken is cooked. Rice has been ready for a long time. Everyone takes their meal together. This is another communion. As for the gods, they receive the "smoke of the meal", thok mikhu, "the smoke of the meat", sa mikhu. At the end of the ritual, it is said that the priest has made the head of the house's "soul to rise", sam phungma. The Nepalese expression sir uthaunu is commonly used: the man "holds up his head again". With Head Held High: a complex religious state Before looking into how the sacrifice tends to establish the power of the head of the house, let's stop for a brief discussion of some of the themes of the ritual. Two aspects never cease to be impressive. First, the great complexity of the beliefs which surround the notion of living with one's "head held high". Next, the parallels which appear between Limbu ideas and those of many other populations of the Himalayan sphere, and even beyond. The Head First, the head held high. When defining, in their language the effects of the sacrifice, the Limbu do not mention the head at all. For them it is the "soul", sam, which rises, which is raised, phuhgma. Of course, when translating, they currently use the Nepalese expression sir uthaunu. Word for word, this means

168/Kailash 1 : It "make to raise" or "raise again". It seems to have its equivalent in ancient Tibet where "the image of sovereignty", as Stein writes, "is the powerful helmet, dhu rmog btsan, or the head held high, dbu phangs mtho". But is there really community of thought? We think so. For, though the Limbu expression sam phuhgma doesn't explicitly mention it, the importance of the head, throughout the ritual, is constantly reaffirmed. It is on the head of the household's skull that the shaman imposes for an instant the live chicken. It is in the turban brought back from the Other World that resides the "energy", the "soul", the "vital force", mukuma sam, restored to its primary force. is by putting this turban on his head that the head of the house, stamping his feet, expresses this renewal of vitality. Finally, it is on the head that the shaman imposes Nahangma's pure water. At the end of the ritual, it is said that Nahangma sits on the top of the head of the house's skull. The same idea is present in ancient Tibet. And, what is more, the Nepalese expression sir uthaunu can be found among other populations of Nepal, among the Rais, for instance, to designate the sequence of a ritual very much like the Limbus': It contains the same major themes: the sword, the chicken on the head, the couple squatting side by side (who appear in the Limbu cult to Manguenna); the shouts, the way of killing with one blow of the club, the flower under the turban, the head and the house which are "high" because of the sacrifice, etc. Thus, beyond the diversity of languages -Nepalese, Tibetan or Rai-, the conceptions seem to be related. And for the Limbus also, it is a question of walking with one's "head held high". 2 3 1. Stein, 1962, p. 171, 186. ij 2. Stein, 1962, p. 173. 3. Allen, 1976, p. 135, 1974, p. 547.

Head Held High/169 The Powers Conferred 1 It could be objected that the Tibetan expression concerns only the king, that it has no relation to a household head. We are confronted here with the critical problem of the nature of powers. It must first be said that in Nahangma's cult, they have a way of conceiving sacrifice which A.W. Macdonald, once again, recently stressed. Neither Hinduism nor Buddhism have left their mark on Limbu sacrifice. And yet, the ideas are related. First, there is the boundary drawn around the sacrificial area. Here, among the Limbus, it encircles the house, whose four corners correspond to the four orients of the Universe. Elsewhere, in Hindu or Buddhist ritual, they are the frontiers of the realm, or the eight monasteries on the edge of the territory. Next, a centre is planted to allow the contact between human beings and gods to be established. have the central pillar of the house, an accurate counterpart; where it is a fortified castle, a mountain or a stupa. And then an action takes place which somehow recalls the "creative dismemberment" and its double movement. Here, the sacrifice of the chicken during which feathers are torn out from the tips of its feet, wings, tail and neck. Elsewhere, among the Sherpas, the sharing out of a yak's carcasse, 4 or among the Daflas, the body of the killed man which is used as a standard to evaluate the compensations ending a vendetta; or, yet again, among Buddhists, the "murder" of a she-devil, etc. This creative 2 3 Here we 1. A.W. Macdonald, 1980. 2. 3. 4. For ancient Tibet, Tucci, 1970, p. 240, also mentions the four corners of the house. For the relations between the space of the sacrifice and the royal power among the Newars, see, for example, Toffin, 1979, and Vergati-Stahl, 1980. A.W. Macdonald, 1980. Furer-Haimendorf, 1955, p. 1955, p. 163.

170/Kailash dismemberment, in one way or another, regulates society. -- -- 1 Here, among the Limbus, it organizes domestic space, imposing the distinction between high and low, blood relations and affines, between receivers and givers of women. Elsewhere, among the S'erpas, it establishes relations between the clans. Among the Daflas, it restores peace and establishes the alliance between two important families; for Buddhists or Hindus it is at the origin of a society stratified into four distinct orders. Finally, and here we are at the heart of the matter, the act of sacrifice or creative dismemberment founds a power. Here, perhaps, the power of the Limbu head of the house. There, the power of a Hindu or Buddhist king. This "Asian" percentage as Paul Mus would have put it in the conduct of the sacrifice is not without implications when trying to define the nature of the powers at the end of the Nahangma ritual. After the Gurkha conquest of 1774, some of the Limbu chiefs were, henceforth, considered kings by the Hindu State of Nepal. They were called subba, which comes from a Nepalese word. By a skillful twist, their authority grew from the four corners of the house to the four orients of their District (amali, nep.). And the Dasai feast became for the subba what Nahangma was for the household heads. But in both cases, the same ambition remained: to go with one's "head held high". In both cases the symbols of authority flag or feather are called by -the same name "pennant" or "standard". (nisan nep.). In both cases, the effects of the ritual are the same. Thus, "to lift one's head up" for a Limbu, whether "king" or head of house, is to obtain the same, identical powers. Nahangma, A Warrior Divinity It should be noted that Nahangma, the Limbu divinity, seems to be rather closely related to those gods, dgra lha, of the 1. Sagant, 1973.

1 Head Held High/171 "nameless religion" of the ancient Tibetans. Like them, she is named "by a term which means chief or king". This word, hang, used by the Limbus, cannot fail to remind us of the Naga king of the same name, hang, the Chinese sovereign, wang, the Tibetan power, dbah. Nahangma sits on the top of a mountain, and, in ancient Tibet, "the sacred mountains are also war the Limbus' 2 gods". This mountain of calling the mountain of the 3 4 is luminous, refirst Tibetan king, "dissolving in light". Nahangma gives the head of the house access to a parcel of ancestral land. In Tibet, writes R. Stein, "each small land has its own mountain...". They are the gods of the land (yul-lha) or the masters of the locality, gzhi-bdag, sa-bdag. Like Nahangma and Manguenna, "they are intimately connected to the founder of the lineage". And, as in the Limbu ritual, "their war-like character...and their link with the clan and its ancestor, are expressed... through the feasts which are dedicated to them" In East Nepal, as in ancient Tibet, "the ritual is composed of two elements joined together, a god (mountain, rock, tree) and a goddess (lake, spring, river)" In Libang, as in Dolpo, 5 the mountain is associated with a lake. The description of the Manguenna ritual would bring other similarities to the fore. The Tibetan conception of a man's gods pho-lha, and of a woman's gods, mo-lha, is not foreign to this cult. And Tibetan vitality srog-lha, presents a certain analogy with the "energy" or the "soul", mukuma sam, of the Limbus. To lift one's head up, for the Limbus, is primarily to make sacrifice to gods who are not unrelated to the ancient Tibetan gods of the residence. 1. Stein, 1962, p. 173. 2. Stein, 1962, p. 170. 3. Stein, 1962, p. 169. 4. Stein, 1962, p. 187. 5. Jest, 1975, p. 43.

172/Kailash Gods of the Body and Gods of the Locality The parallel can be extended further. In ancient Tibet "the microcosm of the inhabited place... and the human body, that other microcosm... are looked upon as belonging to the same model" "Man has within himself no less than five or sometimes six protective gods, 'go-ba'i lha. One of them is precisely th god of the land, yul-lha: he resides, as he should, on one top of the head... On the shoulders live the 1 war-god, dgra-lha, and the man's god, pho-lha". - Tucci notes the same, sometimes contradictory, data, in detail, among ancient authors: "the powers feared by the Tibetans... have their seat in all places: in his right shoulder, dgra-lha, in his right armpit, p'o lha; in his left armpit, mo-lha; in the heart, Zan-lha". To these Tibetan conceptions correspond 2 those of the Limbus. At the end of the sacrifice, as we have seen, Nahangma lies at the top of the skull. At the end of Manguenna's ritual, it is also said that the god of the man's lineage rests on the right shoulder, the god of the woman's lineage on the left. Some of their ideas about the heart, the armpits, and even the sole of the foot, are not unrelated to Tibetan conceptions. For Limbus and for Tibetans alike, "the souls are hardly different from the gods". Between mukuma sam and Nahangma, hardly any difference is made. And for the Limbu, to hold one's head up high is to restore the presence of the gods in the human body. The Sacrificial Blood 3 The blood of the sacrifice seems to us to be an important 1. Stein, 1962, p. 187. 2. Tucci, 1970, p. 239. 3. Stein, 1962, p. 192.

Head Held High/173 theme. But the way the Limbus have two main ways of carrying out The first one consists in neatly slitting. it the chicken is sacrificed to Nahangma, by a blow of a club across its back, raises a problem. For the blood For just barely. the outsider looking on, doesn't flow, or appears that animal sacrifices. the throat of the beast with a knife. The blood flows on the floor. The second one is a series of different methods: killing with a club, as is the case here; piercing the heart with These different methods have a a spear, or else extracting it. point in common: the blood doesn't run, or very little. V. Elwin has drawn our attention to this type of sacrifice. It can also be found elsewhere, he says, among the Daflas of the former NEFA, who strangle their mithans; and also among the Nagas, the Abors, the Tibetans of Amdo, - etc... It is an archaic method. said there to be characIt is also attested In Tibet, around 1900, the 1 2 It is It is described in the Veda. teristic of the Kiranti ethnic groups. among other Nepalese populations. 'ga-ra butchers slaughtered pigs in the same way as the Limbus, by piercing the heart with a boar-spear. As we understand it, killing by piercing the heart is liberating the breath, sokma, 1. 2. 3. 3 Elwin, 1961, p. 10: "The bull killing sacrifice and the killing of the mithun in the Naga Feasts are done almost in the Vedic manner, in each case the animal being killed by a sharp stake of wood which pierced its heart". Also see Srivastava, 1962, p. 34-35, for the Gallongs, Furer-Haimendorf, 1954, for the Myniongs, etc. For example among the Rais: "The really traditional way of killing pigs is to shoot them with bow and arrow, not to behead them with a kukri", Allen, 1972, Allen, 1972, p. 89. Equally, the Rais sacrifice the chicken in the same way as the Limbus: "The fowl are killed by a blow on the back", Allen, 1976, p. 135. For the relations between blood, heart and breath, p. 245. For the method see Stein, 1962, p. 191, Tucci, 1970, of killing the pig among the Limbus, see Sagant, 1980. D. Mac Donald, 1930, p. 168: "The method of killing is cruel and barbarian. The animal is first tied up, then thrown down, and finally its heart is pierced with a blade". see Kawaguchi, 1909, p. 233. Also

174/Kailash which rises towards the gods. And if the blood doesn't run in this world, it's perhaps because it's being saved for the Other World. Whatever the case may be, blood appears to play a major role in the Nahangma ritual. It is blood which, according to certain informants, allows the flower-soul, phung sam, to be refreshed. Its importance is recognized in the ritual: "has the blood run?" asks the family. The rare drops spilled allow them to predict the future. And all the omens, in all the houses where we were present during the ritual, are directed to the same things: wealth, harvests, cattle, money. Nothing else. Here we have yet another example of an idea belonging to the Himalayan sphere, the relation between blood and prosperity. It climaxed with the ancient Nagas' head-hunting. It is present in the sacrifice to Nahangma. To hold one's head up high is to make blood flow in order to ensure the prosperity of the household. . The Flower-soul 1 The flower-soul, phung sam, in Nahangma's sphere, is primarily an individual concept: each human life has its own. Nevertheless, the idea of a collective representation is not absent. The first fields of flowers which the shaman meets during his travels to the Other World, symbolize the lives of children; he next meets those of women, then of men, grouped, it is said, by clans. During the marriage rituals, the priest bases his auguring on the appearance of the two newly-weds' flower-souls. This notion is constantly present in the Tong Sing ceremony. Besides, it is felt powerfully. A teenager becomes very ill when he knows that his father's flower-soul is smothering his own. Only when his father has died can he regain his health. This representation. of the vegetable double is fairly widespread elsewhere in Nepal. 1. 20 2 For the relation between blood and prosperity, see, among others, Elwin, 1961, p. 11, Furer-Haimendorf, 1969, p. 95, Bonerjea, 1927, p. 233. Sagant, 1976, p. 64.

1 Head Held High, 175 Hofer has described it for the Tamangs, though their beliefs It's rather the tree-soul, bla sing, seem to be quite different. which, among the Tamangs, seems to correspond to the Limbu flower-soul, phung sam: "every individual is linked with a particular kind of tree which symbolizes, so to speak, his spiritual backbone". Hofer establishes a relation with the Tibetans' tree-soul, bla shing. In fact, this notion of a vegetal twin or double is current in Asia. Siberia as well as in South-East Asia. notes A.W. Macdonald, "an individual or a group of men may possess several souls or external lives". It can be found in "In Tibetan thought", 2 The same is true of the Limbus. For instance, on the grave of a still-born child a banana tree has been planted; when the tree grows and is ready The mother is relieved. The to bear fruit, it is cut down. 3 still-born child's soul will no longer come to torment her. Another example: the Tokpe Lake can be compared to the lakeetc. Stein establishes soul, bla-mtsho, of the ancient Tibetans, a relationship between the gods of the place, the gods of the body and the external souls: "the soul, or the life-force", he writes, "resides... both in the body and in an external object... Such an object can be the external soul or the seat of life, It bla-gnas, of an individual, a group of men or a country". seems to us that the flower-soul of the ritual to Nahangma is a comparable concept to that Tibetan seat of life, bla-gnas, srog-ngas. And to raise one's head up, for the Limbus, mainly means restoring the freshness of the flower-soul, at this seat of life. 1. 2* For the notion of the vegetal Hofer, 1974, p. 171, 177, 182. twin or double, elsewhere in Asia, see, for example, Condominas, 1957, p. 150, Morechand, 1968, p. 113, Lot-Falck, 1974, p. 95. A.W. Macdonald, 1967, p. 57. 3. Stein, 1962, p. 192, Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 1956, p. 482.

176/Kazlash The Vital Force 1 Restoring the freshness of the flower-soul enables a man to recover the primal energy of his "vital force" I.S. Chemjong, himself a Limbu, has described the relation between the flowersoul , phung sam, and the vital force, mukuma sam: "an expert priestess sings or recites the whole story of the creation of flower... and compares such inanimate objects to human life in such a way that she particularises the mentality of a certain man to that of the stage of that particular flower... When the priestess refreshes the flower, the man also would regain his energy and become fresh and active again". It would seen that the Tamang ceremony of the quest for the tree-soul, bla sing, has a similar aim. The effect of the ritual, writes A. Hofer called che wangur, "is from Tibetan che, life, "dban skur ba, to confer power". This idea of power is doubly present in the Limbu notion of a "vital force" In everyday life, only the expression mukuma sam is used. Sam means "soul" in general. Chem Jong translates muk by "power", 3 mukuma sam by "the most powerful spirit". Martine Mazaudon reminds us of the kinship of the 4 • 5 2 word with mukhya, meaning "village chief" in Nepalese. the ritual to Nahangma, the expression mukuma sam is constantly Yet, in associated with the expression hangemba sam, according to a process of reduplication frequent in religious language. doublet, hangemba sam, it is with Tibetan, this time, that a comConcerning the parision can be drawn, because the Limbu hang, as we have seen, parallels the Tibetan dbah (power). 1. Chemjong, 1966, p. 26. 2. 3. 4. 5. Hofer, 1974, p. 182. Chemjong, 1961, p. 214. Chemjong, 1961, p. 358. This "power-soul", mukuma sam, The process has been described by Allen, 1978, among the Rais. Among the Limbus, it is identical.

Head Held High/177 hangemba sam, this "energy", this "vital force" of the Limbus, is thus the one which Nahangma, a warring goddess and hunter, disMoreover, it is penses to every man who can sacrifice to her. 1 .' Nahangma herself who is present in every man, to the point, as we have seen, that informants often confuse mukuma sam with Nahangma when designating the "vital force" which, at the end of the ritual, sits at the top of the skull of the householdhead. The nature of this force, specifically male, is entirely oriented toward hunting and war. Chem Jong has drawn our attention to the relation with hunting. As to war, it is constantly present in field-data. "When the red flag, nisan, is out, you strike: mukum (manifests itself); when nothing is to This "vital force", be seen, you strike; blood must flow". peculiar to the Limbus, would thus appear somehow linked to the Naga "soul force", as described by Guha: it is present in the body, says he. It gives Vim and Vigour to the individual. a locality or a community, at any given time, a given quantity of it exists. If this amount decreases, the harvest will be poor, illnesses will appear. In order to be protected from such calamities, "additional soul force has to be procured". Hence the implications concerning head-hunting, conservation of skulls, etc. Mukuma sam, the Limbus' vital force, also seems to be connected with the ancient Tibetans' vital force, srog. Stein 3 writes that it is primarily linked to blood. Tucci says that 1. Chemjong, 1966, 1966, p. 97. 2. .3. 2 In Guha, 1953. One may well wonder if, in the ancient N.E.F.A., the whole set of ideas concerning the vital force, following various developments, was not at the origin of very dissimilar facts such as the judgement of the Dead, signs of "wealth", ritual money, war, hunting and sacrificial trophies, feasts of merit, the right to polygomy, etc. See, for example, Needham, 1900, Roy, 1960, p. 141, 147, 156, 157, Shukla, 1959, p. 68, Srivastava, 1962, p. 14, Robinson, 1836. Stein, 1962, p. 191, Tucci, 1970, p. 245.

178/Kailash it is a sort of life impulse, the breathing of a vital soul coinciding with life itself. Further analysis of the concepts compared should be undertaken. We think however, that similar ideas prevailed when the various concepts typical of the Limbus, the Tamangs, the Nagas and the Tibetans were firt formulated. And that to raise one's head up for the Limbus, is, in the last analysis, to recover the life force that enables a man, when hunting or making war, to spill the blood which ensures pros- 'perity. Ritual Purity As to the notion of ritual purity, it has its importance in the sacrifice to Nahangma. It's at the junction of three pure springs that the shaman settles down, in the Other World, to officiate. The first spring, on his left, belongs to the priests ya%3 B the second, on his right, belongs to the phedangma; the third, in the middle, belongs to the laymen, tima hang. From his journey, the priest brings back Nahangma's pure water. He'll place it for a moment on the head of the household chief. To raise one's head up, is to rediscover a vital force closely associated with a state of ritual purity. 1 : Thus, when the ritual to Nahangma comes to an end, the household chief's head is "held up high". This is a complex religious state. Essentially, it ensures powers. Its outer sign is the pennant or the banner (nisan nep.). Royal or domestic, these powers are of the same nature, a vitality restored in its purity and primal energy, entirely concentrated upon the act of letting blood, whether in hunting or at war, and so ensuring prosperity. This "vital force", mukuma sam, 1. Furer-Haimendorf, 1967, p. 49, has noted that the notions of ritual purity differed from the Hindu conceptions. Hofer, 1979, p. 145, made the same remark concerning the Gurungs and the Sherpas of Nepal; Watters, 1975, p. 126, notes that the criteria of Hindu purity only appeared at a recent date among the Kham Magars. ་

" Head Held High/179 resides at the top of the head. It is none else than Nahangma herself, the warrior divinity, incarnated in the human body. Shamanist techniques allow one to make the blood of sacrifice flow in the Other World. The head of the house's flower-soul, This flower-soul, then recovers its freshness. phong sam, vegetal twin of a human destiny, is a "seat of life", external to man. Restored in its brilliance, this flower-soul enables the "vital force" to recapture the full extent of its power.