Sumegi Angela Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism

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have returned permanently to the heavens, having no need for earthly
tombs.53 Their travel to the heaven worlds was by means of the mu
rope or sky-cord attached to the crown of the head. This is the
Tibetan version of the primordial connecting rope or ladder between
earth and heaven common to many shamanic myths.54 A Mongolian
source of the same legend states: When it was time to transmigrate,
they dissolved upwards, starting from the feet, and, by the road of
light called Rope-of-Holiness which came out of their head, they left
by becoming a rainbow in the sky. Their corpse was thus made an
onggon (saint, ancestor and burial mound) in the country of the gods. 55
Mortality finally came to the kings of Tibet when the sixth successor
after Nyatri Tsenpo, brandishing his sword in battle, accidentally sev-
ered his mu rope another example, like the relationship between
waking and dream, where material and immaterial intersect without
losing their individual properties. Thereafter, the kings were buried in
earthly tombs.56
The ancient mu rope signifying the connection between earth and
heaven maintains its presence in numerous Tibetan folk and religious
practices. The rainbow-colored wings attached to the headdress of spirit-
mediums (lha-pa) represent, according to Bellezza s practitioner
interviewees, the link between the medium and the possessing deities,
as well as the belief that after death, superior spirit-mediums dwell in
the palaces of the mountain gods.57 In popular rituals of birth and
marriage the primordial bond between heaven and earth is expressed
in the form of a multicolored string attached to the crown of the head.58
And the rainbow path of the early kings who had no need of mortal
tombs finds an echo in the Tibetan Buddhist belief that certain medita-
tion practices result in the utter dissolution of the physical body at
death into a body of light ( ja lus). As Tucci notes, The connection
between heaven and earth is a primeval article of faith for the Tibetan. 59
Shamanisms and Dreams 23
The image of a rope that joins the worlds features also in the
beliefs of the Tungus, who tie a rope between trees to represent the
path of the spirits as well as communication between humans and
spirits.60 Similarly, the Buryats in their initiation ceremonies tie col-
ored ribbons between trees to symbolize the rainbow road of the spir-
its.61 The ribbons stretch from the top of the tree that emerges from the
smoke-hole of the yurt to a birch tree outside. According to legend,
their ancient shamans were said to be powerful enough to walk on
those ribbons it was called walking on the rainbow. 62 A contempo-
rary Mongolian shamaness suggests that the relationship between the
shaman s use of dream and the rainbow path of the spirits is hinted
at in the Mongolian word for rainbow (solongo), similar to the word
for shaman power dreams (soolong).63
In sum, traditional Tibetan culture shares many aspects of a
worldview common to other shamanic religious complexes. There are
also similarities between the religious implements and practices of Ti-
betan ritual practitioners and those of related central and north Asian
cultures;64 however, I have foregone discussion of these features in fa-
vor of emphasizing the correspondences in underlying attitudes. The
world and human life is a network of relations and interactions among
a great variety of persons, seen and unseen. Similarly, in microcosm,
individuals function as a dynamic interplay of persons or souls.
Worship is both a mode of communication and a vehicle of creation.
Through ritual, the world is consulted, hidden correspondences emerge,
and deities are born; reality is created and transformed. Ritual is the
process by which a person defines, empowers, and engages with the
various beings and realities of the universe. Finally, in the imagery of
mountains, connecting ropes of light, and the rainbow path between
heaven and earth, Tibetans, like other shamanic cultures, access their
primeval origins, ascend to the realm of the gods, offer themselves as
vehicles for the descent of the gods, and pay homage to the ancestors
who bind generation to generation and death to life. I have dwelt on
these characteristics of a shamanic worldview in order to provide the
necessary context and support for the following section on the shamanic
use of dream as a mode of communication, as a journey to other worlds,
as creating reality, as revealing knowledge, and as bestowing power.
SLEEP AND DREAM AS SHAMANIC ACTIVITY
The nature and role of dream in traditional cultures, especially among
Arctic and Central Asian peoples, has remained largely in the shadow
of the more dramatic and overt elements of their shamanic practice and
ritual. The darkened s�ances, ecstatic dancing, singing, drumming,
24 Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism
and trances in which the shaman speaks with the voices of the visiting
spirits or enacts a journey to another world, like the sacred imple-
ments of the shaman, or songs, myths, and stories, are outward mani-
festations of the shamanic complex that a researcher can hope to
elucidate with some confidence of accuracy. However, I propose that
it is in the ethereal domain of personal dreams and subjective visions
that the nature of the shamanic healer is forged. From that place where,
in the words of Jean-Guy Goulet, the scope for empirical investiga- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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