Last post: Shamans past and present

(Baonghean) - Someone said: When people's knowledge is raised to the point of eliminating their belief in heaven, gods, fate and destiny, then beliefs will also end, and shamans and shamans will no longer have a reason to exist. This is so reasonable, no one can argue! But when will that "when" be and when again? Belief is a belief that has become traditional, has become like flesh and blood in people's consciousness before mysterious natural forces and phenomena, from ancient times until now, that people cannot explain.

We cannot count the total number of shamans and shamans practicing in all the Thai villages in this vast Western Nghe An region. In Quy Hop district alone, the total number of shamans in 12/21 communes and towns, where the majority (or all) of Thai and Tho people live, has reached nearly 60 shamans and shamans, meaning that on average each commune has 5 shamans and shamans (2006 data), and there are also an equivalent number of people practicing shamanism unofficially, not to mention the recent emergence of a number of people practicing the profession with superstitious and uncontrollable nature!

There are shamans who are invited to perform rituals almost 25/30 days a month, working continuously according to the requests of customers, in fact, there are so many types of rituals that it is impossible to count them all. There are even shamans who perform two official rituals a day and one unofficial "hang van" ritual at night. However, the income of shamans and shamans is not much, each ritual, depending on the nature and level, the family puts money in the offering tray, called "pang money", this money is meant to help the shaman perform the ritual smoothly and go to heaven and down to the house in peace... in fact, it is the shaman's salary for a ritual. This amount is usually from 50 to 100 thousand VND per ritual, rich families can spend more, no one spends up to 300,000 VND per ritual.

The matter of paying shamans, from ancient times to the present, has a custom, a limit, it is not that when you are rich you can give as much as you want; on the contrary, shamans only dare to ask for that much, asking too much will be a sin against heaven, against the people who have to undergo the ritual. Worshiping all day, many shamans and shamans are exhausted, even having to go to the hospital or ask for medical examination and medicine at home. A person who has become a shaman confided to us that once you have taken on the shaman's profession, people will come to invite you, you cannot not go to the ritual, unless you have an appointment with someone, or are seriously ill. Not going to the ritual also means giving up the profession, heaven will not forgive you... The shaman's profession is like that. After the ceremony, I asked my family to make me a bowl of instant noodles to swallow. There was a full tray of wine and meat, but I was so tired that I could not eat any mo. But why is it that the more prosperous and wealthy I become, the more people call for mo and need mo more?

The shaman performs a wedding ceremony to welcome the bride to her home in Mon village - Thach Giam - Tuong Duong. Photo: Huu Vi

Almost everything related to spirituality has a ceremony, and if there is a ceremony, it must be done by shamans. Even ordinary people, civil servants, and government officials, with proper education, also constantly seek shamans to perform ceremonies to ward off bad luck and misfortune during their tenure in office and power?!

So, shamans will probably still exist for a long time. That said, we do not encourage or pave the way for the shaman profession to develop naturally. In the not-so-distant past, there have been countless times when the shaman profession was considered bad, harmful, and needed to be eliminated. In fact, there have been many shamans who took advantage of people's beliefs and faith to practice their profession in an unscrupulous manner, going against the original ideology, ethics, and traditions of the shaman profession. Therefore, many shamans have been condemned, despised by Thai society, and no one invited them to worship for their entire lives.

There was a time when we “hit” hard on the shaman profession. Front cadres at all levels confiscated a series of umbrellas, paper fans, chopsticks and other tools of Mo Mot and confiscated dozens of swords and other tools of Mo Mon. All activities related to spirituality were abolished, dissolved and all other materials used for the ritual were confiscated on the spot to be used as public property. Homeowners were fined, and shamans were called to the commune to reform, study and sign a pledge not to practice shamanism anymore. The shaman profession of the Thai people in Western Nghe An was once considered to have been wiped out for a long time, no one could see the shadow of a shaman or a shaman anymore...

It was not until recent years, when the new mechanism was opened, the people's lives gradually became more prosperous, democracy was expanded culturally and spiritually to move towards integration into the world economy... that the shaman profession began to appear again. Many young shamans and shamans began to practice the profession just like the veteran shamans of the past. Many people went to school to learn how to be a shaman in the hope of finding a new position for themselves in the community, in the face of the economic and cultural openness of the country! Not only the young, but also retired officials who no longer had power in the workplace, suddenly dreamed that they were "responsible for their destiny" and went to school to learn the shaman profession and quickly became a good shaman... that's why recently there have even been "party member shamans"...

The case of shaman K (Quy Hop district), for example, is a state official, a full-fledged party member, once worked for the Fatherland Front at the district level, and once collected many swords from shamans and left them under his desk... But when he retired, he went to learn the shaman profession and quickly became a famous shaman of the commune...

So no one prohibits the practice of shamans and shamans. But today's society is operating on a completely new path of development. Now, every night, shamans and shamans sit and watch TV with many new things about people and life, not only in our own villages, but all over the world. People and events in faraway places, suddenly appearing vividly before their eyes, certainly do not come from Muong Then, but from the "scientific Muong" created and brought by the people living on the ground. It is funny that someone today still carries a book to learn the shaman profession, hoping to make a living with his saliva and a little memory, as well as hoping to regain his position in the community that he lost in other fields, through the shaman profession!

Thai Tam