Pawo of Pemakö - photographs

This is a healing rite by the dbaḥ-bo (although this is a male term, she is not referred to by the female form dpaḥ-mo, although she is referred to with the female term jo-mo by the Tshangla speakers of the area) Tshewang Lhazom. She is a Khampa Tibetan lady who becomes ritually possessed by an unidentified deity and then obtains curative powers, both in identifying the cause of illness as well as curing it. In this case, the patient is suffering from leg pain. After the initial sequence (PAWO210113AV, PAWO210113BV), and the moment of possession (PAWO210113CV), the complaints of the patient are explained and the dpaḥ-bo gives her diagnosis (PAWO210113DV), after which various offerings are made (PAWO210113EV), and the dpaḥ-bo expels curative phlegm (PAWO210113FV). She then pastes this phlegm mixed with butter on the head of the patient and uses a broom made of a medicinal plant to splash boiling hot water from a cauldron in which three round rocks (a black one, a white one, and a multicoloured one) brought from the river bed near the pilgrimage site of Dewakota that were heated in the fire are placed (PAWO210113GV, PAWO210113HV). Other people suffering from some illness are also treated. She then provides further advice regarding cure (PAWO210113IV), and then concludes the session (PAWO210113JV, PAWO210113KV, PAWO210113LV, PAWO210113MV).