Bönism, Traditional Healing, and the Environment

Dakpa Community 
Tongkanathang, Rinzentangpang, Bamchang and Dukti, District Trashi Yantse, Bhutan

Indigenous practices of Bönism are unofficially banned in Bhutan, and appear to be destined for extinction. Yet for now, at least, people in at least some parts of Bhutan continue to retain knowledge of traditional Bön practices. In this project, Tashi Tshewang – a native speaker of the Dakpa language – spent 3 months audio-visually documenting Indigenous healing practices and learning about their relationship with the local environment. In addition, he has collected a number of vernacular autobiographical stories of village people, and has made use of incidental opportunities to audio-visually document traditional preparations of wild mushrooms and lichens for consumption as food, as well as traditional hillside grain cultivation. Images of local religious sites and practices complement Tashi Tshewang’s collection, which is currently being transcribed and translated using ELAN software. 

Images of local religious sites and practices complement Tashi Tshewang’s extraordinary collection in Dakpa and Tshangla languages.

Tashi’s texts have been fully described, transcribed and translated, and they can now be accessed via the Dakpa and Tshangla language resources collections, at the CoRSAL language archive.