The sun rises : a shaman's chant, ritual exchange and fertility in the Apatani Valley / / by Stuart Blackburn.

• Superior document: Brill's Tibetan studies library, v. 16/3
• Author: Blackburn, Stuart H.
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's Tibetan studies library ; v. 16/3.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (419 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

At the centre of this study is a shaman's chant performed during a three-week long feast in the eastern Himalayas. The book includes a translation of this 12-hour text chanted in Apatani, a Tibeto-Burman language, and a description of the events that surround it, especially ritual exchanges with ceremonial friends, in which fertility is celebrated. The shaman's social role, performance and ritual language are also described. Although complex feasts, like this one among Apatanis, have been described in northeast India and upland Southeast Asia for more than a century, this is the first book to present a full translation of the accompanying chant and to integrate it into the interpretation of the social significance of the total event.

Table of Contents

Apatanis and their valley -- The Subu Heniin text -- The Murung festival -- The Nyibu performer -- The Subu Heniin in translation -- Conclusions and the future -- Appendices. Outline of Murung events ; Number of Murungs, 1944/1945-2009 ; Sacrificial shares for spirits and humans ; Transcription of the Subu Heniin ; Mudan Pai's life-history ; Feasts of merit in the extended Eastern Himalayas.