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Christian Encounter with Shamanism, 1-14

INTRODUCTION

THE MEETING OF SHAMANISM AND

CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES OF EAST ASIA AND OCEANIA

Olivier Lardinois SJ
Benoit Vermander SJ

In February 2006 the Research Centre for Aboriginal Theology

at the Theologate of Fujen Catholic University and the Taipei
Ricci Institute held an international symposium to discuss the
encounter of Christianity and shamanic practices of the
indigenous peoples of East Asia and Oceania. The symposium
was held in Taitung, a small town on the Pacific coast of
Taiwan, following an invitation from the Auxiliary Bishop of
Hualien, Mgr. John-Baptist Tseng, the only indigenous bishop
in Taiwan and President of the Commission for indigenous
pastoral ministry of the Taiwanese Bishops’ Conference.

Motivation and Aims of the Symposium

The reasons for holding such a symposium were as
follows:
• The continuation of shamanic practices among many
Asian indigenous Christian converts, even though they
have been Christian for some 50 years, as in Taiwan
where 85% indigenous population are Christian
(mostly Catholic or Presbyterian), but also in the
Philippines, northern Borneo and Australia.
• A renewed interest in certain traditional shamanic
2 Lardinois

practices among young indigenous people, searching

for their identity (Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia,
Australia).
• The emergence of various kinds of neo-shamanism
which are quite successful among urban, educated
Asians (Siberia, Korea, Taiwan).
To circumscribe what is meant by shamanism the
organisers used the definition of the anthropologist R.
Hamayon:
Originally, the term shamanism referred to the
religious practices observed by indigenous Siberian
peoples who lived by hunting and fishing. These
practices are characterised by a relational symbolic
exchange between human beings and the spirits of the
various species of wild animals they feed on. Today
the term refers more generally to any form of religious
practices which consist in dealing with the spirits so as
to obtain certain goods whose acquisition is as
uncertain as that of hunted animals, such as rain,
fertility, health, luck, success in love or at play,
prosperity, absence of torments, etc…1
This definition enables the term shamanism to cover a
wide range of religious practices which are often judged as
‘superstitious’, and which are present in the popular religiosity
of a great number of Asiatic cultures. In East Asia, as
elsewhere, shamanist practices exist alongside one or more
developed religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam), which
rarely succeed in completely eradicating from popular belief
these ‘archaic’ and deeply-rooted forms of religion. In other
cases, especially in the case of popular Taoism and the New
Age movement, we are faced with religions or religious

1
Hamayon, R., Shamanism as an Exchange System, or How to trade
for Vital Force with Spirits, Lecture at the Academia Sinica, Taipei,
16 October 2000.
 Introduction 3

currents that are rooted in various forms of archaic practice but

which are continually renewed under the influence of new
forms of practice which themselves are constantly evolving.
The constant interference between established religions (or
recognised religious movements) and older popular religious
practices cannot be ignored, for, if it is ignored, shamanism
will continue to exist in secret or give rise to confusion or even
a sense of guilt that is not liberating.
The first part of the symposium consisted in the
presentation of some ten research papers dealing with
shamanism according to various approaches (anthropological
analysis, study of comparative religions, pastoral reflection) in
a variety of cultural contexts (Siberia, Korea, minority peoples
or popular religions of China and Taiwan, indigenous people
of Borneo and Australian aborigines). This very varied
presentation permitted the participants to better grasp the
complexity of the problem and the issues at stake. It also
helped to show how much inter-religious dialogue is necessary
at this level. Finally, it showed how Christianity can be
enriched if it was more ready to listen and learn from
shamanic traditions which witness to a real wisdom in the way
they accompany men and women faced with human misery.
After this long series of talks, the second part of the
symposium, unfortunately rather too short, was devoted to
trying to draw some conclusions that would be relevant for
theology and pastoral work.

Theological and Pastoral Reflection

The joint reflection which followed the presentation of
the papers tried to draw some conclusions that would be useful
for theology and pastoral work. Rather than trying to give a
detailed report of the debate that ensued, we shall simply
present the most pertinent remarks made by three of the
participants. These remarks both take up the key issues form
the presentations and also give a clear direction for the future.
4 Lardinois

Bishop Tseng insisted that it was necessary to continue

to study the problem so as to free the minds, as soon as
possible, of those indigenous Christians who, faithful to their
own culture, continue to practice certain traditional religious
rites. We must show that they are not at fault because the
Church does not condemn everything that is good and
beautiful in traditional indigenous religion. It is also necessary
to help in a discernment of the wheat and the tares but not
before one has first sat down and truly learnt from the elders.
The Bishop considers that the best way in which the Church
can show her respect for the praiseworthy and beneficial
practices of traditional religion is to integrate them into the life
of the Church herself, for example, by inviting the elders and
shamans to take an active part in the liturgical and pastoral life
of the local Christian communities, or else by inviting pastoral
workers to better respect and understand the ancient tradition.
Luc Mees MJ, professor of missiology at the East
Asian Pastoral Institute, made several remarks in the fields of
anthropology and theology:
Encounter with shamanism helps in the reflection on
the nature of religion as awareness and recognition of a
Mystery, which is beyond us and to which we confidently
surrender. Any religion is based on some kind of revelation
(insight) in view of some kind of salvation (hope, meaning).
The ways and forms of revelation and salvation in reaching
out to the Ultimate Reality are many, different and varied. (cf.
Heb. 1:1).
Conceptual categories like truth, absoluteness and
uniqueness have caused divisions and tensions between
religions. Truth is not about concepts but about fruits. A ‘true’
religion is liberating, transforming, energizing, harmonizing,
healing. It gives meaning to all dimensions of human reality
and takes away fear. It is often said that all religions are
“equal”, but some are more liberating and meaning-giving
than others. Only in dialogue can religions understand the
 Introduction 5

differences, commonalities, richness and deficiencies and their

complementarity.
In inter-religious dialogue, followers of primal or
cosmic religions have been largely overlooked as partners in
dialogue in favour of the followers of metacosmic religions.
Shamanism is one of the ways people deal with the
Mystery; it belongs particularly to the ways of primal religions
all over the world: the ways of the sages, seers, healers –
and …prophets. The symposium is an invitation to learn to
listen to men and women who often have a profound
experience of the Other.
Listening to the shamanic experience has several
implications for rethinking and enriching parts of Christian
theology: Christology (consider Jesus Christ as a shaman);
Pneumatology (evidently!); Theology of religious pluralism;
inculturation.
Openness to shamanism is important in dealing with
several pastoral-missionary challenges: the struggle of
indigenous Christians for the survival of their own identity and
culture; the approach to popular religion; the phenomenon of
dual religious belonging: the positive or negative, open or
closed attitude one can adopt in the face of religious
syncretism.
Benoît Vermander concluded the discussion in ten
points that help us to appreciate the various issues involved in
the meeting with shamanism:
1. We are dealing with a variety of phenomena: local
religions, shamanistic practices, reinterpretation of
one’s identity by present-day indigenous communities
and Neo-shamanism in a globalised market economy
are all part of the encounter between Shamanism and
Christianity in East Asia, while referring to different
realities and levels of analysis. The encounter of
Shamanism and Christianity is now part of a larger
6 Lardinois

landscape: the blurring and redefinition of religious

frontiers in the globalization era.
2. There is indeed an opposition between Christianity
and many of these phenomena. In the past, the
encounter between Christian missionaries on the one
hand and local religious practitioners and believers on
the other has been often confrontational. And today,
neo-shamanism directly challenges the way Christian
beliefs and practices have reshaped the religious
psyche and cultural identity of religious communities,
even in non traditional shamanic territories.
3. However, there are also similarities and possible
points of encounter. Shamanic and local religions have
often proven to be much more permeable to Christian
predication than other religious worldviews. This
might be largely due to social factors (Christianity was
arriving in times of cultural crises and disintegrating
social structures), but accommodation has proven to
be feasible in areas such as understanding of
“sacrifice”, the mediating role of liturgy, the
integration of ancestors within a larger “communion
of saints’, or even the concept of “revelation” as an
existential experience of encounter between God and
humankind.
4. Shamanism challenges the way Christianity sometimes
conceives the tension between Unity and Plurality
within the Divine. Shamanic beliefs are not only
contradicting or confronting Christian dogmas, they
might be part of the endeavour through which dogmas
are understood in anew light, in a more universalistic
fashion Traditional beliefs sometimes lead theologians
and pastoral agents to express anew basic realities of
their faith. This is especially true when it comes to
representation of the Divine in the unity of its essence
but also in the plurality of its being and the diversity
 Introduction 7

of its manifestations. The exuberance of shamanic

notions, beliefs and metaphors somehow challenges
the way modern expressions of the Christian faith
compartmentalizes spiritual realities., distributing
them into ready-made, logical and abstract categories.
5. It also challenges the way we evaluate the
relationships between the two Testaments. Familiarity
with the text and the world of the Old Testament helps
one to better enter the world of shamanic beliefs and
practices, or, at least, the context of local religions. It
also suggests ways of conceiving the evolution of
traditional beliefs in terms of “accomplishment”
towards the gratuitousness of salvation as revealed by
the Gospel, rather than to drawing a clear-cut
opposition between different religions. Such an
understanding is even deeper when reminding oneself
that the Gospel does not offer a new religious
worldview but rather challenges and overcomes all
“religions” in so far as they aim at regulating and
controlling the relationship between humankind and
God, such limiting the gratuitousness and universality
of God’s offer of salvation. At the same time, the path
that leads from the Old Testament to the New liberates
the potential present in each religion to go beyond its
own barriers for opening itself to the universality of its
intuitions and working towards the full humanization
of this world.
6. Shamanism and local religions challenge Christian
churches to display more liturgical inventiveness.
Spiritual openings provided by the encounter between
Shamanism and Christianity normally lead to new,
more diversified liturgical expressions. This is what
actually happens, as harvest festivals, ancestors’
worship and other practices are more and more
accommodated into Christian prayers and ceremonies.
Caution is often necessary, as some of these trials will
8 Lardinois

not be easily rooted into the life of the churches, but

liturgical inventiveness is indeed a call towards a
greater vitality of Christian local communities as well
as towards a better appreciation of the riches offered
by traditional cultures, languages and beliefs.
7. It encourages Christianity to be more of a “healing
religion”. Though the focus on “healing” is hardly
new, its repeated use during the Taitung workshop was
putting a stress on the rationale behind most
traditional rituals, while revealing what is at stake in
present-day recreation of shamanistic ceremonies, be
they inspired by encounters with the Christian faith or
by mere cultural revival. Interestingly, the Gospel also
narrates healing experiences having occurred in the
past so that they may be re-enacted by the person or
the community that receives them in faith and hope.
By providing a line of interpretation for Gospel
reading and for community building at the same time,
the quest for healing has to do with the relevance of
Christianity to the future of present-day indigenous
communities.
8. The encounter with Shamanism reminds Christian
churches of the diversity of charisms, of their duty to
“liberate” charisms and to empower those with
particular charisms. The complex but often positive
role of shamans and other religious practitioners in
traditional indigenous societies has been underlined by
many participants, including by former women
shamans visited during a subsequent fieldtrip in
Taitung county. Recognizing the diversity of
charismas (healing, service, teaching or leadership) is
a task that St Paul already was calling local churches
to fulfil. Such call has special relevance when looking
at contemporary Christian communities, especially
indigenous communities where social and cultural
changes have severely restricted the power of
 Introduction 9

initiative of most community members.

9. To be able to exercise discernment of spirits and to
judge them by their fruit is the key to entering into
dialogue with shamanism. This principle is a direct
consequence of the preceding one, and is also deeply
rooted into Paul’s teaching. Such principle implies that
“beliefs” are not to be appraised and examined on the
basis of oral or written statements alone (the variety of
linguistic and methodological traps involved in such
operation is clear enough) but also on the way they
translate into personal deeds and community spirit.
10. There seems to be a strong need to promote “holistic
health projects” among indigenous people of East
Asia. Said otherwise, the focus on “healing’ is to be
enriched by the whole set of considerations that arise
from the preceding points, so as to provide a direction
for spiritual and theological assessment, apostolic
choices and community building. Ultimately, no real
encounter between present-day Shamanism and
Christianity is going to develop if not rooted into an
appraisal of the concrete situation experienced by
contemporary indigenous communities as well as by
concerted action for building caring, healthy and
self-assertive indigenous communities.

Discussion of the papers

The papers in this volume have been reedited and
rearranged to bring out more fully the dynamic of the dialogue
between Christianity and shamanism. Part One is devoted
largely to understanding shamanism and the challenge it
presents. Part Two is more involved with the Christian
response.
10 Lardinois

Part One: The call to be a Shaman

Part One opens in Sabah, Borneo, and introduces us to
the indigenous shamans of the Kadazandusun and Murut
peoples. Anne Lasimbang, an indigenous Catholic active in the
Partners of Community Organisations NGO, which works
towards the long-term formation of indigenous communities in
the forests of Borneo, shows that there can be no real success
in help for the lasting development of local communities
unless one is also concerned to maintain the wisdom and
spirituality of the traditional shamans. Jojo Fung SJ, a
Malaysian of Chinese origin who is much involved with the
local indigenous people, gives a theological reflection on the
role of a Catholic priest studying with local shamans, even to
the point of undergoing an initiation. Reading his article we
can see that his theological focus is on the challenge the
shamans present to Christianity.
The following articles are situated in the Chinese
cultural sphere. Liu Pi-chen, an ethnologist from Dong Hwa
University, Hualien, discusses the shamans of the Kavalan
people. She explains why the role of shaman was always
reserved to women of weak physical or mental health, whose
wisdom is rooted in the experience of having overcome
suffering themselves. She stresses the important social
function played by the shamans of a given locality meeting to
work together and to initiate younger shamans.
Benoît Vermander SJ, of the Taipei Ricci Institute,
focuses on the evolution of shamanism among the Nuosu
people of the high mountain region of Sichuan Province in
China. He shows how all ‘archaic’ religious systems are
intimately linked to the historico-spatial context in which the
human community is living. In the case of Nuosu shamanism
we find a religious tradition which consolidates, constructs and
protects the ethnic identity of the people in the face of outside
threats (very rough conditions of life, Buddhist proselytism,
possible assimilation into the dominant Han Chinese
 Introduction 11

culture…).
Tsai Yijia an ethnologist from Dong Hwa University,
Taiwan, describes how Taiwanese Taoist associations offer a
formation in becoming a ‘medium’ for people with little
education or who are psychologically fragile, but who
experience liberation through their formation. Tsai gives a
detailed description of the formation offered by one
association and shows how the pupils come to psychological,
affective and spiritual maturity, which they can then use in the
service of other people in difficulty. Though not directly
concerned with indigenous people, the article provides us with
an interesting comparative perspective.

Part Two: Shamanism and Christianity in Dialogue

Part Two includes six papers which present differing
Christian reactions to shamanism. The first two are closer to
the papers in part One in that they present shamanism as
something quite distinct from Christianity. Indeed the two
respective authors believe that Christianity should have
nothing much to do with shamanism.

A Worlds Opposed
Pastor Tong is happy to announce that all shamanic
practices on Orchid Island have stopped, owing to the success
of Christianity. At the same time he is a good story teller and
gives lively anecdotes of the shamans active in living memory.
Professor Tatiana Bulgakova, an anthropologist from
Alexander Herzen University, St. Petersburg, Russia, analyses
the renewal of shamanism among the Asiatic minority peoples
of Siberia in reaction to the domination of European Russia
identified formerly as Communist and now as Orthodox. She
shows that in fact what is emerging is very different from
traditional shamanism. In fact this neo-shamanism even
12 Lardinois

borrows structural, moral and dogmatic elements from

Christianity: construction of places of worship, teaching of
shamanism in public schools, construction of a shamanist
morality and theology greatly inspired by the Judeo-Christian
tradition.
B Christians listening to the Shamans
Daniel Kister SJ and Brian McCoy SJ both intertwine
their description of shamanism in Korea and Australia
respectively with reflections on what Christinaity can learn.
Kister, emeritus professor of comparative literature at Sogang
University, Seoul, describes the renewal of traditional
shamanism in Korea showing what this has in common with
certain aspects of Christianity: accepting to become a shaman
is a particular vocation which implies an asceticism of service
to suffering people; the sense of beauty and the deep meaning
of Korean shamanic rituals have elements that are similar to
the Eucharist (the use of ritual signs, words and objects, music
and gestures which make the divine truly present); crises are
overcome by a ritualisation of the drama of family and
community life; the Korean shaman spends his life trying to
better understand the influence of good and bad spirits from
his own experience.) Kister notes that shamanism now figures
among the courses taught to Korean seminarians along with
classes on traditional religions such as Buddhism and
Confucianism.
McCoy, who wrote his PhD on aboriginal health at the
Centre for Health and Society at Melbourne University,
summarises his thesis entitled Kanyirninpa: health,
masculinity and wellbeing of desert Aboriginal men. He
highlights the lack of dialogue between the three centres of
healing in desert communities (the clinic, the local Christian
community and the traditional healers) and maintains that this
creates a real obstacle to the restoration of physical, mental
and spiritual health for most indigenous adult men. McCoy is
in favour of common and comprehensive health projects,
 Introduction 13

which truly take local culture into account so as to combat the

deep sense of ill-health which affects most aboriginal men.
The last two papers bring us firmly into the Taiwanese
setting, where Christianity is in touch with a shamanist
tradition that has not died out. Pastor Namoh Siyo expresses
his willingness to take account of the persistence of
shamanism in many Amis villages and show his openness and
creativity. Although many of his congregation disapproved, he
dared to enter into dialogue with the shamans of his village
and even take part in their rituals. He also promoted a space
for possible meeting in the prayer for healing practised among
Pentecostal churches and in the Catholic Charismatic renewal.
However, he noted that as a Protestant he lacked the sufficient
theological tools to defend his views in front of his colleagues.
The final paper is a theological and pastoral reflection
on shamanic practices that persist among Catholic indigenous
communities in Taiwan. It is a commentary on a report made
after an enquiry carried out by the Research Centre for
Aboriginal Theology at the Theologate of Fujen Catholic
University. A sample of ten Catholic shamans, men and
women, from five different tribes was interviewed. The report
concluded that Christians are invited to a more open and
welcoming attitude towards the good fruits that are bound to
this, more or less Christianised, shamanic inheritance.
Throughout the enquiry it was found that the indigenous
shamans sought the physical and psychological well-being of
persons. Beyond the simplistic or strange external practices, in
fact the healing capacity of the shamanic consultations rested
on two laudable pillars: sincere listening to the patient with the
aim of trying to truly take into account all aspects of his/her
personal and social life; and a wisdom full of common sense
on the part of the person consulted. Moreover, all the shamans
were clear in their denunciation of the two main possible
deviations of a healthy shamanic practice: its use to cast evil
spells and/or its development purely for financial gain. The
survey, nonetheless, also reveals certain practices which are
 14 Lardinois

questionable because it seems they could still serve as vehicles

for beliefs in sharp contradiction with Christian faith, such as
fear of the souls of the dead, a too easy and direct link made
between illness and punishment and recourse to the help of
spirits whose power is not explicitly founded in God. Such
practices should not necessarily be condemned outright but at
least they call for real dialogue and a serious discernment to
help all concerned to have a better grasp of what is at issue.

Conclusion
The challenge to work with the shamans can be
illustrated by the reflections of two indigenous Catholic priests.
Fr. Norbert Pu, from the Tsou tribe, was formed by the
sinicised Church from a young age and so cut off from his
culture, a feature which characterises most indigenous priests
in Taiwan. Faced with a successful indigenous revival among
the young, it is not always easy for priests who have been so
long outside their culture to be credible or listened to by their
own people. Fr. Pu insists that priests and catechists should
study their own culture. He himself spent two years
reappropriating Tsou culture.
The last word should go to Bishop Tseng, from the
Puyuma tribe:
Dialogue is still possible. We have already done much
better in inculturating the lived experience of the
Catholic faith in our local indigenous communities.
How much more could be done if we only had the
faith to do it!

The two editors of this volume would like to thank

Professor Edmund Ryden SJ, Fujen Catholic University for his
invaluable assistance in preparing these texts for publication.

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