Divine Messengers The Untold Story of Bhutan's Female Shamans

As mystics, healers, and travelers to the netherworld, female shamans continue to impact the spiritual lives of the Bhutanese. These divine messengers act as mediums for local spirits, cure diseases through prayer, and travel to the realm of the dead. They are sometimes referred to as “sky-goers,” “reincarnations,” or “returners from the beyond,” and their stories are intimately connected with the Buddhist ideas of karma and rebirth.

Journalist Stephanie Guyer-Stevens and anthropologist Françoise Pommaret traveled to the Himalayas to meet seven living Bhutanese female shamans and to help make their stories known. Stephanie and Françoise offer an intimate narrative of these shamans’ spiritual experiences and important roles in society. This book also provides an overview of the history of this tradition and a translation of an autobiography of the famous eighteenth-century divine messenger, Sangay Choezom. This insightful and sensitive account is a rare look inside the world of these brave women.

STEPHANIE GUYER-STEVENS is an award-winning journalist and executive producer of Outer Voices, a multi-media organization that focuses on women leaders from remote parts of the globe. In this capacity she has produced or co-produced nine radio documentaries, broadcast on American public radio stations and internationally, and produced dozens of features for NPR. Additionally she has produced numerous audio-centric multimedia presentations for exhibitions in across the world.

FRANCOISE POMMARET is a French anthropologist whose research focuses on Bhutan where she has worked since 1981 participating in tourism, educational, and cultural projects. She holds the position of Director of Research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). Pommaret works as an adviser to the Institute of Language and Culture Studies (ILCS), Royal University of Bhutan, has been a consultant for UNESCO, and is the author of Bhutan: Himalayan Mountain Kingdom and Lhasa in the Seventeenth Century: The Capital of the Dalai Lamas.