Songs of Memory Journal

October 2021

Nu’nalalahl – Qagyuhl
Kwakiutl Shaman, Pepahala
Winter Dance Ceremony, Klasila
Qagyuhl, Pacific Northwest Coast
British Columbia, Canada
Photograph by Edward S. Curtis (1914)

I Gnow
Eng Shaman, Pii Mon
Fertility Festival – Channeling Spirits
Pa Cho, Keng Tung
Shan State, Myanmar
Photograph by Victoria Vorreiter (2006)

Warmest wishes to you from Thailand. May this Journal and Photo Gallery—a new format for me—find you safe and thriving in all ways.

This unexpected past year in Chicago offered me time and space to look back at where my Songs of Memory journey began and to remember the influential mentors who sparked my imagination and informed my life purpose—those whom I have read, studied, and admired for decades, those whose example I have subliminally (astonishingly) followed.

Here I humbly recognize two among many, Pat Moffitt Cook and Edward Curtis, who first introduced me to the unspeakably vibrant, varied world of spirit intermediaries. These cultural explorers traveled with singular focus and massive effort to document native peoples and their age-old ceremonies in remote, often inaccessible corners of our planet. I gratefully acknowledge their spell over me and can only express my hope to follow in their footsteps with equal wonder and perseverance.

Pat Moffitt Cook

Edward S. Curtis

Dr. Pat Moffitt Cook’s revelatory book and compact disc, ‘Shaman, Jhankri & Nele: Music Healers of Indigenous Cultures,’ chronicles numerous first peoples around the world who continue to perform ancestral healing rites driven by a transformative soundscape—sacred chants, resonant instrumental music, and expressive vocalizations—all of which are couched in symbolic, dramatic gestures. Without knowing why and long before I conceived a similar path, I was intuitively drawn to the spectral world she revealed. Pat’s archives, which have rested by my bedside since I first discovered them, have profoundly shaped my life.

Another trailblazer (a true ‘Vor-reiter’) whose vast body of work enchanted me early on and never let go was Edward Sheriff Curtis, the intrepid ethnologist who took it upon himself to travel the length and breadth of the North American continent at the dawn of the 20^th century to document the multitude of indigenous cultures that once thrived there. His comprehensive canon of photographs, field notes, recordings, and films is nothing less than awe-inspiring. Today Curtis is particularly renowned for his twenty-volume masterwork of sepia-toned images of Native Americans and their traditional lifestyles, which he raced to document before their customs irrevocably disappeared.

So moving was Curtis’ work that I visited galleries exhibiting his photographs, poured over books about the Native Americans he documented, and read biographies that revealed his solo journey, his singular passion, and the hardships he endured to accomplish such a monumental feat. My esteem for Edward Curtis the man and his work came full circle when I purchased two of his photographs, one of them seen above.

It is for this that I juxtapose Edward Curtis’ photograph of a Kwakiutl shaman, pepahala, captured in British Columbia, in 1914, during the Klasila Festival that heralds the advent of winter, with my image of I Gnow, an Eng shaman, khun song, taken in 2006, nearly a century later, in Myanmar during the Fertility Festival celebrated on the Harvest Full Moon.

Thinking about Pat Moffitt Cook and Edward Curtis’ influence on my life prompted me to recall the mesmeric spirit mediums whom I have met over many years of far-flung explorations of musical rituals. These men and women have been divinely chosen, often after grave physical or mental illness, and have dedicated their lives to navigate the mysteries of the universe to protect the well-being and prosperity of their community.

Please enjoy the following Photo Gallery of some who have graced my path—the shamans, clairvoyants, clairaudients, fortune tellers, mystics, sorcerers, soul guides, channelers, shape-shifters, astromancers, numerologists, ascetics, priests, adepts, intuitive healers, herbal medicine healers, speakers of inscrutable tongues, and mortals endowed with supernatural powers.

Conversations with Remarkable Mystics

Photographs by Victoria Vorreiter

Morocco

Karen

Lahu

Lisu

Yi, Shaman, Ne Pha
New Year Ceremony, Koo Sheua
Ban Guet Sam-Sip, Mae Hong Son
Thailand

Sha Sha Lisu Shamans, Ne Pha
Sword-Climbing/Fire-Walking Rites
Tao Shu Heu, Tengchong
China

Yi Sung Li, Sha Sha Lisu Patriarch
New Year Ancestor Ceremony
Tao Shu Heu, Tengchong
China

Akha

Hmong

Duas Lis, Shaman, Txiv Neeb
Reading Chicken Bones, Saib plig
Ban Sayua, Luang Nam Tha
Laos

Kawm Lauj, Shaman-in-Training
Practicing Healing Rite, Ua Neeb 
Ban Thun Thong, Chiang Rai
Thailand

Rhiav Lis, Shaman, Txiv Neeb
Medicine Healer, Kws Tshuaj Ntsuab
Plant:  Kalanchoe pinnata
Ban Nam La, Luang Nam Tha
Laos

Iu Mien

Lenten

Eng

Htun, Shaman/Medium, Hmaw
Harvest Ritual Chanting
Taung Myay Char, Taunggyi
Myanmar

U Yen Moe, Taugnyo Man
Tiger Tattoos give Super Powers
Ban Ton Pak, Taunggyi, Shan State
Myanmar

Lao Zhu, Shaman/Numerologist
Soul-Calling Ceremony, Yi shu air
Ban Savang, Phongsali
Laos

Monks

Sramaneri, Female Novices
Collecting Alms
Keng Tung, Shan State
Myanmar

Bhikku, Buddhist Abbot
Monastery near Aung Bang
Kalow, Shan State
Myanmar

Bhikkhu, Buddhist Monk
Chanting a Blessing Ceremony
Chiang Mai
Thailand

For a deeper look at Hmong Shamanic Sights, Sounds, and Ceremonies,
I offer you my presentation, photos, and recordings for the
3^rd Symposium of Music in Ethnic Groups in China and Bordering Countries
Yunnan Arts University, Kunming, China – November 2021

Bridging the Realms of Mortals and Deities:
Hmong Spirit Intermediaries and their Numinous Powers

The International Documentary Association (IDA) has accepted
The Music of the Golden Triangle project in its Fiscal Sponsorship Program
so that it receives non-profit status in the US.
IDA Letter of Endorsement

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please consider helping it continue.
Sponsorship Information
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To learn more about the Songs of Memory project
or to order the Songs of Memory materials, please
look through the TribalMusicAsia.com website