Banjhākri and Banjhākrini are shamanic

deities A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

in the tradition of the

Kirati people The Kirati people, also spelled as Kirat or Kirant or Kiranti, are Tibeto-Burman ethnolinguistic groups living in the Himalayas, mostly the Eastern Himalaya extending eastward from Nepal to North East India (predominantly in the Indian state o ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

, and

Kalimpong Kalimpong is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The region comes under Gorkhaland Territo ...

in India. They are a couple, and possibly different aspects of the same being. They are supernatural

shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

s of the forest. In the

Nepali language Nepali (; , ), or ''Gorkhali'' is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official and most widely spoken Languages of Nepal, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a ''lingua fr ...

, ''ban'' means "wilderness", '' jhākri'' means "shaman", and ''jhākrini'' means "shamaness". Banjhākrini is also known as Lemlemey. Banjhākri is a short, wild, simian

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherw ...

who is a descendant of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

. His ears are large and his feet point backward. Long, matted hair covers his entire body, except for his face and palms, and he plays a golden dhyāngro. The dhyangro is the

frame drum A frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. It is one of the most ancient musical instruments, and perhaps the first drum to be invented. It has a single drumhead that is usually made of rawhide, but man-made mat ...

played by Nepali jhākri. Banjhākri finds human children who have the potential to be great shamans, and takes them back to his cave for training. There, the children are in danger of being eaten whole by Banjhākrini. Banjhākrini is both ursine and humanoid, with long hair on her head, long, pendulous breasts, and backward-pointing feet. She is usually described as bloodthirsty and brutal. She carries a symbolic golden

sickle A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feedi ...

. Although Banjhākri abducts boys (and, by some accounts, girls), he does not do so out of malice. He trains the children who pass Banjhākrini's initiation. When the children return home with their shamanic training, they can become more powerful than the shamans trained by people. Like the

yeti The Yeti ()"Yeti"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. is an ape-like creature purported t ...

, Banjhākri and Banjhākrini can be seen in our world, and not just in the spirit world. However, only powerful shamans can see them. Although both Banjhākri and yeti are apelike, yeti are taller than humans, whereas Banjhākri is only about 1–1.5 metres (3–5 feet) tall. One anthropologist, Homayun Sidky, has suggested that Banjhākri is a therianthrope; a humanoid who changes into a non-human animal form. Some legends say that there are numerous ban-jhākri and ban-jhākrini. In any case, the shamans of Nepal regard the original Banjhākri as the founder of Nepali shamanism. Banjhākri is revered and celebrated as a teacher and as the god of the forest.

References

{{Reflist Asian shamanism Nepalese folklore Shamans Trickster deities Asian deities Nature deities Nepalese legendary creatures Therianthropy

See also

References