Order and disorder in an Amdo village: the luröl festival and the mediums lhawa（西藏安多區的秩序與失序: luröl節與靈媒lhawa）

The luröl festival, prohibited from 1958 to 1979, is a ritual peculiar to some fifteen villages of Amdo, the North-Eastern province of Tibet (present Qinghai province). In one of these villages, Soru, every year from the 20th to the 25th day of the sixth Chinese lunar month (July-August), the inhabitants led by two medium lhawaperform this ritual dedicated to the local deities, in order to obtain prosperity, ‘good fortune’ and to drive away all calamities. During several fieldworks, I could observe the complexity and the richness of this festival. I argue that this celebration is also a life-giving ritual, according to Hocart’s famous model, which aims at restoring the order the world through the activities of the mediums lhawa/gods, their “servants” and their helpers.
在圖博東北部安多區（現位於青海省）的15個村裡，有一曾於1956-1979年間被禁止的特殊節慶「luröl」。其中Soru村每年農曆6月20-25號，會由兩位靈媒帶領村民展演此儀式來祭獻當地神靈，以消災祈求好運豐收。數次的田野中，我觀察到這個儀式的複雜與豐富性。依據Hocart著名的典範，我提出這個節慶同時是給予生命的儀式，此儀式藉由靈媒／神與「僕人」及助手的活動聚焦在恢復世界秩序。