LESLIE CONTON,
WWU Professor, will share her documentary with us.....
"Tibetan Shamans: Protectors of All Living Beings”

Thursday, December 15, 2011
7:00-9:00 PM (Doors open at 6:30)
Fairhaven Public Library (Fireside Room)
1117 12th Street, Bellingham 

This ethnographic documentary depicts nine of the last Tibetan shamans-in-exile in Nepal and Northern India, practitioners of an ancient healing tradition -- their shamanic calling, healing and divination practices. The film was made primarily in service to the shamans and their descendants, as a testament to the richness and power of these ancient Tibetan practices, and to honor the contributions of these lhapa and lhamo, pau and paumo, to the health and well-being of their communities. It is Conton's hope that this work will also prove a resource for any young descendants of these shamans, who may be divinely elected in the future to assume this healing role -- in service to all sentient beings. Filmed in West Bengal, Sikkim, and Dharamsala, N. India; and Pokhara and Kathmandu, Nepal. All are welcome to watch this documentary, and to share in a short discussion afterwards.

Leslie Conton, Ph.D, is a cultural/transpersonal anthropologist and a professor of anthropology at Fairhaven College, Western Washington University. She is also a faculty member and field associate for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. She began her experiential study and initial seven year apprenticeship in Shamanism in 1977. Fieldwork with traditional healers and Shamans took her to Papua New Guinea several times, beginning in 1974, to Australia in 1988 and Northern China and Inner Mongolia in 1995. In 1996 she worked in Nepal where she observed and interviewed shamans if many traditions and began a Shamanic initiatory process with a female Shaman of the Tamang tradition. Leslie's experiential fieldwork also includes work with shamans and other healers from several West Coast Native American traditions.

Suggested Donation $5-$10 (no one will be turned away)
Questions contact cyndy.sheldon@comcast.net