Observations placeholder
Dr Alexander King - Kamchatka trance
Identifier
003037
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Living with Koryak traditions – Dr Alexander King
Folk dances seem to have been presented for a very long time in Kamchatka as particularly salient demonstrations of local culture appropriate for visiting guests. The eighteenth century traveller Jean Baptiste-Barthelemy de Lesseps describes one such dance in the ostrog of Karagui
‘To divert our attention, it was proposed to us to try the abilities of a celebrated female dancer, who was a Kamtschadale and lived in this ostrog [1790]’
The woman apparently went into a shamanic trance following an energetic performance, but the Frenchman, who was usually sympathetic in his descriptions was nonplussed
‘In spite of the praises that were lavished upon the talents of the actors, the scene, I confess, afforded me no amusement, but on the contrary, considerable disgust’