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Introduction. Ritual speech in the Himalayas : oral texts and their contexts / Martin Gaenszle -- Ramma the husband, Suwa the wife : the consecration song of a Kham-Magar shaman (Nepal) / Anne de Sales -- Singing about creation : a Puma hopmacham performance / Martin Gaenszle -- Nujā : text, melody and movement in a 'new grain' ritual performed by the Dumi Rai of eastern Nepal / Marion Wettstein, Alban von Stockhausen and Chatur Bhakta Rai -- Thangmi wedding ritual texts / Sara Shneiderman, Mark Turin, Bir Bahadur Thami and Hikmat Khadka -- The language of ritual in Tangsa : the Wihu song / Stephen Morey and Jürgen Schöpf -- Legless and eyeless (and tongueless) in search of incense : oral and written versions of a Bon sPos rabs from northeastern Bhutan / Toni Huber The traditions of oral ritual speech in the Himalayas have a lively existence alongside the written "great" traditions that predominate. However, as Martin Gaenszle shows, the oral traditions are still little known and even less understood. This collection of oral texts from Nepal, Bhutan, and northeast India, rich with translation and interpretation, serves two purposes. First, it presents the texts themselves, not just as fragments, but as coherent performances of ritual speech, varied in their linguistic form. Second, it displays various possible methods of presenting oral ritual texts in written form; no single standard form is yet agreed upon. In Ritual Speech in the Himalayas, each contributor showcases a unique style of transforming the spoken language and its translation or comments into an editorial format to fit the respective genres and scholarly interests, such as interlinear or sectional translation, morphological glossing, or musical scores
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