17 East 82nd Street, New York
Shamans of the Blind Country
1980, 16 mm, 223 min.
Light Industry
361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn, New York
Michael Oppitz
Shamans of the Blind Country
A Picture book from the Himalaya
2021, 384 pages, hardcover, dust jacket, fully illustrated in b/w,
23 x 28,5 cm
2021, 384 pages, owrps, fully illustrated in b/w, 23 x 28,5 cm
Euro 58,- (hardcover) / Euro 48,- (softcover)
This book focuses on the extraordinary mythical traditions and ritual practices in a remote community in the Himalayan mountains, studied over a long period of field research by Michael Oppitz. It is the English version of his German original, first published in 1981 by Syndikat Verlag under the title “Schamanen im Blinden Land,” which has long since been out of print. That book came out in parallel to a film of the same name, today considered a classic. Now appearing in English as “Shamans of the Blind Country. A picture book from the Himalaya” the new version extends the old by more than a third of the original documentary photographs; it traces the historical changes that have transformed this mountainous region of Nepal over the last four decades in an extensive epilogue; and it suggests a wider context of ritual healing in the Himalaya by appending a selection of early pictures of shamanism in Siberia. This English version is published in both hardcover and softcover editions.