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LHA SANG: Tibetans traditionally use 5 aromatic plants in their various sang rituals: juniper (lha), rhododendron (nyen), tamarisk (lu), margosa (tsen) and pine (dut)....
"klu bsangs: smoke offering ceremonies to the nagas"...
The sang ritual is the basic component of worship of the local gods....the central feature is the burning of incense, particularly juniper wood.....invoke regional and local deities.....Sang is not merely a protective practice but also an suspicious ritual, whose performance may be hoped to create positive influences for the good fortune of the participants....
LAPTSE......offering a heap of stones dedicated to the protective deity of the area..stones, white quartz, coins, turquoise, coral...and prayed of rain or sun or a good harvest or protection from bad weather.....
KANG SUNG...Performed annually...
"Dud brDa is smoke divination. The color, volume, and drift of the smoke all have significance." (Ekvall: 1964..pg 270)...
"Five aromatic plants used in the sang fumigation rites." (Norbu: 1993..pg 37)..."
We do a lhasang in order to purify any setting sun situations and to bring about the genuine mind of sadness. (Trungpa)...
"What needs to be purified are all the different types of contaminations (mnol grib) that weaken the positive force." (Norbu: 1995..pg 108)...
"the sang offering to the 13 dgra bla protectors." (Norbu: 1995..pg 60)...
"In Shinto, harae (purification ceremonies) are very important."..
(Jinja:1958..pg 26)...."In ancient Peru, every morning in Cuzco, fires were lit from an aromatic wood specially carved to make it pleasing to the God of the Sun." (Hawkes: 1962..pg 133)...
In HOPI.... the word "Medicine" has a different meaning...... It encompasses well-being and spiritual health as well as physical health. A pipe ceremony is a ritual that Hopi Native Americans employ to pray to the Great Spirit. Great Spirit is comprised of the mother (the earth) the father (the heavens and celestial bodies) as well as the grandmothers and grandfathers. Grandmothers and grandfathers may be likened to angels. In the Hopi tradition, they are beings that have been in the universe since time began and they are thought to carry specific medicines. That is, they each have different strengths or aptitudes which the Hopi may call upon in different circumstances.
Pipe ceremonies can be carried out at virtually any time that the practitioner desires. One way to think of them is as an active or interactive prayer session or meditation. Sometimes a Hopi shaman (medicine man) is present for the ceremony, but that is by no means a requirement. Practitioners of the Hopi faith can perform a pipe ceremony when they are grateful for an answered prayer, to ask for the health or care of a loved one, to celebrate the birth or death of a family member, to ask for clarity when making a decision, to request the healing of a friend, or to express gratitude for life's many blessings. One of the key aspects of the pipe ceremony is to develop one's own relationship with Spirit with the understanding that Spirit will provide the tools necessary via channels such as the shaman
The model for the Hopi Pipe Ceremony draws largely from the four cardinal directions in addition to three other directions. Each of the cardinal directions corresponds to a season of the year and a time in one's life. These will be described below. In addition to the four cardinal directions, the three other "directions" are the mother, the father, and the self or child. In total, then, there are seven directions. Each direction has a representative animal from the Hopi faith tradition. These representatives are thought to guard a specific direction. One prays specifically to these representatives with the belief that they can carry the practitioner's prayers to the appropriate grandmothers and grandfathers in the star kingdom.
The central piece of the pipe ceremony is, fittingly, the pipe. The Hopi tradition, similar to many other religions, has symbolic stories that represent and explain some of the basic core beliefs in this Native American practice. These are referred to as Kiva stories and may be likened to parables in the Christian tradition. One of these specific Kiva stories describes that tobacco was given to the people of the earth as a gift from the grandmothers and grandfathers. They gave this gift, the story goes, because Great Spirit has the ability to see smoke. Accordingly, Hopi's can put their prayers in the tobacco during a pipe ceremony. Then, when the tobacco is smoked, their prayers can be taken to Spirit in the smoke.
LHASING TAMDRAG......Ritual to subdue the gods and spirits
LU DUGPACHEN......Ritual to subdue the LU spirits......
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
September 2012
John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico
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