karga puja (karga healing ritual)

One of the shamanic "healing" ceremonies of the Tamangs, a group of Tibetan Buddhists in Nepal. "Karga" is the Tamang word for a constellation of planets, and "puja" is a Nepalese word for "ritual." Karga puja is a purported remedy for simultaneous "soul loss" and "spirit possession": the Tamangs' major categories of mental illness. Tamang theory posits evil spirits, "healing spirits," and "planet divinities."