CSEAS Fridays at Noon Lecture Series. “Burmese Spirit (nat)”

March 11, 2016: Speaker: Judith Becker, Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology, University of Michigan // Abstract: In addition to their devotion to Theravada Buddhism, the Burmese people maintain a robust tradition of spirit (nat) worship. The purpose of the spirit worshipping rituals is to incarnate the spirits through the possession trance of a transvestite ritual specialist. The spirits are mostly historical figures who lived during Burma’s period of military and political strength in the 11th-12th centuries CE. Because of their unfortunate deaths, these spirits cannot be reincarnated, but are doomed to endlessly wander this earthly realm.