Believe : The Shaman

     The Shaman of the Lisu tribe is called “Hnee-Pha”. He is the leader who will lead and guide villagers whenever there are any traditional worshipping ceremonies. The Hnee-Pha will usually be the person who is able to communicate with the ancestor spirits in the village. When a person is being chosen to be the Hnee-Pha, he will always feel tired and easily prone to sickness like fever. All these symptoms will end when the chosen person accepts to be the Hnee-Pha. On the other hand, people who rejected to be a Hnee-Pha will continue to get sick and weak.
      The Hnee Pha will learn to understand the traditional practices as a Hnee-Pha and learn how to set up rituals and traditional ceremonies. They will also do praying and learn how to communicate with the ancestor spirits in the village. Hnee-Pha will learn the various taboos and regulations of being the chosen shaman that represents the village.
      The chosen Hnee-Pha can be young or old, and he must be a male. In each Lisu village, there will be roughly1 to 2 Hnee-Pha. If a specific village does not have a Hnee-Pha that represents that village, the villager head will invite Hnee-Pha from other village to set up the ritual or sacred ceremony.

Before the ceremony commences, the house-owner who organized the ceremony will prepare a cup of tea which will be placed on the holy altar. They will also prepare a special item called the “Low-Kwa” which will be used during the ceremony of communicating with the ancestor spirits. The Hnee-Pha will start the ritual by lighting some candles on the altar and will pay respect to the spirits to ‘inform” the spirits that he will need the spirits’ help.

The Lisu tribe believes that the Hnee-Pha will be possessed during the ritual and he will have the power to communicate to the spirits of the dead. This explains why the Hnee-Pha will have a voice change during the ritual. The Lisu people will usually have such ceremonies when they have health problems or when being disturbed by other holy spirits. When the ritual ends, the Hnee-Pha will return to be a normal human being and will usually not be able to remember any thing he has done during the ceremony.

http://lisu.hilltribe.org