The major social function of the shaman in Tamang society is the diagnosis and treatment of illness. This paper has two purposes: first the author investigates the indigenous categories of illness and examines the unique relationship that exists between modern medicine and shamanism in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. Then the author turns to the curing practices of the Tamang shaman, comparing these to certain concepts of psychotherapy in order to show how the shaman accomplishes much the same same task as his modern counterpart albeit within the context of a very different cultural belief system. Thus the shaman performs a positive function and role which, if abrogated or disrupted due to acculturation, will cease to fulfil certain deeply embedded social and psychological aspects of community life.
