Dramaturgy and Catharsis of Pai: A Gurung Death Ritual

Abstract

The present research work explores dramaturgy of one of the significant ritual performance of Gurung community known as Pai ritual and deals with aesthetic taste, catharsis and religion. It attempts to explore communal way of life, cultural intergrity ,myth, oral history and belief of the Gurungs. Pai, the Gurung terminology is derived from the word ‘Pe’ which means mantra in Gurung language. ‘Pai’ is a process to send the soul of death passage to the heavenly world with the help of ‘Pe’.Pai can be defined as a ritual performance to purify family, home ,society after the death procession. In Gurung community, Pai is performed after the completion of carnival of a death person within three days to years according the ease of the family members. It gives solace to the bereaved family members of the decease person. The research is based on the documentary of Pai ritual performed at Lamndanda Village Arjunchaupari VDC 8 Syangja, Nepal. While analyzing the Pai ritual, it is found that the Pai ritual does not only show the continuity of ritual but also shows the dramaturgy of whole life of Gurung community exploring their aesthetic taste, communal way of life ,myth beliefs entertainment and grief. This explanation goes against logical way of life that construct the system of a community. The research work, in this regard, attempts to clarify the essence of dramaturgy death passage to convince the heartbroken family of the deceased person through catharsis with active involvement of family members, relatives, neighbors and members of the whole community.