Lecture by Sylvie Lasserre, freelance reporter, anthropologist, author and photographer, at 7.30 PM, at Maison de l’Asie, 22 avenue du Président Wilson, 75016, PARIS.

The shamanic ritual named ko’ch in Central Asia has several variations: in one, it serves a healing function; in another, rarer one, its purpose is to perpetuate life. It is this latter variation that interests us today. It involves, among other things, appeasing the spirits of the ancestors so that life continues unhindered. In this ritual, we observe the omnipresence of the circle, essential and primordial. Another characteristic is that the ritual is performed by women and led by a female shaman (baxshi). This particular ko’ch was observed in a remote region on the border between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, a kind of isolated area nestled within a hermetically sealed border zone, thus far removed from major thoroughfares—particularly tourist routes—which has allowed this ritual, whose origins date back to time immemorial, to be preserved.