Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume - 4, issue 9 1 March 2020 | Page 7

          The two of the most powerful and revered Monastic Oracles are the
oracles of the Matho Monastery and those of the Stok & Spituk
monasteries who celebrate the Stok Guru Tsechu festival. An interesting
difference between the two is that the two Oracles who appear in the Matho
Monastery festival are Buddhist monks of the Matho Monastery who are
chosen monks before the festival to be the 'Kuten' or the 'physical basis' for
the holy spirit. They undergo long and intense meditation in isolation to
prepare their body and mind to receive & channel the powerful holy spirits.
While the Oracles chosen by the monks of the Stok & Spituk monasteries
to act as 'Kuten' for the Stok Guru Tsechu festival are not monks but laymen
from the region itself. These laymen are identified and chosen by the monks
of the monastery months before the festival and then carefully trained &
spiritually cleaned to prepare them to receive the 'Holy Spirit' during the
festival.  
           The more common and accessible Oracles,
who are most sought after by the masses in the
region are the 'Healer Oracles', who are deeply
revered and approached by the people seeking
help for their physical and pschyological
wellbeing. In the local Ladakhi dialect these
Oracles are referred as Lha-ba(The male
Oracle) and Lha-mo (The female Oracle).
These Oracles are laymen who at some point of
time were identified and chosen owing to some
specific signs to become an Oracle. Once
identified, they undergo initiation, followed by a
long and intense training under qualified monks
and senior oracles. It's only after the successful
completion of that training that they are given
the permission to practice independently as an
Oracle. The training and practice to control and channel these wandering
spirits is not an easy task and has profound physical and mental impact on
the 'Kuten' or the individual who is chosen to be the Oracle. 
    The 'Healer Oracle' mostly practice independently and render their services
to the common masses who approach them mostly to cure physical ailments.
It's mesmerising to see how these Oracles use straws and tubes or at times
even directly suck out the diseases directly from the body of the patient. Most
of the time they will place the straw or a tube over the effected body part and