Dialogues with the Dead // Scientific American

Harsha Vadlamani — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 05:29:57 +0000

In 2019, I read Piers Vitebsky’s Living without the Dead: Loss and Redemption in a Jungle Cosmos, an ethnographic account of the Sora indigenous people of southern Odisha and their ancient and highly evolved religious and shamanic practices. Vitebsky’s poignant prose describes how, in a relatively short span of about 30 years, most Sora moved away from the ancestral spirits that guided them from the underworld and embraced gods from distant lands. It was not an easy read, but it left me wanting to explore an opportunity to travel to these parts, even if only to meet the people I got to know so well through the book.

I couldn’t believe my luck when Monica Bradley, photo editor at Scientific American, reached out to me a few months later, asking if I would be interested in photographing for an upcoming story on the shamanic practices of the Sora. I jumped at the opportunity to work on this piece, which Vitebsky himself was writing. Our travel plans were delayed by the pandemic, and I finally got to travel to southern Odisha in June last year, albeit without Vitebsky. I got to spend ten days photographing the Sora and their religious practices, and much as I hate to say it, the last remaining shamans of the Sora religion.

The piece is finally out in the current issue of Scientific American, and I was quite emotional when I saw these tearsheets shared by Kim Hubbard, whose sensitive eye guided this piece. I have also updated my website with a wider selection.

Shamanic Practices – Harsha Vadlamani

Dialogues with the Dead // Scientific American