© 2023 Dr Margaret Sheppard
Botswana
Traditional Life - Kgotla, Household, Lands, Cattlepost
Life Cycle - Rites de Passage customs - birth,engagement, marriage, death, Ancestors etc.
Dikgafela - Harvest thanksgiving and prayers for rain
Traditional Medicine - beliefs and practitioners
Sorcery - Boloi
Zion Churches - beliefs and practices, prophets and services, uniforms
ZCC
Other Zion Churches
Sri Lanka
Beliefs - New Enterprises, Unlucky Days, New Year, Clairvoyants, Holy Tree,Shrines, New Statue Consecration
Life - Life Cycle Events and how they are acknowledged - birth, puberty, engagement, marriage, death etc.
Peraheras - religious carnivals
Celebrations - Thorons and Lanterns, Temple Fund Raising
Pilgrims - Temples, Pilgrimages,
Katina - Temple Fundraising
Good Works - Feeding the Monks, feeding travellers (Dana) etc. - these gain merit
Veddah - Sri Lanka’s indigenous peoples
Occupations - Tea, Fishing, Rice, Building, Coconuts, Cinnamon, Markets, Chena, Businesses
Health - Tovil (Devil Dance Ceremonies) to cure demon caused health issues, other options
Demons - The main demons and the Sannis of the Demon Kingdom
Structures - constructions used for Tovils/Devil Dances
Costumes and Masks - worn by practitioners for Tovil and Deity ceremonies
Dances - Evening, Midnight, and Morning Watch Dances, Fire Dance
Specialist Tovils - Baby, Fishermen’s, Bali and Family Tovils, and Sesanthi Puja
Deities - brief outline of Deities and their influence on humanity, Deity illnesses etc.
Pattini Ceremonies - Community Pattinis, Family Pattini, Tsunami Tovil
Janashakthi Bank - A Sri Lankan approach to poverty relief
Website Contents
This website represents research conducted over several decades by Dr Margaret Sheppard.
During the 1970s -1980s the fieldwork was located in rural Botswana and mid 1990s - 2015 in Sri Lanka.