When biomedicine appears not enough: local moral worlds and spiritual healing in Hunza valley of Pakistan

In Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan, Bitans (shamans) treat illnesses such as recurrent miscarriage, spirit possession, infant mortality, and mental conditions attributed to nazar (evil eye), jinn, or pari, which biomedicine diagnoses but leaves experientially unresolved. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Karimabad and surrounding villages, the findings reveal a hierarchical medical pluralism where spiritual healers occupy an indispensable niche for morally and metaphysically attributed illnesses. Through embodied rituals, amulets, herbal remedies, and verbal healing, Bitans reconfigure domestic spaces into healing sites and restore coherence to disrupted life stories. Their practice is shaped by gender, generational expectations, and the local moral economy. Spiritual healing and intuition address moral, relational, and existential dimensions of illness that biomedicine alone cannot resolve.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract In Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan, Bitans (shamans) continue to treat illnesses that biomedicine may diagnose yet appealingly leaves experientially unresolved: recurrent miscarriage, spirit possession, infant mortality, and mental condition often attributed to nazar (evil eye), jinn (supernatural beings), or pari (fairies). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Karimabad and surrounding villages of Hunza valley, we focus on lay perceptions of Bitans and the underlying reasons local people still consult them alongside biomedical hospital services. The findings reveal a hierarchical medical pluralism in which these spiritual healers occupy an indispensable niche for morally and metaphysically attributed illnesses. Through embodied rituals, amulets, herbal remedies, and verbal healing, Bitans reconfigure domestic spaces into sites of healing and restore coherence to disrupted life stories. Their practice is also shaped by gender, generational expectations, and the local moral economy of spiritual work. These results suggest that spiritual healing and intuition play a vital role in the Hunza valley to address various dimensions of illnesses – moral, relational, and existential – that biomedicine alone cannot resolve.