Pari
Uzbek · numen · Uzbek traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The pari, from the Persian parī, are beautiful winged spirit-beings adopted from Iranian belief into Uzbek folk religion, imagined chiefly as radiant women able to fly and to take bird-form. Ambivalent in nature, a pari may seize a mortal and inflict sickness, possession, or love-madness, or descend to marry a human as in numerous folktales. Above all they are the tutelary spirits of the Central Asian shaman: the parikhon, literally 'pari-caller', summons his or her pari in the curing seance to identify and expel the demons troubling a patient, so that the same beings who afflict may also heal.
Domains
- shamanic patronage
- beauty seduction
Powers
- serve the shaman as helper-spirit
- cause or lift possession and madness
Sources
- The pari (peri) are beautiful winged spirit-beings of Uzbek folk belief that both afflict humans and serve as the helper-spirits of the parikhon shaman.: Snesarev, G. P. Relikty domusul'manskikh verovanii i obryadov u uzbekov Khorezma. Moscow: Nauka, 1969. (secondary); Basilov, V. N. Shamanstvo u narodov Srednei Azii i Kazakhstana. Moscow: Nauka, 1992. (secondary)