Spirituality in Hmong Culture

             While reading The Latehomecomer, a memoir written by Kao Kalia Yang, there are a number of examples of spirituality that can be found throughout the Yang family's voyage. Spirituality, or matters of the spirit, are a concept often tied to a spirit world, a multidimensional reality and one or more deities (ThinkQuest). Three specific examples that stand out in this memoir are how the Hmong believed babies are brought into the world, flying with the clouds looking down and choosing the family to which they want to become a part of. In addition to this, we also read about Kalia's grandmother being a shaman. If you're Hmong and have a sickness that won't go away, you would go see a shaman. The literal translation for a shaman is "master of spirits" (PBS par. 2). Youa Lee (Grandma) stands by her Shaman tools and her remedies to cure others, including her granddaughter Kalia. Not everyone can become a shaman, but if you are called to it there are many duties you're responsible for.
             From the beginning of the story, there was a sense of spirituality and different beliefs. Before the story begins, there is a saying about the Hmong culture's belief as to how babies are brought into this world. "Before babies are born they live in the sky where they fly among the clouds. The sky is a happy place and calling babies down to earth is not an easy thing to do. From the sky, babies can see the course of human lives." Yang goes on to talk about how they are taught that they have chosen their lives. "The people who we become have been inside of us from the beginning, the people whose worlds we share, whose memories we hold strong inside of us, we have always known." Yang's father had once explained to her where babies came from. He told her" Before babies are born they live in the sky where they race along with the clouds and can see everything (Yang 56). She loved the idea of th...

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Spirituality in Hmong Culture. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 17:37, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/204368.html