The author gives a detailed personal account of how a Sherpa from eastern Nepal became a shaman. Because of the psychological depth of the Sherpa's recounting of his personal history, the author was able to interpret important psychological themes in the shaman's life. Specifically, the themes of the threatening quality of female sexuality and the lost plenty of a golden age were eventually interpreted in oedipal and preoedipal terms respectively. In his particular case, the Sherpa's father's early death and his own early unsuccessful marriage were contributing factors in his becoming a shaman. From this example the author infers that the single most powerful predictor for the choice of a monastic career for Sherpa men is the childhood loss of one or both parents; the consequence of this loss is a lack of resolution of oedipal wishes and fears.