Singing Story, Healing Drum: Shamans and Storytellers of Turkic Siberia 9780773571518

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singing story

healing drum Shamans and Storytellers of Turkic Siberia k ira van deusen

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca University of Washington Press Seattle

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McGill-Queen’s University Press 2003 isbn 0-7735-2616-1 (cloth) isbn 0-7735-2617-x (paper) Legal deposit fourth quarter 2003 Bibliothèque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp ) for our publishing activities.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Van Deusen, Kira, 1946– Singing story, healing drum: shamans and storytellers of Turkic Siberia / Kira Van Deusen Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-7735-2616-1 (bnd) isbn 0-7735-2617-x (pbk) 1.Tuvinians – Folklore. 2. Khakassians – Folklore. 3.Tuvinians – Music – History and criticism. 4. Khakassians – Music – History and criticisum. 5.Tuvinians – Religion. 6. Khakassians – Religion. 7. Shamanism – Russia (Federation) – Siberia. 8. Storytelling – Russia (Federation) – Siberia. 9. Oral tradition – Russia (Federation) – Siberia. 10.Tuva (Russia) – Social life and customs. 1. Khakasskaia respublika (Russia) – Social life and customs. I.Title. gr345.v354 2003 305.89’4330575 c2003-903149-7

University of Washington Press PO Box  Seattle,WA - U.S.A. www.washington.edu/uwpress

isbn --- Typeset in . ⁄  Bembo and Herculanum. Book design and typesetting by zijn digital.

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singing story, healing drum

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singing story

healing drum Shamans and Storytellers of Turkic Siberia k ira van deusen

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca

vandeusen

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McGill-Queen’s University Press 2003 isbn 0-7735-2616-1 (cloth) Legal deposit fourth quarter 2003 Bibliothèque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp ) for our publishing activities.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Van Deusen, Kira, 1946– Singing story, healing drum: shamans and storytellers of Turkic Siberia / Kira Van Deusen Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-7735-2616-1 1.Tuvinians – Folklore. 2. Khakassians – Folklore. 3.Tuvinians – Music – History and criticism. 4. Khakassians – Music – History and criticisum. 5.Tuvinians – Religion. 6. Khakassians – Religion. 7. Shamanism – Russia (Federation) – Siberia. 8. Storytelling – Russia (Federation) – Siberia. 9. Oral tradition – Russia (Federation) – Siberia. 10.Tuva (Russia) – Social life and customs. 1. Khakasskaia respublika (Russia) – Social life and customs. I.Title. gr345.v354 2003 305.89’4330575 c2003-903149-7

Typeset in . ⁄  Bembo and Herculanum. Book design and typesetting by zijn digital.

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contents

Introduction

vii

Acknowledgments

xxi

Glossary xxiii Map xxvi

 History of Tuva and Khakassia

3

 Tuvan and Khakass Shamans

13

A Shaman in Stalin’s Time

15

The Horse Thief

22

Ondar’s Healing

24

A Shaman’s Competition

27

Mitrei’s Initiation and Divination through Throwing the Cup

34

The Voice of the Mountain Spirit

40

 Spiritual Geography and Its Inhabitants

42

The Dragon Descended from the Sky

46

Sacred Animals Yzykh

50

Saving the Mountain

58

The Spirit of Sunduki

59

Ösküs-ool and the Daughter of Kurbustu-Khan

64

 Storytellers,Tales, and Their Characters

75

Slava Kuchenov and the Song Spirits

75

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Storyteller Agol

78

Andrei Chuldum-ool and the Forty Mice

82

The Bright Man and the Hunter

87

The Smart Girl

91

The Stingy Storyteller

101

5 The Power of Sound: Music as a Point of Entry 103 to the Inner World Khöömei Legend

112

The Igil (I)

114

The Musical Horse Thief

117

The Shoor

117

The Mistress of the Taiga

118

The Shoor Player

119

Chatkhan (I)

119

Chatkhan (II)

120

The Invention of the Chadagan

121

The Igil (II)

130

6 Language and Poetry as Points of Entry 132 to the Inner World Seventy Languages

132

Algysh for a New Drum

143

The Shaman’s Prayer to the Mountain

151

Itpekov’s Song

155

Norilkov’s Story

158

7 Contemporary Shamans in Tuva and Khakassia 163 Ilona’s Ancestors

168

Notes

179

References and Suggestions for Further Reading

193

Index

199

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Driving out from the city of Abakan through the green-gold steppe-land,¹ we passed half-built brick houses with Russian designs around the doors, homes for the newly rich.Houses gave way to tumble-down huts with galvanized roofs and green shutters, and finally to golden fields, rising and falling gently against the backdrop of blue-grey Altai mountains. The road rose sharply and rounded a bend. I saw the Abakan River in the distance, like a lazy snake lying still in the summer heat.The sun beat down relentlessly. I had come to Abakan in the south-Siberian republic of Khakassia to find a traditional healer, mistrusting the Russian medical system to deal with the dizziness and nausea of the sunstroke resulting from a July camping trip in the desert-steppe of nearby Tuva.The temperature had been ºC, and there was no shade.The healer was Khakass shaman Tania Kobezhikova, a woman in her mid-forties with dark curly hair,a soft voice,and eyes that focus clearly. She moves slowly, laughs shyly and deeply. She gave me a searching look, quickly massaged my aching temples, and then declared that I would feel better after a visit to some of Khakassia’s sacred sites. She spoke of an ancient cave where people went for rituals of rebirth. Just the thing, I thought, cool and dark. The trip began with just three people, but as we searched for a car among Tania’s acquaintances, interest grew and by now we were a group of about fifteen.Tania said we must stop at the point where we left the main highway and give offerings to the spirits of that place. She sprinkled milk and chunks of bread in all directions, singing and playing her drum.We ate and drank before walking along a dirt track into the depths of green.Still dizzy,I covered my head, hoping we would not be too long in the sun. In spite of my discomfort, the south Siberian steppe-land spoke to me like no other place on earth.The aroma of earth and sky, the sounds and

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Salbyk kurgan.Ancient burial site. It is not known how the stones, which weigh several tons each, were transported the 15 km from the quarry to the site.

colours of summer. Grasses both sweet and pungent grew there, smelling like the magnification of a spice rack full of thyme,sage,and plants too exotic to identify.As the breeze shifted, delicate purple flowers added overtones to the aroma of savoury herbs.The sun was hot, still baking my brain, but the singing of long-winged birds cooled and charmed me as they swooped near and sang right into my ear – chirping, whistling, their notes rang clear.The sounds of crickets and cicadas were amplified by the hot, dry air. Pulsing waves of heat rose from the dry earth.The pure blue sky seemed endless, with white clouds scudding by in the shapes of gigantic stallions. I saw legendary heroes on their broad backs, off to a different part of the sky to battle monsters with six heads.The clouds ranged from pure white through golden to black against the shocking blue of the heaven.In the distance rocky mountains rose as hard and sharply geometric as the clouds were rounded. Tania now explained that we were not headed for the cave right away – first we would visit a kurgan called Salbyk, where an ancient warrior had been buried some , years ago with his horses and wives. Kurgans which, like Salbyk, have been excavated by archaeologists, look like huge circles of standing stones, each about three metres high. Unexcavated sites

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Tania Kobezhikova at the gate to the valley of kurgans, Khakassia.

have pyramid-shaped hills in the middle and only the tops of the stones are visible above ground.The stones of Salbyk are not native to this area and, like the huge pillars of Stonehenge,no one knows how they were transported to this valley.The kurgans are sacred places in the Khakass landscape. Tania smiled at me.“Mother sun is burning out your negative thoughts,” she said.² I had a hard time believing that sunstroke could be cured by a day in more blistering sun and gritted my teeth at what sounded like a newage pleasantry. But there was no turning back. Before going to the kurgan itself we approached the valley’s gate. Strategically located at the top of a hill,it is composed of two large standing stones: male and female – the one like a pillar and the other round and flat. Many years before, the female stone had fallen and lain on the ground.The previous summer it had been re-erected by an archaeologist, who found human bones under the stone. He took them away for analysis in a laboratory and was plagued by terrible dreams until he returned the bones to their rightful place. We carried out a ritual here, before entering the sacred valley. Each of us stood before the opening, reflecting on what we wanted to leave behind and

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where we were going. I decided to leave behind my fear of the sun and to step into the unknown. I stepped up to the gate, waited a moment, and then seemed to feel pulled by the energy of the stones. I passed through and then rested with the others on the far side, listening to the bird calls and the rhythms of Tania’s drum. By now the sun felt warm and pleasant to me, no longer threatening. By the next morning, all my symptoms had cleared up. My journey into Siberian sacred traditions had begun several years before with a small book of folk tales. It seemed to leap off the shelf of San Francisco’s dusty Russian bookstore, ready to send me halfway around the world. In college twenty-five years before I had majored in Russian literature,where the word Siberia conjured images of frozen exile.But I had never succeeded in getting to the ussr . My picture of Russia from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean included endless forests, gulags, and political exiles. I read that in Siberia people put moose fat in their tea so that it wouldn’t freeze on the way to their mouths. It never occurred to me that indigenous Siberians existed, people who called this immense and beautiful land home, and relished the warm summers as well as the long winter nights. I took the book home to brush up my long-forgotten Russian language skills.Within a year I’d gone from reading those tales – falling in love with the expanses of the steppe and tundra, the mysteries of the taiga forest – to telling them with small but fascinated audiences. Next I devoured ethnographic literature in libraries and began interpreting for Siberian performers at Canadian music and storytelling festivals, thrilled by the Tuvan multiplevoiced overtone singing,and the colourful embroidery worn by storytellers.³ I felt pulled into a world radically different from my own. As the stories began to work their magic, I wanted to learn where they came from, and began travelling in Russia to hear them first hand – not only traditional folk tales but the personal stories of the people of post-perestroika Russia. Kanchalan, Erzin, Gvasyugi, Bora-Shai, Shira,Yelantsy. Not only had I never heard of these villages – they didn’t even appear on my most detailed map. Not long before, it would have been impossible for foreigners, or even most Soviet citizens, to reach them.When I arrived in , shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union, people were as curious about me as I was about them.They compared my clothes and personality to images from the American soap operas they saw on television. By the time I came to Khakassia in ,I had already made lengthy visits to the neighbouring republic of Tuva, as well as to arctic Chukotka, , km to the northeast; the Amur River region, , km to the east; and St Petersburg and Moscow, ,

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km to the northwest.⁴ By this time I had gained fluency in Russian and a basic understanding of Turkic language structure and vocabulary. One of the first things I learned was that most of what we call Siberia is actually known by other names, such as the Far East or the names of specific regions or provinces. (Siberia is not an official designation but a commonly accepted term like “The Pacific Northwest” or “The Maritimes.”) The republics of Tuva and Khakassia are located amid the Sayan and Altai mountains.Tuva is about , km² and Khakassia , km² in area. In accordance with Tuvan pronunciation, the republic’s name is more correctly written Tyva. I have kept the older spelling since it is more familiar. Indigenous people here are clearly Asian.Their languages have no relation to that of their Russian colonizers, but are related to Turkish.Tuva and Khakassia are considered to be the original homeland of all Turks.Turkic languages are part of the Altai family, which also includes Mongolian and the Tungus family of Siberian languages, as well as Japanese and Korean.The population of Tuva is about ,, of whom two-thirds are Tuvans and the rest mostly Russians. Khakassians make up less than  percent of the , inhabitants of their republic. On the deepest and most ancient levels of culture,the two peoples have much in common – probably even common ancestors. But in the last few centuries they have been colonized in very different ways – Tuva mostly by Asians and Khakassia by Europeans.This has contributed to the differences in their cultures at the beginning of the Soviet period and even today. What started as a journey long-awaited turned into an expansion not only through geographic space but through internal and interpersonal space as well. I found myself making fast friendships among these people who a few short years before I had not known existed, learning about their problems in this time of political and social transition, accepting their help to find my way in a new land.And opening my mind to new ideas, such as the possibility that sun could cure sunstroke. My journey included travel on airplanes with no seat-belts and luggage piled in the emergency exits, unsteady boats, tank-like all-terrain vehicles, and buses with drunken drivers. Both food and customs were unfamiliar. I didn’t know when to shove, when to shout, and when to endure in Russia’s long line-ups. Any thoughts of blending in evaporated as I compared my plain cotton shirts and rugged hiking sandals to the flowered polyester dresses and high heels I saw negotiating the rubble-filled streets. Intent on finding storytellers,I passed through Russian cities with their massive concrete apartment blocks,arrived in villages with muddy streets,and entered scrupulously

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clean kitchens with white brick woodstoves and cheerful people. Their wooden houses had gardens, outhouses, and water pumps in the yard, much like my home in rural Canada. Early in my travels I dreamed someone gave me a new pair of glasses.They were thick, protruding in front like old-fashioned electric fuses. My friend said, “These will help you to understand what you see here,” which was strange since everything was now completely blurry. I awoke from the dream, but never forgot it.As time passed the blurriness cleared; things that had at first shocked me became commonplace: people sweeping city streets with stick brooms, and cutting huge hay-fields with hand scythes; a woman warrior whose parents are horses, and a man who can understand the languages of animals and birds. The inner journey took me into the world of story, mapping an unfamiliar spiritual geography. I listened to elders sitting on their creaky beds, speaking dying languages translated by their daughters, with the sounds of frying potatoes, new construction, and children’s play in the background. With story heroes, I dove into a world under the sea and entered the sky world by stepping off the top of a mountain at just the moment when the heaven rolled up like an ocean wave.A tiger shed his skin and became a man before my inner eyes, a woman turned into a wolf and brought her daughter home. Men survived blizzards in bear’s dens and women brought the dead to life. These stories are part of the complex of spiritual and religious beliefs and practices that have evolved from ancient times in relation to the natural environment and way of life.⁵ Everything is imbued with spirit – people, animals, rocks, trees, sky, mountains, sacred springs, lakes, and rivers – all part of the living essence of the planet. Both women and men may be selected by the spirits of nature and of their ancestors to become shamans,storytellers, other kinds of healers, diviners, or ceremonial leaders. At the hands of spirits, shamans undergo an initiation involving experiences of death and rebirth, having their bones taken apart one by one and counted before being reassembled. One extra bone indicates shamanic destiny. Most novices suffer from what is called the “shaman’s illness,” which cannot be diagnosed and cured by anyone other than a shaman.It takes forms that appear similar to both physical and psychological disturbances.The healing results in the new shaman becoming ready to practise. Unlike shamans from other parts of the world, most traditional Turkic Siberians did not study with a shaman mentor beyond this healing, which sometimes included a period of instruction about specifically shamanic language and ritual.⁶

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Tuvan shaman’s costume showing the skeleton. The fringes at the bottom represent snakes, which are some of the shaman’s most powerful helpers. Collection of the Tuvan Republican Museum.

During their initiation shamans make contact with helping spirits and learn to bring back souls stolen by evil spirits or driven from the body by shock.⁷ They may also remove foreign energies through drumming or fanning. Like Tania, they celebrate rituals that keep people in harmony with nature and awaken powers of self-healing.They also accompany the souls of the dead to the next world, control and predict the weather, and answer questions about the present and future.This ability to predict the future was highly prized by military leaders of the distant past and is still valued today.⁸ Tania says people consult her more for divination than for anything else. The classic healing journey, in which a shaman returns lost or stolen souls, makes for some of their most exciting stories, which they may tell during the journey or immediately thereafter.They use oral poetry and the music of a large single-headed drum with jingling metal pieces inside, a jaw harp or, further to the west, bowed strings, to transport them on visionary journeys to worlds in the sky and under the earth and water. Musical sounds also work to effect healing on a cellular level. Storytellers retell something like this inside view in the form of magic tales and epics, which in turn can

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act as a healing for listeners.They tell of soul-theft, the battles and trickery needed to defeat evil spirits, and the shaman’s return to this world, bringing the soul back safely.These stories have a lot in common with tales of initiation, where shamans must overcome great difficulties and master spirit beings to save souls – this time their own.They also resemble the classic hero’s journey, and most people can find parallels to their own lives. Community support has always been essential to shamans, who do not work unless invited.People naturally search out the strongest and most effective shamans.Active participation by the community was also necessary to traditional ceremonies.⁹ A shaman’s work relies on group energies, just as storytelling is an interaction between teller and listeners.The dramatic parts of shamanic ceremonies especially allowed community members to enter an altered state of consciousness, as we all do when watching a brilliant performance.This raised the collective energy in which spirits came present. It was a group phenomenon, embodied by the shaman and supported by the community. However, people were always somewhat reluctant to consult shamans. Most would first try other means of solving their problems, such as herbal medicine. Much of this reluctance came from people’s fear of those who make connection with the spirits of the dead. I’ve heard stories of a newly deceased person trying to take the soul of a loved one along to the next world, purely out of affection. On the other hand, shamans might sometimes take a soul from a healthy person to save the life of a sick one. It was not an easy life, since shamans did not charge fees, and often gave away the gifts they received. Lengthy ceremonies, besides being a drain on their energies,took time away from their households.Shamans’children were often sensitive to the powerful energies around them and suffered from various illnesses and disturbances.¹⁰ The danger springing from contact with spirits is also a reason many resist the shamanic call, although in the Soviet Union politics also played an important role in this reluctance. In most Turkic languages,the terms for shamans are variations of the words kam (male) and udagan (female). Some say that women were the first shamans, since the gift in early times was closely connected with fire rituals, carried out by women in honour of the goddesses of the hearth and the sun. In the Altai language family names for female shamans are very similar – variations on the word udagan, which some linguists link to the word for fire (Tuvan ot ) – while male shamans have different names, kam in Turkic, boo or zaarin in Mongolian, and sama in the Tungus languages, from which we get the word shaman. Some of these, like kam in Tuvan and sama in the languages of the Amur, have come to refer to both male and female shamans.

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Some scholars think that women were already shamans before these linguistic groups separated, while men may have taken up the practice later. In addition, when men set out to do shamanic work they sometimes wore a woman’s style of clothing, with representations of breasts.They described having sexual relations with female spirits who gave them strength, while women shamans were more spiritually independent (Diakonova ). A very basic understanding of human creativity is derived from the perceived female creation of human life.Ancient myths speak of women who received a spiritual gift from heaven and then gave birth to the first male shaman.To this day many people place greater trust in female shamans and in their ability to heal and to see clairvoyantly. Male shamans have tended to be more showy, given to amazing feats of strength. (This is not to say that men cannot be powerful healers; they certainly were in the past and are today.) In the past,women may also have been tellers of epics,although today that is the province of men. Among Turkic peoples the art of the epic singer is very close to that of the shaman. Storytellers have their own hereditary lines and initiatory experiences. Tuvan storyteller Andrei Chuldum-ool told me about how he learned the gifts of poetry and music from forty mice whom he helped in their felt-making (see chapter ). Storytellers call spirits the way shamans do – the spirits of the characters in their stories, some of whom were famous healers themselves; and also the spirits of knowledge inherent in the flow and music of the story. There is no better way to know the shamans’ world than through their stories. Oral storytelling is the way they themselves convey spiritual truth. Live storytelling is an interaction with the world beyond what we see with our eyes,walking us through realities of geographic and spiritual space.Many tellers say that once they have invoked the spirit of story, they see actions unrolling before their inner eyes and simply relate what they see. Story images recount the course of a shaman’s life and work, and map the whole spiritual world from which the practice springs.Through the power of words and sounds, stories and songs act on the listener to bring about healing and spiritual growth. Traditional Turkic literature tells about movements of people across continents. Storytellers teach the persistence and wisdom needed to live in harmony with nature in harsh climates and to get along with family and neighbours. Like stories everywhere, they show us who we are and who we can be. Today, stories help indigenous people re-find their own voices, healing the damage caused by policies of cultural genocide, loss of land, economic collapse, and social chaos.Through the imagery and humour of

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the spiritual world they heal not only individuals but also societies and point very strongly to preserving the ecology of our planet. Orally preserved and transmitted stories form a huge body of literature, with internal rules and a high degree of artistry. As they do everywhere, storytellers select specific tales, improvise details, and vary emphasis and inflection, based on an intuitive knowledge of the inner needs of those present.The story can be trusted to speak on deeper levels than can be grasped in the moment, becoming a collective dream. Listening is just as important as telling.From the storyteller’s words,we experience sights, sounds, smells, and a sensation of movement – our own act of creation. No two people see exactly the same thing.We can believe the most fantastic things – events and images that have emotional, if not literal, truth – because we have seen them with our own inner eyes. Recent research in the West bears out the value of storytelling. Image formation (which takes place in the internal eye of the story listener) is essential to human brain development. Imagination is the essence of creativity and the basis for all higher-order thinking (Pearce ,). Children who learn from stories see creative solutions to life’s problems, learning to think for themselves and to find alternatives rather than accepting dogma.They are not prone to the early despair and suicide prevalent among those raised on television alone.Violence and aggression are transformed in unexpected ways.The formation of healthy images, long known by shamans to be the essence of spiritual healing, is now being used more consciously in successful allopathic cures (Fredericks , –). Turkic epics begin with a recall of what the earth was like when it was new, the way people and animals were when they were not quite as they are now. Hearing of the earth’s creation, with the interaction of male and female at its heart, awakens a powerful creative energy in tellers and listeners. The stones at the gate to the valley of kurgans, where Tania did her ritual, record this interaction, representing life and movement, which is also embedded in the language.Although affected by the severe “re-education” imposed by a male-dominated and moralistic communist ideology, indigenous stories still celebrate the individual strengths of both female and male, as well as their common humanity and the sacred earthiness of sex. The importance of female strength, wit, and wisdom is one of the things early travellers and ethnographers missed, looking through the lens of their own cultural background. They were further hindered in understanding the complexity of the spiritual beliefs they encountered by differences in the vocabulary and even the structure of their languages.

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But who is this spirit of story that the Siberian tellers invoke? Not just the characters, but the story itself is alive, they say, and will be angry if the telling is not finished or well performed.Tuvans tell of a guest who refused to tell stories, saying that he didn’t know any. In fact, he knew three, and their knowledge-spirits appeared outside the yurt the moment the man was invited to tell.When they heard that he had refused to bring them to life, they threatened revenge on him through a series of troubles.A Khakass storyteller stopped in the middle of his story, and on the way home he met the spirit of the warrior-hero, now doomed to wander endlessly in our world, unable to return to his own. He rebuked the teller, who died soon thereafter.¹¹ Is this metaphor or reality? Can we get sick from an untold or unfinished story? Or from a lack of attention to its details? In psychological terms it seems certain that we can.Tuvans and Khakassians tell us that the spirits of story are real and have lives of their own. Once begun, or even proposed, the story is in their realm.The teller brings the characters to life through their glorious deeds and then puts them back to rest.The danger is that not only heroes are brought to life: if the evil creatures are not put back in their places they will create no end of trouble. But the most important lesson the stingy storyteller teaches is that knowledge is to be shared,not hoarded.Every good story journey includes return. Back on our own turf, there comes a time to communicate what we have seen. This book is about traditional Turkic knowledge as expressed through the arts of storytelling, music, poetry, and shamanic practice. I present the material as I have encountered it, through the words of indigenous storytellers, shamans, diviners, scholars, museum workers, and rural herding people, enhanced by extensive reading of ethnographic and folklore literature, most of which is available only in Russian. My writing reflects my attempt to see beyond my own cultural background. I have travelled and stayed with friends in Tuva and Khakassia six times (for periods of three to four weeks each) from  to , as well as meeting with Tuvans and Khakassians in other parts of Russia and in Europe and North America.This has been a period of great change, and the book chronicles some of the events and changing thought patterns, goals, difficulties, and achievements of indigenous people in this time. My first interest in shamanism sprang from a desire to understand the imagery I encountered in magic tales. Later, as I studied more deeply, I tried to become the outsider equivalent of an educated member of a shamanic

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society, able to attend ceremonies and accept healing with sensitivity and understanding. I am not a shaman or a shaman’s apprentice, but I am profoundly grateful for the welcome I have received in Turkic Siberia and for the wisdom that has been shared with me so openly. I have studied native languages and immersed myself in the culture as much as I could in a time and place different from those in which the classic shamanic acts took place. My approach may be different from that of researchers who themselves practise shamanic healing and travel for professional development as well as research: I try to incorporate the things I’ve learned into my own context as a performing artist. Most emphatically, not all of the people interviewed in this book are shamans – only those so noted. If any others are shamans, they were not speaking of it openly at the time I interviewed them. It would be a mistake to think of everyone who holds traditional knowledge as a shaman – a mistake that detracts from the diversity of the culture and the value placed on other talents, such as storytelling, music, and non-shamanic healing and divination. It is also worth remembering that many Tuvans and Khakassians today are encountering traditional culture anew, after being raised and educated in a very different system. I consult with storytellers about the concerns common to all good tellers who delve into a culture other than their own.What place do the stories hold in their own culture? Are there times and places that are not appropriate to telling certain kinds of tales? Which parts can be changed and which not? What lessons do people take from the tales? Among Turkic storytellers, I have not found traditions of ownership of tales, like that of many peoples of North America.Tellers have been happy to think that their stories are finding a new life in a new land and language. Like most people who listen to stories in cultures other than their own, I sometimes wonder how they change with outside listeners present.While we can never really know what would have happened had we not been there, it’s possible to find hints. Unfortunately, in Siberia, the answer is often that the longer traditional stories might not have been told at all. If they were, more background might be taken for granted, unless the listeners were young, in which case they would need at least as much explanation as an outsider. Elements of humour may be missed by those unfamiliar with these storytelling traditions. We should never overlook the question of what the teller was aiming to teach us, both personally and as someone likely to write about the experience afterwards – as an apologist or detractor for their culture.To examine

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this we need to take a personal approach and see what we really did get out of the telling, in both senses. Most stories in this book were told either in Russian or in Tuvan and recorded on tape.About two-thirds of the stories are published here for the first time, and as far as I know almost all are published here for the first time in English, some having previously appeared in Russian, Tuvan, or Khakassian. Exceptions are noted in the text.Translations from Russian are my own, and those from Tuvan have been done with the aid of my friend Rada Chakar. One exception is the poem “Prayer to the Mountain” in chapter , retranslated from the original directly from Khakass to English by linguist Victor Atknine, who also generously helped with checking other translations and answered a myriad of my questions. I have used the Library of Congress system for transliterating Russian words and authors’names to facilitate finding them in libraries.In a few cases where another transliteration is more familiar I give it as an alternative spelling in the bibliography. I make exceptions for familiar names such as Alexander (instead of Aleksander). Singing Story, Healing Drum begins with a brief history of the region, and then moves from the outer world to the inner, beginning with stories I have heard told about the lives, ceremonies, divination, and healing practices of shamans of the recent past. Next we move into spiritual geography, the inner paths a shaman travels. Here we begin to see how storytelling reflects an evolution not recorded in the history books.Then we’ll explore the character of the epic teller, whose gift is so close to the shaman’s, as well as some aspects of the magic tales and their characters. Moving even deeper, the next chapters explore the way music and poetry operate in the shaman’s world, and we conclude with a look at the revival of shamanism and new legends surrounding the renewal of culture in the nineties.A leitmotif throughout the book is stories of the mountain spirits, whose presence pervades the entire spiritual world.

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acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to the many people in Russia who have helped me with this work, sharing information, music, stories, hospitality, transportation, and warm friendship.These are all people who work very hard for the preservation, health, and development of indigenous cultures. They include Larissa Anzhiganova,Victor Atknine, Alexander Bappa, Soyan Berdan, Dmitry Chankov, Rada Chakar,Valeri Chebachakov, Andrei Chuldum-ool,Vera Diakonova, Anatolii Feodorov,Galina Kazachinova,Mongush Kenin-Lopsan, Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Irina Kidiekova, Tatiana (Tania) Kobezhikoba, Anatolii Kombu, Alexander Kostiakov, Alexander Kotozhekov, Slava Kuchenov, Georgi Kurbatski, Albina Kurbezhekova, Anatolii Kuular, Mokur-ool Kuular, Khuraak Kyrgys, Alisa Kyzlasova,Vitaly Larichev, Choodu Mindriyaa, Osur-ool Mongush, Chechek Musaeva, Marzhymal Ondar, Kongar-ool Ondar, Dugar-Sürün Oorzhak, Nikolai Oorzhak, Ai-Churek Oyun, Ludmila Salchak, Nikolai Samdan, Zoya Samdan, Ondar Sandan, Borbak-ool Saryglar,Valentina Süzükei,Valentina Tatarova, Svetlana Tiukhteneva, Petr (Petya) Topoev,Tsenin-zaarin boo, and Vyacheslav Zhilkovsky. Thanks to Mihaly Hoppál for encouraging me to begin writing this book, toValentina Kharitonova and Marilyn Walker for help with the material, and to Bruce Grant, Don Campbell, Mary-Louise Chown,Theodore Levin, Kay Stone, and two anonymous readers for their suggestions on earlier drafts of the manuscript. At McGill-Queen’s University Press, every stage of the book’s preparation and production has been a pleasure, with the skilful and cheerful work and support of John Zucchi, Joanne Pisano, Joan McGilvray, Lesley Andrassy, and many others.Thanks also to Robert MacNevin for help with graphics and photo selection. I am also grateful to the following journals for permission to publish previously published material:

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xxii acknowledgments

“Epic Singing in Khakassia” in BC Folklore no., . “New Legends in the Rebirth of Khakass Shamanic Culture” in the Anthropology of East Europe Review vol. , no., . “Shamanism and Music in Tuva and Khakassia” in Shaman’s Drum – A Journal of Experiential Shamanism, no.,Winter ‒. “Power of Words and Music in Tuvan Shamanism” in Shamanism – Journal of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, vol. , no., . Thanks to my many friends and supporters at home, who have discussed everything from the meaning of tales to the intricacies of politics, arranged cultural exchanges, and shared their own stories. I trust that this continuing process will contribute to a peaceful and fruitful exchange of ideas and energies, and to the creative preservation and development of diversity in world cultures, large and small.

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glossary

T = Tuvan; Kh = Khakass; R = Russian aal (Turkic) – settlement airan (Turkic) – mildly alcoholic beverage albys (T) – evil spirit in the form of a beautiful woman with no back algas (Kh) – shamanic prayer or poem algyschi (Kh) – a person who carries out ceremonies, using poetry algysh (T) – shamanic prayer or poem arak (Turkic) – fermented milk drink artysh (T) – juniper byzanchi (T) – bowed musical instrument chadagan (T) – zither chalama – streamers, scarves, or ribbons used in Buddhist ceremonies chatkhan (Kh) – zither Chayaan (Kh) – creative upper-world spirits demir khomys (Kh) – metal jaw-harp düngür (T) – shaman’s drum eelig khaiji (Kh) – a storysinger with spirit protector eeren (T) – shaman’s spirit figure eezi (Kh) – spirit-master Erlik (Turkic) – master of the lower world igil (T) – bowed stringed musical instrument kam, kham (Turkic) – shaman kamlanie (R) – shaman’s ceremony or activity karang-körnür (T) – clairvoyant kargyraa (T) – style of overtone singing, low pitched, sometimes producing three tones at once khai (Kh) – overtone singing, often used in epic singing

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xxiv glossary

khaiji (Kh) – storysinger, epic singer khöömei (T) – overtone singing, also one style of overtone singing khomus (T) – jaw harp khomys (Kh) – lute khut (Kh) – the life force, one type of soul körigzhi (Kh) – clairvoyant közhee (T) – stone figure, often with writing in the ancient Turkic language Kurbustu (T) – master of the upper world kurgan – burial site, a circle of standing stones kut (T) – the life force, one type of soul küzüngü (T) – brass mirror used by shamans menge (T) – spiritual birth mark, significant in Tuvan astrology orba (T) – drumstick ot inei (Kh) – fire spirit, literally “fire mother” ovaa (Turkic) – stone pyramid usually placed at a mountain pass to honour the spirits of place pog’o (Kh) – chest protection worn by women, usually with elaborate beadwork shoor (T) – wooden flute shulbus (T) – evil spirit, appears as a man to a woman and vice versa steppe (R) – rolling grasslands, with some desert areas sug eezi (Kh) – water spirit Sümber-ula (T) – sacred mythic mountain Süt-khöl (Turkic) – sacred milk lake sygyt (T) – whistling style of overtone singing tag (Kh) – rocky mountain tag eezi (Kh) – mountain spirit tag kizi (Kh) – “mountain person,” usually larger than a normal human taiga (Turkic) – from a Turkic word for a forested mountain; in Russian, it means forest Taiylgan (Turkic) – ceremony of communal prayer to the mountains takhpakh (Kh) – improvised song; call and response between two singers taskhyl (Kh) – a snowy-topped mountain tel yiash (T) – a sacred tree; usually two or more kinds of tree grow from one root temir-khomus (T) – metal jaw-harp Tigir taikh (Kh) – ritual sacrifice to the heavens toshpuluur (T) – plucked string instrument tool (T) – a magic tale or epic

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toolchu (T) – storyteller tös (Kh) – a shamanic spirit, or spirit-figure tüür (Kh) – shaman’s drum tyn (T, Kh) – breath; one of the types of soul. udagan (Turkic) – female shaman (Tuvan udaban) Ulgen (Turkic) – god of the upper world Umai (Turkic) – goddess of the earth uran-chechen (T) – word-creator ydyk (T) – sacred; refers to an animal that is set aside as the protector of the herd ykh (Kh) – bowed stringed instrument yurt – round nomadic dwelling yzykh (Kh) – sacred; refers to an animal that is set aside as the protector of the herd

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Cities and Towns Krasnoyarsk Reservoir

Shira

Villages

✴ Cultural Sites

Abakan

Salbyk kurgan ✴ Uibat kurgan

✴ Aiovo Aioro Abak

an

Ri

ve r

Minusinsk

Arshanov Arshanor

REPUBLIC OF KHAKASSIA

krasnoyarsk territory

BaiTaiga Bi

Sayano-Shushenskoe Reservoir

Bora-Taiga Aldan-Maadyr Kh

em

c hik

R i ve r

Ye n i s e i

Chadaan

River

Kyzyl

Ka

Aryg-Bazhy

Mongun Mongun Taiga Taiga

Tozhu District

m i-K he

-K

he

m

REPUBLIC OF TUVA

Samagaltai Erzin

Arctic

Ocean

Bering Sea

Baltic Sea

RU SSSIIA RUS A

Sea of Okhotsk

ck Bla

C a s p ian

Sea

Sea

Map Area

0

200 km

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History of Tuva and Khakassia

On a rainy July day in  I was bouncing along a muddy track in northern Khakassia, headed for a series of mountains called Sunduki, meaning suitcases.Why such an odd name, I wondered, as we turned off the main road and banged over the ruts.Then we rounded a bend and I saw them – each mountain topped with a squared-off rock formation that indeed resembled a suitcase. Could these extremely geometric forms be natural? We stopped at a place where several canvas tents, an outdoor kitchen, and a picnic table were scattered beside a creek.Archaeologists from the Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk were camped there while deciphering the area’s secrets. Vitaly Larichev emerged from the tent where he had gone to escape the hordes of mosquitoes.He stirred up the fire and put the kettle on.The formations are not man-made, he said, but people have used them for millennia as observatories and ceremonial sites. “We are astro-archaeologists.We don’t dig in the ground, we study what ancient people knew about astronomy,” Larichev explained.¹ “Sunduki is a rich area for us.”The astro-archaeologists’ task is to discover the location and significance of the numerous ancient solar and lunar observatories around Sunduki.“These monuments date from the late Tagar period, about – bc .The Tagar were an Indo-Iranian tribe, similar to the Scythians, who are so famous for their goldsmithing and their depictions of wild animals.They had moved out of this area several centuries before to live all across southern Siberia and as far away as the Ukraine.”After we finished our tea Larichev took me on a tour of the site. His enthusiasm was so infectious that I hardly noticed the rain and the mosquitoes, and listened for several hours. “Stand here,” he said. “You see? This square pattern of stones on the ground shows you the place. I knew there would be an orientation point, but we had to search through the grass for a long time to find it. Now look up to the top of that ridge.You see a place where there is a crack between

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 singing story, healing drum

Sunduki Mountain.Tania Kobezhikova approaching the top.

the rocks? If you were here on the summer solstice, you would see the sun rise right there. Or you would have if you’d been here , years ago. Now the timing is slightly different.” He has discovered dozens of these places, which show the solstices, equinoxes, and other landmarks in yearly cycles and even in much longer periods of time.But one must know where to stand and how to look. High on one cliff wall an engraved dragon heads in one direction and a snake heads in the other.“If the sun were shining,” said Larichev, slapping a mosquito,“we could tell the time. In the morning the shadows move along the snake’s body from his head to his tail, and in the afternoon it comes from the other direction along the dragon.² From the same observation point you can determine true north and south by sighting along the mountains. “Some say that this place was a fortress,” he said when we reached the highest point.“But who would take shelter in such an exposed place? The enemy could back you up onto your mountain and there would be no escape. No, this was not a fortress but a sacred site.The people who came here were probably priests, very wise people who could read these cycles and advise people about changes in the climate, and the times for planting and making ceremonies.”³ Larichev does not use the word shaman for these watchers of the sky. But elderly people say that shamans of the last century spoke about heavenly bodies such as the planet Pluto before they were discovered by modern science,making it clear that shamans were well versed in astronomy.The coats of some northern shamans bore representations of the constellations they flew past on their journeys. Even more were decorated with snakes and dragons like the ones on the sun-clock.

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History of Tuva and Khakassia 

Khakassia is full of the remains of ancient fortresses, many of them built on former ceremonial sites in the mountain forests.An early description tells of , people staying in one of the forts and of cities with much gold. Later on they were destroyed by the Mongols.Khakass television reports that many of them, long overgrown by forest, have been rediscovered through the intuition of traditional storysingers. We arrived at a sheltered area at the base of one of the mountains.This was what Tania had most wanted me to see – a series of petroglyphs (also from the Tagar era) showing an entire epic story in pictures. She pointed out the birth of a hero and how his family was attacked by enemies.The hero transforms himself into an animal and ascends to the heavens.A person in what looks like a shaman’s headdress is conjuring over a pot.This is the largest collection of clearly connected images in the area, but similar petroglyphs showing shamanic headdresses and movements can be found all over northern Eurasia. Many believe the practice of shamanism goes back to the paleolithic period. The Indo-Iranian tribes, including Scythians and Tagar, who built the kurgans as well as the observatories, were tall people with blue eyes, unlike most of today’s shorter, dark-haired, brown-eyed people.⁴They disappeared without a trace soon after building these monuments, probably defeated by the Huns.Quite possibly the military and political leaders of thse times were themselves shamans, the wisest and most able of their people. Chinese sources tell us that shamans (many of them women) held exalted positions as military and political advisors to khans during the time of the ancient Turks (from the sixth to the twelfth century).The Turkic empire rose after the fall of the Huns to encompass not only present-day Tuva and Khakassia but also all of Central Asia, including parts of Mongolia and China. Although the ancient Turks were defeated by the Mongols, they left their language and many elements of culture behind.Turkic languages are spoken today from Turkey itself to the Arctic Circle in the Sakha Republic of northcentral Siberia not far from the Bering Strait.Tuva and Khakassia are considered to be the ancestral homeland of all Turkic people. The ancient Turks evolved a writing system and an extensive literature, which is recorded in inscriptions on huge stone statues erected in the steppe in honour of their leaders.While most were male, some were women warriors like the heroines of epics still told today. The ancient Turkic alphabet fell into disuse and was only deciphered again at the end of the nineteenth century. At a conference in Kyzyl in ,Tuvans expressed their pride and frustration in learning that they had such a long literary tradition and that it had been suppressed by both tsarist and communist governments for a hundred years after its rediscovery.

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 singing story, healing drum

But the oral tradition was more persistent. Many of today’s Tuvan and Khakass epics come from the time of the ancient Turks. During the long period when the alphabet was forgotten, oral tradition gave the stone figures new meanings: a person could be turned into a stone figure for wrong behaviour; bad luck could come to someone who passed one without stopping to leave an offering; and a storyteller who suffered for not completing his tale died beside one.⁵ Most stories about shamans that we read and hear today were recorded by Russian and European travellers, missionaries, and ethnographers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By that time the centre of Asia had been thoroughly colonized:Tuva by Mongolia, China, and Russia; and Khakassia by Russia. First contacts typically involved trade and taxation. Later an influx of foreign settlers brought a changed way of life. Settlers began to farm land that had never been tilled, a process that continued more intensively under the Soviets, violating ancient taboos against digging in the sacred earth. Outsiders also brought major religions: Buddhism to Tuva and Christianity to Khakassia.The vast differences in the colonizing nations have contributed to the cultural differences in the two republics today, as they have followed different tracks for more than  years. Traditionally herders of sheep, cows, goats, yaks, and camels, Turkic peoples have been in constant contact with outsiders. Besides the everchanging onslaught of warring khans, beginning with the Uighur (from  ad ), then the Kirghiz, and finally the Mongols under Chingis Khan, they traded with travellers along the Silk Road, and met representatives of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Nestorian Christianity before succumbing to rule by China and Russia. Khakassia entered the Russian state in  and came under communism immediately after the  revolution.Although Soviet sources and public opinion among Russians would have us believe that this was voluntary, historic documents and Khakass oral traditions prove otherwise (Forsyth , –;Vakhtin , –). Resistance was long and hard-fought. Over a solstice ritual at Salbyk in , historian and political leader Alexander Kostiakov told me of how an honoured envoy of the Khakass tribes (then called the Minusinsk or Abakan Tatars) went to Tomsk to negotiate a treaty with the Russians. Because she happened to be a woman, the Russians treated her disrespectfully and even stole her valuable sable coat while she slept. This, said Kostiakov, was the start of  years of war, followed by oppressive taxation and increasing settlement by Russians. Today’s Republic of Khakassia was formed in , largely thanks to the efforts of Kostiakov. It was separated from the Krasnoyarsk Territory within

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History of Tuva and Khakassia 

the Russian Federation, on a small part of its historical territory.This new status gives Khakassians greater autonomy in dealing with the federal government in Moscow, but local issues are still a struggle. By  many of the gains of the nineties had been lost:laws protecting language and culture had been overturned; and the government had undertaken active policies against the Khakass population, appropriating land and farm machinery to facilitate the growth of industry. Recent films and books create a picture of Tuva as extremely isolated and untouched by contacts with the outside world until Soviet times and even later,⁶ but this seems to be a largely Eurocentric idea.Tuva was (and is) difficult to reach from Europe and Russia to the north because of the lack of roads, railroads, and riverboats, but it was not so difficult to reach for horsemen from the south. Before settlement by Russians began in the midnineteenth century, Tuva had been passed back and forth several times between China and Mongolia, a process that took up where the the earlier Kirghiz and Uighur khanates left off and continued right up until World War I.Taxation and wars were a constant in the pastoral lives of the herders. It is safe to say, though, that Tuva’s outside contacts were less damaging to traditional culture than Khakassia’s, because Buddhism is more tolerant of other beliefs than is Christianity. Besides this, the Mongolian way of life is very much like the Tuvan, and the Chinese were more interested in taxation than in the conversion of conquered peoples. Mongolians brought Tibetan Buddhism to Tuva in the seventeenth century (although the process began much earlier in a sporadic way).This had a profound effect on Tuvan life. Many men became lamas and lived in monasteries, although some married and kept their families nearby. In Tibet and Mongolia, Buddhism had already adopted elements of shamanistic philosophy and practice, a process that continued in Tuva. Conflicts between Buddhism and shamanism were mostly on the level of politics. As healing and ceremonial systems they blended quite successfully.Thus the Buddhist pantheon came to include traditional Tuvan deities, such as Erlik-khan in the land of the dead and Kurbustu in the upper world,⁷ while Buddhist lamas took over some ceremonial and healing practices formerly belonging to shamans, including consecration of the mountain passes and sacred springs. A yurt could be full of Buddhist ceremonial objects, but it was still oriented and constructed according to shamanistic philosophy.⁸ With Buddhism came stories from India – several tales from the Panchatantra have been popularized as Tuvan folk tales. Both shamans and lamas conducted healings, often in similar ways.

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One major difference was that lamas were always men while shamans were often women. Sometimes a lama might even be married to a shaman. But the most significant difference was that lamas studied intensively, while shamans relied on intuition. In Tuva, the lives of Buddhist monks were less isolated from the general population than they were in other areas. During the Soviet years Buddhists hid many of their precious objects in caves or buried them in the ground. I heard that one lama hid his things and in the mid-eighties called his grandson and told him where they were. “I will not live to see the day when they can come out,” he said,“but it will not be long.When you can, go and bring my things home.” Today many Tuvans are reverent Buddhists.When the musical group Huun Huur Tu performed in Calgary in ,the musicians and I were approached by a family of Tibetans who invited us all to dinner.The Tibetans and Tuvans shared photographs of their homelands and found much in common in their faith.⁹ In Tuva, small temples have been built in cities and a group is gathering funds to rebuild one of the biggest monasteries near Chadaan.The Dalai Lama visited in  and gave his blessing and encouragement to these activities. He planned to return in , but was refused a visa by the Russian government. Like all religions, Buddhism suffered during the Stalinist period, and is reviving today. Khakassia has experienced less outside religious influence, although there were attempts at conversion to Christianity in the nineteenth century. For most this was a token reverence, politically and economically motivated,which did little to interrupt the practices of the shamans.A salient quality of shamanic philosophy is its flexibility in externals while the heart of the world view remains intact, passed directly from generation to generation through oral tradition. But while Buddhism coexisted and intermingled with shamanic traditions, Christianity required exclusive reverence for its own God with no allowance for shamanic or other ritual, thus creating a dualistic framework with ideas of absolute good and evil that were lacking in shamanistic philosophy. One Khakass creation story reflects the way Khakass people interpreted Christianity in the early twentieth century.¹⁰ There were two ducks, one of whom sent the other diving to the bottom of the water to bring up clay, to create the earth.This is an ancient image of creation, common throughout Siberia and in parts of North America as well. But the Khakass version goes on to tell of how woman was created from a man’s rib and how she then ate some forbidden berries. Unlike the Christian God, however, the Khakass deity responded by dividing the berries up more fairly, so that the woman would not have to steal those that were forbidden.Another version explains

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History of Tuva and Khakassia 

Buddhist temple. Built in the s just outside the city of Kyzyl.

that the god Ulgen had forbidden people to eat the berries growing in the direction of the sunset, the direction of death. Instead he directed them to eat from the direction of life, where the sun rises (Anzhiganova b, ). Christian beliefs seem to have been partly accepted, but God becomes gentler.The story goes on to say that a kind young man helped to determine at what age Erlik,ruler of the land of the dead,would take souls,arguing in favour of all the phases of life. Nobody was useless or deserved to die, he said.As a result death now comes randomly, at any time of life.As in many Siberian sacred stories, there was a flood, but this one adopts the ark. Only the mammoth and the Garuda bird did not come on board.¹¹ Massive changes to traditional life and culture came about during the twentieth century.After the  revolution Khakassians fought against the Bolsheviks, but nonetheless their territory became part of the Soviet Union within a few years (Forsyth , –).Tuva became a nominally independent state, but was in fact a Soviet satellite that joined the ussr in  at the instigation of Tuvan communists.The Soviet period brought ideological education in boarding schools where children were separated from their families. Collectivization of labour brought an emphasis on increased production. Cities grew and values changed as life became divorced from the cycles of nature. A large hydro-electric dam near the border of Tuva and Khakassia has made for a significant change in the climate, bringing harsh extremes of temperature in winter and summer. Especially damaging to Khakass and

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Tuvan culture was the rapid rise in the non-native population.Today’s most important problems are loss of land, poverty, a high suicide rate among the youth, illness, and assimilation. Shamans and storytellers in both areas (and, in Tuva, Buddhist lamas as well) came under severe persecution during the s and even right through the s.They were perceived as enemies of the people, and as such were forbidden to vote and to work on the newly formed collectives.Their families suffered ostracism. Many shamans ended their lives in the notorious gulags, not only because of their religious functions, but also because of their status as some of the community’s most intelligent and outspoken leaders. Epic telling was also forbidden, because of the nationalistic content and because of the authority of the teller in the community. Beyond this, the Soviet government set out to break the very basis of shamanic society by reorganizing ways of living and working, and by educating new generations to a Marxist world view based on technological progress rather than on living in harmony with the cycles of nature.The old ways were branded as primitive, backward, and naive. Policies on folklore varied from one decade to the next. In the s a lot of collecting took place, hand in hand with Communist “missionary” activities, and books were published. But this changed under Stalin, when speaking native languages was forbidden and children began to hear more Russian folk tales than their own. Marxism set out to destroy the intimacy of human society with the spiritual world.The missionaries of communism were highly effective. Shaman’s costumes and drums were burnt or relegated to museums and their dances were confined to the repertoire of amateur actors. Several generations were educated within an atheistic ideology.While folklore collecting continued, the oral traditions began to die out. Some shamans gave up their equipment voluntarily. Tuvan scholar Dr Mongush Kenin-Lopsan recalls one such occasion.“This happened on the collective Tere-khöl located on the southern boundary of Tuva. On  May  in the village of Kungurtug,the shaman Sergei Duger offered the Tuvan museum a gift of his complete set of ritual equipment: drum, drumstick, headgear, küzüngü (mirror), ritual costume, footgear, and bear-eeren (spirit figure). In parting he said,“My time has passed, sons. I am sixty-nine years old. I have held my shamanic equipment in secret for thirty-four years. Soon I will see the sun set on my last day. I want it to be held eternally in a clean and bright place in my native land.Yes, I voluntarily leave my equipment to my descendants, who are fated never again to see the likes of me, a living shaman. I was born on the banks of the river Karga and maybe I will die

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here.Just allow me to put on my shaman’s clothing one last time and to carry out a ceremony in the depths of the night.And then let my shaman’s things go away from me into a different world, the people’s museum” (KeninLopsan , –). Ethnographer Vera Diakonova explained to me some of the complexity of doing research during the Soviet period. She says that researchers were required to produce a certain number of pages of notes every day and thus they could not simply pass over rituals they had observed without mention. To protect people like practising shamans from persecution, she and others described everything they saw as if it were a report from the distant past. Shamans responded to persecution in several ways.¹² Many of those who survived went silent but continued to practise. Since drumming was certain to attract unwanted attention, they adopted methods that made no sound, such as fanning, to remove foreign energies. Many of the survivors were women, since female practices were often quieter to begin with.They partook less in the dramatic shows of power that attracted attention to male shamans.This is why in many Siberian communities today there are more female than male shamans of the older generations. In addition, communist agitators, themselves from a more male-dominated society, were perhaps more inclined to see men as dangerous opponents. Conflict with authorities seems to have been greater in Tuva, maybe because the native population is larger and their sense of independence more established. In Khakassia, already more influenced by Russia and with a smaller native population, shamanism came much closer to being wiped out completely. Shamanic activity went silent. Many no longer used the drum. If they did, it was far away from centres of population, where few would hear them.The sound of shamanic activity was no longer a presence in villages and in the new cities and towns. Still the spiritual and healing effects of sounds were not entirely forgotten. This stripping down of shamanic activity to its bare bones, without drum or costume, has had a profound effect on healing and ceremonial activity. Shamans are still strong, and people trust them, but many say they are not as strong as the shamans of the past.Their methods have changed. They have learned not to rely on the sounds and showmanship that were an integral part of shamanic activity in the past. Perhaps the reduction in sound has been a partial cause of the loss of shamanic power.At first I thought that the shamans might regain their strength as new drums are made, and in some cases this is true. On the other hand, some develop show without content, attracting media attention while not producing valid shamanic work.

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Along with shamanism and storytelling,Tuvan and Khakass music suffered under the communist system. In the s instruments were burned and singing was forbidden. In the s traditional instruments began to be played again but only in the context of large Soviet-style performing ensembles.This development, while preserving some aspects of traditional music, has been damaging in many ways. It has changed the relationship between music and spirituality. Russians themselves have rich traditions of folk medicine, and some of the settlers came to rely on shamans or to adopt their methods. I’ve heard that even some high-level party functionaries consulted shamans and other folk healers throughout the Soviet period. During wwii there was a small revival of shamanism, because people urgently wanted to know what was happening to their men at the front. Researchers from the s describe Khakass shamans who imitated sounds of battle in their ceremonies and reported much-desired information to families (Shibaeva , ). Some of those who continued to practise in secret are now passing knowledge to younger generations.The most significant revival of shamanism and other aspects of traditional culture began after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Ceremonies that have not been carried out for many years are taking place once more, although the people now live in a very different world, many of them in cities, where their traditional ways of life have been replaced by contemporary professions and lifestyles.Tuva has several shaman’s clinics where people may come and receive a diagnosis and healing from shamans such as Ai-Churek Oyun.Tania Kobezhikova has an office in Abakan where she practises massage and does shamanic healing. Many of today’s shamans have a Western-style education and hold advanced degrees. Some have travelled abroad, teaching their own techniques and making contact with other spiritual healers. New drums are being made, new legends created. Indigenous scholars insist that this is not a rebirth but a continuation.They say that the old world view did not die and is now simply undergoing one more adaptation.The stories in the next chapter recount memories of people I have met since  and are about shamans of the Soviet period.They provide a bridge between the tsarist time, when shamans were under fire but still more or less out in the open, and the freer political climate of the s, which is coupled with the need to solve urgent economic and social problems.This bridge was forged in part by museum workers and researchers whose work wound up in archives, waiting to be consulted by a new generation.

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One summer day in  I went to the Republican Museum in Kyzyl,capital of Tuva, to see Ludmila Salchak. She is one of the specialists in charge of the Centre for the Study of Tuvan Shamanism. I often visited with Ludmila and her colleagues, and the previous week I had gone on a day trip with them to western Tuva, accompanying Ulla Johansen, a German researcher who was writing a book about historic shamans’ costumes.We had gone to a village where Ulla photographed shamans’costumes and I recorded an epic singer. “What a shame,” Ludmila said. “You should have come with us again yesterday.We took Ulla down to the south. Before going to the museum at Erzin we dropped in on an elderly woman shaman. She welcomed us into her yurt and gave us tea. And then she said, ‘I know you’ve come to hear stories, and I’m prepared to tell you some.’ You see, Kira, she thought it was you who had come! Unfortunately Ulla didn’t think she had time to listen to stories, so we didn’t stay.” In spite of this missed opportunity, I heard many shamans’ tales during my travels: some from recent times and others from the more distant past; long and short, tragic and humorous; stories shamans told themselves and stories about shamans, such as the one who knew guests were coming and could tell details about them. I heard tales of the amazing things shamans could do:walking on coals;stabbing themselves with knives that left no scars; calling lightning; transforming themselves into animals; and finding out secrets. I heard stories of their initiations, their healings, and the messages they want to convey about ecology and human behaviour.Occasionally people tell stories of soul retrieval, but those images are more fully fleshed out in magic tales than they are in life stories.Telling of those journeys directly is dangerous – it takes the art of the storyteller to elaborate them in a way that is pleasing to the spirits involved.

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Dr Mongush Kenin-Lopsan, director of the Centre for the Study of Tuvan Shamanism. Kenin-Lopsan’s collecting work during the Soviet period saved many shamanic poems and objects from oblivion.

Some traditional shamans told of their visionary journeys during a ceremony or immediately afterwards.This ability to stay conscious and to recount what one sees while journeying in an altered state of consciousness is one of the shaman’s talents, and sets most of them aside from those who are possessed by spirits. Over tea and pastries in her Abakan apartment, Khakass artist Irina Kidiekova gave the example of a shaman she remembers from her childhood in the s.“Usually it is hard to distinguish the shaman’s words,” she said. “But this time a female shaman came to see a sick woman, and her words were clearly understandable. She described going to the lower world to find the source of the illness.There she broke the roots of the disease.Then she went to the upper world, to the Chayaan, creators, of which we each have one. She asked the help of this creator in healing the woman.” Of a slightly older generation, linguist Dmitry Ivanovich Chankov recalled this story about a shaman he remembered from childhood. “Yegor Kyzlasov came with his drum when my sister was sick. First he sat warming the drum.Then slowly he began to beat, calling his spirit helpers. He called them by name.‘Now we’ll go to save this person’s soul,’ he said. He went to the mountain,with his eyes closed.The soul had been stolen and he fought with these devils and described how he got the soul and brought it back. He returned the soul to the body and then sent his spirits away, telling the whole story as he went along.” I asked if shamans remembered their journeys afterwards and Chankov said that nobody ever asked them.After the kamlanie (shamanic ceremony)

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a shaman needed to rest. Asking questions would be an intrusion into the shaman’s reality – not only disrespectful but possibly dangerous.¹ But whether or not they remember, shamans are in control of their consciousness and their spirit helpers. As told by shamans themselves the stories show the inner world.When other people tell the same experiences the perspective is different.The results are tales of ceremonies,initiations,divination and prediction,various methods of healing, competition, and visions.

Stories from Tuva Mongush Kenin-Lopsan is the foremost Tuvan scholar on shamanism.² He collected shamanic poetry and objects during the Soviet years, saving them from annihilation. Kenin-Lopsan has published poetry and several ethnographic books,and has won awards for his work.He is now head of the Association of Tuvan Shamans at the Tuvan Republican Museum,where he oversees the training of new shamans.This training has become necessary in the post-Soviet period because younger people raised under the Soviet system may lack the necessary background. It is also an attempt to guard against charlatanism.The training usually lasts about three months, which is considered enough to enable a person to begin working under supervision.

Life Stories A shaman’s life follows an unusual path.They are set apart early in life, then they suffer illness, and finally they lead lives of service to the community. This path was never easy. It included long hours of wearying work and travel in addition to a normal householder’s responsibilities, and was darkened by the suspicion and fear of neighbours. In the Communist period new difficulties arose. At the museum’s shamanism exhibit in , Kenin-Lopsan showed me a photograph of his own grandmother and told about the persecution she suffered under Stalin. A Shaman in Stalin’s Time My grandmother Khandynap was a great shaman. She was born in  and lived in the village of Bora-Shai. She was imprisoned twice. Once was because her son was thought to be a Japanese spy, in spite of the fact that he had no connections with Japan. On  Oct.  he was shot.The second time, in , she was imprisoned for her shamanic practice.They traced her back through the mountains,found her,and took her away from her home.

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Even in prison she was able to tell whether a distant person was alive or dead. She was able to locate people. Someone would bring tobacco or milk and she would do quiet shamanic work to find the answer. One day my grandmother called one of the other prisoners and told him that he would be sent home but that she would stay.“I dreamed I saw a clear sun. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning, the sun was split in two. On the crack was a bloody red river. Black rain began to fall, it was black night.Then silver rain came down and washed the sun.The sun became bright again. Soon a bad head of government will end.”Three days later came news of the illness which lead to Stalin’s death. At the same time the man was sent home from the camp. Later she too was released. She started for home but the great tragedy is that she died on the way, without ever seeing her native yurt again. ▼ Tuvan musical instrument-maker Marzhymal Ondar told me about his grandmother. She too was sent to prison during the repressions.When she was released, she wanted to hurry home as fast as possible, so she turned into a wolf.As she got close to her home village a hunter caught sight of the wolf and tried to shoot her. But his bullets were unable to touch her.When she got home she told everyone about turning into a wolf.The hunter was present, and he backed up her story.The wolf is a very powerful shamanic helping spirit, and in the north there are tales of women turning into wolves to rescue lost souls (Menovshchikov , –; Cox , –). Stories tell of how people become shamans.³ Ludmila Salchak told of one who was practising at the time in the village of Aldan-Maadyr. He was born weak. He was very small and didn’t eat. His parents thought he could not possibly live.They put him in a saddle bag and gave him to an old man to take out and leave in the wilderness.The old man went home but forgot to take the baby out of the bag, which he hung up in his yurt. In a few days he heard the sound of a baby crying.Then the child began to eat and that is how he survived. In childhood he suffered from the shaman’s illness and no one could cure him.A shaman determined that he was destined to become a shaman, but the child refused.At this time the shaman and the family did not pray to have the gift removed, which is sometimes possible.The boy’s heart became weak, possibly because he refused the gift. Like many a shaman, this man had a remarkable birth and later the shamanic illness. According to Kenin-Lopsan,Tuvan shamans took ancestry from human shamans of previous generations, from the heavens, from evil spirits, or from spirits of water and earth.These forces help a shaman to raise his or her own strength.Today human ancestry is considered essential, and many who seem

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to have become shamans spontaneously in the past may well have come from a shamanic lineage. On the other hand, selection clearly also takes place – not every member of a shamanic family becomes a shaman. People discuss shamans in terms of their relative strength and experience, as well as their healings and ceremonies.

Ceremonies Kenin-Lopsan describes several ceremonial consecrations that shamans of the past conducted regularly.At these ceremonies people could pray for resolution of their own problems as well as take part in the communal prayers. Tuvan shaman Ai-Churek Oyun says that people who are unable to attend a ceremony like to touch those who participated because it gives them some of the healing energy. Shamans conduct consecrations at power points on the earth – either those that occur naturally or those where people have deliberately focused powerful healing energies. In the fall the fire in the domestic hearth, the centre of warmth where food is prepared, was consecrated – this brought luck for the family. Shamans conducted blessings at sacred springs, usually for a specific healing. They blessed a goat, which could then only be milked by one woman and not touched by men.The goat cared for the patient’s health.⁴ They also blessed ovaas, or sacred places marked by travellers at mountain passes, which pleased the spirits of that place. Blessings of stone statues in the steppe brought healing and blessings of irrigation ditches brought a good harvest. In cases of illness, a shaman might see that the person’s family had owned an animal of a certain colour and that the patient needed to offer one like it. If it were a horse it was possible to make a carved copy instead of using a real horse (Kenin-Lopsan , –). Some of the most important ceremonies are those that shamans carry out at seven and forty-nine days after death,⁵ which help accompany the soul of the deceased to the next world. All through the Soviet period people continued to mark these occasions, even without the help of shamans. On every trip to the west of Tuva travellers stop at a special tree just before the highest of the mountain passes. There they tie strips of cloth to the branches and leave offerings of candy, tobacco, and money at the base of the trunk after circling the tree in the direction of the sun.(All ceremonial action moves in a clockwise direction – counter-clockwise is considered the direction of death.) This is a tel yiash, where two kinds of tree grow from one root, especially sacred if they are larch and fir. Kenin-Lopsan says that if a person inadvertently harmed a tel yiash he might fall ill and could be cured by having a shaman do a blessing for the tree, which would please the forest

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Travellers stop at this tree near a Tuvan mountain pass to leave offerings.The tree is considered sacred since it has several trunks growing from a single root.

spirits. Besides this, every year a shaman blessed his or her own tree, called kam yiash, which was intimately connected with the shaman’s life.Trees connect the three worlds, with roots in the lower world, trunk in our middle world, and branches in the upper world. Nowadays clans gather at their own sacred places to celebrate annual rituals and people also gather to mark important points in the solar and lunar calendars, especially at the beginning of summer.

Mirrors A shaman’s ritual equipment includes a special coat and headgear, a drum and drumstick, spirit figures, a collection of forty-one pebbles for divination, and a bronze mirror, or küzüngü.⁶ Sometimes the mirror is plain and shiny, but sometimes the back is covered with raised designs. People often tell about how shamans find their mirrors. Kenin-Lopsan says that the mirror is the shaman’s most powerful helper, used not only in diagnosis but also for healing. Unlike the rest of a shaman’s equipment, a new mirror is not made for a specific shaman. Usually in the past a new shaman would find one in an old river bed or ravine. The mirror might be flying in the air, obliging the shaman to sing to make it come to earth, thus proving his or

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Shaman’s mirrors. Collection of the Tuvan Republican Museum.

her readiness to begin practising. Mirrors were not buried or burned when shamans died.They simply disappeared, presumably to reappear to shamans of later generations (Kenin-Lopsan , ). In Tuvan friends took me to the village of Bora-Taiga in west-central Tuva.We sat in a yurt that schoolchildren had built inside their classroom. Everything about it was authentic, from the frame to the felt, ropes, and interior furnishings. One of my friends disappeared for a time, and when he returned he brought a storyteller named Borbak-ool Saryglar, wearing a bright pink, traditional coat, who greeted me cheerfully and told several folk tales about animals. He then asked if I wanted him to give me a shamanic diagnosis, using his mirror and forty-one pebbles. I was astonished, having not realized that he was a shaman. He explained how it had come about. “A truly great storyteller begins to see visions,” he said,“of the characters and the stories. Sometimes it happens that a storyteller must become a shaman.The characters become internalized in you.You call the spirits of the stories often enough and at last they force you.” I’ve since read that Saryglar received his gift at the age of three. Shaman’s stories often seem contradictory, but in this case I think he showed evidence of the shamanic gift from an early age and developed it through storytelling. He took out his bronze mirror, with raised designs showing the twelve animals of the Chinese astrological zodiac on the back.Tied to a loop on

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the mirror’s back were a number of long silk strips in different colours.⁷ He opened his bundle, which contained forty-one pebbles for divination and a few sheep knucklebones (these are used for a children’s game like jacks, as well as in ceremonies like this one). I held two of these stones and one bone in my left hand, together with one of the streamers. My right hand covered the other stones and bones in the bundle,which was lying on a small table.The other streamers went under my hand as well, so that a complete circuit was formed, with Saryglar in the middle holding the mirror. He told me I would live a long healthy life and some other things about my personal life, all of which were correct.The way Saryglar did the reading for a male client was different – the man held the closed bundle in both hands,together with some of the streamers. Back in Kyzyl, Kenin-Lopsan showed me the collection of the Tuvan Republican Museum,including many mirrors that had belonged to powerful shamans of the past. He told me about the great shaman, Kaigal-kham from the Sat clan.

He did the most amazing tricks. He caught a bullet in his chest, died, and then came back to life with no wounds or scars.While on a hunting trip with his brother, he found his mirror flying in the air and sang it down to the ground.When the revolution came he went to Bora-Shai, got sick there and died. In a few months the sound of his drum started coming down the river to the place he was born. Everyone could hear it in the evening. It was the sound of the shaman coming to say farewell to his native place. He circled three times around Shangyr-khaya, the sounding stone, and then went out to the horse road and from there away toward the Khemchik River. He had come back to say farewell because he died at a different place. There is a legend about the mirror of Kaigal-kham. Not far from the place where he lived in the fall,⁸ Shangyr-Khayabai, is a mountain called Ravennik.The place is hard to get to, high in the rock cliffs. Fall comes, the last thunder, the last rain, the last rainbow.At dawn and dusk the mirror of Kaigal-kham circles and flies over the rocks. It comes down to earth and rises gently, giving off golden rays. It plays as if accompanying the rising and setting of the sun.And then it disappears. ▼ A Buriat shaman I met was given her mirror in a museum in Mongolia by a worker who said “I felt that the mirror should belong to you.” Khakass

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shaman Tatiana Kobezhikova tells about going to visit a friend in another city on her own birthday.The friend said to her,“I have something for you. When I was up north, an old man came to me and gave me this mirror. He said I must give it to a person who will come to me on her birthday – and he described you!”

Divination on Pebbles Although there are many forms of divination in Siberia, using forty-one pebbles is unique to the Turkic peoples. I received my first reading on the stones in the summer of  at the Tuvan shamans’ clinic Düngür.⁹ Shaman Khuurak Khavandaevich Kyrgys, who was wearing plastic snakes, which he says connect the worlds, as do the feathers on the headdress, answered questions relating to work and home for me and a colleague. My reading came out with three sets of three in the top line,which he said was very favourable. I’ve since learned that this excellent outcome is called baigara, and that it is unnecessary to go further with a divination for a client who receives it. A Tuvan friend, Chechek Musaeva,¹⁰ told me that each of the forty-one pebbles should be gathered from a different river or stream. The pebbles contain information from the land of their origin, as well as from the mountain that is the source of the river and the water that connected the mountain and the place where the shaman found the stone.Collecting stones from forty-one rivers could take a very long time. Her grandfather got them from thirteen, which was considered very good. Ludmila Salchak agrees that the stones should come from forty-one rivers, adding that they can also come from inside a wood-grouse’s stomach or from an open plain or an important mountain pass.When Tuvan singers visited me in Vancouver they gathered pebbles from the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology yard, which is full of totem poles, as gifts for shamans at home. Ludmila adds that different layouts are used for different kinds of questions: for finding lost things, lost animals, or the cause of an illness. It’s one thing to know how to lay out the stones, she says, another to read them. She thinks that it must be a matter of intuition – she does not know how the shamans arrive at their interpretations. Ai-Churek Oyun emphasizes the importance of the rituals for cleansing and feeding the stones, which must be carried out regularly. She lays the stones out with the top row representing the head, the middle the stomach, and the bottom the feet.The bottom row shows whether the way is open or closed. She reads the left vertical line as the self, the middle as the hearth, and the right as containing the answer to the question.¹¹

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Kenin-Lopsan has at least two different sets of stones, which he uses with different clients and for different kinds of questions. As in the nineteenth century, all shamans raise the stones to their brow before beginning.

Divination on the Shoulder Blade Probably the most ancient form of divination used in Siberia (and many other parts of the world) is reading the cracks that appear on the shoulder blade of an animal when it is charred in the fire.According to Radlov,divination on the shoulder blade was done by both professionals and non-professionals. It was good for finding a lost horse and determining where to find a thief or stolen object. First the bone must be cleansed using certain chants.The meat should not be cleaned too thoroughly from the bone and the tendon should not be cut with a knife.The reader sits with his or her back to the door and after the reading throws the bone over his or her shoulder. If it falls through the upper part of the door this means everything will happen as the diviner said. It is considered bad luck for the household if the bone is given immediately to the dogs. First it should be broken into pieces by hand. Radlov includes a drawing showing the parts of the shoulder blade with their names and the meanings of lines connecting various parts.The lines frequently refer to roads or to directions in life. Movement is always essential to nomads and forms an integral part of their philosophy. As always, animals figure strongly in the imagery presented (Radlov , ).Today most people say it is best if the bone comes from an animal belonging to the questioner, since it will contain the most relevant information. Tuvans love stories about horse thieves, who seem to be as much admired as censured. And of course a good horse thief needs precise information. Where are the good horses to be found? Who is watching them? And once the deed is done, is the owner on your trail? Singer Kongar-ool Ondar has a good supply of stories about horse thieves. Here is one he told over breakfast at the Canmore Folk Festival in Alberta in .¹² the horse thief A Tuvan crossed the mountains into the Altai to steal horses. He watched for a long time and at last the opportunity came. He took the horses and started home. He came to the first mountain pass and stopped to make tea over a campfire. He threw a shoulder blade into the fire and watched the cracks that formed. He could see that the men whose horses he had stolen were coming after him! He packed up and hurried on.

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The other men arrived at the place where the campfire had been and found the broken pieces of the shoulder blade.They could see that the thief knew they were coming.They moved faster. The thief stopped at the next mountain pass and again he made a fire and again he looked at the cracks in the shoulder blade.Again he saw that the other men were after him. He packed up and hurried on. This happened several times and at last he came to the highest pass. The pursuers came to the last campfire and this time the coals were still warm.They put the pieces of bone together and saw that the thief still knew they were coming. They thought, “We’ll have to trick him somehow, and make him think we’ve turned back.” So they all put on their hats and coats backwards.They put the saddles on their horses backwards and rode on. The Tuvan stopped at the next mountain pass and made his fire. He looked once more at the shoulder blade and this time what he saw was that the pursuers had turned around and were riding away. And so the Tuvan rested at that campsite. The pursuers caught up with him and took their horses back.And since then that mountain pass has been called “Don’t stop here to look into the shoulder blade!” ▼

Competition Many of the stories about shamans of the past come to us through the filter of long-term memory. Nowadays older people are thinking back to their own childhoods, sixty or more years in the past. In  in the Tuvan village of Samagaltai, storyteller Choodu Mindriyaa told me of a shaman named Kham-ool whom he remembered from childhood.A man tried to steal one of the shaman’s sheep, but his hands stuck to the animal.The shaman appeared and only released the thief when he promised to steal no more.This shaman could walk on a tightrope. Mindriyaa also told me an iron raft, on which two people escaped the great flood at the time of creation, lay on the mountain opposite his house, although he hadn’t seen it himself.¹³ In Kyzl in  I heard the following story of competition and healing from Ondar Baiyroolovna Sandan, then in her early seventies. She grew up in the mountains of the Süt-khöl region, she told me, where her family were quite well off.They were good hunters and kept livestock.They lived in a yurt in summer and had a wooden hut for the winter. I asked if any shamans were doing healings in her childhood.“No,” she said,“the authorities took them all away. Repressed them.”Then she went on to tell this tale. I was not surprised, since elderly people often preface

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the most elaborate reminiscences by saying they remember nothing or that there were no shamans. Ondar Sandan’s story tells of the importance of heredity, the küzüngü, and shaman’s competitions. Her story shows the mix of shamanism and Buddhism typical in Tuva, and underlines the fact that shamans were generally not taught by elder shamans but only by the spirits.¹⁴ ondar’s healing Sometimes one shaman would call another to find out what was wrong with the sick person.The two shamans would meet. If there was a disagreement as to which one was to shamanize, they would have to find out which was stronger. My great-grandfather was a powerful shaman. What would he do in an argument like that? Once he was arguing with another shaman.“Are you stronger than me?”he asked,and gave this challenge.“Which of us can bite off his own thumb and throw it away?” So he bit off his thumb and threw it away.The other one was afraid and ran away. He was as strong as that, my great-grandfather! He came to see us and I was so afraid when I saw him! I was small. I stayed behind mama.When he came in I hid behind her. He asked,“Why is this child running like that? What is she afraid of?” I was always afraid of strangers like that.He had a beautiful costume with lots of noisemakers. They used to make them very beautiful.They were made of fabric like the national costume, but with lots of things sewn on: snakes, things like that. I was afraid to look at it.There were special rattles at the top and at the bottom a lot of snakes.¹⁵ Sewn figures of cloth – it was very beautiful. He also had a beautiful headdress sewn with beads, exquisitely done,and feathers of all kinds of birds – white,black,yellow,all sorts.When he died they put all those things in some cave and nobody ever found them. Probably they are still there. Once he came with all those things and he had his küzüngü, a round thing with all kinds of pieces of silk of different colours, beautiful. I asked mama why he didn’t have a thumb. He called me,“Come here,” he said, and gave me this little küzüngü.“Play with it, you don’t need to be afraid of grandfather.” But I still said,“I’m afraid. He doesn’t have that finger.” So he came and for two days he shamanized and then went away.The man who was sick recovered.The man’s sister couldn’t cure him but our shaman came and he got better. He was a strong shaman. Because he bit off his thumb he was splendid and frightening.They say those kinds of shamans are strong, but these here [the contemporary shamans who work at the clinic] are something else. I haven’t even been there once.

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Tuvan shaman’s drum and collection of snakes – a shaman’s helper during ceremonies. Collection of the Tuvan Republican Museum.

My liver hurts, my stomach.They tell me that people there will heal it, do a massage. I went once but they didn’t understand anything, they are all too young. One girl called me for three days and then I didn’t go anymore.They say people go there to learn but how can they be taught? A shaman is not a lama – a lama studies, that’s a science.They have a lot of knowledge, they study, they need books.To be a shaman is a gift of god, simply.The shaman does not study – how could you learn those things? A person is just born like that, from the ancestors. Nobody teaches.That’s a real person, from birth. Just born that way, and rarely. Now I don’t understand anything. How could it be that a person who used to work alongside me could become a shaman? I don’t understand.Times have changed.The way we lived before nobody lives now. Life has become completely different. Before we lived more quietly, now it’s a time of transition. My sister’s husband was a shaman. He was a real one, born from a shamanic clan, born that way.When he was about fourteen or fifteen he was ill, he had convulsions. He didn’t come back to himself. So a shaman, also an old grandfather, came from far away, from another river. He came and said that the boy must shamanize or else he wouldn’t become a healthy person.The boy didn’t wake up.The shaman cured his convulsions. It all passed away.The parents had not even known he would be a shaman. He

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lay unconscious for about two weeks.The shaman came and called. He drummed and sang and then said, “He himself will become a shaman. Otherwise I can’t cure him.”Again they had to go to that one without a finger.They went to him and he said,“Go quickly and bring the boy here. And with him bring a little white sheep with a black head.” He told the boy’s parents, “He is alive.” So he did his shamanic work for three days or so and the boy regained consciousness. He got better and learned how to do shamanic work himself and then he too became a shaman. He went to study in the Buddhist temple – he could do that too. He learned Buddhism well, and he stayed like that. Then came the revolution and those young people were living together. He lived with my sister and they got married.Then that sheep, the one that had been brought for his cure, got old and couldn’t do anything anymore – it just lay around.They couldn’t take wool from it.They asked what to do and the old shaman said,“Let it stay and die by itself.”¹⁶ One time when I was young my head ached badly. I was just married – we had been living together about a year. I had to lie down. I couldn’t even get up.We had very few doctors. Some nasty man came. He gave me some powder that didn’t help at all and then went away. Then my brother-in-law came and read some sutras. In that book they are called sutras. I got a little better. He lifted me himself, tied my head up well, and took me home.Then in the evening they did shamanic work and read that book. I slept a little and in the morning my head hurt terribly.They gave me some tea – well, water with milk. By this time my sister had died and he had a second wife.With that wife we went to eat. He walked and walked, leading us, a very long time.Then he stopped and said,“Come here.”We had come to a place where three different trees were growing from one root.¹⁷There he took that book of sutras and read and read. I slept and finally in the morning I woke up.The headache was completely gone. So you see how strong he was too. But these ones today, I don’t know what they’re doing! ▼ Many legends tell of competitions between shamans, like the one in which Ondar’s great-grandfather bit off his thumb.A more involved story of this nature was told to me in  by the epic-teller Andrei Chuldum-ool in the village of Aryg-Bazhy.¹⁸ Andrei’s story is a classic tale of a shaman’s practice, shown both from the inside and the outside – a storyteller with the gift of inner vision can tell from that inner perspective. Traditionally relatives would cut the drum when a shaman died, since the drum was synonymous with the shaman’s

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life. By the same token, if a drum were accidentally damaged, it could kill the shaman. Doilaar-khaam transforms himself many times, like epic heroes, and his tale is full of images of death and rebirth.The idea that the shaman actually dies while journeying is very unusual. It is interesting to see how powerful the woman shaman of Tozhu was, even though they were known to be less numerous there than in other regions.Tuvan shamans and lamas often interacted, even consulting each other for healing. Chuldum-ool shows ironic sophistication in turning the ancient story opening around, making it “before the people’s revolution.” a shaman’s competition Shyaan am, earlier than the earliest times, not so far away, not so near, before the people’s revolution, a lot of different events were happening to the Tuvan people. I’m going to tell you some adventures of the most famous shamans. In the early times in the Ulug-khem region was a district called Ezhim. Now it has become a pasture for animals.The Maady tribe lived in the Ezhim district.Their territories started from Ezhim and spread over to the Bii-khem and Tozhu regions. The Maady tribe used to belong to the Salchak region.Among them was a very famous shaman named Chirtek Bichi-ool; he was called Doilaar-khaam.That shaman could transform himself in different ways. He was such a magic person and had many tricks.When he was going to fight with another shaman he would die. For seven days he would be ill and then he would die. During the seven days he would leave instructions with his wife.“Do not cut the bottom of my drum.You should just put it away.”That’s because after he had killed another shaman his spirit would come back; he would come back to life by beating the drum. This time he was going to fight with a woman shaman from Tozhu.¹⁹ “I’ll kill you by beating the drum,” he said.The woman answered, “I’ll kill you by beating the drum.” So the two shamans began their struggle. Chirtek Bichi-ool, Doilaar-khaam, having left an order with his wife, was sick for seven days. His face became grey and he died.After he died, his wife took his body to the grave.When he had been brought to the grave and buried there, his voice remained alive in the drum, which had not been cut. So his body stayed in the grave in the forest of Ezhim, while his spirit turned into a white-necked falcon and flew to Tozhu.The ground here was still black at that time but in Tozhu snow was falling.When he got

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there the woman shaman was telling fortunes for local hunters, who were asking if they would get a good take, with many different animals.When he reached the place, he flew around the shaman’s home, watching the hunters who had come praying to the shaman. He was frightened of their rifles, the hunting gear of the best hunters of Tozhu, so he did not land on the ground there but flew farther away. He landed and thought, “Now how can I get to the aal, I wonder?” Then he noticed a female stag grazing near the mountain. He turned into a black fly, and gnawed through the back of the stag’s head, bringing the illness of giddiness, so that he could cling to her and get into the aal. This woman of Tozhu was a great shaman. She was telling fortunes on the shoulder blade of an animal.“At the burnt dawn, at the hour of the bullock, a dry female stag will come running with a bold head. If you take a shot without missing you’ll get very rich. Good luck will be with you, your offering time will coincide,” said the shaman, praying.²⁰ “Our shaman is great.Who knows what will come of this?” thought the most skilful hunters of Tozhu and, having prepared their rifles and bullets, they spent the whole night sitting watching the empty pass, in the direction of the mountain.They waited for the dry female stag to come out.After the Maady shaman had turned into a fly and had brought the illness of giddiness, the stag started running at dawn, carrying the spirit of Doilaar-khaam on the back of her head.At dawn the stag ran up and down, shaking its head.The hunters’ dogs, great squirrel hunters, started attacking it, barking loudly. The woman shaman said,“It is coming!” All the hunters ran out and sat down to wait.“Don’t let it go too far, let the herd come closer. It is too far away,” said the eldest hunter.Those many hunters waited until the stag came stupidly running into the aal. Then they killed it with a single shot, dragged it in, and made a very big fire. “Our shaman is the greatest, she can see everything,” they said, praising her. The fire grew very big.The shaman turned around,came out,and stood looking.Then she said,“Cut the stag up and give me the last rib.I’m going to eat it.” The last rib of that dry female stag was very fat.They cut it off and presented it to their shaman.The shaman cut the first piece and threw it to the upper world. She cut the second piece and threw it into the fire. She cut the third piece and was just putting it into her mouth when the

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spirit of Doilaar-khaam, which had turned into a black fly, now turned into a white worm and jumped onto the piece of meat and stuck to it. The shaman didn’t notice the white worm and swallowed the meat.The spirit of Doilaar-khaam fell down into the shaman’s stomach with it.The shaman felt it and cried out,“Doilaar-khaam has got into my stomach!” The worm sat down in the shaman’s stomach and looked around. If he got into the aorta he would die – there was no place to get out.The only ways out were through the armpits,through the soft spot on the head, and from the very bottom.There was no other way out! The woman shaman became very ill. She had aches in her stomach and liver. She ordered the people to call a very learned lama from a faraway place. She said,“I’m dying, get him to come.” So the Tozhu people went, riding a very strong reindeer and taking another one with them.They invited the lama and brought him back. The lama arrived, opened his book of sutras, and looked. Lamas have two kinds of knowledge, shamans one. Lamas can see things and treat or cure people, and they can tell history from their books of sutras. So he sat looking in the book. “You won’t be able to find any paper, so bring me bark from a very young birch tree and bring some gum,” he said. When the birchbark and the gum had been brought, the lama glued up the head and armpits of the shaman. He did not leave the white worm, Doilaar-khaam,any place to get out,except through the bottom.The lama gave the shaman a powder-medicine which gave her a bellyache – she was running to the toilet all night.The medication was so strong and bitter that the white worm became tipsy and collapsed. The woman shaman got up at dawn and drank cold milk. Her bellyache grew stronger and she ran out away from the door. She sat down and the Maady shaman, in the form of the white worm, fell out. One of the hunters’ fastest dogs ran up and swallowed the white worm – Doilaarkhaam! He fell down into the dog’s stomach.As the dog ran on all fours it was impossible to get out of its mouth.The teeth were very sharp and its large intestine was upwards so he couldn’t get out the back way either. So he found himself stuck inside the dog. The woman shaman recovered.The hunters were very happy and kept praising her, saying “Our shaman advised us wisely.”They gave many gifts to the lama.After they rewarded him, they let him go home. All the hunters used to go hunting for sables and squirrels together. So one day they went hunting for sable.The white worm, Doilaar-khaam,

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Tuvan shaman’s drum.The broken head indicates that the shaman has died.

still in the dog’s stomach, heard one hunter say,“I was trying to shoot a very good sable but missed. It hid in a pile of stones. Could you loan me your good dog?” “Give him a good meal and take him,” said the other.“If you don’t feed him he won’t follow you, a stranger.” So that hunter took fat meat, made a very good soup, and fed it to the dog. In the morning he took the dog to the pile of stones where the sable was hiding.The dog bent over the stones and started digging. His backside was upwards and the white worm fell into the chest.There was no way out from there.The mouth was full of teeth and if he tried to get out that way the dog would crack him open. He was holding on inside the chest with difficulty, when the wounded sable ran out from the other side of the pile and climbed up a very tall cedar.The dog started running after the sable. Its chest went upward, the backside went down.The dog stood like a running man.The large intestine went down and the excrement of the satisfied dog spattered on top of a bush.The white worm got tangled on the bush, swinging in the wind.At last it got loose, turned into a falcon again, and flew home. Doilaar-khaam’s body was still there and although it had been under the ground it had been eaten by black flies.Thus he was named Chirtek Bichi-ool, meaning Bichi-ool with the deformed eyes. He was given this name after he had risen from the grave. Later on he decided to take revenge on the woman shaman. He left an order with his wife and went away again. “I was born from my

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mother, then the woman shaman gave birth to me, then a harsh hairy dog of the Tozhu people also gave birth to me from its bottom. Now I will most certainly kill that woman shaman!” said the avenger. So again he went away by getting sick and dying. His wife thought,“What a bad person he is!” and she ordered the head of his drum cut.When they cut the head, the shaman died and he never came back. His wife sent some people to look at his body.When they arrived they saw him dead, holding the drumstick with his hand inside the broken drum. So he was buried the same way. ▼

Stories from Khakassia Although it seemed that shamanism in Khakassia was more thoroughly eradicated than in Tuva, I’ve heard many tales about shamans of the recent past, most of them from writers and other participants in the cultural revival.

Historic Stories of Ceremonies Radlov says that in the mid-nineteenth century the most important functions of Khakass shamans were celebrating the horse sacrifice, an elaborate ritual offering to the sky god Ulgen, done only in the most dire of circumstances, and cleansing the yurt from the souls of the dead forty days after death.S.I.Vainshtein,one of the foremost Russian researchers on Tuva,writes that there the animal sacrifice was called Taiylgan, as it is in Mongolia, and that in eastern Tuva they used a sheep and in the west a horse.²¹ Male relatives of a sick person carried out a Taiylgan to the mountain spirits. The animal was first consecrated, and after that called ydyk.²²The animal was not slaughtered, but allowed to live out its life as a protector of the sick person. In  Radlov was present at a Khakass ceremony for the dead, held by the husband of a woman who had just died.

Everyone sat in the yurt and at sundown a male shaman approached from far away, drumming and circling the yurt. He came in, still drumming, and searched out the woman’s soul. People heard him singing in her voice about how she was frightened and didn’t want to go away, leaving her family. Finally he caught her soul in his drum and pressed it into the earth. His voice got softer as he went down towards the land of the dead.When he arrived,the woman’s relatives refused to take her until the shaman plied

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them with offerings of vodka. At last the spirits agreed to accept the woman, and those present in the yurt could hear their celebration.Then the shaman came back.As he got closer to our world his voice got louder again.When he arrived, he fell unconscious (Radlov , ). ▼ One female shaman Radlov observed wore no special costume, but sang in a changed voice, leaping about the fire and giving voice to the animals she met in the various layers of heaven. She caught her spirit helpers in her drum (which today’s shamans do as well) and chased the evil spirits out of the yurt (Radlov , ). She too fell into a trance after the ceremony.This is interesting in relation to contemporary researchers’ interest in the shaman’s state of consciousness during the journey, although quite likely Radlov was using the word trance to mean something more like a loss of consciousness.

Life Stories Galina Kazachinova is head of the Khakass Writer’s Union. She has devoted many years to gathering information on traditional culture and has a seemingly endless fund of stories. She tells of a woman named Intizhekova, born in  into the Sagai clan, who was called to be a shaman. Intizhekova described a ritual for revealing the shamanic gift. There was a time, she said, when no young people in the village were becoming shamans.The old people said there was a new shaman but the person didn’t yet know it. In every home food was prepared.A group of people went around the village carrying a shamanic costume and other equipment, and everywhere they were served food and airan, a mildly alcoholic drink.²³ It was important that there be either three or five people in the group, one of whom could be a shaman from another village.“A big guest has come to you,” they said to each family. “The costume must be put on.”Then every adult tried on the costume.They all said it somehow didn’t suit them – one said it didn’t fit and another said it made her uncomfortable.“When my turn came,” said Intizhekova,“I put it on and my heart beat faster. I felt the costume was made for me. It was very comfortable. I took the drum and stick and a throat song (khai, the kind of singing used in storytelling) came out.The drum played itself. I was taken over by it.” In the village were five to ten yurts and the people carrying the costume went to them all.An old shaman said Intizhekova should be led in a ritual called khamga kirerge (translated as consecration, literally “coming into the shaman”). Everyone agreed. But she was a member of the Young Communist League and felt she shouldn’t see it through. Her father dissuaded her because he was afraid she would be sent to prison. She resisted the call, but

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Galina Kazachinova, director of the Khakass Writer’s Union.

throughout her life it has returned from time to time. She became sick and has now been paralyzed for twenty years. Galina says this is a punishment for not becoming a shaman. Galina herself believes she was punished for refusing the gift. In her youth she had several experiences that indicated a calling. She once came to her home village on vacation from school and met a nice-looking young man walking on the street. He was smiling, but behind his face she could see the face of a dead person. She was frightened. Sure enough, in a couple of years he died. After three things like this had happened, she prayed to have the gift taken away and it was. (Most people say this is impossible.) But then one day while rushing to get a bus she ran into the street. She saw a car coming and stopped quickly.Then she sensed a hairy male hand pushing in the middle of her back. She was hit by both the car and the bus, and injured.Afterward she felt a burning spot on her back. People said that nobody had been near enough to have pushed her. She feels that this injury was her punishment for refusing the gift. In the past novices were tested, first to see whether they really were destined to become shamans and then later to prove their strength.Tests often assessed clairvoyant ability. For example, the novice would be asked to identify the tree the wood for the drum had been cut from. Galina Kazachinova says that when a shaman was working, a lot of people were always around and if somebody started to move or sing like a shaman, an elder shaman would check them out, taking the novice alone to an isolated place and

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calling the spirits.The student sat in a half-lotus position while the shaman drummed over his or her head. Spirits would come flying and say whether or not the person had the shamanic gift. Galina told me about her brother,who was a shaman.His name was Mitrei (Dmitrii) Kazachinov. The original Khakass name was Khasachyn, which means wild goose, a sacred bird that flies to the heavens and acts as a messenger. mitrei’s initiation and divination through throwing the cup Mitrei got sick with epilepsy at twelve years of age, and fell down in school.Although he kept seeing things and hearing voices,his family didn’t take him to any doctors.When he was twenty, his aunt, Kaga Petrovna Kazachinova, said he must become a shaman. She may have seen it in a dream. She called the old shaman Yegor from the village of Sapagova. He was a recognized, consecrated shaman with a drum. He was called syn kham (true shaman) and had been consecrated by another shaman.Yegor sat the boy down and conducted a ceremony. He saw that he was destined to make the boy a shaman.The family killed a sheep for Yegor.Then my brother went to study with him. Mitrei had shamanic ancestry – his grandfather’s sister was a renowned shaman, considered very strong. People came from far away to see her. Yegor said Mitrei was sick because her spirit had been passed on to him. Then my brother studied with the elder shaman.²⁴ He got his töster (shamanic spirits) from Yegor, who called and searched for them. He named them so they would not run away.He told the young man that they would be his helpers.He also taught him the names of the clan mountains.I don’t know what Mitrei’s animal was, but he moved like the wind. Pura saan parir (moves with speed of wind) is the way this is described in Khakass. Then Yegor told Mitrei the form his drum must take, and what kind of skin to use. Mitrei studied with him for a month. The shaman Yegor was called Ada.²⁵ He had a certain quality of light about him, an unusual light blue. He told the young man where to find wood for his orba (drumstick).“There are five trees,” he said.“You must cut a piece from the middle one.” Mitrei himself saw how to make the stick.That made him complete, because he already had the drum.Then he had the right to carry out shamanic ceremonies. Once when Mitrei was still young an older shaman set off to bring back the soul of a sick child.The elder shaman lacked sufficient strength and

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sent Mitrei in his place. He described crossing a narrow thread and going through a place in the sea where rocks clashed together.²⁶ He met a dog with big ears and at last he went into a cave.There he found the child’s soul and brought it back. He made diagnoses in his shaman’s sleep, called Uig’u khamy. In the morning he would get up and already know what was wrong.Years later he died in his sleep. [Although the shaman described here used this form of diagnosis, as does Kyslasova’s grandmother (see the end of this chapter) it is only one of the ways Khakass shamans diagnose problems. Dmitry Ivanovich Chankov also told of a woman shaman in his village who diagnosed by dreams. Nobody knows how she did it, he says, but in the morning she would tell all.] Seven girl and nine boy spirits served Mitrei.²⁷The eldest girl showed him where to feed the fire as he went around. First he warmed the drum. His eyes turned red! Sometimes he would work shamanically for two hours or more, to bring back the khut, or life force, one form of the soul.²⁸ He then came back and drank some vodka from a cup made from the round,hard,black growth on a birch tree.He called “akh törik! khara törik!” and threw the cup. Children were frightened that the cup would bounce and hit them. If the cup fell right side up, it was a good sign. If it fell upside down it meant he must do it again.The khut was held inside. People cried out the same words.Then he would fall and lose consciousness. ▼ I saw the Buriat shaman Valentin Hagdaev throw the cup in a similar way during a ceremony in . He said that if the cup fell face up, the offering had been accepted by the heavenly spirits; if it fell face down it had not.This is similar to the Tuvan form of divination usually done at the end of a kamlanie, when the shaman throws the drumstick.The stick is hollowed out on one side. If it falls with the hollow side up, this is a good outcome.

Healing Methods – Fanning and Sucking Drumming was part of most shamanic ceremonies in the past,²⁹ transporting the shaman on the journey for information or soul retrieval. But some shamans worked with a fan or an article of clothing instead, using it to drive evil spirits away. Galina Kazachinova says that shamans who use an article of clothing instead of a drum are called chilbegchi in Khakass and that they have existed since ancient times.Precisely this kind of shaman acted as advisor to the great khans.This ancient method expanded into a new form of quiet shamanic work in the s and s, when it was politically too dangerous

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to drum. Now many such shamans work with children, using men’s pants or a scarf to drive the spirits out. Khakass elder Dmitry Chankov described a shaman named Adanakov who, during the s, healed children without the drum, using an article of clothing as a fan. Alexander Kotozhekov is a painter, philosopher, and algyschi, one who carries out blessing ceremonies. He told me that El’bekchi is a person who affects the weather using a fan.This word is related to the Tuvan El’bichi, which describes a female shaman who works with a fan instead of a drum. She sees clairvoyantly through the activity of fanning.The fanning makes her helping spirits appear, and then the shaman can see and even influence the future. Fanning is similar to the practice of some shamans who used only the drumstick, without the drum (Diakonova , -).The clothing and fan act as a kind of whip, driving spirits away, just as the drumstick acts as a whip driving the drum, which the shaman describes as a horse or other riding animal.The stick can also be used to whip or drive spirits.³⁰ Sucking out spiritual intrusions is a form of healing commonly practised by shamans and other healers in many parts of the world, although less often in Siberia.I have not seen this done,but it is mentioned in the Khakass heroic tale of Payan Khys, where a mountain spirit sucks out a metal ball from the heroine’s chest (Troyakov ).Kenin-Lopsan says that some Tuvan shamans would place a bronze mirror in the mouth and then suck out illness from a patient (Kenin-Lopsan , ). In the Sakha Republic (related by language and culture to Tuva and Khakassia) the shaman-actor Anatolii Feodorov told me how the shaman Matrona Kurbeltinova healed him by sucking blood from his chest. Certain practices seem to be so rare as to be unique to one shaman. In Aiovo, the village where Galina Kazachinova grew up, there was a female shaman named Ulyana Beloglazova. “She healed eye diseases with her tongue. She would lick a cataract with the tip of her tongue to take it away. Not only human eyes but also the eyes of cattle. [Many Siberian traditions tell of the healing power of saliva.] She also used herbs and removed bad spells, probably using charms or the magic of words. She would put spells on water and then the person would wash with it.”

Herbal Healing Although herbal healing is not part of a traditional shaman’s practice, many people, including Tania Kobezhikova and her sister Lyuba, work with the healing powers of plants. Lyuba says she consults with the spirits of a place to find out which plants are useful and which are not. She has later checked

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in books and found her information to be correct. She learned her art from her mother Irina Trofimovna Kokova, a folk chiropractor who was born in .The spirits would call Lyuba’s mother to go out on a particular day, such as the Christian holiday of John the Baptist, July . Lyuba recalls once being surprised that her mother had brought back such a small quantity of the various healing plants. Her mother said that was how much was given, which meant that was how much they needed. Tania says that you need to feel the plant when you begin to work with it.“Talk to it, asking permission to work with it.The plant may have other plans. Let the life force of the plant go through you, touch the tree, embrace it, feel its energy through your body.You may feel warmth or tingling. Each tree has its own separate life.The plant or tree gives a certain kind of strength, which we need. A knowledgeable person can tell which tree or plant relates to a person or to an organ, and asks that plant to help. “Then thank the tree after it has given you strength, ask forgiveness for coming onto its territory. Maybe leave a cloth, a coin, or food. I can go into one forest with complete comfort. Another may treat me like an enemy, scratching and bumping.Always speak to the area, go with an open mind.”³¹ All of this indicates that it is not just the pharmaceutical properties of plants that make them effective. Petya Topoev, a musical-instrument maker in Khakassia, told me that he knew a person who listened to plants that told him how to find someone who was lost. He also knew of a woman who learned how to find her lost cow by listening to a stone.This is similar to the way shamans get information from the forty-one pebbles and the way they can listen carefully and get information about the weather.

Spirits of the Mountain Stories about mountain spirits who people the sacred geography of the whole Turkic world abound.Their lore pervades all my experience of this tradition.Wherever there are mountains on the planet,their beings are among the most sacred and mysterious.Part of this lies in the grandeur of the mountains themselves, and part in that they connect the earth with the sky. Mountains can be difficult to navigate and have long been home to those who wish to elude the rest of the world in caves and hidden valleys. Kotozhekov says there are two kinds of mountain beings: tag eezi, the actual mountain spirits; and tag kizi, mountain people.The latter are human beings from an earlier civilization.At one time they lived together with regular people, but then they went away.They may be either our size or very large, and they

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Alisa Kyzlasova, Khakass actress and singer.

have special abilities now lost by ordinary people. Possibly these memories refer to the kurgan builders from the Tagar times.³² In turn tag eezi are also of two kinds: some are light and others dark. At the Khakass theatre in  I met the actress, playwright, and singer Alisa Kyzlasova, whose gift is considered to be shamanic in her community. Her art serves to heal the whole people by raising self-esteem and enthusiasm for the cultural revival. Over dinner in her apartment,Alisa sang me songs and told stories about mountain spirits, and told me about her grandmother, who was a powerful shaman. Alisa grew up with her grandmother, but until just two years before she had never told anyone, even her closest friends in the theatre, that her grandmother had been a shaman. Now the more open political situation made it possible to speak of her,and Alisa has even considered producing a play based on her practice. Her company has already produced a play based on one of her grandmother’s stories. “My grandmother never drank or smoked,”Alisa said.“She was a white shaman, which means she only did good.³³ She never harmed anyone.When I was young I didn’t appreciate her uniqueness, but now that I look back, I realize how fortunate I was to live with her. So many people came to her with different fates.They would bring meat, bread, candy, wine, or tea. She would put all these gifts in a bucket before she went to bed in the evening,

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and cover it with a red cloth.Then she washed herself completely and went to sleep. In the morning when she got up, she could tell everything about that person.She’d tell what hurt,what would happen.She gave the food away to people in the village. If the person was going to get well, grandmother would get up and put on a white dress and be joyful. If she realized that the person was going to die, she would get sick herself. She fought for that soul in her sleep.” I asked how Alisa’s grandmother got rid of the illness that she took on from others. She walked a lot. First she lay in bed all day drinking tea and had me make bliny [Russian pancakes].Then the next morning she would get up and do her morning ritual. [The morning ritual involves offerings of tea and milk to the four directions and to the mountains. It is done not only by shamans but also by rural women.] If it was summer she went out to the creek and washed herself.Then she walked up the mountain. She told me not to tell anyone.Walking in the mountains healed her. People would come, such as women who had no children.This was such fun to watch! She would put her hand on a person’s chest and tell them everything. Later they would come back happy.Women would get pregnant. I don’t know what she did, but it worked. Grandmother accepted gifts but no money.And she gave away the gifts. Once a certain woman came – she wanted her son and his wife to get a divorce because she didn’t like the girl. Grandmother refused.“I don’t do that kind of thing,” she said. Two parts of Alisa’s story correspond with what I have heard from other people. Irina Kidiekova speaks of a woman named Tanai who lived in the village of Khalarlar.³⁴ She was not called a shaman but she must have been something like that. People came to her from all Khakassia.When Irina was small this woman massaged her belly so that she would be able to have children when she grew up.Another woman told of a shaman who refused to cause a divorce from her abusive husband, but who did help her to reach the point where she left the marriage on her own. Alisa recalls what her grandmother taught about the importance of trees in the connection of human beings with nature. I remember one day when we all got up early. On the mountain there was a sacred larch tree.When we gathered berries there we always threw some three times to the tree as an offering. Suddenly this one morning,

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neighbours came knocking on our window saying that people from another village wanted to cut that tree down for firewood. Our whole village gathered – there was nearly a war! Those others were also Khakassians but they laughed and said that our beliefs were all superstition and they cut down the tree.Women cried.My grandmother said to them,“You did a bad thing.”And soon after that their house was struck by lightning and the whole family died. Why did the Soviets kill the shamans? The shamans knew that people feed on contact with nature. Every child’s soul is connected to a tree. If you cut that tree down, the child will die.The Khakass knew where you could cut a tree, and what prayers to say.And where the clan trees grew, which must not be touched.³⁵ That’s why the shamans did not permit people to touch the forests and rivers.The Soviets looked for material things only.There was an ideological war. And even now many people relate to things the same way. Only now people are beginning to understand that we have lost our contact with nature. Shamanism is based on this.The whole world needs to save the earth. If the land is healthy, people and spirits will be healthy. Here is the story that Alisa has produced in the theatre. the voice of the mountain spirit Grandmother once told a story about a time when nothing was left on earth. All the animals and birds had died out.The only people still alive were an old man and an old woman.When they had nothing to eat and nowhere to get warm, they went up to the high rocky mountains and found a place where there was a cliff over a steep ravine.They wanted to throw themselves in.They wanted to die. But before leaping to their death they stopped to remember.“Why did this happen?”they asked themselves.The old woman cried and said,“What is this punishment for? What did we do? Why did all our children die? There was no war – why did they die? All our clan, all our people.” At last they felt ready. But just as they were about to jump they heard the cry of a child.They ran, following the sound, and found a baby boy. They took him home and brought him up. One day the child was crying and couldn’t be calmed. The door opened by itself.They didn’t see anyone and were afraid.A mountain spirit came in and took the old man by the neck. “You need to worship the fire,” he said.“You and the child together.”

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When a child is born the first thing we must do is to worship the fire. In this way we strengthen the soul of the small child. Otherwise the child will either get sick or die.And so the mountain spirit made them do that ritual together as it should be done. The old people discovered that they had forgotten their customs and where they came from. Just the way things are today. The boy grew up and wanted to get married. The boy was goodlooking and sang well.He saw a mountain girl,the daughter of the masterspirit of the mountain. He fell in love and wanted to marry her. But his parents were against it. “If I don’t marry her I will die,” he said. He went to the mountain. The girl said,“If your parents come to my mountain and ask forgiveness, then I will marry you.” In every land there is a sacred mountain. In every mountain there is a master-spirit, sometimes male, sometimes female. But today again the masters of the mountains are forgotten. “People stopped believing in me and accepted other spirits,” said the master-spirit.“Worst of all,you say that people are strongest of all.I,nature, am stronger. But you have burned my breast – the great forests.You have changed the course of my rivers and dirtied my eyes, the clear lakes.You forgot me and threw away what I gave you.You became foreign and that’s why you started to die.”³⁶ At last the parents gave in.They came and bowed to the master of the mountain. He came out and gave his blessing. And those young people became the ancestors of the Khakass people. We were born from the mountain. Today again we must remember the mountain spirits and a new tribe will be born. ▼

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Shamans enter a parallel spiritual world during ceremonies – one they describe themselves, as do traditional tellers of epic and tale.This world has its own mountains and rivers and the stories and shamanic poetry show us its road maps. It goes beyond the world we experience with our physical senses, but its geography seems concrete when encountered by story characters and it is peopled with many sorts of beings.This is just one way that shamanic tales recount a history parallel to that recorded by science. Tales begin by recalling the creation of our world: “This happened longer ago than the earliest times, more ancient than the most ancient times, earlier than the most distant of remembered times when the beginnings were just beginning. Let us count the wonders of those days. Let us look over the earth and sky, the mountains and valleys to see what was there in those faroff golden times.The great milk lake Süt-khöl was just a pond in those days and the sacred mountain Sümber-ula was a small hill. People and animals still understood each other’s language in those pleasant days.The camel’s tail still trailed along the ground and the horns of the mountain sheep reached into the lowest layer of heaven.The bushes grew thick and looked like herds of animals.The great inland sea, like a world of water, was still just a droplet in those golden times.”¹ This parallel world reflects the physical world in many ways. Tuva and Khakassia are lands of great beauty – from the immensity of the sky to the rolling steppe-land dotted with fresh and saltwater lakes to the jagged mountains with their forests, caves, and overhanging cliffs.The land is fragrant with grasses and alive with the sounds of birdsong and wind. In epics I read of the red steppe and the green and golden steppes, thinking the colours were symbolic. As I travelled to the village of Aryg-Bazhy and sat in the yellowing grasses listening to Andrei Chuldum-ool tell stories, I saw

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that they were real. Stories find spirits living in every rock and tree, and in the earth, water, and sky. Tuvan shaman Ai-Churek Oyun holds workshops for medical practitioners and the general public in Italy as well as teaching new shamans at home. She goes out with her students early in the morning to listen to the birds and the mountain streams, sense the quality of the air, and feel the energy of the trees and earth. All this is available for healing.When one is standing quietly or making sounds to harmonize with these energies, the line between the spiritual and physical worlds disappears.

Three Worlds Most outsiders say that Siberian peoples conceive of three worlds: one in the sky, one that is the earth on which we live, and another below the earth.² But while foreign scholars and many indigenous people themselves talk about three worlds, shamans say there are more – and this is clearly reflected in epics and magic tales, as well as in shamanic poetry.To begin with, the worlds under the land and water are separate, and the land of the dead is yet another direction. Since nomadic peoples emphasize movement more than location, all of these worlds seem more like directions than fixed places. Each layer of cloud forms a world,inhabited by different spirits and deities. Ethnographer Dmitry Funk, referring to recordings of shamanic poetry, describes five worlds in the mythology of the Teleut, Khakassia’s neighbours to the southwest. Besides the earth and sky, and the worlds of evil and death under the ground, they include a world of the imagination and a world of pure truth, each peopled by deities (Funk , –). The number of worlds and layers varies from people to people and even from one individual to another.Some layers are inhabited by deities such as the sun and the moon. Under the influence of Buddhism, the number of worlds and layers in Tuva has increased tremendously – we hear of thirty-three and ninety-nine worlds. In addition to their vertical arrangement, the worlds correspond to the cardinal directions – life and warmth in the south, death in the north, as well as the directions of the sun’s rising and setting. People living in the steppe might be more likely to see the worlds in this horizontal way, following the movement of the great rivers, while mountain people look more at the vertical.³ Bearing in mind that the description is imprecise, let’s look in more detail at the three worlds and their deities.

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Upper (Sky) Worlds (Tuvan üstüü oran⁴) Tuvan musicians touring North America complain of two things more than anything else – one is the lack of fresh meat and the other is that they can’t see the stars. I used to tell them that these complaints could be remedied by spending time away from the bright lights of the city. Between two folk music festivals in Canada, I invited them to my home in rural British Columbia,where they slaughtered a sheep in the traditional way and ate their fill of fresh meat.⁵ We sat on the beach as night fell, and I pointed out that here at last they could see the stars. But no, they said, this was still not like Tuva. That fall I saw the Tuvan stars for the first time. It was in the south, where we stopped to spend the night with nomadic herders in their felt yurt. Late in the evening I went outdoors and stopped suddenly in my tracks. I had never seen anything like the array of stars that shone so brightly there.The milky way was pure white and there were so many stars that it was hard to pick out familiar constellations. I had to admit it – the musicians were right. Steppe dwellers understandably pay a lot of attention to the sky, which is such a constant and impressive presence in their lives.The daytime sky is just as stunning as the starry night – huge, bright blue, and filled with fabulous cloud formations. Magnificent in good weather, the sky can be terrifying as storms rage, bringing thunder, lightning, and high winds.The steppe nomads have probably always done more rituals directed to the sky than have the peoples of the mountains and the forest. But under the ancient Turks (from the sixth to the eighth century) this reverence for the sky took the form of a state religion, with the kagan, or khan, performing the functions of a priest. Sky rituals were conducted annually, with prayers for success in war and in daily life, and for fertility for people and their herds of livestock. The priests of the heavenly religion took over many of the functions of shamans (some say they were shamans), who generally turn their attention at least as much to the earth, fire, and the lower worlds as to the sky.The Turks and their religion also consolidated the hold of patriarchy on people whose lives had previously been more egalitarian. Women warriors are remembered and praised in what folklorists call the earliest form of the epic (which recalls pre-Turkic times, when the Indo-Iranians and Scythians left mummies of female warriors and priestesses).The earth goddess Umai was then a more important part of the pantheon.Women may have been the tellers of epics in the past.This would make emotional sense, since the stories feature so many powerful women. But with the ascendency of the Turks, men took greater control of public life. After the ancient Turks came the Kirghiz, or Khakass empire, whose people were also followers of the heavenly religion.They in turn fell to the

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The vastness and fascination of the ever-changing sky of the steppe led to sky worship.

Mongol warrior states, and their religion was no longer that of the state, which had ceased to exist (Kostiakov , ). At this time shamans returned to ascendency in the lives of ordinary people, where they had probably continued to practise all along. But the sky maintained pride of place and,right up until the present time,Turkic shamans have oriented their rituals much more to the sky than have other Siberian peoples. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women were not allowed on the sacred mountains, nor could they conduct the horse sacrifice, another male ritual oriented to the sky. Some say that female shamans are unable to go to the upper world and women may not attend certain sky ceremonies. Now nobody does the horse sacrifice and female shamans do take part in mountain rituals, although female non-shamans do not. Upper-world deities bring good luck in hunting and the blessings of good weather.They include the ancient Ulgen and Kudai, who date back to the story of the ducks who created the world by diving to bring up mud from the bottom of the sea.⁶ One of the ducks turned into the sky god Ulgen, who is the polar opposite to Erlik of the lower world. In his role as creator, Ulgen has something in common with the Chayaan, creator spirits. Irina Kidiekova told me that each person has a Chayaan spirit who lives on the ninth layer of heaven and may come down to us in the form of inspiration. As in most sacred indigenous tales, the world was not created out of chaos,

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as it was in the Judeo-Christian creation story, nor is one sex superior to the other. The main Tuvan deity of the upper world is Kurbustu-khan, whose name may be a form of the Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda. He rules much of what happens on earth,using the thunder to enforce his wishes.In one Tuvan epic, a younger hero journeys to the upper world and finds himself riding along the very body of Kurbustu-khan. Another upper-world deity is the bear, who lends strength to people on earth. Kenin-Lopsan told me that the sacred Tuvan mountain Khaiyrakan is associated with the bear deity, who comes from the upper world. The male upper-world deities have daughters, who often come down to earth in the form of swans. If a young man (such as Ösküs-ool in the tale at the end of this chapter) is clever enough to steal the girl’s swan feathers while she has taken them off to bathe in a lake, he may marry her and be blessed with her wisdom and fertility. She is called “the wise princess” in tales, and at times she may send her husband back to the upper world to ask favours of her father. But she never goes back herself. Another important upper-world deity is the dragon.Whether this image was imported from China is a contentious question, but he is well established in all of Siberia and the Far East. In the Khakass view, a flying snake is a symbol of good, a protector of life and death (Anzhiganova b, ). The following Tuvan story of the dragon combines cosmological myth with the lore of specific places and families and with healing practices valuable for people and livestock. It is possible that the people were finding dinosaur bones. the dragon descended from the sky⁷ I have heard much about the dragon since my early childhood. It’s my father’s story. He died at the age of seventy-one, and his name was Khertek Bodagan.This is what he told me. A dragon lives in the sky.When the dragon wags its tail, lightning can be seen in the dark sky. Fleas can be seen in the spring, which old people say are the dragon’s fleas.The dragon’s fleas are not like sheep’s fleas.They don’t defecate the food they eat, but vomit it through the mouth.The dragon’s fleas suck blood and vomit it out through the mouth. Sheep’s fleas defecate.That is the difference between them. Sheep’s fleas don’t do any harm to the animal itself. However, dragon’s fleas are very dangerous and harmful for the animal. Horses scratch themselves with their mouths. If the horse kills the dragon flea while

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scratching, the flea’s poisoned blood gets into the horse and the horse may die. If the flea bites a horse it may also die.The dragon’s flea is very dangerous for sheep, horses, cows, and people. In summer the dragon dwells in the sky, and in winter it sleeps under the earth, where it remains for the duration of the winter. In spring, when the snow melts and the weather becomes warm, the dragon flies up to the sky once more. In ancient times, they say, a dragon fell near Bai-Taiga mountain on the left bank of the Khemchik river.The dragon died in that place.The dragon-that-fell-from-the-sky’s bones remained there. That is why the people of that place called it Kööp-Söök. If you dig one metre deep in that place, you can see the dragon’s bones. Our people from the Khemchik district take a piece of dragon’s bone and make a powder from it, using it as a medicine for those who break their legs or arms. My father kept powder of dragon’s bone in a small bag and used it as a medicine. It was very good for broken legs or arms.They say that the story about the dragon-that-fell-from-the-sky, Kööp-Söök, is a true one. ▼

Lower Worlds The lower worlds are rarely mentioned in Turkic stories and shamanic poetry, partly because of the concentration on the sky but also because of the dangers involved in a downward journey.(Ironically,the land under the water is actually easier to reach, since it is available in every lake and river, but the danger of drowning is ever-present.) The land of the dead, located under the earth, is described as dark and watery, pale, and cold. Everything there is the opposite of the way it is here – our summer is their winter,things are upside down. What is broken here is whole there and vice versa. The houses are less comfortable than the earthly yurt, since they have square corners that collect dirt and disorder, which in turn attract lower world spirits.That is why it is so important to keep the house clean. Some people describe crossing a river on a very narrow bridge, as do those in many cultures when speaking of journeying to the underworld (Anzhiganova b, –). The ability to create beautiful and useful objects is considered a sacred gift, passed on by hereditary spirits. Metals are associated with the lower world, and the blacksmith is highly respected as having similar skills to a shaman.⁸ The master there is Erlik-khan, who originated as co-creator of the world along with Ulgen. He is reputed to have been the first blacksmith, creating evil spirits from iron.Although secrecy is more attached to mascu-

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The Yenisei River in Tuva, not far from its source in the confluence of the Bii-khem and Kaa-khem.

line arts, like that of the smith, even sewing is mentioned in shamanic invocations.⁹ Worlds under the water are not quite as terrifying as those under the earth. In one Tuvan tale the hero Ösküs-ool is taken there to be rewarded for his kindness to a golden fish. At his request the Master of the Golden Lake rewards him with a puppy, which turns into a beautiful woman when she starts to live on earth. She marries the young man and gives him great blessings (Van Deusen , –).The master of the underwater world and Ösküs-ool’s adventures in his realm are similar to tales about the master of Lake Baikal and may have the same origins, coming to Tuva via Mongolia. The Khakass say that the water spirit (sug eezi) looks like a naked woman combing her golden hair with a golden comb. If you find the comb, it is very good luck. In the past people made sacrifices to the water spirit at the banks of lakes and rivers, the borders of that world (L’vova et al. , ). Since all fish come from the lower, underwater world, many Turkic people do not like to eat them.

Middle World (Tuvan ortaa oran; Khakass sunny world¹⁰) The middle world is vast as the open steppe, high as the mountains, deep as an underground cave – all inhabited by the great earth goddess, called

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Umai in many Turkic languages and Chir Su in Khakass (Anzhiganova b, .)¹¹ Tuvans do not use the name Umai, but make invocations to the spirit of the earth. In the Khakass pantheon a related goddess called Ymai lives in the heavens and sends the souls of children to earth.The middle world is home to human beings, animals, and spirits both good and evil. Umai is known for her wisdom.As mother of the earth,the figure of Umai may date back at least as far as the paleolithic period, when female figurines were produced along the Lena River (Nahodil , ). In later times she was known as the protectress of mothers and children, and also accompanied the dead to the next world, which is one of the important shamanic activities (Potapov , ). Like nomadic people,Turkic deities do not always stay in one place. It sometimes happens that when a hero like Tuvan Ösküs-ool flies to the upper world, he meets the little old woman of the earth, living in a small dirt hut. Kotozhekov told me that Umai lives on one of the layers of heaven. No one knows how this has come to be,but it may be that as people began to worship the upper world almost exclusively, they were loath to part with the beloved goddess of the earth and took her with them to the upper world in much the same way that Catholics have taken the Virgin Mary to their hearts and elevated her status to replace pagan goddesses. Khertek Okaan Maga-Shuruyevich told Kenin-Lopsan about his grandmother and her relationship to the spirit of the earth.

If there were no women, the human race would end, so they say. If the earth did not exist, no life could arise, so they say.The elderly people of our region are very faithful to the cult of the earth. Every morning my grandmother made a sacrifice to the earth, sprinkling fresh tea with her nine-eyed spoon. She turned to the high mountains Taigalar and to all the forests and rivers. She prayed with these words:“Mother earth, I ask you to give us happiness. Mother earth, I ask you to give us success. Mother earth, I ask you to protect my native village.”¹² ▼ The nature of sacred places and their spirits is contained in the Khakass word yzykh (Tuvan ydyk), which has a broad range of meanings, including the sacred in general and animals that are set aside as protectors or healers, not to be slaughtered or worked.¹³ As we wandered the hills of Khakassia, Petya Topoev explained the concept in greater detail. He began with the idea of sacrifice and sacred animals,which bring people benefits through their direct

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relationship with the spirits.The mountains are not only sacred in themselves, he says, but are also places for bloodless sacrifice, when animals are not slaughtered but simply set aside. sacred animals yzykh A poor man went to work for a bai (rich man). An old woman advised the poor man that in payment, the bai would offer him whatever he wanted. She said he should ask for a certain small sheep, and he did.The bai didn’t understand why the man made such a small request, but he gave him the sheep. From then on the poor man’s livestock increased and the rich man’s herds decreased.The old woman was one who understood the language of the animals.She had heard them talking.The sheep was saying “Too bad the people don’t know that I am the one who carries their happiness on my back.”This was a sacred animal. Once such animals are identified, people don’t kill them, ride them, or even touch them.This guarantees the survival and increase of their herds.¹⁴ ▼ The milk lake Süt-khöl is famous all over the Turkic regions as a specifically female image, reminding us of the nourishment and purity of milk. In tales the lake is high on the sacred mountain Sümber-ula, which exists only in myth.The Tuvan Süt-khöl is high on a mountain in the west. Owing to geological formations and the way the light falls on the water, the lake appears white. Süt-khöl is one of the most sacred places in Tuva, and there are milk lakes in other parts of the Turkic world as well. Until fairly recent times, women used to go to caves to pray for fertility. Caves were Umai’s home in the mountain, connecting her to life under the earth. Sometimes the women would not go to the caves themselves, but would send a shaman to represent them. Under the influence of Buddhist lamas, people came to see Tuvan caves as the homes of evil spirits (Sagalaev , ). Mountain caves are places of transformation, combining the energies of all three worlds. A cave opens onto this middle world from underground and yet is located high in the mountains, allowing connection with the sky. People frequently meet upper-world deities, such as the white-haired old man Ak Sakal (or Aksal) in caves.¹⁵ Altyn Aryg, heroine of the Khakass epic of the same name, was born in a cave, like many others. In some stories a cave is a place of transformation, and in epics the parents of hero and heroine often hide special clothing and tools in caves to be found when their children need them.

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Ancient cave “Irgi” in northern Khakassia, where people have carried out rituals for more than , years.

Kotozhekov told me that some children he knows used to pass the cave near Üstegei Mountain (not far from Abakan) frequently while going from one village to another.“In that cave at a certain time of day the sun shines on the floor of the home of the mountain spirit. Once the children went into this cave and found a skeleton sitting with a book on its lap.The book had strange writing in it. Later adults came back and found no skeleton, just a pile of bones; no book, but faint marks on the walls. Possibly the children saw the skeleton and the book because they needed the information. Or maybe they entered another time period. After that, the older people wouldn’t let anyone go there.” In  I visited the cave that shaman Tania Kobezhikova had told me about when I first arrived in Khakassia the year before, suffering from sunstroke. It was in a different part of Khakassia from Salbyk, further to the northwest.The cave is called Irgi (old) and has been used by human beings for as much as , years as a place for rituals. I was terrified when I saw the tiny opening we were to descend through. Inside it was completely dark and our flashlights were unreliable.We did a ritual of rebirth, circling around through the interior of the mountain, listening to the profound silence underground, and tasting “moon milk,” a white mineral deposit that drips from the walls.

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A Tuvan family standing beside their yurt in southern Tuva, near the Mongolian border.

The Home and Transition among the Worlds Turkic philosophy balances macrocosm and microcosm.Worlds that poetry and tale describe in the sky, on the earth, and under it are reflected in a traditional dwelling and in the human body and psyche. I’m reminded of iridology and reflexology, and the amazing fact that all of our body’s organs are reflected in the iris of the eye, on the soles of our feet, and on the palms of our hands. The very placement and set-up of a traditional dwelling reflects the cosmos and the inner spiritual world.A felt yurt has a male side to the left of the door as one enters, and a female side to the right. (In Turkic languages, they are named by cardinal directions. It is simply accepted knowledge that men sit and keep their things on one side and women use the other.) Places are also set aside for the very young near the door and for the very old in the place of honour opposite the door.The yurt is oriented with the door to the sunrise, which is to the east in most places but south or south-east in Mongolia and southern Tuva.You can tell the time of day by the movement of sun and shadow over the poles holding up the central roof-ring.The roof

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of a yurt is associated with the upper world, and it is considered bad luck if a lower-world animal, such as a dog, gets onto the roof (L’vova et al. , ).A shaman often describes beginning a visionary journey by going out through the smoke-hole. The hearth is a similar point of entry to the lower world. It is also a place of protection for women, who can hide there from attack by people or evil spirits. In the Tuvan epic Kang-kys an old woman and the baby who grows up to be the tale’s heroine survive an attack, where absolutely everything else is destroyed, by hiding in the hearth (Van Deusen , ).This protection comes from the fire goddess, whom women serve both as shamans and in everyday life. The threshold is an important transitional zone between the inside world of family and clan and the outside world of strangers. It is forbidden to sit there, because the spirit of the threshold is the family’s protector and must be honoured by guests as well as family members.The poor and the sick were not allowed to come in beyond the threshold (Anzhiganova , ). It is possible to cross from one world to another in other places besides the smoke-hole and hearth: caves, lakes, trees, and the tops of mountains, for example. People often build ritual sites near mountaintops and at the passes between one valley and the next.Trees are especially important, since their roots are in the lower world, their trunks in this world, and their branches reach into the upper world. In open country where there are no trees, the hitching post takes their place – often carved with three divisions to represent the three worlds.This symbolic use of the hitching post recalls the relationship between people and horses and the animal’s sacred nature. Human beings travel to the upper world flying on birds, or by crossing the rainbow, as does the orphan hero Ösküs-ool in the story “Ösküs-ool and Dilgizhek,” where a fox helps the young man to marry the daughter of Kurbustu-khan of the upper world (Van Deusen , –). Special arrows also serve as messengers. Kenin-Lopsan told me,“The arrow flies over the earth and through the heavens and the stars to find the place where the enemies are.And when it finds them it annihilates them and then comes back. The arrow tells the shaman either ‘I defeated the enemy’ or ‘I was unable to defeat the enemy.’” Many families keep special arrows as records of their history and as protectors for their children.With the birth of each new child, something is added,a scrap from the baby’s clothing or some other memento. Kenin-Lopsan also said that at the child’s first haircut, relatives would attach something to the arrow, showing what they promised the child in terms of gifts or care in case the parents died.

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The Soul Spiritual worlds also exist inside each person, and a voyage to another world may be like a voyage on the astral plane or through the human body. If we think of movement between worlds as a change in consciousness, then recall of upper and lower worlds can mediate between the physical and the spiritual inside us, or between different levels of consciousness.The use of our inner senses, developed by listening to stories, poetry, and music, helps in this crossover. The many layers of the upper and lower worlds may correspond to chakras or energy centres in a human being.¹⁶ Kotozhekov sees the familiar seven chakras as relating to the middle world,while chakras above and below them relate to the upper and lower worlds respectively. On the other hand, Tuvans told ethnographer Sevyan Vainshtein about the correspondence of the three worlds with parts of the body: the upper world above the waist, the middle world in the area around the waist, and the lower world below (Vainshtein , ). Spirit beings may enter and meet with what Westerners think of as different parts of our psychological and spiritual selves. Indigenous people call them multiple souls.Khakassians describe khut as the life force that comes into the body at birth from the milk lake. (The word also means embryo.) It is characteristically clean.Although it may leave the body temporarily at night,its final loss means death.Whole clans and peoples have their own khut. The sür soul is connected to the physical body, staying with the bones even after death. Tyn is the breath, whose movement comes to us from the wind. When tyn leaves the body it stays attached by a thread, as in the story of “Ösküs-ool and the daughter of Kurbustu-khan” at the end of this chapter. Chula is the astral body or “fire of the eyes,” which may leave the body at night and wander around as a shiny figure. (Also called kharakh ody, it brings back information from its journeys.) Khakass elders K. Kobelkova and Kada Kazachinova told Galina Kazachinova that a human being has seven khut souls, which may be lost or stolen one by one, and that when all are gone, the person dies (Kazachinova and Van Deusen ). Sagys is a person’s reason, which stays near the family for forty days after death. Süne is the soul of a dead person, which stays one year on earth and then becomes a spirit called üzüt in another world. Sus is a sun’s ray that carries the child’s soul. In addition, a shaman has another soul called myg’yra, located in the clan tree. One shaman can kill another if he or she finds and swallows it. Every clan (seok or söök) has a soul located in a certain kind of tree. It is forbidden for clan members to cut that tree or to make things from the wood.¹⁷

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Women always cover their heads when ascending a mountain.There are various explanations for this.One is that the hair contains a part of the human soul, and showing it puts the woman at risk. Evil spirits could get tangled in her hair and then take possession of her soul. Another related explanation is that the hair contains an erotic force that will tempt the mountain spirits to abduct the women. Certainly many stories tell of women abducted by mountain spirits. Kazachinova and Tatarova talk about several other customs having to do with hair. Sos toiy is a ritual for rebraiding the hair. If a husband died, his wife unbraided the ends of her hair.After a year had gone by, if she married again, she braided the ends together again to make a circle. (It was assumed that after a year the husband’s soul would have reincarnated, so that there was no reason to grieve for him any longer.) A live person always braids the hair by carrying the strands under, but for the dead they bring them over. Hair contains the soul (khut ) of the clan. One must not lose it or throw any away. Hair that has been cut off is saved and placed in the person’s grave. This protects the soul.Today most Khakass wear contemporary hairstyles, but some men wear headbands and women still cover their heads when approaching the mountains. Tuvans have a similar understanding of the soul: Kut is the life force,¹⁸ tyn is the animating force of the body, chula can leave the body and may be seen by others, and sünezin is the soul that is left after death and can turn into an evil spirit if not properly dealt with (Mänchen-Helfen , ). These souls may be stolen by spirits and taken to any of the worlds, so that simply finding them is one of the factors complicating the shaman’s work. Kenin-Lopsan tells this story about the human soul.

A member of the person’s family sees the form of a person who died when they come to one of their old living places.The form disappears immediately. Maybe it has not even been seen as a whole.The form says that someone is being called.The person runs home and tells everyone.They call in the shaman to do a ceremony so that this dead person will not appear again and call. Each person has one soul that does not die and it can appear to other people. ▼ Some of these souls have sites in the body. Kazachinova and Tatarova say that to protect the tyn soul, Khakass women cover the area of the lungs with a pog’o, a ritual shield that is usually decorated with beadwork designs. (Today the pog’o has become a popular article of jewellery.) Syn is a place at the top

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of the head, an area of truth. Men wear a headband and women tie a scarf around to protect this area and the spiritual third eye located in the middle of the forehead.Another form of protection for this area is ear-piercing,done at the age of one year. Some contemporary Khakass refer to these areas in terms of chakras: tyn associated with the fourth; syn with the sixth and seventh. Men also protect their third chakras with a symbol on their belts woven of seven colours. I’ve been told that women do not need this one, while men do not require the protection of the pog’o on the fourth.

Spirits The world we live in is populated not only with people and animals, but also with spirit beings invisible to the eye. They can be good, evil, or changeable. Spirits are in the forces of nature, wind, water, and fire, and in specific locations. As a fire can warm the home or burn it down, as water can nourish or drown you, many of these spirits can either help or hinder human beings, depending on our relationship with them. People are also affected by the spirits of their ancestors, both genetic and those acquired through reincarnation.These are often the helping spirits of shamans, as are the spirits of mountains, animals, and the forces of nature. In the Western world opinions about whether spirits actually exist or not vary widely. Those with a rationalist education tend to think of spirits as metaphors and symbols, either of forces within ourselves or of physical powers and events in the outside world. Indigenous people, at least those with a traditional upbringing, say spirits are real. Many devout Christians in Russia also believe in evil powers and their dangers, although these are quite different from those indigenous people describe. Shamanism has been most closely studied by anthropologists thoroughly grounded in the rationalist view, so they often reinterpret what shamans tell them to fit a pattern in which spirits do not exist as physical entities. As opposed to the “hands-off ” approach to anthropological research in the past, in recent years some researchers have allowed their own view to be cracked open – often through the use of hallucinogens – by spiritual realities that indigenous people inhabit.¹⁹ Some are practitioners of healing arts in which they have direct contact with spirit beings. Others relate meetings with spirits to experiences in the dream world. Anthropologist Jeremy Narby outlines research that began with the visions of South American shamans under the influence of the hallucinogenic ayahuasca and leads to the latest scientific findings on the structure of dna language. He shows the very strong probability that the shamans are

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Bactrian camels in southern Tuva.

actually seeing the structure of their own dna and that of the plants whom they call their teachers.This leads Narby to see that the shamans are relating literal truth when describing their “visions,” a truth that science is only now catching up with.What keeps Westerners from understanding this world, he says, is not layers of metaphor and symbol, but our own scientific blinders (Narby ).

Spirits of Place As described by Tuvans and Khakassians, the spirits of place bring health and well-being, or bad luck in hunting, depending on how they are treated.They can be male, female, young or old, human or animal. On my travels with Turkic people, we have stopped at mountain passes, sacred springs and trees, and clan poles to leave offerings to the spirits of place – strips of cloth attached to trees or offerings of food, tobacco, and money. By stopping we give ourselves space to experience the energies of the place we are entering and the transition that comes with travelling. At mountain passes where there are no trees, people create an ovaa, or pyramid of stones, also in honour of the spirits of place.This custom was one of the first things to revive after the Soviet era and by now is so popular that tea and shish-kebab stands have opened at the mountain passes to accommodate travellers. Stories about the spirits of place demonstrate old beliefs in contemporary settings, showing their strength in defeating the evils of modern life. I heard this story about how asbestos was mined in Tuva and damaged many sacred places from Tuvan Republican Museum director Anatolii S. Kombu in .

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Stopping to honour the spirits at the highest pass on the road from Abakan to Kyzyl through the Sayan Mountains.

saving the mountain Twelve workers went to White Mountain in the Erzin region of southern Tuva to take asbestos. In the night all twelve of them saw and heard beautiful girls who came down from the mountain singing.Then a woman on a white horse came down the mountain and spoke to them in an incomprehensible language.They all got the idea that they should go away and leave that mountain undisturbed.And so they did. ▼

Mountain Spirits Mountain spirits are sometimes understood as being part of the geography itself, but at other times they appear in human form.They are larger than people, often dressed in grand but old-fashioned clothing. They have no eyebrows. In tales they often bring gifts of wealth and creativity, especially to hunters who sing and tell stories in the forest.²⁰ And yet their gifts are problematical. One who receives such a gift often loses family and friends. Galina Kazachinova assures me that, even if the story does not tell of such a loss, in traditional society everyone would understand that punishment would come later. As we will see in the tale of the “Bright Man and the Hunter” (chapter ) there are both yellow and black mountain spirits.The yellow is helpful and the black harmful.

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Kazachinova tells a tale about the spirit of the Sunduki mountains. the spirit of sunduki A stone trunk can be seen at the top of one mountain.²¹ It has two internal divisions – one contains the water of life and the other the water of death. There was one warrior who was called Silig-ool, the beautiful, although inside he was ugly, with a bad character.Wounded in war, he came to the magic trunk to heal his wound. But the trunk would not open. He broke a birch tree, thinking that this was a pure and sacred tree that people use in rituals and that surely it would help him. He tried to pry the mountain open, but succeeded only in making a crack. He had no more strength. He reached into the crack with one hand, washing it first with the water of death and then with the water of life. It healed up. He would have been able to heal himself completely, but he had forgotten to ask permission of the master of Sunduki mountain. He had also cut the birch without asking.The master of the mountain didn’t like to help people who were not kind.The bark of that tree stayed there on the mountain, and people say you can still see it to this day. ▼

Spirits of Fire Anyone who has ever lived with a wood stove understands how fire comes to occupy a central place in the home, which Tuvans say is analogous to the position of the mother in the family. Like most nomadic dwellings, the yurt is round, with the hearth in the middle, providing warmth and cooked food. In Tuva the circular iron pot-stand is called the fire goddess’s belt.In the Tuvan epic Kang-kys a scene of destruction where an old woman and a baby survived under the hearth is described as being so complete that not even a potstand was left,which signifies that everything created by civilization had been destroyed.²²The Khakass fire deity Ot inei protects, cleanses, and helps people in crossing between the worlds (Anzhiganova b, ). A Turkic bride’s first act in her new home is to light the fire in the hearth, while a common expression for getting married is “to share one fire.” From one end of Siberia to the other people feed the fire ceremonially with a portion of their own food and tea both on formal occasions and as an everyday ritual before eating. In the Tuva of the past a woman shaman would carry out a ritual consecration of the fire every year. The sun provides light and warmth to the earth in the same way that the fire does to the home.The Altai believe that children (their sus soul) are sent to earth by Umai along the sun’s rays (Sagalaev , ). Here is what Tuvan

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elder Mongush Korgen-ool told Kenin-Lopsan about The Sun, our Mother. The ritual is very similar to the one done to the earth.

My grandmother always got up before sunrise.When the dawn began, my grandmother brewed the morning tea. She poured it into a wooden bucket and took the tos-karak (literally nine-eyes, a wooden spoon with nine indentations) in her hands. She sprinkled fresh tea first into the fire and then, going out of the yurt, she turned to the sun, making a sacrifice of tea. Quietly she spoke these prayerful words in the rhythm of the sprinkling of the tea with the nine-eyed spoon:“I thank you, fire deity, for you are sacred. I thank you, sun-mother, for you are sacred” (Kenin Lopsan , ). ▼ The idea that the sun is female may seem odd to Westerners but KeninLopsan explains a logic that also shows why the moon is seen as male.During the day the sun is always in the sky, just as a woman is almost always in the yurt. But at night the moon is not always visible, just as the man may often be away from home hunting or with the herds (Kenin-Lopsan , ).

Evil Spirits While the forces of nature can be both beneficial and harmful to human beings, certain spirits are always harmful. Some of them may be the spirits of discontented ancestors and others appear from unknown sources.Vera Diakonova emphasizes that they are very much beings of this middle world (Diakonova , ). Every yurt has protective amulets against such spirits. It’s interesting that most of these harmful spirits attract people by singing. One of the most famous Tuvan evil spirits is the albys, who looks like a woman with long hair. But she has no back; all her innards are visible from behind. She lives in sandy, rocky places and has a beautiful singing voice that attracts people. Some say she has a husband and a daughter, others say that she is a girl who refused to marry. An albys can also appear as a horseman whose beautiful singing enchants a woman.The albys can enter a person and drive that person crazy.The victim then likes to go to an isolated place where the first meeting with the albys took place and sing or play an instrument. This illness can only be cured by a special shaman. Often such a person in turn becomes a shaman, called albystan khamnaan kham,²³ to indicate where the gift came from.

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Kenin-Lopsan quotes a story about this source of the shamanic gift told to him by A.S. Bair.

In spring when snow melts and grass appears, a lonely person, finding himself in a solitary place, lay down to sleep.²⁴ An albys came when he was sound asleep, caught his kut soul and carried it away.The person, who had become the sacrificial victim of the albys, immediately became sick. From time to time he would fall into a faint or become absent-minded, sometimes losing his mind.A big shaman, for example a heavenly shaman, can win back the soul of a person who gets sick in this way and save his life.The fight between the shaman and the albys concludes with the saved person becoming a shaman. They are called uk chok khamnar (shamans without clan, as opposed to hereditary shamans).The great shaman directs this person on the road to becoming a professional shaman.They can heal sleeplessness and nervous illness, especially in spring and fall.Their ceremony is done in daytime, which is unusual since most shamanic ceremonies take place at night (Kenin-Lopsan , ). ▼ Another well-known Tuvan evil spirit is the shulbus (or female shulbu), who, like the albys, frequently appears in tales. A shulbus can be male or female and can appear to members of the opposite sex.A shulbus has one eye in the middle of its forehead and a big brass nose, and kills people outdoors, especially far from home.They live in mountains and caves and approach people with offers of help. The aza are spirits of illness.They have no body and take human or animal forms.Aza sometimes appear as a blue light that sings beautiful songs.²⁵They might come in through the smoke-hole in the form of the wind. If so, you must spit three times.They might take one of the three souls of a person who has sinned or been frightened on the road and who has not been taken to a see a shaman or lama.They live around graves. Sometimes at the moment of death a person might turn into an aza. The buk have no special dwelling place, but can turn into many kinds of animals, such as a wolf, dog, sable, owl, or camel. Evening twilight is their time. They bring people bad sleep and cause animals to get lost. Usually people move away from those who are having such troubles.The buk can be driven out by a shaman.The buk are both the action of a malicious person and the response.

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Albasty sometimes live with hunters and feed them from their long breasts, which they throw over their shoulders.They also feed the hunters meat from their own ribs, and can turn into a bear, wolf, raven, owl, or cuckoo. The chetker are very evil.They have a physical body. If one takes your soul, you will die, and there is no escape. Chetker can only be seen by a person with double vision: a shaman or a clairvoyant.The soul of a dead person can turn into chet if the funeral ceremonies are not properly observed. In spite of their danger, or maybe because of it, evil spirits are sometimes the source of the shamanic gift.²⁶ I asked ethnographerVera Diakonova “How can a shaman who takes ancestry from evil spirits do good?” She replied that those shamans with ancestry from evil spirits, specifically the albys or almys, have dealings only with the lower world. For example, they accompany the souls of the dead. It’s possible that they might be able to bring back somebody whose soul has already gone to the land of the dead. Sometimes these black shamans can steal a person’s soul and give it to a someone else to save a life. So in this way they are useful, but very dangerous. Some shamans say that taking ancestry from an evil spirit is analogous to the way we become stronger by overcoming difficulties – the difficulties are our teachers and bring us benefits.

Spirit Figures Shamans create figures, called eeren in Tuvan or simply töster (spirits) in Khakass, that represent and even embody their helping spirits.²⁷ Sometimes they have the figures made by artists or inherit them. A person can put a part of his or her soul into the figure, just as we all put part of ourselves into things we make with our hands or use frequently with love.Ai-Churek Oyun speaks passionately to her students of the importance of her eerens and the way they can help her when she needs them.As long as they are ritually fed and cared for regularly, the energy that one has put into them remains concentrated there in a very powerful form. It can come back to the owner and be used to help others.This power of the soul placed in an external object reminds me of folk tales where the hero must find where an enemy keeps his soul in order to destroy it. Often the soul is kept in an object hidden in a cave, but sometimes it is in the body. The popular Tuvan tale that follows illuminates much of the spiritual geography of the Turkic world, as well as the relationships of characters to deities and shamans.The nurturing Umai, the angry upper-world Kurbustu-khan, and Uzutu-khan, master of the underwater world, all appear as characters

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Galina Kazachinova and Larissa Anzhiganova beside the Anzhiganov clan’s ceremonial hitching post.

in the story.The evil Karaty-khan appears in many tales as the hero’s opponent. Like a shaman, Ösküs-ool gains strength through his marriage with the daughter of Kurbustu-khan, master of the upper world. In the beginning Ösküs-ool does not have enough strength to stop the sun and the moon in their travels, but by the end he can enter the upper world and drag them over mountains. The army that Ösküs-ool calls to defeat Karaty-khan is composed of iron men, which resonates with the iron spirits created by Erlik in the lower world, here safely under control and used to the hero’s benefit. The daughter of the upper-world deity Kurbustu-khan comes to earth in the form of a swan-girl. Swans are sacred birds because they mediate all three worlds. She has many shamanic qualities: her ability to call the rain and to transform her body; her knowledge of what will happen; and her control over deities of the upper and lower worlds. She shows the power of clothing in transformation – it is the loss of the swan feathers that commits her to life on this earth and the same swan feathers allow Ösküs-ool to journey to the upper world.A girl who has come from the upper world in the form of a swan uses her feathers to cross between the worlds, just as shamans’ clothing uses feathers,antlers,and other symbols for the same purpose.When made of skins, the clothing takes on the strength of the animal, and deco-

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rations also symbolize protective spirits (Chaussonet , –).To steal clothing is to steal a part of the soul.When an evil spirit impersonates someone, that person loses strength and may even die. Orphans like Ösküs-ool are often the heroes of tales and one of the Tuvan shaman’s most valued spirit figures is the Ösküs-eeren.The image of a thread that connects to the upper and underwater worlds is particularly female, relating to the magic of sewing as protection and art.In magic tales a woman’s sewing gear often protects her in the same way that a man’s hunting tools protect him.Threads are emanations of the soul, which keep human beings connected to this world while journeying to another and recall the umbilical cord. In the Amur region people actually tied ropes around a shaman’s waist when she was going to the land of the dead and pulled her back bodily when she was ready. ösküs-ool and the daughter of kurbustu-khan Once upon a time a poor boy lived in our land. He had neither mother nor father, brother nor sister. He lived all on his own and was happy when people gave him a few leftovers to eat.People called him Ösküs-ool,which means orphan-boy.Alone and homeless he wandered the steppe, catching gophers and mice, anything to fill his hungry belly. One time on the bank of the river Kara-khem,²⁸ the boy saw a wealthy settlement or aal. In the middle was a huge white yurt, so big that nine horses would not have been enough to encircle it. “Who can such a rich aal belong to?” thought Ösküs-ool. “It must belong to a khan. Probably here I’ll get something to eat.” And he went straight to the white yurt. Cautiously he opened the door and timidly he entered.There, just opposite the door, sat a majestic khan on a square black shireh, which is a kind of low table. His wife, the khatun, sat next to him on rugs piled nine high. “Greetings, khan, greetings, khatun,” said the poor boy, and he bowed down to the ground. The khan spoke through his teeth.He didn’t move his lips and he didn’t look at the boy. “What is your name and title? Where is your settlement? Where have you come from and where are you going, you pathetic creature?” “I am Ösküs-ool, a hungry orphan, I go from aal to aal and I eat whatever I am given. In winter I search out the places where there is plenty of bora-byda. In summer I find where there is extra bozha-choitpak,” answered the poor boy.

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[Those are all things to eat and drink. Bora-byda is soup made from grey barley.Bozha is what is left over from making arak,a fermented milk drink. Choitpak is skim sour milk.] “Well, what if I send you to work? Will you go, lazybones?” “When the khan gives orders, the simple person does not refuse,” answered the poor boy. “Then pour yourself some buttermilk in the dog’s dish, have a drink, take the sickle, and go towards the mountain.There I have six fields with six kinds of millet growing on them.You must harvest all the millet while the moon is shining.²⁹ See to it that you do not start working before the moon rises and do not go on working after the moon goes down. If you get done in time you will receive food and clothing.And if you don’t finish in time, watch out! I don’t like loafers.” Ösküs-ool took the sickle and walked toward the mountain. He reached the edge of the field and sat down to wait for the moon to rise. And at last there was the moon, rocking on the comb of the ridge.³⁰ Ösküs-ool started to work.When he had harvested the millet on five fields the moon started to go down behind the ridge. “Stop, my moon, don’t hurry. Wait just a little while, let me finish my reaping.” But the moon hid behind the mountain. Ösküs-ool went back to the khan. “I succeeded in harvesting the millet on only five fields.And then the moon hid himself. I asked him not to go down, to wait just a little while, but all the same he hid himself. I did not work on the sixth field.” “Ah, so you didn’t work? Now you’ll get what you’ve got coming to you!”And the khan lashed the boy with a heavy whip.“Get out! Go where you like, I don’t need idlers here!” Ösküs-ool walked through the steppe weeping. He thought, “If I hadn’t worked for the khan he wouldn’t have beaten me. I’m better off catching gophers.” And so he did. He ate them and kept walking further north. He came to the mouth of the river Kara-khem. On the bank stood a wealthy settlement, and in the middle was a round white yurt, so big that nine horses would not have reached around it. Ösküs-ool approached timidly and opened the door. A majestic khan was sitting there on nine rugs, and the khatun was sitting on four rugs. “Greetings, khan, greetings, khatun,” said the poor boy, and he bowed down to the ground.

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The khan spoke through his teeth,without looking at him and without moving his lips. “What is your name and title? Where is your aal and home? Where do you come from and where are you going, pathetic creature?” “I am Ösküs-ool, a hungry orphan. I go from aal to aal and I eat whatever I am given. In winter I search out the places where there is plenty of bora-byda, and in summer I look for bozha-choitpak, where there is some left over,” answered the poor boy. “Well, what if I send you to work? Will you go, lazy-bones?” “When the khan gives orders the simple person does not refuse,” answered Ösküs-ool. “Then pour yourself some buttermilk in the dog’s dish, have a drink, and then go to my fields. I have six kinds of millet.You must harvest all the millet while the sun is shining. Do not begin the work before sunrise and do not go on working after sundown. If you get done in time you will receive food and clothing. If not, look out for yourself! Idlers must be taught a lesson!” Ösküs-ool took the sickle and went to the khan’s fields. He got to the edge of the field and lay down to sleep so that he could start his reaping first thing in the morning, as soon as the sun came up. When he woke up, there was the sun, rocking on the comb of the mountain range. Ösküs-ool began to work. When he had taken the millet from five fields, the sun began to go down. “Stop, my sun, don’t hurry, wait just a little while, let me finish my work!” But the sun didn’t listen to him, it hid behind the mountain range.A sad Ösküs-ool went back to the khan. “Forgive me, khan, I succeeded in harvesting the millet on only five fields.And then the sun hid herself. I asked her not to go down, to wait a little while, but she hid herself all the same. I didn’t work on the sixth field.” “So, you didn’t work? Well, now you’ll get what you’ve got coming to you!”And the khan lashed him with a heavy whip.“Get out! Go where you like, I don’t need idlers here!” Ösküs-ool walked weeping through the steppe. “I’ll have to catch gophers and fish. It’s better than working for those khans,” he thought.And he caught gophers and ate them and kept going further north. At last he came to an enormous yellow mountain range. From the pass he looked across to the other side and saw a wide yellow valley.Water was sparkling in the middle of the valley.

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“I must get to the lake as quickly as possible,” thought the poor boy. “There I’ll catch some fish and finally get enough to eat.” He went down into the steppe and reached the water, Only then did he realize that what lay before him was the famous Golden Lake,the home of Uzutu-khan, lord of the water, ruler of the underwater world. Suddenly he heard the sound of wings and human voices. “What are people doing here in the middle of the wilderness of the steppe?” he thought, and he hid in the rushes. Three white swans were circling over the lake.They came down not far from Ösküs-ool and suddenly threw off their feather clothing. Ösküsool saw three beautiful young women, who shone with the light of the sun and the moon. They ran into the lake to bathe. Ösküs-ool hid the feather dress of the youngest of them. The young women came out of the water.The older ones put on their swan’s clothing, turned into birds, and soared upwards. But the youngest ran along the shore, looking for her clothes. And then she lay down on the grass and began to cry. “This beautiful girl is crying on account of me,” thought Ösküs-ool, “Because of me her friends have left her behind. Maybe she won’t be able to find the way home by herself. I must give her swan’s clothing back quickly, so she can catch up with her swan-friends.” He came out from the rushes and offered the girl her white feather dress. “Don’t cry,” he said,“Here are your wings. Go and catch up with the white swans.” “You’ve killed me, Ösküs-ool,” said the girl.“Why did you touch my wings with your hands? Now I can’t go home. My father, the great Kurbustu-khan, ruler of the upper world, will say,‘You smell of a person from the bright world’and he won’t open the doors of his yurt to me.My uncle, the celebrated Uzutu-khan,ruler of the underwater world,will say,‘I smell the smell of a person from the bright world on you,’ and he won’t open the doors of his yurt to me.What will I do now? Where will I live? My sisters have flown away.”And she began to weep bitterly. “I have killed the youngest daughter of Kurbustu-khan. I killed the beautiful girl who shines with the light of the sun and the moon,” thought Ösküs-ool.“She used to fly everywhere with her sisters, and now she’s all alone.” And the boy grew thoughtful, as he’d never been thoughtful before; he grieved as he had never grieved before.

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“Don’t cry,” he said at last.“Come with me. I won’t leave you alone. If we die, we’ll die together. If we live, we’ll live together!” She looked him over, and then agreed. They went south. Every fish, every gopher, Ösküs-ool shared with her. At last they arrived at the settlement of Karaty-khan, which stood at the foot of the great mountain range Ulug-Kara-Taiga.The khan’s goods were beyond measure, his livestock beyond counting. “Let’s put our tent beside the khan’s aal,”said Ösküs-ool.“I’ll go to work for the khan, and for my work I’ll ask for the liver and lungs of the livestock they kill for him.” They put up their birchbark tent, and the boy went to the khan. “Why have you come here, ragamuffin?” asked the khan. “I want to work for you,” answered Ösküs-ool.“And for my work all I want is the liver and lungs of the livestock that you eat, the parts that you usually throw away.And I also want milk from your goats.” “No, ragamuffin, you won’t get anything,” said the khan.“We have had no rain for a long time, the grass doesn’t grow, the animals are emaciated. How can there be liver and lungs from such scrawny cattle? How can you get milk from emaciated goats? After all, you can’t make the rain fall, you can’t make thick grass grow so that my livestock will get fat.” Ösküs-ool returned home and told his young wife all about it. “Don’t be sad,Ösküs-ool,”she said.“Go to the khan again,and ask what he’ll give you if you call down the rain, if the grass grows so tall that the khan’s livestock gets lost in it.” “But how am I going to call down the rain?” “That’s not your worry, Ösküs-ool. Go and ask.” He went to the khan again. “What will you give me if I call down the rain, and if the grass grows so high that your livestock gets lost in it?” “If you can do that I will give you goods beyond measure, livestock beyond counting,” said the khan. Ösküs-ool returned to the tent. “The khan promised to give me goods beyond measure and livestock beyond counting!” “Go to the khan again and tell him that you need the wool from a white sheep and a piece of red silk.”³¹ Ösküs-ool went to the khan again and asked for the wool from a white sheep and a piece of red silk. “If you can truly call down the rain, I won’t grudge you anything,” said the khan.

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The poor boy accepted the wool and the silk and took them home. The girl wrote some words on the silk with her finger,³² and made a long white thread from the wool. In the morning she put on her swan’s clothing and flew to the upper world. There, using the white thread, she tied the red silk to a white birch tree.³³ Then she returned to her own tent. The winds began to blow, the sky filled with dark clouds, lightning flashed and rain began pouring down. It poured for three days without a break, then for six days without a stop, then nine days without tiring, and then thirteen days without pausing for breath. It rained for two months. The leaves on all the trees filled out and long juicy grasses grew. Karaty-khan’s multitude of livestock,cows,goats,and horses went out into the grass and got lost in it. And the khan saw that with just a little more rain half of his animals would drown.With just a bit more rain, half of his goods would float away. He was frightened and called his faithful servants, the sharp-eyed informers Bulagachi-khaa and Chechen-khaa. “Run to Ösküs-ool, tell him to stop his rain, we have enough water, my cattle are drowning, my goods are floating away!” shouted the khan. The servants rode to Ösküs-ool and called out to him, without getting down from their horses. “Our khan orders you to stop your rain!” The woman flew to the upper world,untied the red silk from the white birch tree, and the rain stopped. Ösküs-ool went to see the khan. “I’ve come for a reward!” he said. “Yes, you deserve a reward,” said the khan.“You called down the rain, you grew the grasses. Sit down, let’s drink together!” It didn’t take long for Ösküs-ool to get drunk.The khan said,“You’re drunk, and I am drunk.We need to sleep it off.Where would you like to sleep, in my beautiful yurt or in your birchbark tent?” “In my own tent,” answered Ösküs-ool. In the morning when Ösküs-ool came back,the khan was drinking tea. “What are you doing here?” growled the khan. “I’ve come for my reward,” said the poor fellow. “Reward, what reward? Imagine that. This good-for-nothing, who insulted the khan, has come for a reward!” shouted the khan. “Yes, yes,” said the sharp-eyed informer Chechen-khaa, “yesterday this fellow drank and drank, and oh, how he roared!” “And what did this idler say?” asked the khan.

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“He said,‘If the khan doesn’t have a palace made of transparent glass, I don’t consider him a khan at all.’” said Chechen-khaa. “So!” shouted the khan.“You don’t consider me a khan?! Then go find a palace made of transparent glass and bring it to me! Otherwise I’ll cut off your head! Go, go, you won’t receive any reward until I have that glass palace!” The poor man returned home in tears, and told his wife all about it. “Is there a palace of transparent glass in your world?” she asked. “Not only have I never seen such a palace, but I’ve never even heard of one,” answered Ösküs-ool. “Most likely such a palace only exists in the underwater world, where my uncle Uzutu-khan lives, the master of the Golden Lake,” she said. “You’ll have to go to see him. But he too might cut off your head.” “If that’s what has to happen, I’d rather have my head cut off by your uncle Uzutu-khan than by that cheat Karaty-khan. I’m sick of these deceitful khans.” “Then go to Karaty-khan and ask him for some wool from a yellow sheep, and a piece of green silk.”³⁴ Ösküs-ool went to Karaty-khan. “I will get you the palace made of transparent glass. Just give me the wool from a yellow sheep and a piece of green silk.” The khan was surprised,but he gave the order to shear the yellow sheep. Ösküs-ool took the wool and the silk and went back to his own choom. The woman wrote something on the silk with her finger and made a thread from the wool. She tied the thread to the silk and gave it to Ösküsool. “Go to the Golden Lake, to the very place where you and I met.Throw the silk into the lake and hold tightly to the thread.When the silk touches the bottom, say,‘Uzutu-khan, my uncle in the underwater world, please deign to give me your palace made of transparent glass.’ If the thread tightens, pull carefully on it.This palace is very light.You can take it on your shoulders and carry it to Karaty-khan.” Ösküs-ool hurried to the Golden Lake.He threw the silk into the water on its thread, and then called,“Uzutu-khan, my uncle in the underwater world, please deign to give me your palace made of clear glass!” Suddenly the thread tightened with a ringing sound and he began to pull carefully. Slowly a beautiful palace made of clear glass came to the surface of the Golden Lake.The rays of the sun broke on its walls and turned into rainbows! Ösküs-ool pulled the palace to shore, took it on his shoulders and carried it to Karaty-khan.

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All the khan’s warriors, all his servants, and all his subjects ran to the khan’s aal to look at the magnificent palace. The khan himself was overjoyed. “I’m going to put on a big celebration right now,” he said.“Sit down, Ösküs-ool, be my guest. Drink with me!” And he placed meat before the guest and poured arak for him. It didn’t take long for Ösküs-ool to get drunk. “You’re drunk,” said the khan,“and I’m drunk.We need to sleep it off. Come tomorrow for your reward.Where would you rather sleep, here or in your own tent?” “I’ll go back to my own tent,” said Ösküs-ool. The next day when he arrived the khan was drinking tea. “What are you doing here?” asked the khan. “I’ve come for my reward,” answered the poor fellow. “Reward,what reward? Imagine that.This ruffian who cursed the khan has come for a reward!” “Yes, yes,” said the sharp-eyed informer Bulagachi-khaa.“Yesterday this fellow drank and drank and oh, how he was shouting!” “What did the idler say?” asked the khan. “He said,‘If the khan doesn’t have an army that roars like the waters of the Kalchaa-Dalai sea,³⁵ then I don’t consider him a khan at all!’” said Bulagachi-khaa. “So! You don’t consider me a khan at all?” cried the khan.“Then go and find an army that roars like the waters of the Kalchaa-Dalai sea and bring it to me! Otherwise I’m going to cut off your head! Go, go, you won’t get any reward until I have that army!” The poor fellow went home in tears, and told the woman about everything. “And is there, here in your world, an army that roars like the waters of the Kalchaa-Dalai sea?” she asked. “Not only have I never seen such an army, I haven’t even heard of one,” said Ösküs-ool. “Most likely such an army only exists in the upper world, with my father Kurbustu-khan.You’ll have to go to see him. But he too might cut off your head!” “If that’s what has to happen, better to have my head cut off by your father, Kurbustu-khan, than by this double-talking Karaty-khan.All the khans around here are cheats.” “You will fly to the upper world in my clothes.There you will see seven white yurts on one side and nine white yurts on the other side. Behind

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them there is a black yurt, full of holes. Go into that one.There’s an old, grey-haired woman living there. She has hay sticking out from her hair. Don’t say anything to her. She knows everything in the world and everyone in the world.And she knows you.The old woman will offer you tea. Don’t be shy, drink it. She’ll offer you cookies and raisins. Eat them.When my father calls you, don’t catch his eye.” Ösküs-ool put on the swan clothing and flew to the upper world. He went past the white yurts and went straight into the black yurt full of holes. “Little grandson, Ösküs-ool, come in, sit down,” said the old woman. She made tea and set cookies and raisins in front of him. He began to eat and drink and then a beautiful woman came in. “Who are you, young man, what is your name and title, where is your home, and why are you here?” she asked. “I am Ösküs-ool. I live in the bright world in a birchbark tent with a woman who shines with the light of the sun and the moon. The evil Karaty-khan has twice deceived me and I came here to ask the army of my father-in-law Kurbustu-khan to come down – the army that roars like the waters of the Kalchaa-Dalai sea.” “At last our dear daughter is found!” said the woman.“She was lost a long time ago and we haven’t been able to find her! Thank you, son, for this good news!” And she ran to Kurbustu-khan in tears. “Why are you crying?” the khan asked her. His wife didn’t answer. “If you’re afraid of me, then hide my black bow and my fiery yellow arrows, hide my sabre and knife in the iron yurt,” said Kurbustu-khan. His wife hid the khan’s weapons. “What do you think, khan, where is our youngest daughter, our favourite daughter?” she asked. “Where should she be? She’s playing in the clouds with her sisters.” “No, she’s not. For a long time now she’s been living in the bright world. She lives in a birchbark tent with Ösküs-ool. He is here now.” “Call him here!” Ösküs-ool came in, but he was careful not to look the khan in the eye. “Where is my black bow and my fiery yellow arrows? I’ll shoot him right through! Where is my steel sabre? I’ll cut him in pieces!” shouted Kurbustu-khan. He searched for his bow and arrows and his sabre but he couldn’t find them.Then he composed himself.

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“Why have you come here?” he asked Ösküs-ool. “The evil Karaty-khan deceived me twice, and I have come to you, my father-in-law, to ask your army to come down, the army that roars like the waters of the Kalchaa-Dalai sea.” The khan thought it over. “That army is kept in a gold chest.The sun and the moon watch over the chest. You’ll find the moon resting on the silver mountain range, Mongun-taiga,³⁶ and the sun spends the night on the golden range, Aldyntaiga. Go to them and ask for the box. If they won’t give it to you, lasso them with the golden lasso and bring them to me.” Ösküs-ool went to Mongun-taiga. “Oh, moon,” he called,“Give me the golden box of my father-in-law, Kurbustu-khan.” “I don’t have it. I don’t know anything about it,” said the moon. Ösküs-ool turned to Aldyn-taiga. “Oh, sun, give me the golden chest of my father-in-law Kurbustukhan!” “I don’t have it. I don’t know anything about it!” said the sun. Then Ösküs-ool threw the golden lasso over them and dragged them through the mountains and valleys to Kurbustu-khan. He tied them up and went into the khan’s yurt. “Well,” said the khan,“Did they give you the golden chest?” “No, khan, they didn’t give it to me and I’ve brought them here to you.” The khan went outside and he saw that Ösküs-ool had dragged them so roughly through the mountains and valleys that half of the moon was torn off, and the sun was burned bright red. This made the khan very angry. “Why did you drag them so roughly, you good-for-nothing? Why did you tear off half of my moon and scrape my sun red in the face?” “One time in the bright world,” answered Ösküs-ool,“I was harvesting millet on six fields belonging to Erelchin-khan. He ordered me to get the work done while the moon was shining.I had harvested only five fields when the moon hid himself. I begged him to shine a little longer, but he hid himself.And now I’ve punished him.” “And what did the sun do to you?” “Another time, I was harvesting millet on six fields belonging to Kharalchin-khan. He ordered me to get the work done while the sun was shining. I had harvested only five fields when the sun hid herself. I called out to her and begged her to wait, but all the same she hid herself.And now I’ve punished her.”

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“Tell me, sun and moon, is Ösküs-ool telling the truth?” asked Kurbustu-khan. “Yes, it did happen like that, he did call to us,” answered the sun and the moon. The khan took the golden box from them and let them go back into the sky. “My youngest daughter, who lives in your tent, knows what to do with this,” he said and gave the box to Ösküs-ool. Ösküs-ool went back home. “Carry the chest carefully,” said his wife,“so that it doesn’t open. Give it to Karaty-khan and say,‘Here is the army that roars like the waters of the Kalchaa-Dalai sea.’And come back home right away.” Ösküs-ool went to Karaty-khan’s settlement. Next to the aal was the khan’s army, headed by nine black iron warriors, seated on nine ravenblack steeds.They had all gathered to see the khan’s new army, the army that roared like the waters of the Kalchaa-Dalai sea. Ösküs-ool handed the khan the chest, turned around, and went home. Halfway there he looked back at Karaty-khan’s settlement. It was black as night there, and thick black smoke was oozing out in all directions. Next day it was light again. His wife said,“Ösküs-ool, go along the Kara-khem and see if there are some iron men on iron horses.When you see them, call out,‘Army that roars like the Kalchaa-Dalai sea, go home!’” Ösküs-ool went down along the river. In the place where the khan’s aal used to be, the golden chest stood open. Iron horsemen were riding along the river. Ösküs-ool called out, “Army that roars like the waters of the Kalchaa-Dalai sea, go home!” The iron horsemen turned into iron flies and flew into the golden chest. Ösküs-ool closed it and then looked around. He saw the khan’s army headed by the nine black iron warriors, defeated.The khan himself was on his knees. “Have mercy on me, mighty Ösküs-ool, good Ösküs-ool!” he said. Ösküs-ool did not kill the khan. He gathered all his subjects, put on a big feast and started to rule the whole land which lay at the foot of UlugKara-Taiga. He made the khan his wood-cutter and the khatun looked after the cauldron, which always had meat cooking in it. Ösküs-ool made himself a round white yurt on the hill, such a yurt that nine horses would not be enough to reach around it.And there he lived with the beautiful woman who shone with the light of the sun and the moon. ▼

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Storytellers, Tales, and Their Characters

Slava Kuchenov was not brought up in the traditions of his ancestors. Like most children in his native Khakassia and all the Soviet Union, Slava’s schooling was in Russian – the language and culture of their conquerors. He spoke the Khakass language with his grandparents when he spent summers in their village, but only on the most basic level of a child’s daily life. He knew next to nothing about his people’s history, since oral traditions were already fading and the Soviets taught native children that their cultures were primitive and naive.¹ Kuchenov spent several years in St Petersburg in the late s, studying to be a sculptor.What happened when he returned to his native land in  has become the stuff of legend and is an inspiration to the creative arts and cultural revival.When I arrived in Khakassia in , everyone was telling about it. slava kuchenov and the song spirits “He went out to visit his aunt in an isolated village,” said my friend, sociologist and philosopher Larissa Anzhiganova.² He had to walk a long way by a muddy trail to get there.When he arrived, his aunt carefully cleaned his boots and put them up on the woodstove to dry overnight. Slava went to sleep. In the night a strange tall man woke him up and insisted that he come out of the house and up into the mountains.There the tall man told him that he must become a khaiji,or singer of epics.³“I can’t do that!” Slava replied, amazed. But the man, who turned out to be a khai eezi or spirit of song, insisted. He explained that Slava would learn to sing khai, a low guttural form of throat-singing, and to play several folk instruments, including the chatkhan (zither) and khomys (lute) used by traditional

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storytellers. He told Slava how the instruments were to be tuned and showed him their unusual shapes.” The next morning the young man thought this had all been a dream, until he looked at his boots, which were again covered with mud! He told his grandfather about the experience and the grandfather replied, “Ah well, better to be a storyteller than a shaman!” ▼ People who have frequent contacts with worlds beyond what we see with our eyes do not have easy lives, but a loved and respected storyteller occupies a more comfortable position than a shaman, who could be respected but feared because of having contacts with the spirits of the dead. Slava learned to sing and to play. He went to a local musical instrument maker, Petya Topoev, who has had his own meetings with spirits.The instruments Topoev created have unusual shapes, and are replete with symbolism in both their form and their decoration. Slava then worked with musicians to get the tunings right.When he sings,the spirit of khai enters him,his voice changes, and he improvises long tales similar to traditional epics of the past. He uses poetic language specific to the epic, forgotten by all but the elders, words he has never heard before. Both shamans and storytellers are involved in seeing off the souls of the dead to the next world. Slava may sing a story called syyt during the time when the body lies at home before the funeral, which people say is comforting to the soul of the deceased. Slava sings over the life of the deceased, as did earlier khaiji, in the form of a heroic epic. I asked how he knows the details of a person’s life, and he replied that it’s an improvisation. He just opens his mouth and it comes out, with the details correct. Forty days after death a shaman should see the soul off, although this ritual rarely happens today. Slava hears music internally and tries to play without thinking.Thinking leads to mistakes, he says, and I can heartily concur based on my own musical experience. But he feels syyt is better done by an older khaiji. He often feels ill after singing at a funeral and thinks it is because the person who died was usually much older than he and that the person’s spirit is stronger. If he doesn’t perform,Slava feels ill – the spirits are bothering him.“Sometimes I make my wife sit down and listen, just so I won’t get really sick,” he said with a sheepish smile.“Once when she didn’t have time, I drew some people on a big piece of paper and set them up as my audience.”⁴ In June  Slava sang for me in his studio in Abakan. He explained that he could only sing the opening of one of his pieces (it took about fifteen minutes) since once the spirit truly entered him he would have no choice

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Khakassian musical instrument maker Petya Topoev with one of the instruments he created for Slava Kuchenov.The instrument’s odd shape was prescribed by the spirits who initiated Kuchenov.

but to sing it to the end.That must be done in ritual form and could take all night! The introductory part of an epic describes a sacred landscape and recalls the time of the earth’s creation.This serves to call in the spirits, as does a shamanic invocation. He sang to the accompaniment of his chatkhan,a seven-stringed lute tuned in fourths and fifths. He learned the tuning in a dream. Many tellers tune their instruments specifically to suit their voice range (Mainogasheva , ). Slava does one of his pieces with his chatkhan and one with a khomys, as directed by the khai eezi.⁵ First he did a section in khai, and then he repeated the same section in a normal speaking voice.This clarified the khai section, he explained, which could have been in the language of spirits, difficult for ordinary listeners to understand.The content of Slava’s stories is new, answering the needs of his times. Current events mingle with history. Some say that since he does not tell traditional tales he is not a “real” khaiji, but others appreciate his creative approach. Slava himself feels that telling traditional epics is a thing that may come to him with age. “I’d love to tell the old tales, especially Altyn Aryg [Khakassia’s most famous epic],” he says.“But when I try to learn them from

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books it just doesn’t work.Again, I get sick. My grandfather says maybe the spirit of the old teller Kurbizhekov doesn’t like my telling. Perhaps it will come when I get older.”⁶ Everything about Kuchenov’s initiation and practice is in line with traditions surrounding khaiji of the past. First there was his meeting with mountain spirits, who are so important in Khakass folklore and shamanic practice.The initiation often happens at the confluence of two rivers, which is known to be the home of the khai eezi. Slava says his initiation at the hands of the mountain spirits is typical of southern Khakassia, while in the north, khaiji inherit the gift and learn from human teachers. He describes his artistic process in the same way that the khaiji of the past did.“I close my eyes and see scenes unrolling, which I then describe.” Khaiji have long been known for their clairvoyant abilities, although in some tales a storyteller and a clairvoyant are brothers. The unusual shapes of Slava’s instruments also have parallels in ethnographic literature (Funk , ). Slava’s insistence on telling the story through to the end is an essential part of the storyteller’s art, and legends describe the dire fate that awaits a teller who refuses to tell or who stops in the middle.⁷ Once the khai eezi has entered the teller and the spirits of the characters in stories have been brought present at the telling, they must complete their actions and be put back into their places of rest. If the teller takes a break in a long tale, he must leave the heroes at a feast.And if evil creatures are not dealt with by the story hero they will continue to plague humans. Here is the story of the unfortunate Khakass khaiji who stopped in the middle (Troyakov , –, and other editions). storyteller agol Long ago there lived a storyteller-khaiji named Agol. He was called to all the aals far and near as a desired guest, travelling on his red horse. Everyone would gather to listen and he often had to stay for several days. Once he came to visit some acquaintances and there he was well fed and made comfortable. He tuned his khomys and started with stories of ancient warriors. He told how the earth shook when a fine warrior appeared. People listened, eager not to miss a single word. In mid story,Agol felt that something was wrong with his throat. His speech was blocked. He couldn’t understand it – he tried drinking hot tea and coughing, but nothing helped. Finally he went outdoors for some fresh air.There he saw two horsemen on raven-black horses, in beaver hats and fine coats.

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“So, at last we have met you, great khaiji Agol.Tomorrow come to our lands and we’ll have a party there.” Agol was terrified. His legs shook. He went in and tried to go on with the story but nothing would come out. Even his thoughts were mixed up. He confused the heroes’ names, which had never happened before. The host felt that something was wrong.“It’s our fault,” he said.“We haven’t fed the mountain spirits for a long time.Tomorrow we’ll do it.” Agol lay down but couldn’t sleep for worrying about the mountain spirit. He decided to run away, and slipped out of the yurt. He rode off full of heavy thoughts and sadness about the responsibilities of the storyteller and about his desire to give joy to the people. He wanted to sing but no one was there. Then he heard a voice saying,“Stop!” and a rider came up. It was one of the two who had come to the yurt. “You are doing wrong. My father the mountain spirit wants to hear you and yet you didn’t finish the story. Now you are sneaking away. Let’s get down from our horses and have a competition in singing and storytelling.”They sang for three days and nights and at last the mountain spirit gave out. He said,“I was testing you.You are truly great. If you had come to see my father you would have received great blessings. But now you must go away from here and never take the khomys in hand in this place again, or things will go badly for you!” Agol rode on greatly worried. It was still night. He heard a voice coming from behind a large boulder. It was the hero of the story he had started and been unable to finish. “Why did you leave me along the way? Why didn’t you let us finish our warrior’s deeds? Now we have to suffer eternally.” Then Agol remembered the precept of great storytellers that says you must not leave the story unfinished, cut off in the middle.The heroes will be offended and curse you.The storyteller’s talent will drift away and he soon dies. Now Agol was even more worried. He went home and promised himself he would never again take the khomys in hand. Summer passed, but in the long winter evenings the voice of the singer began to speak in him.“Why hide your gift? Why not give people pleasure? Better to die giving joy.” He thought about it and asked the upper-world spirits and his Chayaan,⁸ but got no answer.He decided not to worry about the threat of the mountain spirits. He saddled his horse and set off. People were delighted to see

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him.They thought he sounded better than ever.Then either he forgot the taboo or he wanted to test fate. He went into the land where he had not been able to finish the story. One foot on that soil and he heard a voice.“Stop,Agol!” It was the son of the mountain spirit. “Ekei-a,Agol. I told you not to come and you didn’t listen to me.The master of the mountain has sent me to take your life.But it is not so simple. You can still save your life by telling a story to my father.Then you will be a truly great storyteller and you’ll never be poor.” Again Agol refused. The horseman disappeared and the wind brought his parting words, “You will die,Agol!” On the way home he felt pain in his heart. He got off his horse at a kurgan. Some herders found him next morning. He asked them to call people together and tell them the storyteller was dying and that they should come and listen one last time. He sang of the land, life, courage, the calling of the storyteller, and his hard lot. He sang sadly, with empathy for human suffering. He sang until his final breath. People always remembered with affection the khaiji who challenged the master of the mountain and gave up his life in giving people joy.⁹ ▼

Kurbizhekov’s Life Story Petr Vasilievich Kurbizhekov, who died in  at the age of , was one of Khakassia’s most famous khaiji and also a prolific writer. He began to tell at the age of three and in his adult life knew  heroic tales, one of which took three nights to tell. His published version of Altyn Aryg has , lines. I spoke with his granddaughter AlbinaVasilievna, who is a fine singer of takhpakh (improvised songs). Once the masters of the mountain made him tell for a whole month without stopping and he did ninety of his stories. Petr and his sister Anna were both eelig khaiji.This means that they had spirit protectors.They both could play in three chatkhan tunings, the traditional Khakass, the Russian, and an international tuning that nobody else knows.¹⁰ An eelig khaiji has the muse and protector spirit of storytelling. Kurbizhekov had two of them, as did his grandfather on his mother’s side.These spirits could be the masters of the mountains. If they appear visibly it is a bad omen.

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Statue honouring the khaiji, epic-singer, and his chatkhan. Khakass Cultural Centre,Abakan.

When he was about forty or so,Kurbizhekov saw them listening to him for the first time. He’d seen them before but not sitting listening to his telling.They had no eyebrows or lashes, he later said. He went silent from shock and people wondered why. Later he got used to their presence. Kurbizhekov met a tragic end. He needed to feed his spirit protectors at every performance by throwing some vodka over his left shoulder. Other spirits outside the door also demanded their share.Once when he was invited to tell, the hosts were stingy and didn’t give him enough vodka to feed all his spirits, who then became angry. Kurbizhekov became ill that very evening – relatives said he turned black. He died soon after. His grandfather died in a similar way, because he wasn’t able to feed all the necessary spirits. Like Agol, these storytellers seem to have been held responsible for the failings of the host. Nymakh eezi is the epic muse, spirit of the story more than of singing, and arg’i eezi is a spirit protector; a man has female ones and a woman has male.The spirit protector is like a lover. Kurbizhekov’s grandfather Dmitry Ivanovich Kurbusteev had two of these spirit protectors. He had a falling out with one of them and died at the age of . Before his death he asked

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his relatives to bury him after only two nights instead of the usual three.And so they did.All the same, people were sitting together grieving on the third evening. A körigzhi (clairvoyant) said he saw Kurbusteev’s spirit protector riding towards the house on her horse, sitting backwards in the saddle. Her hair was loose down below her knees. She came into the yard, thinking he was still at home. She looked in at the window over the top of the curtain. Then she came to the door – it was spine-chilling.The clairvoyant said Kurbusteev had offended her, although nobody is sure what he did. She was also seen riding to the cemetery with her hair down below the stirrups. One of Albina’s songs is about her grandfather, Petr Vasilievich. Besides describing one of the tragedies of his life, it shows the way people would use song at key moments in life,when their emotion was too great to express in words.“In his youth he wanted to marry a girl named Tatiana. In those days a man had to steal his bride. His family let her family know he was coming, and when he got there, her five brothers were waiting with rifles ready.They kept her locked up.Both he and Tatiana were just seventeen years old. He asked for her in every way he could think of.At last he offered them the best horse from his troika and sang a song. But still they refused. Instead they made her marry a rich man. She became ill from grief. Kurbizhekov also married another and went to the war.When he came back at last their love came to fruition late in life. She had been paralyzed for twenty years, and they had only one year together before she died.This is what came from her family’s refusal to allow the course of true love.”

A Tuvan Storyteller’s Initiation Like Kuchenov,Tuvan storytellers undergo initiation at the hands of spirits. Here is the way Andrei Chuldum-ool told me and several friends of his own meetings with spirits. His life story serves to clarify the connection between storytellers and shamans.While his story had listeners laughing heartily, it is far more than nonsense – every aspect of it reflects realities of the spiritual world and the humour helps listeners to grasp and remember the details.¹¹ andrei chuldum-ool and the forty mice¹² Shyaan am! A storyteller has very many adventures, which he passes on. I was born and grew up in Ulug-khem region, Khonderge district, here in the village of Aryg-Bazhy. In  I was eighteen.At that time due to the People’s revolutionary propaganda, people were not allowed to tell

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Tuvan toolchu (storyteller),Andrei Chuldum-ool.

fairy tales.¹³ But still,Tuvan folklore never gave up; it was published in books. So I got acquainted with the adventures of storytellers, like meetings with evil spirits, aza-shulbus.¹⁴ I was never afraid of it. I have never met any incidents of aza-shulbus myself as a storyteller, but I did once meet forty mice! In the autumn, the eighth month, I started off on a trip on horseback from Khonderge,in the Ulug-khem region.There was an ovaa on the pass, not far from here.¹⁵ When I came to the ovaa I saw many people beating wool, making felt.When I came closer to those beating wool there were no people to be seen.When I went back past them again there was no one to be heard. So I wanted to see what would happen next. Two trees had grown together, a tall larch and a yellow cedar, and under the cedar there was a big canopy.¹⁶ When I came up to the canopy I saw forty mice gathered there beating wool for felt. In the life of the Tuvan people August was a very busy time of beating wool, preparing for winter. “What’s this?” I thought.“How come these mice have started doing the work of people? There are things people and animals have never done in all their history, and now these mice can do everything!”

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I was interested. I went quite far away and cut some small sticks to beat wool with.When I looked at the sticks those mice were using, they were mainly made of feather-grass, like the ends of matches.They had made these sticks for themselves and were beating wool. I came up to them.“May your work be successful!” I said. One bold mouse with a long tail was their leader. It was called longtailed or yellow-tailed. The mouse said something in Mongolian. He turned out to have come from Mongolia and the rest of the mice were from the fields of Tuva.They gather much grain, field mice. “May your work be successful!” I repeated, answering his greeting. At first they were afraid.“While there are men on the earth, conscious people, creative people, skillful people, we will not have good luck. Leave us alone!” he said. If I took a long stick I could have killed the forty mice by beating them. So when I started beating their wool with a short stick, all the mice became so happy! While beating wool with me they started speaking with animation.Their ears were turning around and their tails were flapping.They were so nice! That was how I beat wool with the forty mice.The wool they were beating had been left by sheep on bushes and on the grass.The mice collected it and beat it on stones.When we finished beating the wool their leader, the yellow-tailed mouse, said,“When people finish their work successfully they are in the habit of having a party. Go and catch something to eat!” A short field mouse,without going far,ran up a very thick cedar,caught a dry gadfly and brought it back.They slaughtered the gadfly on the stone where they had been beating the wool, and served the backside part to me.While I was eating the backside, my hands became slippery from oil. I couldn’t keep the knife handle in my hand. I wiped the oil of the dry gadfly on the top of one of my boots but forgot to do it to the other. I spent the whole day with the forty mice, beating wool. I ate the backside of a very dry gadfly.Then I got on my horse and rode away. The uphill part of the region was where people grew crops of grain. It was an enclosed place called Aldyn-Shymaa (golden low place). It used to be the autumn home of a hunter called Dört-Karak (four eyes) who is now living in Ustuu-Shymaa (upper low place). I came late to the threshing floor and spent the night there.When the pig hour was over and the mouse hour started,¹⁷ all the people in the yurt were asleep. I woke up between twelve and one. I couldn’t sleep because two people were fighting in that dark place. I watched attentively, lying in wait.

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At that time people used to wear soft Tuvan boots without a toe.¹⁸ But I had Russian boots with toes, and my boots were fighting. “Your owner is making a lot of noise, wearing you,” said one.“He has smeared your top with the oil of a very dry gadfly that he got when the forty mice were beating wool, but he hasn’t smeared me. I am not going to be a boot for him. I will just rot,” said the boot, crying and dancing. The boot with the oil said,“I’m not going to part with my owner, I’ll be a very valuable thing to him!” He was singing, performing khöömei and sygyt, and dancing.¹⁹ “What is this?” I said and woke up. My two boots had fallen on the floor. “Well, that was probably a dream.” I didn’t tell anybody about it because if I said too much it would be a cruel word for the revolutionary society!²⁰ I lay down and went back to sleep. In the morning at dawn I was awakened by the sounds of a mortar and pestle – a woman was grinding tea.The sun was very high.The tea was nearly ready. I quickly got up.When I left to serve in the army both of my boots were new – you wouldn’t have noticed that they had been worn. Now when I put on one of my boots, it was soft on the back as if it had been smeared with oil – it had become much nicer.When I was putting on the other one, the boot jumped out of my hands. It was rotten. My boot that had not been smeared with oil was purposely refusing me. There was nothing to do.“My boot is still good, give me a tendon,” I said, asking the owner of the yurt for a thread and needle. I sewed my boot up very nicely. I put it on, collected all my things, got on my horse and rode away to the army. I rode away in the morning. While going down over one bridge I thought,“How can this be? Although people are wise, clever, skillful and creative, who has ever seen boots made of leather, produced by dead nature, performing khöömei and sygyt? And I was able to see it!” Since then I have found the skill of singing khöömei and sygyt myself, playing the igil and byzanchi well. In  the war was over, the army was reduced. In the whole Soviet Union people were to gather for work at factories and in agricultural plants. So according to the call of the Central Committee, the working people were gathered. I happened to get into the fire brigade.When I started working in the fire brigade I didn’t know Russian, but I hadn’t told anybody about it.After six months I could speak some Russian.At the time a girl named Raika was deeply in love with me. I spent a night with her; the girl breathed in my face. From her breath I came to know Russian, otherwise I wouldn’t have learned it.Thus the forty mice taught me to sew boots, to play the igil, to sing khöömei and sygyt. Mice have their

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Tuvan storyteller-shaman Borbak-ool Saryglar.

own life, unconnected with human life. So thanks to the mice I have learned the Russian language,²¹ to sing khöömei and sygyt, to play the igil and byzanchi.That’s why now I try to protect animals and to prevent fires. ▼

Social Position of Storytellers All over the Turkic and Mongolian world storytellers and singers of the past enjoyed great respect and were frequently invited to perform at holidays, weddings, and other social and political events. Best known are the manaschi of Kirghizstan, who could sing the epic Manas,which has over , lines. The manaschi ran schools to teach the epic and, in the absence of a shaman, they could be called to heal the sick and to settle arguments.Although epicsingers in Tuva or Khakassia were not full-time professionals like the manaschi and did the normal work of herding and hunting like anyone else, they were highly respected and received pay and gifts. But these singers of tales, like others with a similar gift, were often poor householders. Folklorist Georgii Kurbatski spoke with me over tea in Kyzyl about the relationship of storytellers and shamans. He came to Tuva many years ago to study folklore, married a Tuvan woman, and stayed on. He tells of one song by a female singer complaining of her kind of life.“I can string words together like beads on a thread, words and melody. But when I start to sew, everything is messy and uneven.And so I wear poor old clothes. It is a pity that god gave me the gift of words and not of sewing.”²² Epic tellers

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were frequently called away from home; their domestic tasks neglected.This often offset any gains they made through gifts received. One of the places storytellers were most valued was in hunting, where they did receive rewards. In the past hunters would take along a storyteller, whose campfire tales attracted the spirits of the mountains.²³ The tales would begin as soon as they had set up camp.Shaman Saryglar tells of coming back to the fire on a hunting trip and finding his uncle telling a story with no human listeners. In turn the spirits sent many animals as a reward, and the teller received an equal share of the hunters’ take (Troyakov , ). These same spirits often help shamans and appear as characters in folk tales. Here is one tale about hunting and storytelling, told by Galina Kazachinova. the bright man and the hunter Two brothers went out hunting. They arrived at their camp, spent the night, and in the morning set off to hunt.Although they walked all day until evening, they did not see a single animal.The next morning they went out along the hunting paths again.When he couldn’t get anything, one of the brothers came back early. The other was not there yet. He waited all night, and in the morning got ready and went home. The brother who had been away longer came to the tent and saw that neither his brother nor his horse were there. The food was left behind, which meant his brother had returned to the settlement. He started the fire and sat there, lonely. He sat and sat, and finally set a piece of wood up beside him for company.Then he put his own hat on the piece of wood. In his loneliness he began throat-singing. He sang khai until midnight without stopping.And then suddenly a bright yellow man came into his hut, and greeted him, saying “Izen – hello!” The hunter was silent.“Go on singing,” said the bright man. “I don’t know how,” answered the hunter. “Go on, I heard you singing.You are a very talented khaiji-singer,” said the bright man. But the hunter insisted that he didn’t know how. As soon as it started to get light, the bright man got ready to leave. He said,“Don’t go away until I come back. Stay here in the hut – just get in more firewood.” The bright man went away.While waiting for him, the hunter brought in firewood.Towards evening he brewed some tea, prepared food, and sat waiting. In the evening the bright man appeared again. “Yesterday you did not sing khai. Now sing for me and tell stories.”

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The hunter was afraid, thinking to himself,“This man will be the death of me!” But still, come what may, he began throat-singing and sang all night. At dawn the bright man said,“Good. I have listened to your khai. Now we’ll go and visit my home.” Since he was invited, the hunter agreed. Taking his rifle, he walked behind the bright man.They walked and walked, and at last came to a big cliff.The bright man opened a door and went in.The hunter stayed outside, afraid to enter.The bright man reappeared saying, “Why don’t you come in?” Since he was ordered, the hunter entered. Inside this door, there was another door. He saw a golden table with gaming bones on it. Suddenly a black man appeared out of nowhere. The bright man ordered them to play the game with bones.The hunter declined at first, but couldn’t refuse. They played all night and they played all day. The hunter soundly trounced the black man, who leapt up on his horse and rode away. The hunter went out of the mountain and returned to his hut. He saw many animals along the way.He shot them and carried a whole load back. When he arrived he prepared his supper, ate, and then sat at the fire taking the skins off the animals. Soon the bright man appeared. “We will come visiting again.Wait for us, and prepare firewood.” The hunter got in a lot more wood, lit the fire, and sat waiting. He began singing. Soon the bright man arrived and with him came girls and women. “You haven’t prepared much wood,” the bright man complained. All the hunter could do was to throw on more firewood. “And now tell us your stories,” said the bright man. The hunter was distressed but began to sing. But soon the firewood ran out.Then the bright man took it upon himself to tend the fire. At dawn the guests prepared to leave. “Good-bye,” said the bright man.“I will come again. Don’t go away – wait for me.” They all left. On the second night the bright man came again, with a small bag in his hands. He took animal hides from the bag and gave them to the hunter.The hunter put them away beside him.When he looked around again, there was a big pile.And the small bag was still full! “That’s enough,” said the bright man.“Go home.” “How can I carry so many hides?” “I’ll have to take you home.Tie the hides up.”The bright man called his horse. He loaded up a mountain of hides, so high that he had to stand

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on the hunter’s back to mount. The hunter got up with him. They galloped so fast that the wind whistled in his ears.A short time later they stopped before his home. The bright man said,“Your brother will want you to share with him. He will even use force. But don’t give in. If it gets so you can’t stand it, call me and I will help you.” Sure enough, hearing that he had returned from the taiga, his brother came and said,“We went out hunting together.According to custom we must share.” “Why should I share with you?” “If you don’t give me something of your own free will, I will take it from you by force,” answered the brother. “I will not share,” the other insisted. They gathered the people and went to see the chief. “You hunted together in one lot.You must share,” said the chief. “No, he deserves no share of what is mine,” the hunter insisted. Then the chief ordered two men to beat the hunter.They beat him so hard that he couldn’t stand it and he called the bright man.That one was right on the spot, he tossed aside the offenders.They couldn’t do anything about it since they couldn’t see the bright man. The people went off to their homes, and the brother also went away, having got nothing for his pains.The hunter sold the hides and got rich. ▼ Galina Kazachinova explains that according to Khakass hunting customs, when two or more men hunted together they shared the take equally. But in this story, as in several others, the hunter who meets mountain spirits does not share in the usual way. The bright man immediately gives a sense of otherness.There are two kinds of mountain spirits, yellow and black: the yellow represents the light powers, more inclined to do good; and the black the dark and dangerous. If we are to understand that the bright man is yellow-haired as well as shining, there are two possible explanations. He may be one of the descendants of the Tagar people who some people believe “went away” to live in the mountains.Their hair was lighter and their genes still sometimes show up among the Khakass. Or he could be seen as a Russian, showing a change that took place when hunting became something people did in order to pay tribute in sable skins, as opposed to providing for the needs of their families. In this case the Russian has become associated with the dubious qualities of the mountain spirits, and even the black man (the more common image of a mountain spirit) is under the yellow-haired man’s power. Our story makes no comment on whether the hunter was

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happy with his new-found wealth, but it is clear that a very important family relationship is broken.In traditional society it would simply have been understood that a punishment would follow his wrong behaviour. On the other hand, other spirit figures in Turkic literature have yellow hair – such as certain sun goddesses and the spirit-protector of Mt Irt. Gaming bones are usually sheep’s knucklebones.They are used in games and in shamanic divination.In the game,the bright man is testing the hunter’s strength. If he had lost, he would have had to stay in the mountain forever. In another tale familiar all over Siberia, three brothers are out in the woods at night and can’t get a fire going.They see an old man nearby with an excellent fire, and one by one each of the brothers goes to ask for a light.The old man says he will give it to the one who wins a competition in telling tall tales.Whichever person speaks up first objecting to one of the “lies” is the loser.The first two brothers fail and are taken captive by the old man, but the third brother, the best storyteller, out-tells the old man, frees his brothers, and gets fire. Although this story is mostly told today for a laugh as the tales get taller and taller and the old man finally falls for one of them, the storyteller’s ability to get fire is an ancient reflection on the power of words. One major social difference between shamans and epic tellers is that shamans are often women, while in most of Turkic and Mongolian Siberia the epic tellers are always men. Naturally women tell stories, although they are usually shorter than those told by men. It is just the long tales with music that are forbidden. Possibly women told epics in the distant past as they have in other areas of Siberia and the far east (Chadwick ,,),but within living memory the singing of tales has been the province of men.The shift may have taken place with the rise of a more patriarchal social structure during the time of the ancient Turks. Khakassia is a partial exception to this rule. In the past women told heroic epics, although without the use of khai, which was forbidden for them (as was khöömei in Tuva). But there have been exceptions to the throat-singing taboo. One was Paraskovya Sulekova.At about seven or eight she started to play and sing while her parents were away. Her father would beat her with a strap when he found out.And then she began to tell stories in her sleep. Finally her father gave up his objections to her art. She said that she didn’t remember anything when she awoke after telling in her sleep.Later she began to remember. By the time she was twenty she began to sing and tell publicly and was invited everywhere (Stoyanov , ). She was an eelig khaiji (one who has protector spirits, like Kurbizhekov) for whom the instrument plays itself. People say that if a woman does sing khai, it will attract bad luck

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to the whole clan. Galina Kazachinova says that many people in Sulekova’s family died because of her singing.²⁴ Contemporary women seem to feel that taboos like this and the ones about ascending the sacred mountains are not demeaning, rather that they protect women, in their important role as mothers, from dangerous spirits. In rituals that Ai-Churek Oyun conducts with her students in Europe, women come up the hill after the men, who have gone ahead to start the fire.The women stop along the way to invoke the spirit of the earth before joining the men in the ceremony. That Turkic women of the past were highly respected in society is attested to by the heroines of folklore. Besides the wise old woman who helps both men and women, and warrior heroines like Khakassia’s favorite,Altyn Aryg, the soul of the people,or the Tuvan Kang-kys,Turkic folklore is full of stories about smart girls who help their fathers and brothers answer questions and fulfill seemingly impossible tasks, using brains instead of brawn. Often such girls later gain high status as advisors to the khan. One such tale involves storytelling and a play on words.This kind of story sometimes also appears as an episode in a longer tale. I think it’s possible that the father froze to death in the stream and went to the mountain spirits.The girl then brought him back to life by her refusal to marry the storytelling spirits (Troyakov , –). the smart girl A girl lived with her father. Once in winter he went out and put his face through the ice to get a drink. He got very cold and went to the home of three brothers in the forest to warm up.The three brothers, MokhSagal, Saryg-Sagal, Khara-Sagal were telling stories, and were angry that he had “caught the tail of the story.”They tied him to the bedpost.That’s what they did to anybody who caught the tail of the story.They laughed at him, and for two days and nights they gave him nothing to eat or drink. Then they said they’d let him go if he gave them his daughter. He agreed and they let him go. He went home and the daughter asked why he was sad. He explained and she said,“Don’t worry, we’ll think of something.”Three days later the brothers came to their home.The girl had hidden her father. In came Mokh-Sagal. He said he had come for her and asked where her father was. “I won’t marry you and my father has gone for some frog-antler to make an axe-handle.” His eyes popped out.“Do frogs really have antlers?”

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“Certainly! Just like your story has a tail.” He went away. Next came Saryg-Sagal. He said he had come for her and asked where her father was. “He’s gone for some snake antler to make a sabre handle.” “Really? Do snakes really have antlers?” “Just the way a story has a tail. Now go away, I won’t marry you.” Next came Khara-Sagal. He said he had come for her and asked where her father was. “My father has gone for lizard antler to make a sword handle. I won’t marry any of you forest devils. I’d rather live a hundred years alone. Maybe a lizard doesn’t have antlers, but neither does a story have a tail. So why did you torture my father?” ▼

Storysingers and Shamans Singers of epics and tales, the khaiji or toolchu, have much in common with shamans,²⁵ although some say they hold more knowledge and are stronger. Georgii Kurbatski told me that some storysingers are themselves shamans and diviners.²⁶ Even today, the names of such storysingers are remembered from two or three generations back; for example, the famous Tuvan Shokshui Salchak of Mongun-Taiga. Salchak knew the history of the clans of Mongols and Kazakhs in Mongolia when the border was open. He told the Tuvan version of the Mongol epic Geser and it took ten evenings, or seven days without stopping. He also conducted shamanic ceremonies. Melody, rhythm, and vocal effects were an integral part of conveying the message of the story. Like Kurbizhekov, each singer had his own melodies. Tuvan storysinger Osur-ool Mongush sang to me in . He remembers some of the melodies created by his father Amashkyn Khinenovich, a very famous toolchu, but he says that many of the melodies were forgotten during the Soviet period, when the performance of epics was forbidden. One of the four types of melody used by Tuvan storysingers is called alganyp (kanzyp) ydar, meaning “to perform like a kamlanie,” which again connects the arts of shaman and storysinger (Kyrgys , ). Sometimes overtone singing is used in epic telling, as it is in shamanic invocation. In a conversation in  Kurbatski said,“Through the creative imagination these poets and tellers make contact with the spiritual world, as do shamans and diviners. Spending spiritual energy, they take themselves and their listeners to a state of ecstasy, which in itself can bring religious awareness, and also heal the sick.The ability to tell very long stories involves a special kind of concentration,the ability to create one’s own reality and main-

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tain it through distractions from outside circumstances, fluctuations of mood, feelings, and even will.The first job of the storyteller is raising the spirit of the listener, beginning with himself.” Kurbatski points out that all people who have a special relationship with the world of the spirit live on the fringes of society.“Shamans, storysingers, blacksmiths, diviners, and also the very young and the very old are somehow closer to the other world.As such they inspire awe and sometimes fear. Each crosses some inner threshold and after that can never be like other people.” Kurbatski says that besides the epic, the toolchu and khaiji could tell shorter stories, the heroic and magic tales also told by other people.These tales might be told in series, which had an interconnection of meaning in contrast to their variety of subject and form.They may form another kind of epic, related not by plot but by something indefinable.The connection may be difficult for an outsider to see, but storytellers insist that the stories belong together. Storytelling about shamans takes on a new significance when we realize that storytelling itself is a healing art. Part of the power is in the tales, which are full of shamanic plots and imagery, and part in the teller’s art. Storytellers heal through the use of imagery, humour, and enthusiasm. They are also similar to shamans in the technical aspects of their music and poetry making and in their ritual processes, which include the raising of powerful collective energies. I’ve read that a shaman cannot work at the same time as an epic is being told, since both shaman and teller visit the same worlds by the same roads (Sagalaev , ). A storyteller uses the power of words and music to call spirits – the spirits of story and song and also the heroes and heroines of epic tales.These characters can affect the course of human life.The stories are long and intricate, often lasting from three to seven nights in the telling. They contain the history of tribes and empires and are also rich in every detail of shamanic mythology. Some say that telling the story acts to defeat the enemies of the teller’s clan. Although epics were passed from generation to generation, each new singer improvised certain portions of the tale, resulting in different versions. Just as Shakespearean actors lay claim to their most famous roles,certain epics seem almost to belong to particular tellers, who become famous for the brilliance of their performance, such as Kurbizhekov with Altyn Aryg. Listeners are not divorced from the process of telling the story.They must stay awake through the long hours and if they sense that the teller is tired or distracted they must call him back. They are co-creators of the story, through forming their own images with their inner senses.The formula used in Tuvan is “Shyaan am!” which means something like “What next?” or

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“Listen up!”“Shyaan am” is frequently invoked by the teller at the beginning of the tale, after breaks, and at changes of scene. Osur-ool Mongush slowed his tempo for those words, which added emphasis to the upcoming section. Listeners also call out “Shyaan am!” to encourage the teller to continue. The purpose of the telling is not only to entertain the listeners but also to maintain harmony with the spiritual world. Listeners aid the teller in this important task and also engage in their own active healing process.As in so much spiritual art, the focus is very different from the Western approach to the secular performing arts, mainly devoted to human beings, which creates a duality between performer and listener, one active and the other passive. (A major exception in the West is the art of storytelling, which emphasizes the importance of the connection between teller and listener. Many tellers prefer small audiences in intimate spaces for this reason.) In Turkic storytelling the intended audience is the spirit – teller and listener work together to maintain the connection. Tuvan shaman Dugar-Sürün Oorzhak says that epics and tales are considered to be literally true in varying degrees.“Epics and legends are – per cent true, since their basis is in historical reality, while the magic tale is about – per cent true. All of them have their basis in deep levels of human truth,both spiritual and physical.”This is why it is permissible to make artistic variations in a magic tale, while a legend must be told precisely.The understanding of different genres depends not on the events in the stories but on their source, whether in a visionary experience or in “real-life” events. Oorzhak says that they all express the inner world of the shaman, but not directly.All these tales are literally true on a spiritual level. Later I read of a South American shaman who spoke in a similar way about the value of “twisted language,” which anthropologist Jeremy Narby relates to the “twisted” language of the dna chain.“Singing, I carefully examine things – twisted language brings me close but not too close – with normal words I would crash into things – with twisted ones I circle around them – I can see them clearly” (Narby , –).This view from offside reminds me of the way music can stimulate impressions in the listener and helps to explain why the stories do not tell of a shaman’s journeys in a literal way.

Storytelling and Shamanic Healing Imagery Storytelling attracted me from the start through shamanic images, like shape-changing and voyages to other worlds. How to understand a woman

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who flew on swan feathers or a man who dragged the sun and moon across the sky? Whatever their meaning, metaphor or literal reality, they gave me a feeling of freedom and delight.People began to mention the healing power of storytelling, and at first I assumed that it had to do with simple distraction from aches and pains.Then I began to wonder if the heroes of tales actually represented shamans who were telling of their own initiation and journeying. Some indigenous people said it was so and others most adamantly said it was not. I was thinking too literally – the parallel was there but it was not precise. Tuvan scholar Kenin-Lopsan had already shown me around the Tuvan Republican Museum, and I returned to ask him about the connection between storytelling and shamanism. “The most ancient myth about human beings is this.A person hears his name pronounced.Perhaps he is in the taiga.Perhaps she is beside the spring. This is the first sign of the coming illness.Crossing the river he hears an echo; hears it and sees nothing. In the evening coming home, along the shore or in the steppe – Kara-ool,Arga-ool! Then this person will appeal to the shaman to get rid of this spirit that is calling. She calls a great shaman, one who uses a drum.The great shaman saves this person’s life.This story is very ancient and survives to the present day.This is about a live person and his soul.” His reply reminded me of those of Zen masters.At first it seemed to make no sense at all. Kenin-Lopsan went on to say,“Shamans created worlds with words,” and I began to think of the way spiritual geography becomes real through word-paintings. The way I had walked over the brow of the hill with Ösküs-ool and seen the Golden Lake, flown with him on swan feathers to the upper world.A storyteller’s creation of images for the inner eye corresponds and interacts with the artist’s making of images for the outer eye. Both come from an artist’s inner experience and enliven the inner senses of the observer.The arts focus the attention of shaman and listeners on the inner, spiritual world through the inner senses.Words powerful in sound and meaning serve as a means of entry into that world and also as a declaration of the shaman’s vision and power.The power of words that marry image and sound can raise energy and heal illness. In Kenin-Lopsan’s story the spirits take control of a person through that most personal of words, the name. And so the calling of the name is the beginning of the shaman’s path. The history of the meeting with a spirit becomes the shaman’s first story.A shaman may tell about it over and over again and use it to call those spirits back to help in his or her work. Naming is so powerful that it is considered dangerous to call deities by name. Small

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children often receive their real names only when they are strong enough to counteract the actions of evil spirits who are attracted to the sound of a name. Part of the healing power of words comes from their sound, discussed further in chapters  and .Part lies in the resonance of image,which is more evocative than literal thinking,and leads through inner sensation to the world of spirit. I am referring here not only to visual imagery but also to sensory impressions of all sorts when they bypass rational thought. A story image may recall sights, sounds, smells, temperature, or the feeling of the wind or the sun, and very often gives the listener a sense of movement. Some people are primarily visually oriented, and see these images as pictures, whereas others experience them through other senses.²⁷When an image that comes up in a shaman’s trance repeats an image that has been seen or heard many times in myth, song, folk tale, and everyday sayings it has much more power than something completely new.This also works in reverse; many themes of folklore probably came from a shaman’s vision. An example of this kind of interaction comes from Kenin-Lopsan himself, speaking of the time when his work began to emerge from obscurity.The vision appeared at a mountain pass, a sacred place.

In  I was working with a film crew from Estonia.We were on our way back from Khandykaty village, where we had recorded an old man talking about demons and spirits.We came to the mountain pass. I saw a great golden stag coming towards us.His horns had twenty-eight branches – it was beautiful! I wanted to stop the car but no one else saw the creature and the driver refused to stop.The golden stag flew toward the sunset behind the mountain, going higher and higher. On each of the twentyeight branches bright balls or bubbles formed.They flew away and turned into stars.And then the stag disappeared. I thought this was a message that I was about to die. I went to see a former Buddhist monk named Kuular Aras. He was a very knowledgable person who knew the Tibetan and Mongolian languages. He was a wise man who had known many shamans in his day. He told me that I would live a long time. And after that my first books were published. And so you see what appeared to me was a creature from my own mythology,Tuvan mythology. ▼ One of the clearest shamanic images is shape-shifting, which shows the shaman’s intimate relationship with animals, special strength, agility, wisdom

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and trickery, and ability to go beyond oneself to help others. Larissa Anzhiganova points out that shape-shifting shows the intimate relationship of human beings with nature – in Asian philosophy people do not see themselves as separate from animals as do Westerners, but as one interrelated part of the natural world.The difference is only in form. One of the very unusual characteristics of epic heroes is their changing gender roles, which some see as a type of shape-shifting. In Turkic and Mongolian epics a male hero’s role, in his early life, is often taken on by his sister. In some cases she is the one who actually accomplishes most of his impressive exploits while he lies dead after falling from his horse in the rashness of youth. She finds the wives who bring him back to life. In several epics she actually “becomes” her brother, until the time comes when he can be brought back to life;in others she rubs an ointment on her body before going into competition to give it masculine strength.Thus by the time he comes back to life and achieves maturity, the man has internalized feminine qualities: the wisdom and good judgment of his sister. By the time she comes to maturity, the sister has internalized the masculine qualities of her brother: his courage, bravado, and strength. Clothing plays an important part in this role change – as soon as she dons a man’s clothing, the sister takes on his qualities. In certain cases a wise old woman recognizes her deception, but most of the time it goes completely unnoticed. In Siberian cultures clothing plays an important role in establishing identity and also has a protective power that extends beyond its warmth and waterproof quality. Unique to female heroes is the ability to bring the dead to life, as the warrior Kang-kys does by singing over her father’s bones, connecting them with healing water and herbs, and leaping over his body on her horse (Van Deusen ). Internalizing qualities of the opposite sex leads to a psychological completeness in the epic heroes, both male and female. Shamans are also noted for this kind of completeness. It is simply an extension of the greater emphasis on common humanity than on separate gender roles that is part of growing up in traditional society.²⁸ It is only during the child-bearing years that the difference is emphasised, but shamans continue a full range of activities even during that time. Exercise of power in the spiritual world undoubtedly necessitates constant crossing of the boundary of gender roles and full development of the psychological characteristics of both sexes.Male shamans adopt elements of dress and behaviour from women.²⁹Women shamans cross the boundaries of what is forbidden to women in daily life, such as overtone singing, participation in various rituals, and a greater exercise of power outside the home. Initia-

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tion may involve marriage in the spiritual world, another image of achieving completeness. Like the Khakass storyteller Kurbusteev, shamans may gain spiritual power through such marriages, but must be careful not to offend their spiritual spouses.All this is shown clearly in the epics, attesting to the close connection between the two arts.

Magic Tales and Their Characters – the Healing Journey Shaman’s stories have made for some of the world’s most exciting oral literature, with their images of deep transformation placed in the context of a journey that takes place at once in the outer world and in the inner world of dream or vision.The plot and characters in epics and magic tales echo a shaman’s initiation or healing journey for soul retrieval and their images contain sacred elements of shamanic philosophy. Certain parts of a shaman’s life and ceremonial activity lend themselves more than others to dramatic retelling.The shaman’s call and initiation, the source of the patient’s illness in either wrong behaviour or soul-theft, and the search for the soul and its return are especially rich in drama. The shamanic journey is a perfect example of the heroic journey, including the call to action, finding helpers, overcoming obstacles, crisis, and return. The characters in shamanic magic tales seem to be located somewhere between deities and human beings. Some see them as crystallizations of meaning and experience that come to the storysinger or shaman in altered states of consciousness.Their personalities take shape through a process in which the events from real life turn into legend with the passing of time and constant retelling. Spiritual essence combines with human personality traits and life dilemmas.The same characters appear in tales over and over, but their adventures are not a simple progression. Instead each new adventure amplifies the last, showing the variety of possibilities and outcomes inherent in behaviours and circumstances. Often the person called to initiation is an orphan, like the Tuvan Ösküsool. In traditional society an orphan should be cared for by his parents’ relatives.When neglected or abused, he rises above it with the aid of supernatural helpers. Most epic heroes are also orphaned when their parents are abducted at the beginning of the tale.The hero’s difficult early life parallels the shamans’ call through the illness that sets them apart so completely from other people. Larissa Anzhiganova says that in traditional society beauty was equated with wisdom and goodness, which is why both female and male heroes are described as beautiful.An interesting sidelight is the story of a woman, Khys-

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khan in Ai-Kuuchin (Mainogasheva ), who decides to hide her beauty because her destiny does not include marriage and because she doesn’t want to attract evil demons. For this reason she wears a “life mask,” and appears ugly by choice. Some epic heroes set off on a journey searching for a spouse or for their abducted parents. In “Ösküs-ool and the Daughter of Kurbustu-khan” the young orphan is motivated simply by the urgent need to find food, although he finds much more than that, including a wife from the upper world. Shamans set off on an other-world journey motivated by the illness of a patient or an urgent need for information.They find parts of a human soul that have been either stolen or shocked out of the body. Shamans either go to other worlds or send their spirit helpers, while story heroes must always go themselves. They journey through unknown worlds, and eventually return with the missing soul. Our middle world is beset with confusion, while in the upper and lower worlds there is greater clarity. Here on earth people are sometimes unable to distinguish good from evil. By travelling to the upper and lower worlds and meeting with spirits and deities, shamans and story heroes come to see more clearly and know the right course of action in this middle world. Hearing tales told orally can help listeners to achieve the same clarity. Heroes and their opponents are often associated with celestial bodies: son of the sun, silver strongman; son of the earth, iron strongman; son of the moon, golden strongman; the girl who shines with the light of the sun and the moon.When heroes fight,the ground shakes as if in an earthquake.Khans are named for the sun and moon, as well as the earth. In Tuvan tales, the wise Aldyn-dangyna is a golden princess who shines with the light of the sun and the moon. She also appears as the smart girl who succeeds in solving all the khan’s puzzles using wisdom rather than physical strength and as a girl who comes from the upper world in the form of a swan, like the daughter of Kurbustu-khan, or through being born in a plant.³⁰ Often this kind of woman is the only person in a story who can read and write. In one Tuvan epic she heals herself with sacred water when her husband cuts off her arm and leg, an act reminiscent of shamanic dismemberment and healing.³¹ She gives birth to a magic child with a golden breast, who becomes a hero in his own right.

Spirit Helpers and Adversaries On the journey, shamans and heroes encounter many obstacles and finally meet and come to terms with a supernatural adversary.The shaman’s helpers

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appear at first in terrifying form – sometimes as monsters with one eye or several heads. Evil spirits may represent everything from the forces of nature in their destructive mode to discontented ancestors or jealous people.These opponents personify the shaman’s battles with disease in others and psychological weakness in themselves. Sometimes shamans battle with evil spirits, sometimes they negotiate, and sometimes they trick them into giving up the stolen soul. Epic opponents are sometimes semi-historical human figures, who recall the constant movements and wars among the tribes of the steppe. For example, Karaty-khan appears over and over in Tuvan folklore as the personification of greed and cruelty, although he is probably not a historical character but a composite. A hero (like a shaman) is also helped by animals of the forest and steppe, such as the rabbit, bear, raven, and eagle. Another important and typically Central-Asian helper is the hero’s horse.A very important part of the hero’s path is the taming of and by the horse.The horse then helps the hero tirelessly in every difficulty. He also gives good advice, preventing rash action. The Khakass warrior heroine Ai-khuuchin’s parents were horses and her younger brother turns into her horse. Reverence for this vital relationship is reflected in early rock drawings of a person bowing down before a horse (Grebnev ).The horse may be seen as an embodiment of the life force, especially for male warriors (Diachenko , ). In shamanic journeys the drum acts as the shaman’s horse. Other helpers include a wise old man or woman.The white-bearded wise old man Aksal or Aksakal³² often helps and guides a hero and has the shaman’s ability to predict the future and determine the causes of things. He is related to the spirits of a given place (Samdan , ). The most familiar and important female character in tales and epics is the old woman, creator and preserver of life. She gives good advice, food, special clothing, and amulets, not only in Siberia but also in many other cultures worldwide. One of her most important abilities is that of protecting human beings from harm in both the physical and spiritual worlds. She is closely connected with the earth, making the connection between the female shaman and the goddess of the earth, Umai, with her attributes of milk and motherhood, and her connection with the sacred mountain and hunting.

Return to Our World At the end of every shamanic journey and tale comes the return to the middle world. If all has gone well, the shaman brings the lost soul back to

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the body, and epic heroes gather for a great feast, which the storyteller just happens to have attended. I believe that this helps the listeners to return to daily reality from the worlds they have been inhabiting. At this point it is essential to share what one has learned. One Tuvan tale tells what happens to a storyteller who refuses to share his knowledge. the stingy storyteller³³ A young couple, who had been married for about three months, returned to visit the bride’s family.The parents were delighted to see them, and slaughtered a sheep in their honour. As they all sat together during the evening, the parents asked the young man to tell a story. Although he knew three excellent stories, for some reason that evening the young man lied and said he didn’t know any.People pleaded with him, but still he refused to tell.A pall fell over the evening. The bride’s sister, who was a karang-körnür, a person who could see spirits, went outdoors to take some food to the neighbours. Just outside the yurt door she saw the spirits of the three stories the young man knew. They were waiting eagerly, each hoping to be told first. “Out of my way!” shouted the first.“Mine is the best story!” “No, me first!” whined the second. “Both of you get out of my way. He’s going to tell me first,” said the third, elbowing the other two in the ribs. By the time the girl came back from the neighbours’, the spirits had realized that the man had no intention of telling any of their tales.They were furious, and each one promised him a different misfortune. “That good-for-nothing storyteller! I’ll show him! I’m going to turn into a bow,” one said.“And when he passes me on his way home tomorrow, I will kill him!” The second threatened to turn into an arrow and the third into a knife – all of which would wound and finally kill him. But not only was this girl the type who could see spirits.The spirits could also see people, and they realized that she was listening. “If anyone has heard what we have planned,” said the first spirit,“and if anyone tells, that person will be turned into a közhee, one of the stone statues in the steppe.” That night the husband dreamed of the bow, the arrow, and the knife, and thought it meant that he would have good luck hunting on the way home.

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The younger sister tried to figure out how to prevent the impending disaster, without actually telling what she had heard.When the couple was ready to go home, she pleaded with her parents to let her go with them. As they rode along, the young man spotted a fine bow hanging from a tree. But before he could get down and take it, the younger sister leapt from her horse and broke the bow. “Why did you do that?” the man asked angrily. She could not explain. By the time she had broken the arrow and knife that appeared along the road, the man was infuriated and beat her.When they got home, the young couple gave the girl practically nothing to eat. By the time the parents came to visit some months later she was just skin and bones. The parents now heard both sides of the story – how the young man had been mistreating the girl and how she had broken the wonderful tools that appeared along the way home. At this point the young girl ran outside and twisted the tail of a goat until it cried out. “Listen to what the goat is saying,” she said.“It is not me speaking, but the goat! This man refused to tell stories when he knew three.Their spirits were angry and threatened to turn into a bow, an arrow, and a knife and to kill him as he went along the road.They said that anyone who told about it would be turned into a közhee.” And at that moment the goat turned into a közhee! The man realized that he had been wrong. He apologized for mistreating the girl and sat down to tell a story, only to find that now he could not. ▼

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We pushed back our chairs after a delicious lobster dinner in an old farmhouse on the Maine coast. Our host was an avid collector and player of banjos. It was  and I was telling about my new-found interest in storytelling and the peoples of Siberia.In those early days I was enjoying the shock value of saying anything at all about this unknown part of the world – a place of exile and endless winter as far as anybody knew. Even I had never seen so much as a photograph of Tuva or Khakassia and may have half-doubted that they existed. “Tuva?” said the banjo player.“They have fantastic music. Guys who can sing two notes at the same time. And they play something like a bowed banjo.” Impossible,I thought.How can he have heard of Tuva? It can’t be the same place. Now he was rummaging through a stack of  s.“I heard this on the radio not long ago, and ordered it. Here it is: Tuva – Voices from the Center of Asia.”¹ The cover showed a man in a silk coat and fedora hat standing against a backdrop of treeless mountains, waving at the camera. The music started. A single male voice rang out, strong, deep, and resonant, singing one long note, making a sound like nothing I had ever heard. Softly rumbling, it hit me like a gentle blow to the chest. In that split second, I was out in those mountains, hearing the wind hum over the rocks.Tuva became real. A few months later the Vancouver Folk Music Festival organizers asked me to translate for a group from Tuva and my journey began.Three young men took the festival by storm with their amazing vocal styles, silk coats, and fur hats. Over the next two years I toured several times with members of what is now Huun Huur Tu, hearing their many vocal techniques, the rhythms of riding a camel train to China, and a man’s lament for the loss of

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his horse. I told Tuvan tales to the accompaniment of the igil, byzanchi, and toshpuluur – those same skin-headed and wooden instruments that had caught my banjo-playing friend’s attention. Between performances the musicians came to my home on a small island in western Canada and slaughtered a sheep in the traditional way. (This involves making a cut in the animal’s chest, reaching in, and stopping the aorta.) In the fall of  I flew to Tuva, where I began to meet storytellers and shamans and heard more music. I became curious about how music works in shamanic diagnosis and healing. Before shamanic practice went silent during the Soviet period, a traditional ceremony was full of musical sound, from the drumbeat and the ringing of metal pieces on the costume to the singing, whistling, and animal imitations coming from the shaman’s own body. Today music is slowly regaining its rightful place in spiritual practice. But what do these sounds mean and in what way are they essential to the shaman’s activity? Sound plays an enormous role in the shaman’s inner reality and connects the inner and outer worlds. Musical vibration, including timbre and rhythm, has subtle effects on the human body and spirit. My long experience as a professional cellist gave me insights into the alteration of consciousness that happens when we concentrate on details of sound vibration in the resonance of wood, horsehair, and gut. It also helped me understand the emotional effects music has on players and listeners. In traditional Turkic culture, music is one inseparable part of the greater spiritual whole that includes shamanic mythology and practice, visual art, storytelling, and everyday ritual and custom. Human beings are an integral part of the natural world and interact with its spirits constantly. People carry with them a constant awareness of the spirits of nature and try to behave in such a way as to stay in harmony with them.All music is a relationship with these spirits of places,animals,and the elements,gathering and concentrating energies and concepts. While travelling around sacred places in Khakassia, shaman Tania Kobezhikova stopped at each fork in the road and each mountain pass, as well as at burial sites, petroglyphs, and sacred caves.The first thing she did was to play her instruments – the jaw harp (demir khomys) and the drum. She explained that the musical sound conveyed her greetings to the spirits of that place, her apologies for disturbing them, and our requests and thanks. For me as a listener, the sounds of the instruments combined gracefully with the breezes and sounds of birds and crickets, and the profound silence of the cave, bringing me to an appreciation of that place.

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Tuvan musicologist Valentina Süzükei has become my friend and guide to traditional music, which she has studied extensively.² The function of music in the inner world has been little studied by outsiders, she says, because of the tendency to look at shamanism in its material aspects, without delving deeply into spiritual realities. This comes about partly because of the shaman’s reticence to discuss the inner world,³ but mainly because of the traditional ethnographer’s stance of looking at a culture from the outside.“They take only what can be seen or touched,” she adds.“They describe instruments and measure them,but they don’t experience the music in its true setting.” Nowadays music is not played in the traditional setting either. For reasons that were ideological in the Soviet period and are now commercial,culture has been secularized and placed on the performing stage, divorced from its spiritual roots. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule and today more and more musicians are consciously reconnecting with the sacred in their music. American musicologist Ted Levin has made videos of singers at the places their songs come from and shows them as part of the group’s performances, to bring home the importance of this connection with nature.⁴ At the same time shamans are commissioning new drums, and using them in their ceremonies. Süzükei explained that the specifics of Tuvan instruments, singing styles, and the function of music have close links with the whole Turkic world on the most ancient spiritual level. She emphasizes the importance of looking at the music in its own terms, rather than using Western-style analysis. Divergence in expression of Turkic cultures has come about in relatively recent times mainly because of the influence of Islam among the western Turks, Buddhism in Tuva, and Orthodox Christianity in Khakassia and the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). In Tuva, Buddhism brought a whole collection of instruments, such as the conch shell and various horns (some made from human bones), all used in religious ceremonies. Some contemporary performers incorporate Buddhist elements into traditional music, and they also make their way into shamanic ritual. With the spiritual function its heart, it is easy to see that music was not traditionally a concert activity, designed to entertain or enlighten other humans, but was instead a complex part of a human being’s relationship with all of nature, both internal and external, physical and spiritual. Some music was never designed to be heard by other people, but was performed alone in the steppe or the taiga, resonating with rocks, trees, and water, holding conversation with spirits.“You must think of what stands behind that music,

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what a person is expressing in it, the functional context,” says Süzükei. Songs are sung while riding, while tending the herds, at home, or beside the river. We should not analyse music in terms of harmony and form, but absorb it in terms of the times, places, and means of playing. Traditionally Turkic people did not learn music by analysis, but by imitation. It is often difficult for traditional musicians to analyse and to explain exactly how sounds are produced. Süzükei describes a musician she talked with, trying to understand these concepts.“I came to understand that traditional musicians can’t use such terms as pitch, scales, interval, and timbre. This is a different culture with different values and criteria.⁵ I began to listen for those criteria. He began to play the khomus and I asked,‘How do you think that melody is built? How can you describe it?’ He said,‘How can I explain it to you? Look at those mountains over there.They have layers of brown and blue with snow on top, different colours as it gets further away. Then the nearer mountains – shadow and a patch of sun – then shade again. In the heat everything is moving, like a mirage.You see that movement of the air with your eyes. So there you see how the khomus sounds.And that’s when it’s hot and sunny.But when we start to play in the evening or at night, you can imagine such waves moving.’”Valentina now laughs at her inability to understand this answer.“If only I could talk with him again,” she says. In the interim she has taken up a meditation practice and feels she understands much better what the man was telling her. A Khakass man,Tania Kobezhikova’s brother, told me,“Some things in life are too important for speech – and then you must sing!” For instance, before the Soviet era, when a young man wanted to propose marriage, he would come with his family and friends to the girl’s home and sing his proposal. Tania’s brother also recalled a time when a young woman he knew had been deserted by her boyfriend. She rode to the place where he was with his new girlfriend and sat outside on her horse, singing out her anger and disillusionment.Albina Kurbizhekova sang a similar song to me, which she learned from her mother, about how a Russian official had seduced a beautiful girl.After giving birth, the girl killed her child, whether by accident or on purpose.A prosecutor came out from Krasnoyarsk to judge her case.The girl was watching as he talked with the official who had seduced her. She didn’t understand the Russian language but realized that the man had no intention of protecting her as he had promised.At last she couldn’t restrain herself and sang out the pain of her betrayal.Albina was forbidden to sing the song when she was younger and still doesn’t perform it in public. Her elders were worried that she would attract a similar experience to herself by repeating the words.

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Khakassian singers in the village of Arshanov.

During the Soviet period the ties between music and nature were largely broken. Music no longer reflected as directly the place of its origin, the specifics of its surroundings. Singers might tell with nostalgia of their native places, which come to be seen in the inner eye of the listener. But this is not the same as the direct connection that came about in the past when the singer sang directly to the place, and received energy from it.The spiritual basis of music was broken. Music was no longer connected with religious or healing ritual in the old way. Soviet policy has also had profound effects on musical technique and form. Traditional music was never performed in groups; it was an individual activity, a reflection of a lifestyle that allowed much contact with the spirits of nature as the men and young people of both sexes spent a lot of time alone outdoors with their herds. But the Soviet model was the building of enormous ensembles with elaborate musical arrangements and Russian-style stage choreography.Many of these are still active today.Teachers and arrangers have added Russian instruments, with their powerful implications of functional harmony and Western form that were not part of traditional music. In some cases the instruments themselves have been altered to make it possible for them to play semitones, which were absent in predominantly pentatonic music.Technique is taught as if on a Western instrument – the bow of the igil held like a cello bow, the toshpuluur (a plucked string instrument) played

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like a balalaika. In the Russian school system the players are judged by Western standards.When traditional instruments are taught at all, they are compared with their Western equivalents.This cannot help but damage the selfesteem of the players, who tend to believe what they have heard – that their music is simple, primitive, and monotonous.

Music in the Spiritual World In a shaman’s world music operates in several ways. It helps the shaman and other participants in a ceremony to locate and enter the inner world, opening the inner, spiritual ear and eye. Musical sound calls helping spirits, who especially enjoy hearing their names called, and transports the shaman on the journey. Most Siberian shamans describe the drum as a horse, reindeer, camel, or other riding animal. Both the rhythm and the timbre of musical sound help heal the patient through the effects of specific frequencies and musical styles on the human body. Süzükei describes the connection between the inner and outer world as a bridge or a tunnel. “There is a bridge on these sound waves so you can go from one world to another. In the sound world a tunnel opens through which we can pass,or the shaman’s spirits come to us.When you stop playing the drum or temir-khomus (jaw harp) the bridge disappears.”⁶ Spirits have their own sound world and humans can communicate with them through that vibratory world (Süzükei , ).We understand the spirits’ answers mostly from the tangible results of the communication, in terms of benefit or harm. But some people actually hear spirits singing. One of these is Khakass actress Alisa Kyzlasova.“I haven’t seen the mountain spirits myself, but I’ve heard their songs, even in childhood.They are very beautiful. Once when I was about fourteen, just blooming, we were in the taiga in the early morning. I woke up, and I don’t know what happened in my soul. I heard their songs and remembered them. I thought some pretty girls must be going by.There was a road but my father said nobody had gone by. Then he said it was a sacred place where those mountain girls live. Later I wrote that song down and now I sing it.”⁷

Shaman’s Costume and Soundscape A shaman sets up a soundscape using the natural setting: bird calls, rustling breezes, voices of domestic animals, and various other sounds. Most of these last sounds come from the costume, which is hung with a variety of sound-makers made of metal, wood, bone, fabric, and leather.The headdress

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Tuvan shaman’s costume, twentieth century. Collection of district museum, Aldan-Maadyr.

often has feathers whose very delicate sounds add to the soundscape.All of these pieces have symbolic meaning on the visual level.Tania Kobezhikova’s costume has representations of snakes (fabric strips), an eagle, other birds, and a bear, which are her helpers. Their presence on the costume serve as a reminder of their presence in spirit. She also has bells that call a certain kind of spirits. “These things symbolize the other world,” says Süzükei.“But it is no accident that they also make sounds. If they were there only for symbolic reasons, they could be sewn down so as to make no sound.” The sounds interact with those from the environment, connecting the shaman with the external world and yet setting the moment apart from the ordinary, stopping time as we enter a different awareness. Levin explains that this is why Tuvan musicians leave spaces in their music – it is a space for the sounds of nature to add their side of the conversation (Levin and Edgerton ). On top of this soundscape comes the rhythm of the drum and the melody of the algysh, or poetic chant. Much of the spiritual effect of shamanic music comes from the play of musical timbres produced by these many sources. Most shamans wore special coats hung with symbolic representations of their spirit helpers and sometimes embroidered with the image of a skeleton,

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recalling the process of dismemberment during initiation.⁸ Headgear had feathers to help the shaman fly to other worlds or horns representing animal deities and helpers. Vera Diakonova recorded Turkic traditions during the Soviet and postSoviet periods. She writes of the Tuvan shaman’s costume:“The complete set of vestments was a symbolic representation of the shamanistic world view. Some of the shamans’ regalia was considered to be their armour; certain pendants permitted them to change into animals and other parts gave them the ability to see and communicate with spirits of the other worlds and with the souls of the living and the dead.The entire costume was considered a ‘living organism,’ a mixed image of a beast and a bird. Some plaits on the costume were called snakes (chylan) but were also understood as bird’s feathers, and the fringe (manchak) on the back part of the coat symbolized a horse’s tail. During their rituals shamans drew on the bowstring of an imaginary bow and shot arrows, hitting the enemy (the spirit of disease or the spirit of a powerful, hostile shaman).The arrow’s flight was symbolized by the tinkling of a bell” (Diakonova , –). Kenin-Lopsan says that Tuvans did not have black and white shamans, as did some other Siberian peoples, but they did have two kinds of ceremonies. The black was oriented to annihilation of the shaman’s own enemies. Diakonova says that some shamans had two sets of equipment, one black and one red, and that the black was used most often by women for very serious problems, often women’s ailments.The red is the equivalent to the white, sky-oriented, ceremonial shamanic practices (Diakonova ). Although the black and white distinction does not universally correspond with evil and beneficial actions (as the general public is inclined to think), Diakonova says that white shamans fear the black, who could harm or kill them.

Sounds and Places Specific sounds the shaman chooses to have on the costume and other ceremonial objects, as well as the way they resonate, enable the shaman to enter the inner world and to call spirits, in particular by recalling places in physical geography that correspond to those in the spiritual world. Especially important is a person’s place of birth, the place where that person crossed from the world of the ancestors to the world of this physical reality.The words of a song, especially the descriptions and names of spirits and places, contribute to this recall of the native land.The women’s style of singing long songs recalls the mountains. Other styles evoke riding through the steppe.⁹ Melody, rhythm, tempo, timbre – all recall places.

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“When you listen to one of these singers, you will see the place he sings about,”says Süzükei.“They are masters at evoking nature.It would be impossible to mistake a song from the steppe for one from the forest or the desert. It is said that a bull may roar eighty-one times in a day and that the wind changes direction the same number of times.Andrei Chuldum-ool sings a song about the bull and you hear all this in his song. In the nomad’s life there was not the separation from sound and smell that there is in the city.The walls of the yurt kept you from seeing out, but the sounds came through – the sounds of animals, approaching people, the wind. Maybe the sense of hearing is heightened in the yurt for this reason.” When she asked one musician how he determined whether music was being played well or badly, he replied that the best music could transport him back to summer in the steppe in his childhood, together with all the sights, sounds, and smells. In his book on music and healing Don Campbell points out that musical styles have evolved in relation to the natural environment. Polyphonic music develops among forest dwellers accustomed to hearing many sounds at once, but desert dwellers usually play only one instrument at a time.Overtone singing, as well as various forms of falsetto singing, develops in mountain areas where people constantly go up and down.Their ears adapt to the changing pressure, while their voices develop very high frequencies as well as low guttural sounds (Campbell , ).¹⁰

Overtones and the Inner Ear A shaman fine-tunes the inner senses, which perceive the spiritual world. Often the physical eyes are covered with a fringe to enable the shaman to see the other world clearly with the inner eye, which is awakened by visual images evoked in words, through story and poetry.¹¹ Inner smell is aroused by the burning of artysh,or juniper,during the ceremony.Dance movements, mostly connected with the playing of the drum, enliven the shaman’s inner senses of movement and touch.Taste comes through the offerings of food and vodka brought to the spirits.What the shaman senses may or may not be the same as what the listener perceives. We contact the inner spiritual ear through music. But how exactly does this work? Timbre plays an enormous role in Turkic music and allows the listener to go deeper into the spiritual realm, opening this inner ear.Timbral variations are vital to shamanic music, calling attention to minute sound details. Süzükei points out that Western music focuses largely on melody and harmony, and African music on rhythm. But Asian music plays with timbre, through manipulation of overtones, frequencies, and vibrations.

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Overtone Singing To a western listener the most striking use of overtones is in Tuvan khöömei, or khai in Khakass, often called overtone or throat-singing in English. (Tuvan throat-singing is completely different from the Inuit style, which is performed by two people at once,standing close together.The Inuit use both the in and the out breath.) The performer sings two or more pitches at the same time using overtones produced in the throat, chest, and vocal cavity. In several styles of overtone singing, one fundamental tone is held constant while melody is heard in the higher voice.The result is two-part music, with melody and drone. In kargyraa style sometimes three pitches can be heard, along with other frequencies difficult to distinguish.Tuvan khöömei styles include khöömei, kargyraa, sygyt, ezengileer, borbannadyr, dumchuktar, khorekteer, khovu kargyraazy, kanzyp, and despen barban. There is a legend about the source of khöömei. khöömei legend An orphan boy lived for three years alone at the foot of a cliff.This was a special place where the air and rocks set up an echo. One day the boy sat there making sounds that imitated the rocks. The wind carried the sound to people, who called it khöömei.¹² ▼ Khöömei is also described as the sound of boiling kasha and kargyraa as the sound made by a mother camel who has lost her young. Sygyt style is a whistling sound.There are two kinds of khai: melodic use of overtones (like Tuvan sygyt) is rare today and used for songs; recitative in the low register is used by the khaiji, who start to learn the skill in childhood – this style of khai is similar to the Tuvan kargyraa style. Ai-Churek Oyun tells her students that the best way to learn khöömei is to go to the mountains to a place where a river takes its source and listen to the healing sounds there.Campbell quotes the abbot of the Tibetan Gyuto Tantric College explaining how their monks learn overtone singing:“There is a particular exercise of going to the side of a loud waterfall and practising until a state is reached where [the monks] can clearly hear their own voices amidst the roar of the water” (Campbell , ). Shamans sometimes use khöömei at the beginning of a shamanic ceremony. Süzükei tells about her own experience.“Some people came from Estonia to shoot a film about shamans and I travelled with them as interpreter. One shaman in Avyur village told us that there was clothing hidden in a cave that had belonged to a certain female shaman.We came to the place and before

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opening the cave’s entrance the shaman carried out a ritual. He began with khöömei.Through singing he connected with the spirits of that shaman. He addressed her saying,‘We don’t want anything, we won’t disturb anything. We just want to look.’And then he gave us permission to open up the place, where we found her belongings.” Contemporary shaman Ai-Churek Oyun uses khöömei not only at the beginning but also at several stages of her ceremonies, as an invocation and as a way to experience and direct personal power. I have also heard a female Khakass shaman use throat-singing. Shamanic practice breaks down the social roles of men and women in many ways.Women shamans take part in rituals that are forbidden to ordinary women and their activity as shamans is not much different from that of men. Music-making is no exception. Female shamans, in addition to playing the drum or temir-khomus and wearing the costume with soundmakers, also sing khöömei, a skill normally reserved for men.Although it is not strictly forbidden for women to perform overtone singing, nor is it in any way impossible,there is a very strong sense that it is inappropriate behaviour, even today.“As for throat-singing,” says Süzükei,“it was forbidden for women to perform throat songs publicly. But women could and did. If a woman considered that she was alone in the yurt or somewhere in the taiga or mountains, riding a horse, she might sing whatever she could.There were women who did. Especially shamans – a person like that who had some special function was not forbidden.”This also applies to Khakass storytellers who told tales in khai.¹³

Bowed String Instruments Singing is not the only use of overtones in Turkic music.The bowed instruments,Tuvan igil and byzanchi and Khakass khomys and ykh, are also ideal for producing fundamental and overtone. (In Tuva the word khomus or temirkhomus denotes the jaw harp,while in Khakassia the khomys is a string instrument with a skin head.) These instruments are not used by shamans, but by Tuvan storytellers and singers, who also call spirits (Khakass storytellers usually use the chatkhan, or zither).The strings are made not of a single strand of gut, metal, or nylon, like the strings of Western instruments, but of horsehair. Each string is made up of numerous parts that resonate individually, producing a rich collection of overtones.These can be manipulated through the use of the bow, the fingers of the left hand, and pressure on the skin head. The player tunes the strings not to an outside source but to his own inner ear, according to his mood and other factors, including the weather. The actual pitch of the strings is unimportant – their interval relationship is what matters.“I tried to get one player to play the two notes separately so I could

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record them, but he wouldn’t do it,” says Süzükei.“When I tried to insist, he got so angry that he got up and left!”When I heard Tuvan storyteller Andrei Chuldum-ool in , I felt that tuning the instrument was part of the preparation for telling the story in more than just the physical sense – that perhaps the sounds themselves helped him to decide which tale to tell on that particular day.The sound of the igil was calling the spirits of story, as Chuldum-ool hummed and gently sang to tune his voice and instrument to his own energies.Topoev explains that precisely because of its overtone possibilities a skin-headed instrument is ideal for accompanying the Khakass epic. A cellist told me about her experience breaking in a brand-new instrument.This is a rare experience, since most professionals play old instruments, already seasoned by several generations of players. She described her feeling of awe and responsibility at being the one to “train” the vibrations in the wood. She was playing slowly, careful that each note was perfectly in tune, since this would set the vibrations that the instrument would get used to, bringing them into tune as well with her own vibrations. Petya Topoev took a string khomys he had just finished making when we went on a trip to the mountains. It had the shape of a sacred swan, who is known as a communicator between the worlds, since it can fly to the upper world and dive under the water, like the heroine in “Ösküs-ool and the Daughter of Kurbustu-khan.” He held it in the wind to “enspirit” the instrument.We held it close to our ears and heard clear melodies played by the wind as it passed over the strings and skin head.They reminded me of choral singing. Now the instrument was ready to play.¹⁴ If an instrument has not been played for a long time, one must repeat this ritual. Legends about the Tuvan bowed igil speak of its divine source. One shows the origin of the instrument in a man’s friendship with his horse.This relationship is akin to that between a shaman and the spirit helpers.The horse showed his friend how to make the instrument, but the boy himself learned how to play it.¹⁵ the igil (I) A long time ago there lived a poor orphan named Ösküs-ool.The sum total of his worldly goods was just three goats. Ösküs-ool worked for a wealthy khan, looking after his sheep. The khan had a large herd of fine horses. From time to time he put on a horse race and was gratified that his own horses always won. But

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among the khan’s fine horses there was one skinny old mare.That skinny old mare gave birth to a skinny colt and then she died. When the khan found out about it he called his servants.“Get rid of that colt,” he said.“I am not going to be impoverished by feeding a motherless animal.Take the colt out into the steppe and leave him for the wolves to eat.” Now like most Tuvans, those servants loved horses more than almost anything in the world.To leave a baby horse to the wolves was a very hard thing. So when Ösküs-ool said,“Give me the colt. I’ll take care of him,” the servants were happy to give him the animal. Ösküs-ool took the colt home and fed him with milk from his goats. The two of them grew up together.The colt grew into a powerful grey stallion with a white star on his forehead, and Ösküs-ool grew into a fine young man. It would be hard for me to tell you whether the boy trained the horse or the horse trained the boy.But however it was,soon they began to enter the horse races. Soon they began to win the horse races. The khan was angry that someone else’s horse was winning. And when he found out that this was the very same colt that he had ordered to be left in the steppe for the wolves to eat, he was furious! He called his servants. “I told you to get rid of that colt!” he roared.“And this time I mean it.Take that horse to the top of the steep overhanging cliff and push him over the edge.And see that you obey me this time.” The servants had no choice.They took the horse to the top of the steep overhanging cliff and pushed him over the edge. All that day Ösküs-ool searched for his beloved horse, his best friend in all the world, but he could not find him anywhere. At last he was exhausted from searching and sat down under a big larch tree. He fell asleep and had a dream. In the dream his horse spoke to him. “Look for my remains at the bottom of the steep overhanging cliff,” he said.“Do not grieve when you find me. Instead take my skull and hang it from a larch tree.Take wood from that tree and fashion a musical instrument. Use my skin to cover it and make strings and a bow from the hair of my tail.When you play the instrument and sing our story, look up to the top of the mountain, and you will see my double coming down to you.” Ösküs-ool woke up.When he found the remains of his horse, his best friend in all the world, he did grieve. But then he remembered what the horse had told him. He hung the horse’s skull on a larch tree, made a

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musical instrument from the wood of that tree, covered it with the horse’s skin, and made strings and a bow from the hair. He sat down and began to draw the bow across the strings. He remembered his friend and how they had played together and won the horse races. All of his grief and rage at the loss of his friend found expression in his music. People gathered to listen.When Ösküs-ool sang of the happy times they laughed with him and when he sang of the sad times they wept with him. He played for a long time. Then he looked up to the top of the mountain.The clouds parted and he saw a magnificent horse coming down to him. It was a fine grey stallion with a white star on the forehead – the exact double of his own horse. And with the stallion was a large herd of horses! From that time on Ösküs-ool was poor no longer – he had a whole herd of fine horses.And from that day to this, the Tuvan people have had the sounds of the igil to express their joys and their sorrows. ▼

Jaw Harp (khomus) The temir-khomus (Khakass demir-khomys) or jaw harp produces overtones in the player’s throat and mouth. In the past,Tuvan shamans played the temirkhomus in their ceremonies, as Tania Kobezhikova does today in Khakassia. Tania says various melodies and rhythms attract spirits and heal different parts of the body.¹⁶ She uses it to sense the energies of sacred places and to communicate with their spirits. Ludmila Salchak told me about a female shaman at Bai-khöl. She was the daughter of a very strong shaman who had burned all of her things before her death with the exception of her temir-khomus, which she gave to her daughter. The daughter refused to become a shaman and only when she turned sixty began to hear things and to practise shamanism using her mother’s musical instrument. Her shamanic heredity seemed to pass through the instrument. People say that the jaw harp communicates thoughts without words. One of the Tuvan singers, Kongar-ool Ondar, told me this comic story to illustrate how it can work. Similar tales are told of the byzanchi. (If you listen closely you can hear the words, but you have to really pay attention to get them through the musical sound. Unlike, say, playing guitar and singing, here both the instrumental and vocal sounds are coming from the mouth, which obscures words.) Since Tuvans love horses more than almost anything on earth, it stands to reason that they can’t help secretly admiring a good horse thief.

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the musical horse thief It happened that one man crossed the mountains and made off with a fine stallion.The owner of the horse could hear the thief in the distance and set out to chase him. The owner rode over the mountain, came to a yurt, and went in. It was the home of the horse thief and his wife.They gave the guest tea and, while he was drinking it, the host began to play his khomus.The horse thief had the ability to communicate through his music without using words.And this is what he conveyed to his wife. “This is the man whose horse I stole.You’d better go and move it to a better hiding place, further from the yurt.” But before she could leave the guest said,“What a fine instrument you have! May I try playing it?” The host handed over his instrument and the guest began to play.And he too had the ability to communicate through music without using words.This is what he conveyed to the horse-thief ’s wife. “It’s too late to move the horse. I already know that you have him and I am going to take him back!” ▼

Flutes Legends about musical instruments tell of how they attract spirits.A hunter who plays well can attract the spirit of the mountain, who may bring him untold success. But she may also like his music so much that she takes him away forever. The shoor/flute, no longer played in Tuva, was made of willow and produced rich vibrations.The sound of the shoor attracted spirits for hunters. Several legends that Tuvan musicologist Valentina Süzükei heard during her research show this relationship.¹⁷ The first legend is from the Tozhu district. the shoor One young hunter was out for a long time and got nothing.This went on for several days. One evening he sat down by the fire and played the shoor almost until dawn, a long sad tune. Suddenly he heard a voice. Someone said,“Great hunting success awaits you tomorrow.You will get a big animal, blind in one eye.” He was surprised! He looked around, but nobody was there. He was alone with only the wind in the tops of the

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trees and the crackle of the fire. He thought he was imagining it and lay down to sleep. In the morning he woke up, ate breakfast, and went around his traps, but again they were empty.Then he came to the furthest trap and there was a big moose. He remembered the voice he had heard in the evening. And when he began to cut the animal up he saw it was a very big moose, missing one eye! He thought perhaps the animal had lost it in a fight – a horn had poked it; or perhaps a branch went through it while he was running from a wolf.Anyway, it had happened long ago. From then on the hunter cared for his shoor and always had it with him while hunting. ▼ The second legend comes from the Chüü-khemchik district. the mistress of the taiga There were two hunters. Every morning they went out separately and every day one came back with empty bags, while the other always got something. One evening the one who got nothing sat and played his shoor while the other cut up his take.The one who was followed by success was the kind of person who could sometimes see what we don’t see and sometimes heard things.Tuvans call this person karang-körnür. He was not necessarily a shaman. Some people can just see the other world. For example, if they see a person who died long ago, it means in that home there may soon be some bad luck. If you ask him he’ll say he is not a shaman but simply karang-körnür. He doesn’t actively do rituals. So this one who always got something had that ability and when he looked at the other one playing the shoor he saw that sitting on his nose was the mistress of the taiga! She was listening so intently that she dozed off and fell down his cheek, as if rolling down a hill. So he started to laugh. And the player asked, “What are you laughing at?” So he told what he had seen and laughed even more. The mistress of the taiga was very offended. And from that time on success deserted the one who had always shot something. She was offended because he told and because he laughed.And the one who played the shoor became a successful hunter. ▼ “I like this legend so much because of ideas like the taiga,” says Süzükei. “We understand that space, time, and distance exist in just one form, but in these legends the taiga can be so enormous that its master covers the whole mountain or so small that she sits on the hunter’s nose.As if she is sitting on a rock, listening to the music.With this ability to get bigger and smaller, to

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simply impossible sizes – all the same it’s the taiga! By the way, the master of taiga is seen in some places as male and in other places as female.” A third shoor legend comes from Bai-Taiga district. the shoor player Several men were hunting together at one fire.Among them was one really good-looking young hunter. From childhood he had played the shoor really well.The hunters took him along especially for that reason.They set up their camp and the hunt went really well – they all got animals. Every night after dinner that young man played. The last day of their hunt came.When it was time to get ready to go home, this young man did not come back. Night came and they waited, but even the next day he did not come.They searched for several days and finally they found him beneath a big larch tree. He sat in playing position and was covered with snow. Just his body, that was all they found. His soul was gone. The mistress of the taiga liked his playing so much that she took his soul. She fell in love with him and took his soul. So it ends. ▼ “We have many beliefs about a singer or player; that if they are really strong musicians the mistress of the taiga takes their souls,” Süzükei says.“Here it is definitely a female spirit of the mountain because I know that in Bai-taiga she is female.You have to ask everywhere what that spirit looks like. Some say a well-dressed man, others a delightful woman. Both male and female. The shoor legends are very beautiful. “In Tozhu hunters have always gone out alone, whereas in Bai-Taiga they go in groups.Tozhu has big areas, people live spread out and a hunter doesn’t need to go far. In Bai-Taiga they take a car and drive out somewhere, and then go further on foot.”

Zithers A legend about the Khakass chatkhan (a rectangular zither about a metre long, played by storytellers¹⁸) tells of its invention and also its ability to call animals (Taksami ). chatkhan (i) There lived a shepherd named Chatkhan. He had a hard life working for the khan. He made a musical instrument with horsehair strings, so that

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its music would make life easier for people. People, fish, birds, wild animals, and the herds all felt better and calmer listening to the music. Work became easy. Then some evil one-eyed aina spirits stole the instrument and killed the old man. He left behind a grandson named Khaiji, who grew quickly, not by the day but by the hour. His mother made him a bow and arrow and he became a good shot.When he shot to the right he got thirty birds and when to the left forty.¹⁹ Although he was forbidden to go beyond the big mountain, he went there and saw a big house with no windows. He listened, and heard someone complaining that there was no food.Then someone played an instrument and animals came running.The people slaughtered them. The boy saw seven black people, each with one eye on the left side. They had no faces, just big mouths and two tusks.The boy stole some meat and took it home. His mother was scared when she learned where it came from. Next day he went back. He overheard that the evil spirits had guessed that he had stolen the meat and they were running off to kill him. When they were gone he went in, dug a big hole, covered it with branches, and covered the top with dirt. He began to play the chatkhan, which was still lying there.The one-eyed monsters came running and fell into the hole. He took the instrument home and played it there. He sang about the evil spirits and about evil khans and powerful warriors.All the herds came running. And now the instrument is called chatkhan after the old man and the storysinger is called khaiji after the boy. ▼ Another chatkhan legend goes like this. chatkhan (II) Long ago there lived a mother and son.The son was called Sankai and the mother Tardan. She worked for a bai, a rich man. Once she told her son this story: “Kara-khan (a mountain spirit) punished a man who had fallen in love with his daughter. He put him in a hole together with a big rock and said if the young man could get the rock out he would spare his life.The young man couldn’t get it out,but survived nonetheless.The love of the daughter saved him. Kara-khan allowed him to live, but in the form of a spider.

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The spider spun threads between the trees so that a person who touched them would hear a song. A woodcutter heard the music and started to come back secretly to listen.” The boy heard the story and was sad. He wanted to hear the music. His mother told him he could make himself an instrument using her hair and that he would hear just such beautiful music. And so he made the chatkhan (Troyakov ). ▼ A legend about the Tuvan chadagan tells of its invention by a storyteller. It speaks eloquently of the power of music. the invention of the chadagan There lived a khan already in his declining years. He had two wives, but neither of them had a child.“When I die, I will need an heir. If my clan wives cannot bear me a son,then find me someone from the lower classes.” They found him a young beauty, the daughter of a herdsman and a milkmaid, and gave her in marriage to the khan against her will.After a certain time the young wife gave birth to a son. But because the young woman did not love the khan she refused to feed the child from her breast. The khan quickly took the advice of those close to him and called in a great lama who read his holy sutras and divined the answer to the problem, saying that only singers, storytellers, and musicians could help. They blew the great büree and büshküüry, calling the great subjects of the khan. They blew the small büree and büshküüry, calling the small subjects of the khan, making known his order:“A musician-storyteller is needed at once!” The people pointed out one decrepit old man, who was brought to the khan. Bowing his grey head, shaking his grey beard, the old man said, “Once I was young. I had a ringing voice, I sang not badly. I was clever. Now you see how I have become helpless and senile. I don’t even know how I can help you.” “The people have pointed you out,” said the khan,“do what you like, but just make my son’s mother feed him from her breast.” Then the old man asked that they find him a nine-year-old larch tree and the intestines of a nine-year-old sheep. All was in the power of the khan – everything the old man asked was provided immediately. The old man carved a box from the larch. He strung it with strings made from the sheep’s intestines, putting a bridge under them. He put the chadagan out on top of the yurt to dry.When the strings began to sound

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softly from a light breeze, the old man took the instrument in his hands and tuned it. He sang of the beauty and wealth of their native land, of the people, simple and unfortunate but friendly, who very much needed a just ruler; and of the young beautiful woman who had given them an heir. He sang about how mother’s milk could feed all of humanity, including the future ruler, with whom the hopes of simple people were tightly bound.The melody of his song was beautiful, the sounds of the chadagan’s strings entrancing. With the last words the young woman began to cry. She ran to her son, took him in her arms, and began to feed him.At that moment the khan came in, rewarded the old man well, and tied a white scarf to his chadagan.²⁰ ▼

The Drum The shaman’s most important instrument is the drum,called düngür in Tuvan, and tüür in Khakass. It too produces rich overtones owing to variations in the thickness and tautness of the head.The large drums have a tremendous dynamic range. Metal pieces hanging on the inside add to the sound.They include arrow heads, with their additional symbolic significance.²¹ Jingling metal pieces on the back of the drumstick add to the overtone possibilities. Goatskin makes the best drum heads, with the greatest variety of sounds, says Kenin-Lopsan.The drum sound recalls the animal whose skin was used for its head, or qualities of his habitat.²² Many beliefs surround the shaman’s drum, among them the belief that the shaman rides the drum like a horse while journeying.Tania Kobezhikova says, “My drum can connect me with the earth or carry me like a flying horse. Sometimes I send my spirits out, but other times I must go myself, alone or with the spirits.”Kenin-Lopsan says that the drum can help a shaman find lost objects. It is in some ways identical with the shaman’s life, since if the drum is destroyed the shaman will die.And when the shaman dies, the drum head must be cut. In some cases a shaman’s drum has been heard after his death, beating a farewell.²³ Ai-Churek Oyun points out that the drum is the most ancient of human musical instruments, and that playing it connects us with powerful energies from ancestral times. Although in Tuva non-shamans usually do not play drums (except in the theatre), she is promoting drumming widely among healers, educators, and others for its healing and ritual effects. When a ceremony takes place inside an enclosed yurt, the sounds of the drum are reflected in a very particular way, affected by the shape of the space and the felt cover. “Shamans of the past masterfully brought forth many kinds of sounds on the düngür,”Valentina Süzükei recalls.“Strokes in the centre,around the edges,

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Shaman’s drum,Tuvan Republican Museum, Kyzyl.This is the inside of the drum with the broken head shown in chapter .

on the rim;delicate tremolo on various parts of the membrane;sliding movements of the stick or the hand along the head; and beating with the fingers of the right hand.These and other sounds were made within the network of complex rhythmic sound drawings. “Sometimes the shaman used the düngür as a resonator and with its help sent waves of sound to the right and left, up and down. It seemed that the voice of the shaman, the düngür, and the spirits seated in it moved from side to side, up and back. In the half-darkness, in combination with his jumping shadow, they created the impression that the shaman was really flying” (Süzükei , ). In  I was present at the consecration of a new drum.This is not a public ceremony.It was done at the home of the drum’s owner at her request. Tania Kobezhikova lit three candles and placed them in a triangle, with the new shaman standing in the middle.Tania also smudged the drum and the new shaman with smoke of burning herbs. Next she played the drum, watching the owner carefully. I observed that the sound of the drum was coming into tune with the new shaman’s energies.When the playing was finished the new shaman related what she had seen, the animal spirits that had appeared to her, and her growing comfort with the appearance and

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Contemporary Khakassian shaman’s drum, inside view.

sound of the drum.The ceremony ended with a few instructions about how the drum should and should not be used in terms of public performance. The frequencies of music and soundscape enliven the inner sense of hearing and allow the shaman to perceive frequencies from the spiritual world and from the patient. Instruments and vocal techniques produce sounds that sometimes seem monotonous to an untrained ear; we often read about the value of “monotonous” drumming. I have never been able to understand how a sound truly without variation could be healing. The answer was clarified by Süzükei.These sounds are not monotonous at all, she says. Constant changes in timbre and volume keep them interesting.The healing quality lies in this variation, which tracks and directs the patient’s energies.“If you don’t listen for timbre but only for pitch and rhythm, the music is boring,monotonous.But the player’s every smallest change of mood is reflected in timbre. If you listen for this the music is not monotonous at all.” Kenin-Lopsan speaks about the healing effects of the drum.The speed and strength of the drum strokes depend on the nature of the ailment, he says.The drum sound acts as a signal from the sky, provoking a voice from the cosmos. In turn, the instrument is necessary to catch these signals.

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He says that the drum is especially important in psychotherapy. He and other shamans emphasize that psychological illness is especially treatable with drumming. Drumming is the only cure for a person who is mentally ill but whose soul is still in body.The drumbeat restores the rhythm of the heart and the harmonious functioning of the respiratory organs. Spring and fall are the best times for this, probably because spirits are most active at these seasons. I have heard shamans in many geographic and cultural areas say that spring is an especially dangerous time because evil spirits are flying then. All spirits are said to be more active in spring when plants are coming back to life after the long winter. Kenin-Lopsan says that the drum can also call back a soul that has been stolen.When looking for a stolen soul, the shaman begins gently and goes through many changes of speed, style, and volume. Shamans who can use the drum to call out a dream are very respected.They cure nervous disorders and insomnia using a soft sound.All forms of drumming work best at night.

The Healing Effects of Music The sounds of a shamanic ceremony, the play of timbres and rhythms, all enable healing.The shaman uses sound in both diagnosis and cure.The wealth of pitches and vibrations from costume and drum sends out a multitude of frequencies, which reflect back to the shaman from the cosmos, bringing needed information.This information is received as vibrations, which the shaman may interpret as sounds or other sensory images.These in turn guide the shaman to a knowledge of what must be done to heal the patient. At the same time musical sounds help the patient to activate his or her own healing energies. Part of the shaman’s talent lies in the ability to receive and interpret a larger range of frequencies than is possible for the normal person. Some of these frequencies are sounds above or below the normal range of hearing.Valentina Süzükei says,“The shaman senses them as surely as do birds who sense the approach of an earthquake or storm.” The küzüngü (bronze mirror) also sends out vibrations, which reflect back from the mountains and rocks giving the shaman information. KeninLopsan calls them “harmonic waves” (Kenin-Lopsan , ). Most Tuvan shamans use the mirror for diagnosis, looking into it clairvoyantly for information about the patient’s health. But I have seen Buriat shamans using the mirror directly for healing, holding it over the appropriate part of the patient’s body (the heart, in this case) to concentrate healing energy there.²⁴

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These healing energies are another kind of frequency that interacts with sound and light to produce the desired results.²⁵ Particular frequencies act on specific parts of the body of a patient in such a way as to induce healing. One Buriat shaman says that individual sounds work on various energy centres in the body.Tania Kobezhikova says that different melodies and rhythms affect various organs in the body and that this may vary from person to person. Rhythm is clearly very important in shamanic healing since all the instruments actually used by shamans produce sounds of short duration rather than the drawn-out sounds of the bowed instruments used by storytellers. Repetitive rhythm steadies brain waves and helps people to journey. The striking of shamanic instruments allows yet another play of timbre – the sound changes as it decays. The energies of the shaman, the helping spirits, and the patient combine to bring about healing. Turkic shamans often emphasize the role of the patient in self-healing, asking us to look inside, to connect with the spirits ourselves, and to pay attention to their answers to our questions.The music is individually tailored to the patient and the situation. Because of the interaction of the shaman, the patient, and the spirits, and the intuitive changes in musical improvisation,it seems unlikely that the use of a recording would be effective in this kind of healing. On the other hand, recordings are used effectively in other kinds of shamanic healing, such as that practised by members of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

Sound Colour and Astrology Musicians often relate keys and pitches to specific colours, although not always the same ones. Musical timbre is frequently referred to as sound colour. The interpretation and use of colour is individual, varying from shaman to shaman and from healing to healing. Colour is one of the things a shaman sees clairvoyantly. A shaman’s increased sensitivity to the frequencies of sound and light connects the inner senses of sight and hearing. Süzükei says that colour, sound, and smell are always mentioned together. Sound frequencies intuitively evoke colour in non-shamans and may be one way of associating healing colours directly to various organs of the body. Colours in turn have symbolic meanings elaborated in poetry and epic, which contribute to the healing effect of story. Süzükei sees the formation of overtone melody as analogous to the way colours are produced when white light passes through a prism. Light bends

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and breaks up into the components of the colour spectrum.A single colour can be emphasized by neutralizing the others with filters. In an analogous way,the larynx can act as a prism for sound,breaking it into overtones,which are then filtered by the tongue.This results in emphasis on certain melodic overtones to the practical exclusion of others. The fundamental tone is produced by extreme air pressure on the vocal cords, whose position exaggerates the vibrations in the lower register (Süzükei , ).²⁶ She points out that shamans often specify which colours of fabric a person should bring to a ceremony: sometimes red and white; sometimes black and white;or red,black,and white.The shaman will have made a reading to know in advance what colours are needed. In Tuvan astrology, colours relate to the elements.An astrological reading is usually done as part of the shaman’s initial diagnosis.²⁷ The astrological system used in Tuva and Buriatia has much in common with the Tibetan, incorporating elements of Turkic philosophy. It includes the animal years familiar from Chinese astrology, along with the elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, which are understood as elements of transformation relative to each other. For example, fire destroys wood, while wood feeds fire.All of these have correspondences with the cardinal directions: south-summer-fire; southeast-earth; west-fall-metal; northwestearth; north-winter-water; northeast-earth; east-spring-wood; southeastearth. Khakassia’s system has Chinese elements, but fewer of the Tibetan. Tuvan shaman Dugar-Sürün Oorzhak tells me that he uses the person’s birth element in healing. For example, if the birth year were metal he might use metal objects in the ceremony; likewise water, earth, air, or fire. Each of those elements has a sound frequency, activated by movement of the objects, so the sound portion of shamanic healing works in conjunction with astrological information. A Tibetan astrologer compares the locations of the elements at the time of birth with those of the current year to see how they affect a person’s five energy systems.These five have certain correspondences to the types of the soul in Turkic philosophy. In Tibetan, the first is La – a person’s soul or spirit. It resides in the body and moves upward from the feet to the head in the course of a month. La can leave the body when energy is low, or reside in an external object.This last is an image frequently encountered in stories in which a hero must find where his opponent keeps his soul in order to defeat him.The second energy is sok – vitality or life force. It seems to be similar to the Turkic kut or khut. It resides in the heart, and if it leaves, the person dies immediately. Lü is the body’s energy (like Khakass sür). Wang

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thang is personal power to achieve one’s goals, often equated with luck. Lung ta is the Windhorse, which carries energies through the channels in the body and harmonizes all the energies (Cornu , –). Another characteristic of Turkic astrology is the presence of “spiritual birthmarks,” called menge in Tuvan, mewa in Tibetan.Ai-Churek Oyun calls them “threads,” and has her students wear threads around their heads in the appropriate number and colour.The menge can be red, black, white, green, yellow, or blue (Diakonova ). Each menge also has a number, which can be arranged in a magic square with three on each side. All the lines, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal add up to fifteen. Every year has its own menge and the reader compares that of the current year with the birth year.The menge are constantly moving and the shaman follows their movement to find the current position and predict future tendencies by counting on the nine joints of three fingers held up by the questioner.The nine-part grid is also the basis of reading the forty-one pebbles. Each of the years in the nineyear cycle has its own characteristic strengths and weaknesses, as well as substances that must be used in ceremonies.²⁸ The information contained in the colours and numbers is essential to understanding who we are, which allows us to use our energies to the fullest. Anatolii Kombu at the Tuvan Republican Museum spoke to me about my own astrological position in summer . He says that when the birth element corresponds to the element of the current year the energy is very high and can be either dangerous or auspicious. My birth year was ruled by fire, with nine red menge, so  was a strong year for me, being ruled by metal, since my fire controls the metal of the year. Each year the cardinal directions take on elements that will be beneficial for different activities,such as finding work, moving to live in a new place, getting married, or seeking healing. Certain things about astrology apply to everyone at the same time, including the auspicious times for cutting hair. In some areas the newspapers have started to print lists of the auspicious days for haircuts, and barbers get more business on these days. Alexander Kotozhekov told me his grandmother’s story about the astrological calendar.

Khan Amed was once standing on the bank of a river. On the other side there was a forest fire. He saw the animals running out of the forest and

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called the years in the order they came: the mouse, bull-moose, fox, rabbit, lizard, snake, horse, sheep, human being, chicken, crane, and goat.There was some doubt about who was first. It seemed it would be the moose but then the mouse jumped over his head and arrived first.²⁹ ▼

Time Travel Another important aspect of shamanic music is play with the sense of time, not only through rhythm as we understand it but also in a larger sense.“The cosmonauts say that when they are going very fast in space everything seems to go slowly,” saysValentina Süzükei.“We also notice this looking down from an airplane.The faster and higher we go, the slower is the passage of time. The same kinds of ideas about speed can apply to concepts of sound. Fast music in Western terms, meaning a lot of notes – this is earthly speed. Overtone music has another kind of speed, much faster.This internal vibration, the speed frequency, is where the sphere of timbre begins.The music seems drawn-out – it has an epic quality.There is tremendous power in that slow sound because of those very fast frequencies. There are also frequencies beyond our range of hearing.We mortals understand the middle frequencies,but in kargyraa there are very low frequencies,a sense of space,big energy, cosmic volume (quantity of content, as opposed to loudness).We receive information about these sounds not through hearing but through other channels.These may relate to the frequencies in objects and substances and in the human body.” There are stories the world over about a person absorbed in music who forgets the passage of time and emerges many years later. In explaining the theory of general relativity,Einstein gave the example of twins,one of whom travels through the cosmos and the other who stays home. The traveller returns and has not aged, while the person on earth has.This is reminiscent of the journeys of epic heroes and stories like the second igil legend, which follows, and of a shaman’s long journeys through the cosmos in search of a lost soul, returning to the yurt where only a few hours have passed.These constant voyages have something to do with why shamans seem to live longer than other people. Kotozhekov says,“There is a practice of stopping time. In shamanic songs there is an image of a whole year going by while the song is sung.In the upper world time stops on a point – it is very concentrated. Everything is now. And in the lower world time goes backward – people are reborn and get younger.” Süzükei confirms that “If a person

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spends time with those spirits for whom time is eternal,the spirits who know not only this shaman but all of his ancestors, this will act on him. He stays the age he was. I think that is shown in this legend about the igil.” the igil (ii)³⁰ They say this was long, long ago. One time when the villagers were moving to their summer places at Eder-Kuilar (the singing caves) one young man went to the forest for firewood. On his way back he was caught by a storm and he hid in a nearby cave. Sitting on his pile of firewood he began to smoke his pipe, waiting for the storm to pass. Suddenly it seemed that from within the cave he was hearing unusual music accompanying throat-singing. Surprised, he went deep into the cave.The deeper he went the lighter it seemed to get. In the very depths of the cave he saw someone he didn’t know singing and accompanying himself on some sort of instrument. “I too can sing sygyt and khöömei,” the young man said, “but these marvellous new sounds you must teach me.” “Why not?” said the unknown man.“There’s nothing to it.Take the instrument and try playing.” The young man took the instrument in his hands and, sitting next to the unknown man, began to sing and play. It was true that the sounds of the instrument seemed to flow out of their own accord, flowing together with his sygyt, khöömei, and kargyraa. He stopped for a moment and turned to the other man. “Let me borrow your instrument for a while. I would like to make one like it for myself.” “Take it.When you have made your own, bring mine back to me.” Overjoyed, the young man began to play and sing again. He was so absorbed in the music that he didn’t notice the old man disappear. And outside, the storm had long since passed and the sun was shining. When he came out of the cave he saw neither his pile of firewood nor his axe. On the place where he had left them was a small pile of dust and a rusty axe that he didn’t even notice. Surprised that someone would have taken his firewood, he gathered some more and set off home. He came into his yurt and saw people that he didn’t know. He searched the whole village but found neither his young wife, nor his parents, nor any of his relatives. Everyone gathered together to get a look at this stranger. And nobody could answer his question.Where had his young

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wife and his parents disappeared to in the time it took him to go for firewood? At last one ancient old woman began to reminisce about how when she was a small girl people talked about how long, long before a young man had gone for firewood and disappeared without a trace. People looked for him in the forest but didn’t even find his remains. Only his young wife had refused to believe that he was no longer among the living and she said that every night she heard his singing. Then the young man realized that while he had been in that cave many, many years had gone by and that by now none of his relations was left on the earth. He began to sing and play, shedding tears of grief and longing.As he played his hair turned grey and he grew a long grey beard. From that time he was left with no blood relatives and he began travelling from one village to another along the river Khemchik. And thus appeared the travelling singer Aksal irei, old man white beard.³¹ His singing, sygyt, khöömei, and kargyraa left no one untouched.There was no musician to compare with him. His tales, accompanied on his instrument, lasted several days. When people asked him what this instrument was and what it was called he began muttering to himself,“I have to return it, return it, but who will return my relatives and my youth?” No one understood what he was muttering about, all they heard was “return, return” (egider, egider) and that apparently is why the people around the Khemchik call this instrument “egil.” ▼

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Spirit Language and Indigenous Language “Language begins with the music of words,”says folklorist Georgii Kurbatski in talking about language and poetry. He has a dramatic manner and an obvious love of language.“Shamans and storysingers converse with spirits in the spirits’ own musical language.They have a much larger vocabulary than do ordinary people, a vocabulary that describes the vast worlds they encounter on their voyages and reflects structures and concepts long forgotten among non-shamans.¹ The Tuvan term uran-chechen can mean creator with words or creator of words.” Perhaps they invent, although they are also likely to have heard the language in altered states of consciousness. According to ancient stories, there was a time when all the people and animals understood each other’s languages. As time passed people lost this ability, but some are able to regain it.A legend told all over the Turkic and Mongolian world tells of how a hunter or herdsman learned the languages of birds and animals from a snake. One version goes like this. seventy languages In the earlier, faraway times there lived on the earth a brave hunter, an excellent marksman. He always killed without a miss and he never came home with empty hands. But one time he spent the whole day, right up until evening, walking through the forest without meeting either bird or beast.Tired, exhausted, he lay down to sleep.And as he slept he had a strange dream: a yellow fog threatened to envelop him, and after that another kind of fog, of many colours, approached him.

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He woke up and saw that indeed a fog of many colours was coming. He was frightened. He grabbed his bow and laid in an arrow, but just then a human voice rang out from the fog. “Don’t shoot me, hunter, I won’t do you any harm.” The fog became thicker, denser. It turned into a yellow snake with thundering wings of many colours. “Let us be friends, brave hunter, fine marksman,” the snake said.“I need your help. For many years I’ve been at war with a yellow-winged snake. I can’t overpower him.Together you and I will defeat him.” “I am prepared to help you,” said the hunter. “Then let us go into the valley over there, where the fight will take place,” said the snake with many-coloured wings. They came into a wide valley. “Our battle will be long,” said the snake.“We will rise up to heaven three times and three times we will come back to earth.When we go up for the fourth time, my enemy will overpower me. When we come down, he’ll be on top, I’ll be on the bottom. Look sharp! I will turn his yellow head to you, and you will shoot into his only eye.This eye is in his forehead, in the very middle of his forehead. And now hide in this hollow; soon the yellow-winged snake will come tearing down from the sky right onto me.” The hunter hid in the hollow. Soon a yellow-winged snake came tearing down from the sky.The fight began. Linked together, the snakes rose up three times to heaven and three times came back down.Their strength was equal. But then they rose up to the sky a fourth time, and when they came down the yellow-winged one was on top and the one with the many-coloured wings was on the bottom. Then the snake with the multi-coloured wings turned his enemy’s head toward the hunter.The sharp-shooter was waiting.The string of his bow was pulled tight. It only took an instant for him to shoot an arrow and to pierce the yellow eye of the yellow-winged snake.And then a poisonous yellow fog fell on the earth.All the trees in the forest dried up and the animals stopped breathing. The snake with the multi-coloured wings saved the hunter.He covered his friend closely with his powerful wings and held him for three days and three nights, until the poisonous yellow fog dissipated. And when the sun shone again, the snake with the multi-coloured wings said, “We have defeated a terrible foe. I thank you, hunter. The yellow-winged snake brought much harm.Every day he gobbled up three

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animals and devoured fiery snakes, my subjects. If it weren’t for you he would have killed me and devoured all the fiery snakes, but now we will recover. So come and be my guest.You’ll see my palace, my subjects, and my old parents.” The hunter agreed.They went down into a deep hole, and followed an underground path to a palace, which sparkled with gold and precious stones. Fiery snakes lay on the ground, formed into a circle. One hall opened into another, even richer. And then they came into the biggest hall. Next to the hearth sat two old snakes with multi-coloured wings. “These are my parents,” said the snake. The hunter greeted them. “This hunter saved me and all our lands and subjects,” said the snake. “He killed our ancient enemy.” “We thank you,” said the snake’s parents.“We will reward you. If you like, we will give you gold and precious stones, as much as you can carry away. Or if you prefer, we will teach you seventy languages, so that you will be able to understand the conversations of the animals and birds. Choose!” “Teach me the seventy languages,” said the hunter. “Better to choose the gold and precious stones,” said the snake. “A person who knows seventy languages does not find it easy to live.” “No, I don’t want gold,” said the hunter.“Teach me the languages.” “As you like,” said the snake.“From this time on you will understand the languages of all the animals and birds of the forest. But this is a secret that you must not reveal to anyone. If you do, that will be the day of your death.” The hunter left the realm of the many-coloured snake and started home. On his way he was delighted to learn that he really did understand the languages of the birds and animals in the forest, and he had several adventures where this turned out to be useful.And when he reached his own yurt he understood his dogs and livestock as they welcomed him back. Time passed. One night after he and his wife had lain down to sleep, he heard two mice come into their yurt.They were chattering together. “Come with me,” said one.“I know where there is a lot of delicious milk. It’s in this vat. First I’ll drink.You hold me tightly by the tail so I don’t fall in.” So the second mouse held the first one by the tail and the first mouse drank and drank.The second called out,“Enough, it’s my turn!” “Just three gulps more,” said the first, and drank some more.At last the mouse had enough and the second mouse pulled her out.Now the second

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began to drink. But the first mouse was so sated with milk that she couldn’t hold her friend’s tail for long. She let go and the second mouse fell into the vat. “Help!” cried the second mouse.“Save me! I’m drowning.” The young man heard all this and started to laugh.He got up and pulled the mouse out of the vat. But when he went back to bed his wife started to question him. “What’s going on? What are you laughing about? How did you know there was a mouse in the milk?” “I’ll tell you about it in the morning, after the chores are done,” he said, and went back to sleep. In the morning they got up and went out to do the milking and feed the animals. He heard his sheep talking,“Ah, what a good master we have – he feeds us well.” But his dog was cursing.“Our master feeds us now,but soon he is going to tell his wife his secret, and then he will die.” And the rooster said, “I have many wives but I do not tell them my secret.And he has just one wife,but still he is prepared to tell her his secret. When he does, he will die.” The young man listened to the conversations of his animals and realized that he must not disclose the secret of the seventy languages.He never did tell his wife about it, and for that reason he is still alive to this very day! ▼ This story has many versions. Sometimes the hunter’s tale ends more violently – his wife pesters him unmercifully and he beats her until she stops. One longer version begins very much as above, but instead of the gift of language, the hunter is rewarded with marriage with the snake king’s daughter.This story ends with the formation of several of Khakassia’s rivers (Kazachinova and Van Deusen ). Others are set in a herding culture. In shorter versions the snake simply bites the boy, who then understands the birds and animals.The meeting with the snake is simplified – a herding boy helps a snake who is stuck in wet grass.She promises to reward him if he takes her home.She turns into a lovely girl and takes him to her parents, who reward him in the same way as the hunter.When he comes out from underground he overhears two birds saying that there is gold buried under the tree where he is resting.The boy gains wealth and marries, and eventually the story ends with the same incident about the mice in the milk. In this version a young boy grows up, marries, and gains status as a result of knowing the languages, while the hunter was already married, highly competent, and successful before helping the snake.

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The story has a gentler feel, but also shows a different relation to wealth, which has arisen with social change.The hunter’s wealth depends entirely on his ability and does not carry over from one year to the next.What he values most is the languages, which will help him to be a better hunter. In the herding culture there are differentiated classes that carry over from one generation to another – a wealthy khan and a poor orphan.There is the possibility of finding gold, thereby achieving wealth without labour (which the hunter rejected). Both emphasize that there are times when it is important to keep secrets, especially when returning from another world. Khakass shaman Tania Kobezhikova describes her own initiation, saying that her friends heard her speaking “in tongues.”They didn’t understand her words but felt certain from the flow that they were hearing a real language and not gibberish. Khakass epic singer Slava Kuchenov told me about his meeting with an elder storyteller, Barnakov, who told him that the sung version of his stories was in the language of spirits, which humans hear as khai, or throat-singing.The khai version had fewer words than the “translation” because each word contains a totality of meaning that takes several words to describe in human language.² This proliferation of words, each of which has a wealth of meaning, reminds me of hearing as a child that Arctic peoples have more than forty words for snow.This was difficult to comprehend, even living in New York state’s “snow belt” with five months of winter. I thought about snow, slush, and ice.And then wet snow,dry snow,crusty snow.But forty different words? It was my first hint that other languages contained something my own did not. Only years later, visiting the Arctic for the first time, I saw the source of the forty words.There a person can die in a moment from misreading the information held in snow and ice.To northern hunters this knowledge is necessary for survival. Steppe herders develop subtlety and precision about direction and the weather, which is equally important to them.And they teach their children to convey messages without changing any of the words, so that the meaning will not be lost or confused. Places in the physical landscape are described with great precision, while shamans have many words for the spirits they encounter and the places where the spirits may have taken souls. Just as Arctic people have many words for snow and ice,Turkic peoples have anywhere from four to nine words that translate as “soul.”³ It is easy to see how exact knowledge of variations in weather conditions is necessary for survival, but knowledge of the soul is less familiar to today’s more materialistic culture. Nonetheless, native leaders throughout Siberia are convinced that it is equally necessary for the health of individuals, commu-

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nities,and the planet.We fit into the totality of our world as microcosm relates to macrocosm.An understanding of the soul leads us to see how we humans interrelate with the world around us, giving us a greater concern for ecology and world peace. Indigenous languages contain a grammar of spiritual ecology, which connects viruses, astral travel, cooking pots, science, religion, and practical living into one comprehensible system.As languages die, so do whole philosophical ways of looking at humans in the natural world.Of over , world languages in existence today, , are considered in danger (near extinction) while fewer than , about  per cent of the total, can be considered safe, with more than , speakers (Nettle and Romaine , ). In Russia  languages, or  per cent of the total, are moribund; not yet extinct but not in regular use.⁴ And today only about  Siberian languages survive, while  were in active use  years ago. Translation is a complex and vital link as we transmit information from one culture to another. Language records some of the cultural clashes that happen when a colonizing nation takes over another people. For example, although Turkic languages have an imperative mood, it is used rarely among adults,as it is offensive to give a direct order – such things are usually couched in terms like,“If you would do this, it would be good.” Russians on the other hand give orders frequently and seem to take it as a sign of affection in personal relationships. There is a further possibility of an ethnographer putting words into people’s mouths, simply because Russian and English speakers tend to talk more than most indigenous people. Comparing translated texts on a page shows how indigenous Siberian languages convey ideas economically – inevitably the Russian text takes up to one third more space, while English is somewhere in the middle. Indigenous friends have often pointed out to me that even they talk more when speaking Russian. Speaking their own language somehow induces a greater sense of comfort with silence.When there is something important to say, or an occasion for having fun with words, people speak – otherwise not.A more talkative ethnographer tends to fill in the gaps, and the person being interviewed may agree to these additions simply to end the conversation, or out of a sense of politeness, or even from a tricky sense of humour. In his afterword to the nineteenth century Russian ethnographer Lev Shternberg’s work on Sakhalin Island, anthropologist Bruce Grant quotes Nivkh scholar Galina Lok on the subject of what people would or would not say, especially to foreigners.“[We’re helping you] because we have a plain interest in preserving a culture ... But by contrast, the best Nivkhi of the

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past were always very laconic ...You had to draw everything out of them, ask one person and then ask another person.They would give you two or three words and that’s it.You would have to be on the ball enough to know which of the two or three words ... were actually useful or true.” Lok goes on to describe listening to old recordings only to discover that the singers had played tricks on the ethnographer, recording nothing but profanity (Shternberg , ). A Russian ethnographer, Nikolai Pluzhnikov, told about a linguist he knew who was working with a native speaker of the language he was studying.The linguist began constructing sentences.“Can I say it this way?” he asked.“Yes,” the native speaker answered.Then the linguist rephrased his sentence.“Can I say it this way?”“Yes.”And again ...Finally the native speaker burst out,“You can, but we don’t speak like that!”⁵This tendency can extend far beyond the realm of words and grammatical structures into the deeper philosophy contained in the language. Pluzhnikov suggested that outsiders may have created the simplified model of three worlds from the few words of their hosts in the same way.⁶ It is very difficult to translate a concept that is lacking in the target language.Take hunting language, for example. Indigenous words for “killing” lack the finality of English and Russian. Instead the animals come as guests to the hunters, giving their bodies to help human beings survive, with the understanding that people in turn will treat them with respect.The proper rituals ensure that the animal’s soul can return in a new body to enjoy another life on earth. Imagine the change that takes place in a hunter’s view of his place in the world when he changes from one language to the other. Besides that,Turkic pronouns do not indicate gender but reflect that we are first and foremost human beings, and then male and female.The respect for both sexes, which we English speakers now work to achieve with awkward renderings like he/she, s/he, is built into Turkic language (and the whole Altai family, as well as many other languages worldwide). Like the ungendered pronouns, the Tuvan and Khakass noun kizhi/kizi simply means person (although in Azeri it is gendered,“man”). Turkic languages have several versions of the past tense,one of which indicates that the action happened a long time ago, while another shows more recent time. Another verbal form indicates that the speaker learned about the action by hearsay.This is often translated by adding something like “they say.” Using this form clearly indicates whether the speaker is certain about the truth of the statement.⁷ Words that are missing in the source language are equally revealing. For example, Turkic languages have no words meaning “should,” which goes hand in hand with the disinclination to speak direct orders.They also have

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no words for the altered states of consciousness that shamans and storytellers enter. How to interpret this? It is clear that they enter states quite different from what we consider “ordinary.” Siberian shamans and storytellers do not pay as much attention to their states of consciousness as do those Western researchers who believe that these states are unusual and difficult to attain, and whose research is focused largely on cultures using hallucinogens. For shamans and storytellers, as I suspect for any creative person, the state of consciousness is not as important as the task to be accomplished. Musicians concentrate on the music, artists on the work they are producing. Storytellers enter into their tales and shamans concentrate on the journey, the soul to be brought back, and the help and hindrance they encounter on the way. Not that alteration doesn’t happen, allowing the inner senses to function, but it is incidental to the work. Kazachinova expressed the distress of many of her compatriots about a televised shamanic ceremony () in which “... the shamans spent a whole hour gathering their spirits and then stopped.When will they do the work?” What is an “ordinary” state of consciousness, and what is an “altered” one? Is there a duality, or a continuum of states? When driving a car, most people are quite different from their “other” selves.Are we in the same state while watching TV that we are in the midst of a heated argument? Making love and washing the dishes? And what about dreams? Ainu researcher Sherry Tanaka points out that for her people the shaman’s state is not particularly set apart or “altered,” since people are aware of this continuum of states (Tanaka , ).The unique feature of a shaman is not the ability to enter non-ordinary reality, but in the strength of the helpers they have there and thus the kinds of things they can accomplish. Non-shamans may also have frequent contacts with spirits, each occasion individual and unique. The inner world exists everywhere and in every people. If that is so, then why is there such richness in the languages of indigenous peoples, speaking to a wealth of individual spiritual understanding? I believe that something of the individual experience has been lost in cultures that subscribe to the “great” religions with their dogmas and hierarchies.When a church hierarchy defines spirit and limits interaction with deities to its own priests, the need for many words drops off and a kind of jargon is sufficient to describe the experience to ordinary people. Dogma simplifies essence while complicating the approach to it.As stories are coded and written down, the spiritual world becomes separated from nature and everyday realities.The story is separated from the teller and the listener.As I began to know Turkic spirituality I came to see a philosophical view in many respects more complex than my own. Shamanism is not a dogmatic or unified system. Each person I met had a unique view, and each is valid.

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Shamanic Poetry in Tuva Besides singing and playing instruments, ceremonial use of musical sound includes the human voice reciting shamanic poetry, probably the most concentrated use of word sounds.Tuvan shaman Ai-Churek Oyun says that each human language belongs to its people, but that there is also a shamanic language that crosses the boundaries of human language and is about communication with spirit.These sounds, which can invoke energies of the earth, of ancestral spirits, and of personal energy,make for simpler and clearer communication with spirit. Shamans arrange these sounds in conscious patterns as they create poetry. Just as shamanic music is improvisational, nonritual songs and melodies also incorporate improvisation. Musical improvisation goes hand in hand with poetic improvisation, created in response to information received from the spiritual world. One of the shaman’s many artistic gifts is that of creating poetry that reflects the mythic world in everyday reality. Or maybe it only looks that way to an outsider – to an insider they are one.For many years Kenin-Lopsan collected these poems, known in Tuvan as algysh (in Khakass algys), as well as costumes and drums, from shamans throughout Tuva. His painstaking recordings saved this poetry from oblivion during the years of Soviet repression. Myriad images from shamanic mythology interact in the poetry, expressing the shaman’s inner world as well as external history. Kenin-Lopsan is himself a poet. Indigenous people in Eurasia produce many fine poets, perhaps because of a long poetic tradition, which goes back at least as far as the time that the stone monuments were placed in the steppe by the ancient Turks nearly , years ago.The figures are engraved with poetry that tells the life of the hero the statue is dedicated to.The poems are written in an ancient Turkic alphabet,which fell into obscurity for several centuries before being deciphered in the late nineteenth century by V.V. Radlov and his colleagues.Turkic people value beautiful speech highly and most people are capable of creating speeches of good wishes spontaneously at the table and at formal occasions.They record these good wishes as a separate genre of oral literature. A shamanic poem or story is a multimedia event combining the storyteller’s voice, music, gestures, and facial expressions; the sight of the campfire flames dancing; and the smell of steppe grasses and cattle. Shamans create song-poems spontaneously, both in trance and in ordinary states of consciousness.The poems report on the actions of the shaman and the spirits to those who are listening: the family and friends of the patient.

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Ovaa, a ritual site in Tuva.

Kenin-Lopsan believes that the creation of poetry is essential to shamanic power, connecting sound and visual images, and that listening to poetry is essential to our understanding of that power. In his book on the ritual practice and folklore of Tuvan shamans, he explains how words function in all stages of the healing ceremony and how algysh are also composed for other rituals and as blessings for the shaman’s drum and eerens (figures). Here is how he describes the ceremony (Kenin-Lopsan b, -). In the prologue the shaman uses animal sounds to find the specific rhythms and key words that will function in the ceremony. Here the algysh serve to introduce the shaman and to invoke specific helping spirits.At this time the shaman claims one of several kinds of ancestry in the spiritual world – from the heavens, from human ancestors, from spirits of the earth and water, or from evil spirits. If shamans are really seeing dna structures, as

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Kurgan at Uibat, Khakassia.

Narby asserts, that could indicate why they consider genetic ancestry so important (although politics also plays a role). The next type of algysh tells of the shaman’s search for the cause of the illness, giving the case history. Here the spirits find out whether the patient has committed sins that may have caused the illness or whether it comes from outside causes, such as sorcery or the action of spirits. Not everything is curable by a shaman and not every shaman can cure every illness.⁸ Hearing this algysh helps prepare the patient psychologically for the cure, an interesting aspect of healing rarely spoken of in Western medicine. The shaman then sends out helping spirits and delivers reports from those spirits on their return.An evil spirit may also speak through the shaman at this time about taking the soul.The shaman tells the prognosis of the disease, good or bad. It is understood that a shaman cannot cure a person who is destined to die at that time.A patient who is dying says goodbye to family members.This part of the ceremony can go on all night and is completely expressed in poetry. The next morning the shaman summarizes the results. At the very end he may divine the further course of events or answers to other questions using the drumstick, which he throws several times to the ground.The position it lands in determines the outcome.⁹ Sometimes such prophecy is also delivered in verse. Kenin-Lopsan’s published collections contain various types of algysh, besides those that appear in ceremonies.They are dedicated to competition with other shamans; to heaven, the earth, and the underground world; to animals, eerens, and children; to hunting, happiness, the yurt, arak (a milk-

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based alcoholic drink), and tobacco; to mountain passes; and to various holidays (Kenin-Lopsan  and a). Certain themes come up again and again: a shaman’s praise for predecessors or teachers; a recitation of spiritual ancestry; praise for the shaman’s native land; and a description of interactions with the spirit masters of water, earth, and sky. Most of the traditional algysh were composed in the Tuvan language but some are in Mongolian, Chinese, or Altai. In the past a shaman might change language within one poem or speak in the languages of animals.The sound is as effective as the meaning. A skilled shaman could have conversations with the spirits of animals in their own language, like the man who met the snake. This skill is highly developed among hunters, who call animals using their voices. KeninLopsan says he has heard both sides of the conversation delivered by a shaman,whose ability to produce animal sounds proved her transformation into the animal.The shaman acts as translator from the language of the animals to that of human beings. Sounds of specific animals can be used for specific purposes: the raven curses an enemy; the crow calls rain; a wolf or an owl frightens people; and the magpie uncovers a liar.A shaman expresses power through the bull and ecstasy through the bear.The sound of the cuckoo helps the singing voice (Kenin-Lopsan , , ). Listeners also come to recognize these sounds and to know what they mean.Animal voices expressed by a shaman sound similar to the songs for taming domestic animals, where the singer imitates the sound of a mother animal to attract the baby (Smithsonian recording, ). The voices of certain animals have symbolic significance, especially the one whose skin makes the head of the drum. In this algysh, dedicated to training a new drum, the mountain goat gradually comes to accept that he has given up one life and will now begin another in service to the shaman. The poem’s rhythm and form reflect the taming of a wild horse – just imagine the wild drumming that would accompany it! algysh for a new drum¹⁰ Drum, you are wild! Drum you are crazy! Don’t worry, new drum, and don’t fret, Drum, may there be agreement and unity between us, Drum, I see an animal coming toward us from the steep cliffs. Drum, why did you run away from me that time? Drum, why did you grow thoughtful and why do you shy away from me?

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Or don’t you want to be friends, and get close to me? Or did you try to say something that I didn’t understand? “I am the mountain goat, glorious as the free-flying falcon. Where the ravine is steep and the thunderous rocks rise up, The cracked hanging rocks have been standing proudly for centuries. There I learned to run, racing up and down. The great rocks khaia raise their heads to the heavens. They are mine, they adorn themselves with many-coloured stripes. My liver moans from sadness and mourns powerfully,¹¹ When I am taken over by memory of those cliffs. One cliff rises there with a yellow stripe, A vertical rock chalym shows itself first smooth, then steep. There the red and yellow goats wander. I loved to rejoice and play with them. I was young, I was beautiful and proud, I was marvellous to those who were alert, my agility was enchanting. I had chunmalar – female goats from the heights, But then one hunter killed me and my sweethearts went away. I despise and curse that hunter. There will be no mercy for him. I will punish him cruelly. No matter where he goes, may his road be closed. No matter what fate he desires, may it come to nothing. May he fail to go out hunting in the summertime. If he goes up on a cliff, may he fall off. May his eyes go blind like coals that have gone out. May landslide and boulders awaken to crush him. That hunter has black eyes, may he go blind. May his grave be at the black mountain called Kara-Shat. I conjure this – may his eyes go blind and his blood dry up. May his dust and his whole universe cease to be. If he goes hunting, may the aza¹² spirit tear him to pieces. May he die of thirst, from hunger and heat.

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May he and his horse be sacrificed by others. May their corpses stay where Ala-Shat stands. Hunter, you will be angry and enraged. You will try to justify yourself by the ancient custom, When consequences go out in the name of Ortemchei, You will not hold them back with your lasso,and you will not secure them to the hitching post.” Mountain goat, it was a brave hunter who shot you. Mountain goat, the day of death will also come to that killer. Mountain goat, if you had met with a bad hunter He would not have killed you cleanly. Instead you would have suffered, lightly wounded. Let his blood flow to the last drop. Let him suffer to the last beat of his pulse. Let his lungs and heart suffer pain, Let him find the road that leads to death. Mountain goat, you did not dig in the earth with your feet.You raised no dust as you died. Mountain goat, you didn’t beat the ground and didn’t see suffering. Mountain goat, you did not meet cruel suffering. Mountain goat, why do you curse the brave hunter? There was a shot, there was the whistling of a bullet and the blow was exact. And you, mountain goat, in one moment you went to sleep the eternal sleep. The inaccessible cliffs stay lonely. And you parted forever from the mountains – that was your fate. They say that there is nothing on earth higher than fate. They say that no one can go higher than destiny. Mountain goat, I beg you not to curse your fate. Mountain goat, I beg you not to send out curses. Mountain goat, you died, but I beg you not to regret. May your friends remain in perfect health.

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Mountain goat, be a fin on my wings. Mountain goat, be my companion. Drum, you are wild! Drum, you are crazy! Don’t worry, new drum and don’t fret. May your ringing voice sound for my native people, And for the ancient land of my ancestors. Drum, you are round. Drum you are red. Be of good will, be steadfast. Drum, why do you want to tear out of my hands? Don’t leave me, drum. Resign yourself. Well-trained drum, I already know you. Listen to me. You don’t need to worry.And don’t kick wildly. Your torn bottom is covered delightfully with skin. Drum, that is why I ask you not to run away. Drum, when you tear away from my hands with such strength, Your bells ring with a weeping sound. Drum, don’t turn to insanity and extravagance. I will break you with the drumstick if you are not obedient. Kuk-kuuk. I imitate the cuckoo. Uu-huk. I imitate the owl. Drum, I beg you not to fly away to Kurbustu in the sky. Drum, I beg you not to go down underground. Hurai, hurai.Amen, amen. I beg you to stay. You stand still now.You are kind.This is how you should be. Drum, now you are acting up again. I beg you to be calm. Drum, listen to me. Be reasonable. It is time to make peace. Stop, drum. Let’s be friends. Drum, at one time you stood, turned to face the cliffs, Where the yellow, red and scarlet stripes are so spectacular. Drum, you were once at the place where there is a path among the rocks. Yes, and you turned around at the place where the path goes along the cliff. Then you bent down and picked the kadar grasses, You so wanted to fill your empty stomach.

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And suddenly you forgot vigilance and danger, Going placidly into the land of silence. A small cloud flew over you along the blue sky, Covering you with a shadow and protecting you in its own way. The steep cliffs were a comfortable shelter for you, Protecting you from the buffeting of storms and wind. When the clever hunter crept up so close to you, Then the breeze did not carry his scent to you. The hunter brought his smell to your place But the breeze took this bad smell the other way. Did something push you toward death, beautiful mountain goat? Or did your eyes lose their far-sightedness in that moment? Yes, you had a guard-goat, the one with the black and white stripe, But he was hiding at that moment behind another rock. The hunter had seen you earlier and approached quietly, He aimed at you from behind a free-standing rock. The shot rang out and the earth somehow quivered, And the echo carried its sound through the forests and empty mountains. The deadly bullet went through your lungs and heart, In that moment a bitter wound formed from the bullet. You, mountain goat, leapt from the ground unexpectedly, And then fell into a crack in the rocks, falling terribly, head over heels. Your friends left you to the mercy of fate. They quickly hid behind big rocks. Some boulders came to life in that moment, Like running goats, they fell down the cliff. They say that death does not choose the roads and paths. In all the world of Ortemchei death carries one cruelty. To all living beings one road is given, with one end, This road is called death with no mistake. You, mountain goat, were killed, leaving your descendants. The female goats chunmalar have your black and white offspring.

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Your desires, dreams, and thoughts, your sagysh will live without offence, without pain. Your sagysh will remain without grief, without suffering. You, mountain goat, were a runner, you were uncatchable. Enemies with tusks could not tear you apart. Your gait was fast as a high-mountain storm. So agile, you outran everybody on your road. Just one bullet from that sly hunter Flew to you and cut off your life forever. You lived where the cliffs rose close to the heavens, No more will you dance on these steep cliffs. Mountain goat, I beg you, become the wing for my spirits. Mountain goat, I beg you, become my true friend. Together we will visit the land of Erlik in a friendly way, Together we will visit the land of Ezhen, emperor of Manchuria, in a friendly way. I feel that you will get homesick for your native rock cliffs. I’m letting you know that together we will visit nice places. From time to time we will be at the place where you died. Your land is far away.With me you will come to no harm. Your home is there, as are your friends and brothers. May they stay there and multiply. It is my desire that bullets will not take the mountain goats and that wolves will not eat them up. May the mountain goats live worthy and beautiful lives. Mountain goat, your skin has become a drum head. It is already decorated with the paint of rosy cinnabar. Mountain goat, your skin has taken on a reddish cast, May the rays of the rising sun play on the drum. May sickness go dumb, may infection disappear, May clouds dissolve, may clouds go away. People, my algysh will carry through your aals For I am great and your brother shaman is crowned.

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The faraway stopping place where people live separately, My drum will sound there too, pronouncing a melody, And young men and women will come to my kamlanie, And I will lay down algysh, my body tenderly rocking. My drum, you are armed and you are round, You are covered with the soft skin of a mature mountain goat. My drum, you sound in grief and sadness, Your music defeats both chetker and buktar.¹³ My shoulder blades are not the reason for the rhythm of movement, My spirits made my dance spectacular. My shoulder blades are not the reason for the rhythm of movement, The first creators made me start the dance. Isn’t it time for us to set off to the aal in that valley? Isn’t it time for us to drink one cup of milk wine? Isn’t it time for us to meet with the raven-haired girls? Isn’t it time for us to take the belts off from our sweethearts? Isn’t it time for us to set off to the aal on that field? Isn’t it time for us to taste soup made from lamb meat? Isn’t it time for us to meet with the black-haired girls? Isn’t it time for us to stroke our sweetheart’s breasts? Isn’t it time for us to set off to the yurt that is standing alone? Isn’t it time for us to accept tea according to custom and to drink meat bouillon? Isn’t it time for us to meet with the most beautiful girl? Isn’t it time to stroke the cheeks of that sweetheart? Isn’t it time for us to ride out onto the wide field together? Isn’t it time for us to gallop on the best stallions? Isn’t it time for us to ride to meet the young men and women? Isn’t it time for us to watch their oitulaash, their night time songs and games?¹⁴ ▼ In the Tuvan language, each pair of lines has the same number of syllables: four, eight, or twelve, but most often eight. In many parts of Siberia sacred songs have lines of eight syllables (Leisiö ). Counting syllables in

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Katanov’s Khakass recordings I find eight,four,and seven,all sacred numbers. Kenin-Lopsan says that vowel harmony matches in pairs of lines, although I see that the match is not always complete. (Turkic vowels are considered to be of two types, front or soft and back or hard. Front vowels are i, e, ö, ü, and back are a, u, y, o. In any given word there can be vowels of only one type. Grammatical suffixes change accordingly.) Nonetheless, these features create rhythm and unity in the development of the verse and aid the memory of the person reciting it. Special words, mainly interjections without known meaning, create rhythmic effect. Parallel use of syntax in pairs of lines also contributes to this effect and the poetry gains power through extensive use of alliteration.Since Turkic languages have many grammatical endings that make parallelism at the ends of lines simple to achieve, it is considered more artistic to emphasize repeated words and phrases, rhymes, and alliterations at the beginnings of lines.Tuvan shamanic verses are constructed like those of the heroic epic, which confirms the parallel nature of the two arts. The one difference is that the shamanic poetry emphasizes more strongly the parallels in vowel harmony (Kenin-Lopsan , -).

Shamanic Poetry in Khakassia Khakassia’s tradition of shamanic poetry is called algas or algys. Some of these poems were recorded by N.F. Katanov in the s and s.¹⁵ Translation of Tag’ tayii, the Ritual of Worship to the Mountain, which follows, was complex, as the poem was not initially easy to understand. It was first recorded by Katanov in the poetic Khakass language used by shamans, and then he translated it into the Russian of his day.When this was translated into English the result was awkward in the extreme, probably because some words have several meanings. Several points were clarified in consultation with Galina Kazachinova and Tania Kobezhikova, but I still had a lot of questions. Next the Khakass linguist Victor Atknine translated the text directly from Khakass to English, which was a big improvement, predictably shorter and more poetic, but even so some questions remained. The end result here is based mostly on Atknine’s translation, slightly edited for ease of reading,with a few phrases left from the version that came through Katanov, Kazachinova, and Kobezhikova. Kenin-Lopsan quotes Katanov on shamanic invocation: “Shamanic verses relate the following about every spirit: ) Where he lives and where he likes to rest; ) What kind of horse he rides, what kind of whip

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he uses to drive his horse, and from which sea his horse drinks; ) What kind of bed he sleeps on and under what blanket; ) What clothing and hat he wears; ) What he protects and helps; ) What sacrifices are made to him and what kinds of horses, cows, and sheep are dedicated to him; ) Where he rides and where he feeds his horse. If the shaman does not fulfill this program, his efforts will not always be successful since the spirit (aza) is not sufficiently convinced and satisfied. Bad shamans are those who are not able to satisfy the spirits.”¹⁶ All these points are covered in the prayer to the mountain.

Praying to the Mountain On a day when a ritual of praying to the mountain is performed, before setting out from home a “fanning”¹⁷ called sabyt, using white and blue ribbons, is carried out.Then shamans sprinkle some untested wine, offering it in the name of the mountain where they are going to make the sacrifice, praying that the horse will not stumble and that the human body will not be ill.They bring a birch tree,dug up with its roots,and plant it on the mountain.Seven white lambs that they have brought with them are led three times in a circle around the birch tree, and then the shamans sprinkle wine again. These seven lambs are slaughtered in the manner called özep,“incising the core.”¹⁸ Usually the skins of the seven lambs are given to the shaman who carries out the ritual. A table made of birchwood is set up in front of the birch tree.They put the boiled meat on the table. A sacred dark-brown horse (yzykh) stands tied beside the birch tree. Only a master may mount this brown horse.When the meat is ready and the time comes, two men hold the table where the meat is placed. The shaman puts on his full costume (literally “hide”) and everyone stands up.The shaman drums and sings around the birch. Everyone follows, bowing toward the birch tree.When they have gone around the tree three times, they put the table in its place. During the ritual the shaman calls and names all the mountains and ridges, streams and rivers. People make this journey to the mountain every second year, at the beginning of the third. the shaman’s prayer to the mountain I have prepared a golden table The size of a horse, I have laid out a white felt rug The size of a saddle cloth.

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You are the patron of black heads,¹⁹ You are the Protector of the grazing herds! To you we will sacrifice a castrated white ram with black cheeks. Steaming liver and heart we will offer to you. And this steam of the Sea, not yet tried by any thirsty one, This steam is destined for you alone, You will receive the steam and ice of the snowy taskhyl. The new moon is beginning its journey, The head of the year is moving. The old year has completed its cycle, And the new year has begun! Now the forty bird clans, gifted with wings, Return from the heavenly lands. In the deep taiga those with claws Cast their fur for the third time. At the new moon when a golden cuckoo the size of a horse’s head Sends out her pure voice, I have prepared the golden table. New grass covers the black earth, Tender leaves appear on the strong trees. White snow melts from the mountain tops, The river sources swell, The True Mountain opens its golden door to us. Babbling streams flow from your jutting hills. Your mountains cover their slopes with meadowsweet The expanses beyond the mountain ranges grow over with needles. When the mountain springs fill up everywhere, fed by snows, And reeds grow green along the shores of the alpine lakes. You are the patron of black heads! You are the helper of protected grazing herds. Your horse’s mane is like molten gold. Your hooves are of forged gold. The soles of your feet never touch the ground. You sit astride a brown horse, the very best of all! You gallop around the great Mount Purgus, You gallop around the summit of the sacred mountain Iktem.

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You lead seven brown horses whose manes and tails drag along the ground, You play on seven hills yellow with grass that no one has eaten. Your whip is made of black otter. Your horse’s belly-straps are of pure spotted otter. Your black sikpen-caftan has ribbons. Your boots have heels made of black leather. Your blanket is of precious black silk. Your night resting place is on a steep cliff, Your stopping place is on an overhanging cliff. Stones of the wild cliffs, Do not frighten small children, Do not terrify the dogs and birds. You have blankets made of black beaver fur. Your hat is made of beaver fur. Your sash is decorated with white gold. You are the one to whom we pray at the top of the mountain, Where the rich birch tree stands with golden leaves. I tied up the right leg Of the white castrated ram with black cheeks. May my sacrificial wine reach the streams in your hills. Your mountains where you have much steam and ice. May my offering reach the Great Sea, The Mountain and the Water! Praying for blessings for the black heads, Asking protection for the grazing herds, Here we offer the chin and cheeks. I caught and hold your heart and steam. I have not allowed any married women to step onto the white felt, I have not gone to any unclean place. I have unfurled the white and blue ribbons as long as my horse from his mane to his tail And hold them on my right shoulder.

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I hold in my five fingers the sacred fan sabaga with golden leaves, I pray to the pure Mountain and Water. I pray for blessing for the golden incense burner. I have six decorations on the embroidered pockets on my back. Three times I circled the tree with my precious altar made of white birch And threw offerings of soft white cheese and white milk. I offered meat from grazing cattle, I carried it around three times in a golden bowl. May my hands be strong enough to bring this offering to you, May my shoulders be strong when I open my arms. All nine clans have gathered, Because we prepared the castrated white ram As the named golden sacrifice. In the presence of all people I first circled the seven rams. May the dark cloud of the heavenly sky Go soaring out. May our blessings reach the icy mountains we have prayed to. I pray for black rain to moisten the dry black earth. ▼

Contemporary Poetry – Itpekov These ancient forms of poetry find reflections today. One contemporary story connected with the singing of poetry is that of an elderly Khakass musician named Itpekov. Larissa Anzhiganova tells of how he was sitting at home playing his chatkhan one evening in  when a little old woman with snowwhite hair and a bright face appeared unexpectedly before him.The chatkhan is the sacred instrument of storytellers and he had felt compelled to take it up after his retirement. The old woman’s clothing amazed him with its former wealth, being made of satin and silk. But it was in a pitiful condition – all torn, with threads pulling out.After they had drunk tea in silence, she told him she was Chir Ine (literally Earth Mother), the mother spirit of all the Turkic peoples. “I am the mother spirit and I am dying,” she told Itpekov.“You need to help revive your culture and the people themselves, so that I won’t die.You, the Khakass, are my eldest son among the Turkic peoples.” Not at all long ago she had been young and beautiful, she said, because the Khakass people were living according to their customs and traditions.They worshipped her because she was the Soul of the People.When

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the people are alive and blossoming, she too is well. But now the Khakass have stopped worshipping the spirits of fire, water, mountain, and taiga.They are forgetting their language, losing their culture. If this continues further, the people will die – the Khakass will hang themselves, drown themselves, kill one another (Anzhiganova a). Chir Ine taught Itpekov her song, which he later sang often, and now others sing it too. The poems quoted by Kenin-Lopsan and Katanov are written from the point of view of the shaman, while Itpekov’s is from the point of view of the spirit (although the drum algysh goes back and forth between the shaman and the goat). Khurtuiakh Tas, mentioned in the poem, is a large female fertility figure represented by a huge stone figure now held in the museum in Abakan. For thousands of years she has been the protector of the life of the people because she was the one that women asked for the souls of their future children. Legend says that she became so very heavy because she carries the life of the people within her. People still come to the museum and leave her offerings of candy, cigarettes, and money, and her mouth has been “fed” with oil. Plans to put her back in place are being held up by negotiations with Moscow. Some feel she is safer in the museum, since there could be vandalism in the countryside.²⁰ itpekov’s song After the black earth arose, After the black-headed people were born, I was born To protect them. Under the snowy mountain tops, Among the flowing rivers, I protected my dear people With clean hands and thoughts. Through the course of numberless centuries I let them go All over the whole world, The ever-increasing clan. I left a heritage to my people, The Khakass people,

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That they might live eternal life, Whole life. From the ancient times I have preserved all the sacred traditions And only in the last hundred years Have I become ill and less powerful. My poor people, in the most fearful years Have you really forgotten God? Have I really bequeathed to my people The loss of my language and tradition? To destroy the rich taiga, To dirty the clean rivers, To sell all the wealth at the bazaar, I did not permit this. To take Khurtuiakh Tas from her place, To leave her in an unworthy place, To be a laughing-stock to others. This I did not permit. Learned people Take sacred stones away From their places. This is bitter to me. If you put Khurtuiakh Tas Back in place, Diseases, death, alcoholism Will stop. May the dear land cleanse itself, May a bright life begin, May the Khakass people increase, My dear black-headed people. When people begin to live a bright friendly life, I will come back to life, I will become young again.

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I, the Soul of the People. My black-headed people!²¹ ▼ Itpekov’s story and song are eloquent statements on the shamanic themes of rebirth,initiation through meeting with the spirit,and respect for the land. They point the way to contemporary action by combining shamanic philosophy with politics and ecology.

Mountain Spirits Return: Üstegei As I read this poem and asked more detailed questions about the mountain spirits, my friends in Abakan began to plan an excursion.“These are not the kinds of things to discuss in the city,” said Alexander Kotozhekov.“You have to be in the right place, to see, and hear and smell the things we are talking about.Then we’ll tell you some stories!” We went to a place called Üstegei, in a mountainous steppe region about two hour’s drive from Abakan.My guides on this walk through spiritual geography were musical instrument maker Petya Topoev and cultural activists Larissa Anzhiganova and Alexander Kotozhekov.We left the main road,drove along a dirt track and finally out across the steppe, stopping at the base of a small mountain. My friends showed me indentations in the ground along the way, which the elders say are marks from the hooves of giant horses like the ones in epics.This place is the home of mountain spirits, they said. At first we spent a couple of hours just walking, enjoying the warmth of the sun on our backs, the smells of grasses and wildflowers.As we gathered back at our meeting place, Larissa and Petya began to tell legends about the place, the mountain spirits, and things that happened to people who did and did not obey them. Larissa told about a man named Norilkov. My grandmother lived in the village of Arshanov,not far from here.I spent my vacations there in childhood and still consider it my home. I would hear about this sacred place called Üstegei – or three peaks. It is a dangerous place, my grandmother said. Cries are heard at night.There are spirits who forbid people to spend the night at Üstegei, and many people have died there after dark in unexplained ways. One time after the war Gerasim Norilkov and a friend got drunk and bold, and bet they could spend the night at Üstegei.They arrived, made a campfire and sat there as it got dark. Suddenly they saw a red colour in the sky and red horsemen appeared on huge horses.They were wearing traditional Khakass clothing, but with something strange about them –

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they looked like warrior-heroes of the past. They were very angry. Norilkov later said they told him,“You knew you shouldn’t have come here.And besides that you made a bet.We will let you live but your clan will die out.The other man will die.”And so it was. In  I had heard another version of Norilkov’s story from writerValentina Tatarova, who called it a legend about yzykh, the sacred, and how it manifested in Soviet times. norilkov’s story Today’s people couldn’t explain it and the old people were silent,Tatarova said.“This is my interpretation. I was a young teacher and leader in the Young Pioneers organization at the time. My senior teacher oriented me and sent me to listen to the old people and record their stories. In November she sent me to Norilkov to learn about the three peaks. I took wine with me. Norilkov told me this story.“After the war I went there with some fellows.We were drinking and we weren’t afraid of anything. We didn’t believe in legends or spirits.The old people asked if we weren’t afraid to go and spend the night on the three peaks. But two of us were not afraid and we went.” An old herdsman was working nearby and saw Norilkov’s campfire. He understood that they shouldn’t be there. In the morning he approached and saw two men sleeping. But then he realized that something was wrong. One man was dead and the other unconscious. He sent for help and the dead body was taken for an autopsy.The doctors called it paralysis of the heart, and Norilkov now had epilepsy, which he had not had before. He told strange things that nobody believed. It was getting dark, he said, and warm.They were sitting around the fire. And then they heard the sound of hooves, and in the smoke of the fire they saw horsemen riding against the sun (counterclockwise, the direction of the dead), coming closer. Those mountain people are often seen after dark, red horsemen.They were very big, and richly dressed in helmets and armour. One of the horsemen pointed to Norilkov’s friend. He rode up and hit him and then hit Norilkov too.But the leader said,“Stop.Let him go back and warn people.We will punish his clan.” I recorded him in November. I went back to school and told the other teachers, who were not very interested. At the end of December Norilkov’s daughter was walking with her husband,Vasya Arshanov (they

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had a new baby by then) and they came to that place. Norilkov had five daughters and only one son.The son had no children, so Norilkov had no progeny through the male line.And even Vasya died out there on the peaks. He fell and landed on his back. Norilkov’s daughter ran to the village for help but he was dead when they came back.The diagnosis was the same – paralysis of the heart.This happened in  and was written up in the newspaper. And so it was that Norilkov’s clan died out completely. Norilkov told everybody not to go there. Since then other things have happened. Once a car broke down and the driver disappeared. He was never found. In  my brother lost two sheep there and found them dead. Later he himself died at the same place when riding past with his horse and wagon. Still people didn’t believe it was mountain spirits.Then some herders found huge horse-prints with no sign of where they came from and where they were going. At last the Kolkhoz director listened to all the stories and closed the area. No more herds were to be kept there. ▼ Many more stories are told about Üstegei.Anzhiganova tells of two elderly women she knew who were coming along the road near there and saw a column of horsemen with big, extraordinary horses.The people were also big and elaborately dressed. The grandmothers asked where they were going and they said to a wedding.They invited the women along, but the women refused to go. Our experience on Üstegei was mild when compared with Norilkov’s. Alexander and I saw a snake on the way up the hill – it crossed our path and slipped into a hole.There is a taboo that says that you must turn back if a snake crosses your path, but we walked on. Our paths separated – he was looking for a cave and I wanted to go to the highest point. Later on I came to a place where the path ahead of me had fallen away. My way was blocked by a sheer cliff, and I had to turn back and go a long way uphill again. But his experience was more serious. First he got into nettles.Then the path fell away behind him as he was going up a steep hill, and he wound up climbing a cliff using one hand and carrying his dog with the other. By now he had remembered the snake. He arrived back at our meeting place after a long time, shaken. He realized he had neglected to listen to the spirits on arrival, being obsessed with the desire to find the cave, which he didn’t find. Our friends commented that the spirits punished the local person more strongly than the foreigner, even though I also knew about the snake taboo.The previous year a similar thing had happened while I was trav-

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left: Khakass artist and ceremonial leader Alexander Kotozhekov. right: Marika Topoev, the daughter of Larissa Anzhiganova, at Üstegei Mountain.

elling with Tania Kobezhikova at Sunduki.A snake appeared and two men crossed its path, one local and one a foreigner. Again the local person had more serious problems as a result.Tradition says that a snake crossing one’s path means death, although if the snake goes in the same direction that you are going, this is very good luck (Anzhiganova b, ). Kotozhekov has a theory about why people see visions in places like Üstegei.“When a person stands in a position so as to form a triangle with two mountains, a certain vibrational energy is set up. Another way of looking at this is that the person brings his or her own archetypal energy vibrations into the area between one mountain and another.This sets off a series of visual images in the person’s psyche. Variation among different observers comes from the difference in the archetypal pictures they bring with them. It is also possible for one person to influence a whole group to see one thing or another.People with a common cultural heritage may spontaneously see visions together.” The legends about Üstegei combine a reverence for the sacred and the mysterious nature of what is forbidden with explanations for the phenomena

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based on science and the occult. They point to an ecologically sound approach to land use. As certain places were set aside not to be used for herding, the land would not be overgrazed. In the same way, as each clan had a sacred tree that they must not cut, the trees would not be overcut.The increase in farming and industry in Soviet times has greatly disrupted this balance.These legends and the experiences behind them serve as a basis for rebuilding sacred philosophy and restoring the health of the land. So far, most of these stories, which date from the Soviet period, had tragic outcomes. Galina Kazachinova says that some spirits make people hang themselves.Larissa Anzhiganova heard an elderly woman talking on the radio on the morning we went to Üstegei.The woman told about a young man who met such a spirit. It was huge and told him he would hang himself. He told his mother about it, but she could not prevent him, and he did hang himself. Unfortunately this story reflects the tragic reality of the high suicide rate, not only among the Khakass, but among all the indigenous peoples of Russia. But in the days since the fall of Soviet ideology some stories of meetings with the mountain spirits, like Slava Kuchenov’s, have led to more positive spiritual transformations. Petya Topoev described his own experience to me.

Once I had made a new drum. My brother played it and said it would be a warrior’s drum. I went up a mountain to consecrate it. I came to a place where I could see five peaks and there I began to play. Beside one of the peaks I saw a huge warrior sleeping and another one trying to wake him. I stopped playing and they disappeared, and when I began to play again they reappeared. I was frightened and ran away! ▼ His story relates to an old legend about a sleeping warrior of the past. In the sixteenth century a great Khakass hero was defeated by the Mongols and went away to sleep in the mountains. Some say this sleeping warrior will return to save the Khakass people.A human form, which may be a similar warrior,can be seen high in the rocky mountains along the road from Abakan to Kyzyl. Although several stories like this are told, indications that the time for the return of one of these heroes may be coming soon go back to the beginning of the twentieth century.“Tadar Khan was the mighty kagan of all the Turks. He allowed the White Tsar to rule while he was resting. But when the White Tsar began to take Turks as soldiers, his time would come to an

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Uibat kurgan, Khakassia.

end forever.Tadar Khan would awaken and rule forever and his people would flourish. It is well known that Khakass people were recruited for the first time in  and only three years after that the Tsarist regime fell” (Anzhiganova , ).

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Contemporary Shamans in Tuva and Khakassia

. Sounds of drumming and singing come from behind a battered wooden door. People of all ages press forward, eagerly checking the signup sheet to find out who will be next to see the shaman.This is the clinic Düngür, an old wooden building on one of the main streets of Kyzyl, capital of Tuva. Inside the room Mokur-ool Kuular begins a new session.A girl of about twelve sits with her family. After a long period of divination, using fortyone pebbles, prayer beads, and astrological and genealogical assessment, Kuular determines that the girl has met with the spirit of the earth, and that she should become a shaman herself.This is the reason for the psychological disorders that have caused her problems at home and at school. He then puts on his shaman’s cloak, decorated with images of the snakes and animals that are his helping spirits, and a tall feather headdress reminiscent of those worn by the peoples of the North American plains. He takes up his enormous drum and plays around the room,over the girl’s head,behind her back, and to all those present.At the end he throws his drumstick to the floor three times.The outcome is uncertain,once positive,once negative,and once leaning against the chair leg. He says that the process of healing will need to continue through rituals designed to calm the spirits of the girl’s ancestors. Once that is accomplished she can return to him and learn more. Shamans working in an urban clinic? This is the new face of age-old tradition – shamans are playing an important role in reviving culture, as well as in healing the ills of society, its individuals, and the very earth they live on. They heal the spirit and their ceremonies raise self-esteem among longoppressed peoples. Hereditary healers are adapting ancient practices to contemporary needs.The new shamans are well-educated and articulate, their training ranging from pedagogy and folklore through psychology, medicine,

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and law.The most important concern for many is ecology, healing the land from the ravages caused by Soviet and post-Soviet policies.

A Different World Today’s Tuvans and Khakassians are living in a very different world from that in which their ancestors practised shamanism. Only a few nomadic herders and hunters still live in felt yurts throughout the mountains and steppe, and they are no longer governed by clan leaders and customs. Most live in concrete city apartment blocks or in wooden two-family village houses without indoor plumbing. Some have access to the internet. They are doctors and lawyers, carpenters, cooks, and herdsmen – but many are unemployed. Like everyone in Russia today, they are concerned about whether they will receive their tiny salaries and pensions at all and about how to help their children get through school and live in a changed world. Today’s shamans and their clients are products of a Soviet education,which denied the reality of spiritual life and taught that shamans were primitive charlatans.They must cope with conflicts among what is left of the Communist party organization and the new mafia and religious cults from the outside.Serious diseases and injuries are brought about by careless approaches to industry and the environment. Turkic shamans emphasize how important it is for humans to interact with nature, to care for it, and to recognize its calming effects.This is what gives people the strength to survive hard times. Like shamans all over Siberia, one of their main focuses is ecology.Tuva has some of the cleanest air on the planet and the water is relatively unspoiled. Nonetheless, the republic suffers from poor mining practices,logging,and the far-reaching results of damming the Yenisei. Khakassia is even more industrialized. The two republics are in quite different positions.In Tuva the native population is about two thirds of the total. During the early years after the fall of the Soviet Union many of the Russians and Ukrainians who had gone there to work moved away.There was open conflict and violence between Tuvan and Russian youth, especially in certain villages and towns away from the centre.This mostly calmed down with the exodus of a large part of the Russian population (Kuzhuget and Tatarintseva , ).The republic has taken control of many aspects of industry, culture, and ecology, and events like traditional wrestling competitions flourish. Although threatened, the Tuvan language is widely spoken, especially in rural districts. Buddhism has revived significantly, partly inspired by a visit from the Dalai Lama in , and a few new temples have been built. Nonetheless,Tuvans are coping with

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Tuvan shaman’s clinic Tos Deer in Kyzyl.

serious social issues:unemployment,alcoholism,and family problems.Crime has increased, connected not only with economic problems but also with an extensive drug trade. It is considered unsafe to walk on the street after dark. The Tuvan shamanic revival is strong largely owing to the efforts of Mongush Kenin-Lopsan, whose influence is pervasive. Most people respect him, whether or not they agree with everything he says.As of  Tuvan communities have five clinics, where some shamans work full-time and others devote a few weeks out of the year. Outside healers work from time to time in at least one of the clinics. Since foreigners have been visiting in increasing numbers, the prices for service have gone up, in some cases astronomically, to the distress of local people who remember that shamans of the past did not charge for their services and accepted only the gifts that their clients could afford. Even in this new setting, younger shamans have the opportunity to watch their elders at work,as young people did in traditional society.In addition, young shamans can take a three-month course and receive certification from the shaman’s associations.This is very different from pre-Soviet society where young shamans received very little direct training from their elders.The new phenomenon has arisen because young people have not been

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raised surrounded by the traditional world view, and need the preparation that a course can give them. Some scholars suggest that this emphasis on certification results from more hierarchical Buddhist influences. Outsiders are attracted to Tuvan shamanism because it was preserved better than most Siberian traditions. Russians, Europeans, Japanese, and North Americans come to study and record the new movement.The other attraction for foreigners is Tuvan music, which has reached almost a cult status in the West.Throat-singers tour frequently, while a small but constant trickle of outsiders comes to Tuva to hear and record music – and even to learn the art of overtone-singing.¹ But those who try to accommodate tourism, even the most rugged, run into endless difficulties with lack of infrastructure in Tuva – problems with transportation, food, and accommodation. Contact with the outside world has brought some benefit to shamans and musicians themselves, through travel opportunities and exchange of information. Little by little, the rest of the society may begin to benefit directly, but the process is slow. Khakassians have not attracted as much interest from the outside, perhaps because they are perceived as less exotic.For several centuries they have been more assimilated into Russian life, and now they are a very small percentage of the population (– per cent). Many of the republic’s government functionaries are ethnic Russians, who bring in policies detrimental to Khakassians, undoing much of what was gained in the early s. Khakassians say that their most important problem is that the ethnic group is dying, through poverty, a high suicide rate among the youth, illness, and assimilation. The Soviet past is still felt in terms of prejudices and policies against native culture. In  the minister of culture publically expressed the opinion that Khakass culture was “primitive,” and some artists portray only its perceived dark side. In  the governor of the republic stated that it would be better if ethnic Khakassians did not exist.² Khakassia’s favourite epic heroine Altyn Aryg was the subject of a new battle – in the theatre. In  the children’s theatre group Skazka had produced Altyn Aryg using puppets and masked actors.Altyn Aryg herself was portrayed as a witch. Many local people were horrified that the masks were so truly frightening. Children were crying at the show. Colours were dark. One side of a heated discussion I heard said that Altyn Aryg should have been shown the way she is portrayed in the epic.As a heroine, a personification of goodness, she must be beautiful, since in traditional beliefs beauty is equated with goodness.³ Other epic characters might portray a dark side, but not the heroine.

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Others felt that since the masks were made according to the visions of the actors and artists involved, who were considered to have a shamanic gift, it was acceptable to portray her as horrifying, whether or not this was in accord with the original.The argument continued about interior and exterior beauty, about whether the concept of female beauty should be seen through male eyes only, and about goddesses who carry destruction within their beauty. But the main concern was the political question of Khakass culture being shown as uniformly frightening, an image that feeds off the Soviet portrayal of all indigenous culture as primitive and superstitious.Also involved were issues of how the theatre uses the imagery of traditional culture to make money.The consensus of Khakassians held with the idea that Altyn Aryg should be shown as beautiful, not only as a woman but also as a representation of the highest in Khakass culture. Another example of negative public attitudes can be seen at the Minusinsk museum.A Khakass friend took me there to see the exhibit of ancient Turkic stone monuments, which is arranged in such a way that the viewer must walk counterclockwise to go in chronological order.We walked the opposite way,which felt appropriate since the Khakass,like most Siberian peoples, do all ritual activities in the direction of the sun’s movement. Counterclockwise is the direction of death.A museum worker appeared and told us in no uncertain terms to go back and approach the exhibit the other way. My friend politely explained her people’s tradition and her own tendency to severe headaches if she broke it.This news was treated as a whim by the supercilious museum worker.“You just want to have things your own way,” she said. In the end we gave in. But why did the museum set the exhibit up this way in the first place? Was it a deliberate attempt to deny its sacred content? Although it would be prohibitively expensive to reverse the exhibit’s direction in the post-Soviet time, why are the workers even today not aware that it violates thousands of years of sacred tradition of the very people whose culture it represents? They should have been instructed by the many fine specialists who work in the museum and could not fail to know of the tradition. Although located on traditional Khakass territory, Minusinsk is officially part of Krasnoyarsk Territory.The atmosphere at the museum in Abakan, the capital of Khakassia, is much more welcoming and there the workers actually allow quiet ceremonies to take place in the exhibit halls. In spite of such difficulties, ethnic culture is reviving in both republics: music, art, theatre, storytelling, and ancient healing and ceremonial practices, all of which reclaim images of shamanic reality and bring their spiritual

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content back to life after years of silence and oppression.The cultural revival also gives encouragement to political and ecological movements. One important concern today is genealogy, as people trace their family and clan lineage. Here is one story that I heard around a campfire in , told by a young Khakass woman who is otherwise not involved with the cultural revival, Ilona Sunchugasheva. ilona’s ancestors In the time of the Mongols, many people were taken prisoner.Two brothers escaped from Mongolia and tried to find their way home.When they came to a fork in the road, they decided to split up.They stuck their knives into a tree,saying that if one of them died,his knife would turn dark.One brother found his way home and started a family – my family. Later he went to look for his brother and saw that the knife was still bright, but he never found him. Centuries later, my grandmother was reading a magazine called Soviet Sport.There was an article about a man out in the Krasnodar Province (some , km to the west, near the Black Sea) who had done something outstanding in sports.He had our family name and from his photo he looked like a Khakassian. My grandmother immediately wrote him a letter through the magazine. He answered and said that in his family there was just such a legend about the two brothers as in ours. Later the two parts of the family got together in Khakassia, a reunion in the homeland. ▼

The Shamanic Revival The cultural and shamanic revival in both republics is deeply rooted in hereditary tradition, but other factors are also at work, including elements left over from the Soviet era and contacts with the outside world, some beneficial and others problematic.

Heredity The hereditary tradition has maintained itself through the dry years in the memories of older people, in books of ethnography and folklore, and even in the subconscious or genetic memory of the people. Many, like storysinger Slava Kuchenov and the shamans,are receiving information directly,through visions and meditation or through their contacts with nature, in the same way their ancestors did.

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Virtually all of today’s shamans have shamans in their families, claiming that heredity is the main thing that sets them apart from other kinds of healers and diviners.Altai ethnologist Svetlana Tiukhteneva says that in the past all these skills were combined in one person, but today they are separated, perhaps because no one person has sufficient strength or because society is not ready for the true power possessed by the shamans of the past. As in most Siberian traditions, the gift can pass down either the female or male line, and many trace lineage on both sides. Tania Kobezhikova’s grandfather was a shaman, as was Ai-Churek Oyun’s mother. Like many shamans of the past, there were signs at birth.Ai-Churek says that a terrible storm was raging when she was born, but it calmed down as soon as her first cry rang out.Tania tells of how her family had driven a sledge onto a ferry and that was where she was born, a gypsy helping with the birth.An eagle, which was to become one of her helping spirits, landed on the hitching post. Tania began healing with plants in childhood, a skill she learned from her grandmother’s brother, who was a storyteller and herbalist. Her mother and sister are also well versed in herbal healing.Tania seems to feel that herbal healing is shamanic, although most people do not. Even in childhood, she diagnosed clairvoyantly. Because of the persecution of shamans during the Soviet period, Tania’s parents were distressed when she began to predict things that were about to happen and could see auras around people.They tried to dissuade her from developing her shamanic gift. Although Tania’s practice as a healer and clairvoyant began twenty years ago, she has practised more openly as a declared shaman since the fall of the Soviet Union, with support from her family. Like the shamans of the past, Kobezhikova went through a period of illness. In her case it came at the age of thirty-three, beginning with a tick bite. Before this she had also studied with traditional Russian healers and an Evenk shaman.Afterwards she began her real shamanic practice – she felt the spirits were pressing her. She describes the moment it really began.

I was with friends, on the way to some ancient caves where I had been many times, but this time we lost the way.We stopped at a mountain pass to rest. My vision began while I was lying on the ground.The sun in my eyes was bothering me. I turned away and then jumped up and began to run so fast that two men could not catch me. I began singing prayers in the language of spirits and conversing with them. My friends felt the pres-

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ence of spirits, but didn’t understand the words, which were probably not a human language. In the vision a drum was given to me by spirits. My friends also heard it clearly. The process of initiation is a gaining of strength and an increasing sense of responsibility to people. I can now attune to vibrations even without the drum or jaw harp. ▼ In  she sought consecration from hereditary shamans in Tuva and Mongolia.She has made a costume and drum,and her practice involves traditional methods of soul retrieval and divination,as well as knowledge of sacred stories.⁴ Tuvan shaman Ai-Churek Oyun was frequently ill in childhood with disturbances that doctors could not diagnose or cure. She spent time in psychiatric institutions because of the voices she heard.This continued while she was studying near Moscow, until she began to pray in an Orthodox church. Her problems cleared up completely with the birth of her first child. She became a practising shaman under the guidance of Kenin-Lopsan, who recognized her talent.Ai-Churek carries out ceremonies and works at the Tuvan clinic Tos Deer (Nine Heavens), using trance journeys and shamanic massage,a type of deep massage that removes foreign energies as well as loosening muscles. In addition,Ai-Churek is teaching Tuvan shamanic methods extensively in Italy.⁵ Some psychiatrists there are incorporating her teachings into their practice.These teachings also prove helpful to people from many walks of life.Ai-Churek emphasizes that she does not mean to create shamans in the West, but to help people everywhere to find their most suitable mode of creative expression. Tuvan shaman Nikolai Oorzhak had seven generations of shamans on his mother’s side.He went through a shamanic illness before beginning his work, which focuses largely on family problems. Khakass shaman Valeri Chebachakov, who also suffered the shamanic illness, conducts rituals like the one I attended at Salbyk kurgan on the summer solstice (see the end of this chapter). Not every initiation is completely successful. People say that if a person does not have sufficient strength to become a shaman, he or she may become able to call evil spirits and not be able to deal with them.Such a person can do harm. I heard one such story – although it could have been told out of dislike for the shaman.The situation becomes endlessly complex when we remember that telling bad stories to discredit shamans is part of the competitive nature of both shamanic and of Soviet societies. “The spirits told this young man to go to an especially sacred place and put up a ceremonial pole.We went with him. But then some local people came and said that this is not a sacred place (yzykh chir) and that the sacred

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place was  km further on.Where we were was a bad place. Nonetheless the young man gathered the spirits into his drum at the bad place, while he should have gone on. After that, people were dying in that village for two years. Could this be a coincidence? Did he not understand what a sacred place was?”

Soviet Influences Although age-old tradition survived the Soviet period, without doubt today’s younger shamans have been much influenced for better and for worse by communist institutions. Most have received a Western-style education and some work cooperatively with scholars. For example, Kobezhikova has used her psychic ability to help archaeologists locate and interpret sites. For many, education has also meant contacts with healers from other traditions within Russia and abroad. Buildings and social structures are used for cultural activities.Tania opened a clinic several years ago in two rooms in a dormitory/hotel (obshchezhitie) built by the Soviets in the city of Abakan. She later moved it to her own apartment.⁶ This very urban setting has limited her in terms of drumming and long ceremonies using live animals, but at the same time has opened her practice to a wide spectrum of clients. Although she speaks Khakass, most of her work is conducted in Russian. Tania augments her massage and shamanic practices with compiling a directory of traditional healers for the whole Republic of Khakassia,a vital service in a time when Western-style medical institutions have broken down. She also teaches abroad. Ai-Churek Oyun is reported to have trained either in law or as an electrical engineer, while an Altai shaman I met was in law school, which will stand her in good stead as she works to protect her land and ancient treasures.The Tuvan clinics make use of old Soviet buildings, while the very idea of associations of shamans could be a spin-off from the concept of unions or councils. The Tuvans focus much of their activity around the regional museum, which now houses the Centre for the Study of Tuvan Shamanism. The museum has raised the profile of Tuvan shamanism with a longrunning exhibit of Tuva’s valued shamanic objects. The exhibit has also toured several European countries.Unlike the Khakass,Tuvans use their own language for most activities. Both republics have made a priority of publishing shamanic texts in small inexpensive editions that people can carry with them while doing rituals. Certain attitudes the new shamans meet in the surrounding society and even in themselves also have their roots in the Soviet period and earlier, as we have seen in relation to the Minusinsk museum and the theatre.Young

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indigenous people, like Western researchers, sometimes have a hard time correlating shamanic reality with Western science. Even the traditional competitiveness of shamans has flowed into the Soviet-style format of trying to outdo one’s colleagues in an endlessly complex hierarchy. Several generations were brought up hearing that shamans were charlatans, while the Orthodox church goes one step further in calling them representatives of exclusively evil powers.This latter influence may well get stronger in the coming time, as the church becomes ever more powerful and religious education becomes compulsory in the public schools. The new shamans serve many facets of society. Some believe that a shaman’s place is in the village, working with rural people like the shamans of the past. In the cities other shamans serve individuals and a wide range of organizations,from nationalistic political movements to new elites formed from old party hierarchies. Those who take this latter route make more money, but lose respect among the more ordinary people. For example, one is respected as a healer, but she is not called upon to do rituals for the political organizations, since she often works with an elite women’s organization.The complexities are endless, involving exchanges of favours and pressure exerted on those who owe.Those closest to the old party structures are most strongly involved in this kind of pressuring. I overheard one new shaman say that a good organizer is one who knows how to put others in their place, an attitude that may be considered one of the more unpleasant leftovers from a Soviet upbringing. Control that used to come from fear of spirits, now comes in a new form.

Contacts with the Outside World Many of today’s shamans have contacts with the West through reading the works of Michael Harner and Carlos Casteneda. Madame Blavatsky is also popular in certain circles,although adherents of her philosophy tend to move away from shamanism. Meetings with foreign psychiatrists and anthropologists at home and through travel to the West result in an exchange of ideas and methods and sometimes in financial support.Tuva has had many contacts with representatives of Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies,⁷ as well as with Hungarian and Finnish researchers, such as V. Dioszegi, M. Hoppál, and H. Lappalainen. Films have been made by Dutch, Belgian, Hungarian, and Italian filmmakers. All of this creates opportunities for further development, although Ludmila Salchak at the Tuvan Republican Museum says dealing with foreigners is so time-consuming that it sometimes distracts them from their own business. Sometimes events are “put on” especially for visitors, resulting in what Hungarian ethnographer Mihály

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Hoppál calls “shamanic tourism.”An article in a Russian newspaper in the summer of  called the shamanic revival an “object of export” as well as a tourist attraction, echoing the idea prevalent in Russia that the revival of shamanism is connected largely with financial opportunism on the part of shamans and their promoters (Napsaraeva ).Although these critiques contain elements of truth,they are unfair to those who are sincerely working for the benefit of their people. Shamans have presented their work abroad, invited by various organizations:Tania Kobezhikova in Europe;Ai-Churek Oyun and Nikolai Oorzhak in Italy; Kenin-Lopsan, Ai-Churek Oyun, and others in Europe and the United States.Tuvan musicians travel all over Europe, North America, and Asia. So far Siberian shamans have attracted very few of the kind of non-native disciples that so often follow First Nations people of North and Central America, but this is beginning to happen as well. One Russian woman,Vera Sazhena, received her costume and drum from an elderly Tuvan shaman before he died and she now practises side by side with Tuvans.As always in such cases, some people dispute this and think she may have bought the things from the shaman and that she is not legitimate.She is the only outsider I have encountered who claims to have actually become a shaman in an indigenous tradition in Siberia, although other kinds of healers do work in the Tuvan clinics without calling themselves shamans. Russian psychiatrist Olga Kharitidi has written a book that purports to be about shamanism in the Altai (Kharitidi ). While working in a mental hospital in Novosibirsk, she went on a short journey to a village in the Altai mountains, where she reports meeting a woman shaman and receiving initiation at her hands. She then began to use shamanic methods in her psychiatric work and at the same time got in touch with a vein of Russian mysticism that she connects to shamanism through the legend of Shambhala (in Russian, Belovodia) – a realm beyond death supposed to exist high in the mountains and sought for centuries by Buddhists and Russian Old Believers alike. Something similar shows up in Altai tales of a very pure and beautiful land beyond the mountain ranges. But in spite of the availability of many fine researchers in Novosibirsk, her book contains next to no information about shamanism as practised either in the past or in the present. Kharitidi later moved to the us , where she began teaching workshops based on her experiences.Although no one in traditional Altai culture becomes a shaman in the way she describes, her work is interesting in terms of the application of shamanic method to psychiatry and may point to one direction the old beliefs are taking when

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adopted by outsiders. But until very recently her book was unknown in the Altai itself, since it was published in English in the United States.

New Forms What emerges from the union of these cultural lines is something unprecedented in the history of shamanism. But there is precedent for the unprecedented.The shamanic tradition has always been extremely flexible, adapting to changed conditions and the influx of new ideas.Tuva’s clinics are a good example of the way shamans adapt tradition to today’s largely urban conditions and needs. Not only the settings but the practices are changing. Kobezhikova’s work includes massage and herbal medicine, which in the past were typically practised by people who were not shamans. She practises traditional soulretrieval and divination, as well as healing through energy channels and chakras similar to what is practised by “extrasense” healers.This kind of energy healing, sometimes called magnetic healing, is practised by a number of shamans and also by some Buddhist lamas. Many healers are called “extrasense” in Russia, some of them legitimate and others connected with the elaborate fakery of the television hypnotists whose scandals rocked Russia a few years ago. Nikolai Oorzhak’s approach is more traditional. He calls upon the spirits of nature to calm and heal his clients. Both he and Ai-churek Oyun use shamanic massage, which combines a very deep massage with removing foreign energies by spiritual means, but most importantly he heals by returning souls that have left the body. None of this is new, but teaching traditional beliefs to foreigners in a workshop format is. Tania Kobezhikova has also developed something I call “ecotourist shamanism,” in which she guides people, both locals and outsiders, through the many sacred sites in Khakassia: kurgans like Salbyk, ancient observatories like Sunduki, caves, and petroglyph sites. She helps her clients to feel the energies of the earth, developing rituals that contribute to personal growth and ecological awareness.⁸ Women I met at another ritual at Salbyk described a pilgrimage with Tania, similar to my own, also resulting in a transformative experience.Although serious problems have resulted from this kind of ecotourism in Central and South America, in Siberia it is on a very small scale up to now and has created no damage either to the land or to indigenous culture. So far it seems more likely to be beneficial. In many areas, associations of shamans and other related kinds of spiritual practitioners have formed.The strongest is in Tuva, under the leadership of Kenin-Lopsan.These associations try to reach decisions on the spir-

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Contemporary Shamans in Tuva and Khakassia 

Contemporary sculpture based on ancient stone monuments. City of Abakan.Artist, Vyacheslav Kuchenov.

itual direction needed in caring for their land and people. Some of them also form a political presence. Most are fraught with interpersonal problems. Today’s Khakass shamans focus more on healing the ethnic group as a whole than on individual healing.The focus is similar in the Altai, where scholar Svetlana Tiukhteneva says,“The most important thing a shaman does is to create a protective shield around his or her community. Everything else is secondary to this and is done only because people ask for it.”This protective function is performed partly by conducting clan rituals. In the last few years more than  sacred ritual places have been identified in Khakassia and many clan gatherings have taken place at them, with and without shamans.⁹ I wonder whether this conscious focus on the whole group is stronger in areas like Khakassia, which are less influenced by outsiders.Tuva has had much more contact not only with scholars but also with practitioners of shamanic types of healing from the us and Europe, where the focus seems to be more on individual healing (although Tuvans are also concerned with community rituals,and there are certainly plenty of sacred clan places).Westerners may have unconsciously influenced this focus, through their own biases and by looking for evidence of “classic” shamanic practice, which was often described by outsiders in relation to individual healing ceremonies.

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 singing story, healing drum

While the outward focus of Khakassia’s new shamans is on the whole group, their inward focus involves individual inspiration and creativity, rather than setting up or imposing new authoritarian structures more typical of the Buriats and Mongolians. Individual creativity is honoured in the arts as well as in shamanic practice – all are seen as evidence of the shamanic gift or something closely related to it. In Tuva, Ai-Churek Oyun also stresses the importance of all creative activity and of each person’s individual gift.The arts are vital to the shamanic revival, since they work first to raise self-esteem and encourage traditional values, and then to heal individual problems. Some of the people I was introduced to as “shamans” are actors, singers, philosophers, and musical instrument makers, as well as traditional healers.Their work involves contact with spirit and has the goals of healing and harmonizing chaotic energies. Music and epic now appear in the national theatre, carrying vital spiritual and ecological messages, while just a few years ago they were viewed as quaint remnants of a primitive past. Politics is considered a valid arena for shamanic creativity and also for competition and trickery, time-honoured parts of shamanic tradition. New legends, such as those appearing around Üstegei and the initiation of Slava Kuchenov, give a sense of urgency and vitality to the culture, making the cultural revival not a question of historical interest but of today’s survival.The cultural revival also involves work with children, introducing them to the native language and traditional arts and values. Like Kenin-Lopsan and his colleagues, Khakass scholars Alexander Kostiakov, Larissa Anzhiganova,Alexander Kotozhekov, and others are revitalizing ritual and legend.They played a central role in raising the consciousness of rural people during the formation of the new republic in . G. G. Kazachinova and V.K.Tatarova, members of the writer’s union, have republished some of the works of nineteenth century ethnographer N.F. Katanov, including shamanic invocations, in small pamphlets useful to those who are conducting rituals. Many of Kenin-Lopsan’s collections are in the same format.I sincerely hope that all this valuable work is not lost in the increasing Russian cultural and religious backlash being experienced by indigenous peoples in , beginning perhaps with the war in Chechnya and fed by fear of terrorism.

At Home in a Place of Exile – Summer Solstice On the summer solstice, – June , I went back to the Salbyk kurgan with Larissa Anzhiganova and a group of her friends who wanted to conduct

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Contemporary Shamans in Tuva and Khakassia 

Salbyk kurgan, Khakassia.

an ancient ritual accompanying the sun in its setting and rising on this shortest night of the year.As always, transportation was a problem, but at last we found a car and enough money for the gas.Alexander Anatolievich Kostiakov, a passionately intense young man, entertained us on the way with tales from Khakass history.¹⁰ Larissa says that he almost single-handedly inspired raising the new republic in  and has set many people on their feet since. Shaman Valeri Chebachakov rode with some friends in another car, making about ten of us in all. A woodcarver and cabinet-maker by trade, Chebachakov was at that time conducting many rituals for the nationalist movement. When we arrived at Salbyk another group was already there and after some negotiation we combined forces. Kostiakov raised the Khakass flag.We just had time for a snack of tea and buns before sundown, while one man strummed on a chatkhan and sang.To my relief Valeri requested that everyone remain sober until dawn – a request that was honoured until about  a.m. when vodka appeared to keep the watchers warm.The night had turned fiercely cold after the scorching sun of the day. Salbyk was marvellous in the twilight and then the moonlight – the huge rocks black against the slowly darkening sky rich with stars.We built a fire outside the kurgan walls, with wood the shaman had brought with him.

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 singing story, healing drum

(There are no trees near Salbyk.) Valeri put on his shaman’s cloak and took up the drum. He sang low guttural songs and drummed as the sun disappeared, calling the ancient spirit of that place. He asked for the blessings from the sun, not just for us present but for everyone on the earth. Afterwards everyone gathered closer to the fire.Valeri said many powerful clairvoyants were present and asked us to share what we had seen. Many saw dragons and horsemen. We spent the night eating and chatting around several fires. The other group had brought a tent and some people went to sleep. By  a.m. the sky started to grow light near the place where the sun went down, a surprise for those of us unacquainted with the night sky. I dozed in the car and woke in time for the morning ritual at : a.m.A new fire burned as we stood in line waiting for the sun.The timing was perfect. Our fire burned lower just as the sun rose from behind the mountain.

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notes

Introduction  Similar to the prairies in Canada and the great plains in the United States, this is rolling grassland, in some areas bordering on desert.  In the Turkic world the sun is conceived as female, the moon male. Under the influence of outside religious beliefs, this is sometimes reversed, as in Western culture.  Festivals included the Yukon International Storytelling Festival, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, the Calgary Folk Music Festival, the Canmore Folk Music Festival, and a tour with the Tuvan musical group Huun Huur Tu in Los Angeles and Seattle.All took place from –.In  I appeared with another musical group, Sayany, in Vancouver, and hosted a group of storytellers from the Russian Far East in Vancouver and Whitehorse. I also perform extensively on my own as a storyteller/musician. More about this is in the opening to chapter .  I have written about Chukotka in Raven and the Rock: Storytelling in Chukotka, University of Washington Press, , and about the Amur River region in The Flying Tiger:Women Shamans and Storytellers of the Amur, McGill-Queen’s University Press, .  There is some controversy over whether shamanism is a religion. Many Westerners call it a technique of using altered states of consciousness, mainly for healing.They feel that a religion must have a set dogma. Shamanism is not attached to any form of organized religion, although it often interacts with them. Many indigenous scholars say that outsiders have failed to grasp the fullness of shamanic philosophy, which is comparable to a religious system. Other indigenous scholars point out that shamanism is more than a religious system,rather than less,encompassing a whole way of life and activities that do not require altered states as well as those that do. Part of its complexity springs from its lack of dogma. Some call shamanism “the mother of all religions” and take offence at the lack of acceptance from outsiders.Although indigenous people themselves rarely use the term,

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 notes to pages xii–5



 







it is possible that using the word “animism” to describe the religious aspects of shamanism would resolve some of this conflict. For more about this and other debates about shamanism, see Hutton ,Atkinson , and Humphrey . In the present day some shamans do describe a longer period of study, as did a minority in the past. In Tuva the shaman’s association offers courses of study to new shamans.This has come about because the younger generation has not been brought up in a traditional way of life, where much needed information would simply have been absorbed in the course of daily life. For more about the ways people become shamans see chapters  and . Sandra Ingerman and others have developed methods of soul retrieval in contemporary Western settings (Ingerman ). The nineteenth century ethnographer and Turkologist V.V. Radlov was the first to write in detail about the Turkic peoples and their beliefs and practices. He met many other kinds of healers, diviners, and ceremonialists, but these functions were combined in the person of the shaman more often than they are today. Shamans of his day were highly respected but, because of their contacts with spirits and with the souls of the dead, they were also feared. Soviet ethnographer Y.A. Shibaeva noted on her visit to Khakassia in  that if a very powerful shaman were doing a ceremony, everyone in the village would come because, people told her, if the tös-bear (the shaman’s helping spirit) found you at home he could eat you, or even the shaman. If people couldn’t leave their houses, they put a sharp knife over the threshold.Thus virtually the entire community was present at ceremonies (Shibaeva ). E. Batianova notes that the neighbouring Teleut people say that shaman’s children do not live long or that they die in a difficult way (Batianova , ). In one shaman’s family that I stayed with there was a young child who seemed extremely disturbed, although this may have had other causes or been evidence that he had inherited the shamanic gift. See “The Stingy Storyteller” and “Storyteller Agol” in chapter .

Chapter One  Dr Larichev is one of Russia’s top archaeologists. He also uses more conventional methods. He is affiliated with the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk.  The snake and dragon are among the most pervasive images in shamanic thought around the world.  The stones at Salbyk kurgan have names relating to astronomy, and can also serve as observatories, as did another kurgan we saw at Sunduki.  Even today, occasionally a Khakass child may be born with blue eyes and fair hair, a genetic throwback to these earlier people. People claim this is distinct from instances that result from intermarriage with Russians.Tagar and Scythian cultures are similar to the Pazyryk cultures, whose kurgans have yielded tattooed mummies of women and men.

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notes to pages 6–21   See “Storyteller Agol” in chapter .  Titles like The Lost Land of Tannu Tuva are confusing to Tuvans, who feel they were never lost. See www.tuvatrader.com  Kurbustu’s name may have been adopted from Zoroastrianism.  See chapter .  I was with them as storyteller and interpreter.  Recorded by folklorist P.A.Troyakov (Troyakov ); also in Katanov .  V.V. Radlov heard a similar story in which it was not ducks but people who created the earth. He reports spending the night in one Khakass yurt where the people carefully brought out their orthodox icons and prayed before them one by one – until he told them he didn’t care whether they prayed or not.They promptly put the icons away. Next day Radlov found out that his host was actually the village shaman (Radlov ).  Marjorie Balzer has written about responses of shamans to persecution in the Sakha Republic (Balzer ).

Chapter Two  Ethnographer Vera Diakonova says people would not ask questions after the kamlanie because by then the shaman has turned back into an ordinary person and no longer has access to information (Diakonova , ).  See chapter  for more on him; see the bibliography for his published works.  See chapter  for more stories.  See Ondar’s story, in this chapter.  This ceremony happens forty-nine days after death in Tuva.In some other regions it happens forty days after death.  The costume and drum are described in chapter , the spirit figures in chapter . Divination on pebbles is described in this chapter.  According to Kenin-Lopsan,Tuvan shaman’s mirrors always have these strips or ribbons (chalama), although I have not seen them on the mirrors of other nationalities.They add a person’s personal power to the mirror.  Tuvan herders used to live in four places over the course of the year, moving with the seasons.  See chapter  for more on the clinic. Radlov describes the form of divination using forty-one pebbles or marbles (kumalak), as he saw it among the Kirghiz in the mid-nineteenth century.The diviner put the marbles onto a piece of white felt, muttering a spell or invocation, and then mixing them. Next he picked up several, bowing his head, and put them to his brow, saying bismallah. (Most Kirghiz, unlike the Tuvans and Khakass, are Moslems.) Then he divided the marbles into three piles, using both hands at the same time.Taking one pile, he counted them away by fours until four or fewer pieces were left.These went into the top row of a nine-part grid. The procedure was repeated three times until from one to four pebbles were in each position.

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 notes to pages 21–34 Interpretation is difficult, Radlov says. He never came to understand it, realizing only that even numbers are bad and odd are good.The nine-part grid can be seen as follows:

abc def ghi

 

            

The vertical line on the right (cfi ) represents the questioner’s self.The one on the left (adg ) represents the other, or the enemy.The vertical in the centre (beh ) is the way.The positions a and c are “pillows” (although he does not explain what this means), the a position on the enemy side and the c on one’s own. The d and f positions represent the sides, d the enemy and f one’s own.The g and i positions are door thresholds, or something tied to the saddle. b represents a person’s forehead, e the heart, and h the horse’s tail strap (Radlov , ).The horse was so important to a nomad that such imagery acts as a symbol for the world in microcosm. Her mother, Ondar, told me stories about shamans. Ai-Churek Oyun has published a book with more information about reading the stones, called Kuvaanak, as well as several other booklets on Tuvan shamanism (in Italian), available from Where the Eagles Fly, www.siberianshamanism.com or [email protected]. I was performing with his musical group as storyteller and interpreter.The story was told casually. I wrote it down afterwards and checked it with Kongar-ool at a later date for accuracy. This story is similar to creation stories from the Amur region in the far east,where people also survived the flood on a raft. See Introduction. A fringe made of fabric. The sheep had become a sacred animal who must not be killed. See chapter . A tree with more than one trunk growing from the same root is considered sacred. It is called tel-yiash. Translation from Tuvan to English by Rada Chakar. Tozhu is in northeastern Tuva. Unlike those in the rest of the republic, the people there are traditionally reindeer breeders. According to the Tuvan astrological system, times that correspond in terms of their elements are especially powerful. In personal terms, the times that correspond to the birth element are most significant. See chapter . Specific colours of the animals selected depended on the geographical location and the kind of ritual (Radlov , ). Similar to Khakass yzykh. See Ondar’s story in this chapter and Petya Topoev’s story in chapter . In other regions of the Turkic world airan is not alcoholic. Whether and how much to study seems to be an individual question, rather than one of varying traditions. Diakonova says Tuvans studied for about ten days at

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notes to pages 34–43 



          

the time of consecration (Diakonova ), while Mitrei studied for a month. Some shamans did not study at all, and nowhere was there a long period of apprenticeship or the kind of spiritual mentorship found elsewhere.The study served to acquaint the new shaman with the vocabulary and maps needed to deal with spirits. In an interview with Russian ethnographerValentina Kharitonova, Kazachinova said that Ada was a higher shaman who lived somewhere in the cosmic realms, whom Mitrei was instructed to meet in his dreams.Ada told Mitrei that he did indeed have what it takes to be a shaman and instructed him on how to have his paraphernalia made. Kazachinova notes that, unlike today, the shaman did not make the things himself (Kharitonova , ). This image appears in Homer and as far away as Chukotka (Van Deusen , ). These figures sometimes appear on shamans’drums,and some of them may represent mountain spirits. Described more fully in chapter . See chapter . Its use in divination is described in chapter . Fanning is used in the ritual dedicated to the mountain spirits. See chapter . From an interview with ethnobotanist Marilyn Walker, June . See chapter . See chapter . Tanai lived from  to . Khalarlar refers to the Khalar clan, an ancient clan from Altai. Each clan and family has a tree. Some clans and families may have the same tree. A person should not marry into a family that has the same tree. Many Turkic folk tales tell of the earth in the form of a woman’s body. In one Tuvan tale a woman who has been abused by her husband wills with her dying breath that her bones will turn into rocks, her eyes into lakes, her braids into the trunks of larch trees, and her blood vessels into rivers.

Chapter Three  Adapted from the Tuvan epic Kang-kys (Seren-ool , also published in English as Van Deusen ).The Khakass take similar epic openings to mean that they were already living on their traditional lands in those days and through the epic they connect to the time of creation, which was not a battle between good and evil, but a time of joy (Anzhiganova ).  In Tuvan the whole three-layered universe is called Telegei oran (Diakonova ).  Kotozhekov says that “north”in Khakass is aptynsarkh,which means “lower direction.”The spirits of women who died were remembered by sprinkling airan to the north.“South” in Khakass is ustunsarkh, or “upper direction” (Kotozhekov ).Anzhiganova says that east is the direction of spring, morning, the begin-

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 notes to pages 44–54

     

 

  

 

ning of life, and the forward part or entry to the yurt. South is the direction of summer, midday, the blooming of life, and the male half of the yurt.West is the direction of autumn, sunset, the second half of life, the place of honour in the yurt, and the ancestors. North is the direction of winter, night, the end of life, old age, the bottom of world, the land of the dead, and the female half of the yurt (Anzhiganova b, ) The Tuvan names of the worlds are from Diakonova . This is not a shamanic ritual, but one done whenever an animal is slaughtered. These musicians are not shamans. See chapter  about religious influences. Told by I.B. Khertek in . From Kenin-Lopsan a, . This is a common idea in Europe also. The shaman is master of the needle and thread that creates and sustains life. In the Amur region a woman’s sewing tools are the equivalent of a man’s hunting tools or a shaman’s equipment,allowing her to provide a powerful level of protection to her family, not only on the physical but also on the spiritual level (Van Deusen , ). The middle world is often called lower world in Tuvan, as seen from the vantage point of the upper. In some Turkic languages Umai means placenta or womb. Potapov interprets the place name ötükan, found in the Orkhon-Yenisei scripts, as “the goddess or divinity of the earth.”This word in turn relates to udagan, female shaman (quoted in Nahodil , ), or udaban or utkan in Tuva near Mongolia (Diakonova , ). Kenin-Lopsan also quotes prayers to heaven, our father, moon our father, and the ancestor bear who came from heaven (Kenin-Lopsan , .) See chapter , Mountain Spirits Return – Üstegei, and the stories of Ondar and Kenin-Lopsan in chapter . This image of the rich getting poorer and the poor getting rich appears in many stories, including several versions of “Seventy Languages,” which appears in chapter . It clarifies the way wealth is understood as a reflection of ability, not only in the physical world but also in the spiritual world. As in the Igil legend at the end of chapter . When criticized by their Russian colleagues at conferences (for example in Buriatia in ) for using foreign terms like “chakra” and “aura,” many Siberian shamans explain that the concepts are completely in line with traditional views of human energy phenomena and that their languages have their own words for them. Most of the people engaged in these conversations, including many shamans, are well educated with advanced degrees. In addition, many works on foreign healing and religious systems are available in Russian translation,and some people have met with their practitioners. In that way, words like chakra have become a common part of everyday speech, as in English.

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notes to pages 54–62   Kazachinova, Kyzlasova (personal communications ); Anzhiganova , –; Butanaev .  The correspondence with the Korean word Kut, shamanic ritual, is not coincidental, since the languages are part of the same family.  Hallucinogens have not been part of my research, experientially or academically, nor are they widely used in Siberia.For more information about them see Harner  and Atkinson .  See chapter .  See the opening of chapter .  Van Deusen , . See chapter  for a more complete summary.  All these descriptions are from Diakonova  and Kenin-Lopsan a, –. More stories about these spirits can be found in Kenin-Lopsan b.  Bair was probably thinking of a specific person. Kenin-Lopsan’s Russian translation was “he” although Tuvan pronouns do not show gender and this process could easily take place with either a man or a woman.  See Mitrei Kazachinov, chapter . His teacher was also said to have the quality of blue light.  Khakassia has a similar array of evil spirits, all under the leadership of Erlik-khan. They include körmös, aina, etkör, yaman, and üzüt.  In his PhD dissertation (c), Kenin-Lopsan lists the following eerens. Some are specific to shamans and others belong to ordinary people. Shaman’s eerens: Küzüngü eeren:A major helper for curing headaches and paralysis.A secret sign of connection between heaven and earth. Ösküs eeren: It helps to prepare quickly for kamlanie and to converse with other spirits. It brings inspiration.All shamans value it highly. Cheleesh eeren: Spirit of the rainbow. It helps in making precise diagnoses and in finding the most useful means of healing. It is an energy source that influences both the shaman and ordinary people. Ala-moos eeren: It is striped.Any shaman must have its blessing to begin a shamanic ceremony. It tells the shaman when to carry out the ceremony, where to hold it, what day to set out, and how the illness will turn out. Adyg eeren: Spirit of the bear and heavenly ancestry. The heavenly tribes Khoorlar and Azarlar sent down a great shaman in the form of a bear. Since then he has been living on earth.The strongest shamans had the right to hold this spirit. It has the most sensitive hearing and always defeats enemies who carry illness. Solangy eeren: Spirit glow.A gift from the heavenly Khoorlar and Azarlar to an earthly shaman. One who has it travels the earth and heavenly planets. Deer edi eeren: Spirit of a heavenly body, it consists of pieces of metal and stone fallen from heaven. It is often found where lightning struck larch. It heals insanity.

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 notes to page 62 Küskun eeren:The raven.It serves as a scout and may be found in all three worlds during a ceremony. Ugu eeren:The owl, main protector of a shaman.At night it drives out carriers of disease. Morzuk eeren: The badger. It defeats evil spirits of earth and water. It is dangerous for those who offend the spirits of springs and forests. Buga eeren:The spirit of the bull. It is kept in a shaman’s yurt, personifying the strength of the shaman and clan.A powerful protector from enemy shamans. Kham eeren: Spirit of the shaman, only owned by great shamans. It contains the personal idea of shamanic succession. Boru eeren: Spirit of the wolf.The menacing power of the shaman.This is how terrible the shaman can be for enemies. Khek eeren: Spirit of the cuckoo, spirit of joyful algysh, lofty and celebratory voices; personification of life. Khobugan eeren: Spirit of the butterfly/moth. It helps find the lost soul of a sick person. Eerens for non-shamans: These are created by shamans to cure certain ills. Eeren kyrgys:Anthropomorphic little figures (three or five).The symbol of this spirit is a red horse.A shaman does a consecration of a live red horse and cures illnesses above the waist. Ak eeren: It protects clans and cures infertility, illness below the waist, rheumatism, bladder infections, and swelling of the shin bone. Shyvar dayak eeren:The foreleg of a horse carved of wood. It heals arms and sometimes legs. Sulde Chalamazy eeren: It is for the soul. One of these should be in every yurt, as it protects the entrance from evil and protects members of the family. Evegelchin eeren:It protects the soul of every baby.Its algysh sounds like a lullaby. Aldyn bozaga eeren:A golden pillow at the door. It functions to keep good in and bad out.A kamlanie for this spirit is done right after the New Year. Khunnug Ala-Chelbiish:A striped fan with representations of the sun and moon. Everyone develops temporary weakness from bright sun and the position of the moon.This spirit heals that short-term illness. Chulug eeren: A winged spirit. It protects the mistress of the yurt from evil spirits, looks after the behaviour of young children, and helps childless women. Shagar eeren: It makes sure children and grown-ups follow ancient customs connected with the cult of the domestic hearth. Ugek eeren: Spirit of the part of a yurt separated by curtains for sleeping. Little dolls of clean white felt. It protects progeny and guarantees well-being. It prevents the early death of children. Suran eeren: Sharp-eyed and vigilant, it protects family members from unexpected attack by evil spirits from the four corners. Olchanyn Diin: Spirit of catching squirrels. It is popular with hunters.

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notes to pages 64–78   None of my Tuvan acquaintances has been able to tell me whether this river really exists. Kara means black and khem, river. Black has dual symbolism: on one hand evil, a meaning possibly adopted from Buddhism; and on the other beauty and the purity of “black water,” as very clean water appears as you look down a deep well.  Although most Tuvans were traditionally herdsmen and hunters, millet has been grown in central Tuva for many centuries.  There are rock formations along the edge of certain mountains that really do look like combs.  Red is the colour of life, from blood.  Women have been known to be literate in the Turkic world since ancient times, possibly before men (Chadwick ).  The white birch is a sacred tree. See Katanov invocation, chapter .  Green is associated with water and yellow with Buddhism.  My translation is redundant in that dalai means sea.  Mongun-taiga (silver mountain) is a mountain range in southwest Tuva. It is uncertain whether Aldyn-taiga refers to a real mountain range, or whether the one name simply balances the other.

Chapter Four  Although actual policies varied through the decades of Soviet power, people I have talked with from all generations retain the sense that this was what they were taught. Whatever the actual policy, it was implemented frequently by Russians with a racist view, and later by indigenous people with a highly ideological view.  Dr Anzhiganova was active in forming the Khakass Republic in the early s and is currently active in cultural and spiritual affairs, while teaching at the Khakass State University.  Also called nymakhchi, from nymakh, which means tale or epic.This word seems to be related to the Tungus word ningma, which means magic tale and shares a linguistic root with words for shamanic activity and simply “seeing with the eyes closed.”  This is similar to what happens in the story of “The Bright Man and the Hunter” later in this chapter.  A legend about the creation of the chatkhan links it with the singing of khai, and the ability to call both wild and domestic animals (Taksami ).The story is in chapter .  Folklorist A.K. Stoyanov writes about several types of Khakass epics. One style, called alyptykh nymakh (from alyp, or hero), is usually sung in khai, a word that describes the vocal style and also carries the meaning of singing in a hero’s voice and in the voice of the spirits. This style of story is also called khailap yzarga nymakh, and is accompanied by the chatkhan. Alyptykh nymakh recorded in the past could range from , to , lines and take from one to five evenings

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 notes to pages 78–96

  

   

      

      

to tell (Stoyanov , ). Chazag’ nymakh chookhtig’a means to tell “on foot,” without the instrument. Yrlap yzarga nymakh is a combination of ordinary speech and singing often used by women, who sing important moments such as dialogue.Women often accompany themselves on the chatkhan (, ). See “The Stingy Storyteller” later in this chapter. Chayaan: Creative spirits. When I asked why Agol had refused to sing for the mountain spirits, artist and philosopher Alexander Kotozhekov replied,“Their joy is not our joy,” implying that Agol would have died there as well. Once one has crossed into the world of spirit it is not easy to return, a theme that has many world parallels. Unfortunately she couldn’t tell me more about these tunings.The standard tuning is a combination of fourths and fifths, top and bottom strings in octaves. It is possible that many nonsense tales from other parts of the world also have their basis in shamanic reality, now forgotten. Told in Tuvan.Translation R. Chakar . Storytelling was forbidden because the tellers were community leaders and because of the spiritual and political implications of the stories themselves. In addition, the telling would attract a large gathering of people, which could prove dangerous to the regime. See chapter . Ovaa: a stone pyramid, usually at a mountain pass. Each traveller stops and adds a stone in honour of the spirits of that place. For information about similar journeys in Mongolia see Humphrey . When two trees grow together, especially if they grow from one root, they are sacred, called tel-yiash. These animals relate to astrology, as in the Chinese system. Probably boots with turned-up toes. For more on varieties of throat-singing, see chapter . Cruel because it would prove the reality of the spiritual world denounced by Marxist ideology. Although this story is comic, it emphasizes this reality. Chuldum-ool turns the political situation upside down, saying that his story will be hard on the society, rather than the other way around. Why not thanks to the girl? Perhaps it was his connection with the spiritual world that made it possible, and that made him attractive to women.The storyteller’s attitude also reflects the Tuvan male’s disregard for both Russians and women. She is probably not an epic singer, since most are men, but one called uran-chechen in Tuvan, a person gifted with words. Similar tales are told about musical instruments. See the shoor legends in chapter . See more on attitudes on women and throat-singing (in Tuva) in chapter . Toolchu comes from the Tuvan word tool, story or epic. Khaiji comes from khai, throat-singing. Such as Borbak-ool Saryglar. See chapter . See the section on inner senses in chapter .

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notes to pages 97–111   Discussed further in chapter .  This is more evident in northern Asia, but also noted by Basilov in Central Asia (Basilov b).  As in the story,“Beiberiken and the Five Cows.”Two versions are found in Ergis , –. One of these has been translated to English in Yolen  and Coxwell .  Some characters, like the Mongolian/Tibetan hero Geser, are known to have been healers in their own time and telling their tales can bring about a healing. In the Khakass story of the smart girl, the daughter healed her father after his meeting with the forest spirits.  See the second Igil legend at the end of chapter .  Translated and retold from Samdan , –. In another version of this story, recorded by German folklorist Erica Taube from Tuvans in Mongolia (Taube ), a man refuses to tell stories on his wedding night.This was essential to please the spirits of the places he would pass through with his bride on the way home. During the evening he sends a small boy to his yurt to get his knife, and the boy overhears three knowledge spirits angrily discussing how they will bring the man troubles:drowning,falling rocks,and falling trees.They say that if anyone tells, he will be carried away by the water.The boy goes back and in the morning he catches a black lamb.The boy “translates” while the lamb tells what the spirits had said.Then the lamb is carried away by a stream of water that suddenly appears from underground.

Chapter Five  Smithsonian recording, made by ethnomusicologist Theodore Levin. I am grateful to Dr Levin not only for introducing Tuvan music to North America but also for giving me his valuable suggestions on an earlier draft of this chapter.Transcriptions of Tuvan music can be found in Aksenov  and Kyrgys .  She has written several books and articles on the subject. See bibliography.  See questions of spiritual and political danger discussed in chapter .  See The Tuva Trader, www.tuvatrader.com  Although Süzükei is Tuvan, she was brought up in the city with a Western education.  See Topoev’s story at the end of chapter .  More of Alisa’s stories can be found at the end of chapter .  An alternative explanation offered by Kenin-Lopsan is that by wearing the image of a skeleton a shaman shows that “I have the power to turn you into a skeleton.”  I recommend listening to recordings. Several good ones are available from The Tuva Trader. www.tuvatrader.com  Campbell is quoting Dr Alfred Tomatis’s pioneering work in music therapy.  Another view on closing the eyes is that while a shaman or storyteller is working, his or her soul is more vulnerable to the energies of people and spirits. Closing the eyes protects the practitioner (Funk , ).

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 notes to pages 112–29  From Kyrgys . www.fotuva.org/music keeps an updated list of websites about Tuvan music.Also see Levin and Edgerton .  See the story of a woman storyteller in chapter .  See the chatkhan story in this chapter.  This is my retelling of the story I heard from V. Süzükei.  In a talk on the use of the thumb piano in Zimbabwe (March , Mt Allison University) Michael Flaherty pointed out that the soft metallic sounds help a hunter to call the spirits of his ancestors, who help him to attract the animals.  All retold by V. Süzükei from her  book.  See the story of Slava Kuchenov at the beginning of chapter .  This is a common story formula.  Told by Kuular, Barynzaa Kalzanovna, who was born in , in Ishkin-Aksy, Süt-Khöl district.The white scarf is a sign of honour from the Buddhist tradition.  Arrows are an important image in Turkic and Mongolian shamanism.They are sent by the shaman to other worlds to gain information. Arrows are also kept by families as protective amulets.  As in the algysh about the goat in chapter .  See Andrei Chuldum-ool’s story, chapter .  Buriat-Mongol traditions are related to the Turkic on ancient levels of mythology and shamanic practice.Their languages are related, although not closely.Tuvans are closer to the Mongolian traditions than the Khakass because of their geographic proximity and constant contact. Buddhist traditions also connect them.  See chapter  for more on mirrors.  This is described in greater detail in Levin and Edgerton .  Colours and numbers have special meaning in shamanic stories. According to Tuvan folklorist Zoya Samdan, white indicates good luck and blessings and red is the colour of blood, meaning something valued or unique. Black is associated with evil,although in terms of clothing it is considered very beautiful.Black water also refers to the purity of water, which seems black when one looks down into a well. Gold indicates magic or the unusual (Samdan , ). In Khakass folklore white, light blue, silver, and gold connect to the upper world, while black, yellow, dark blue, and stripes connect to the lower. Green is the colour of life and growing things and red the colour of fire.The numbers three, seven, and nine are important in Tuvan and Khakass folk tales, as they are in most world cultures. Multiples of nine and other larger numbers may indicate a Buddhist influence in Tuvan tales.  Ai-Churek Oyun has written in detail about them in her booklet “La Forza dei Colori degli elementi e dei segni sciamanici,” available from Where the Eagles Fly at www.siberianshamanism.com  In a folk tale often told in the Amur region a frog beats a moose in a race by sitting on the moose’s head (Van Deusen , ).

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notes to pages 130–55   Told by Ortaat, Delger Khertekovich, who was born in , in the Bai-taiga region, Kyzyl-dag, Ulug-oorug.  First he met the old man and then he became the old man.

Chapter Six        

           

See Kuchenov’s story at the beginning of chapter . Tania’s story is told in more detail in chapter  and Slava’s in chapter . See chapter . See the unesco Red Book on endangered languages. http://www.helsinki.fi/ ~tasalmin/endangered.html Pluzhnikov, speaking at a Moscow conference on shamanism sponsored by the Russian Academy of Sciences in . See chapter . For more about this system in the Brazilian Tuyuca language see Nettle and Romaine , –. Buriat-Mongol shamans say that if illness comes from karmic causes it is not curable, while illness that comes from evil people, or from the patient’s own evil acts, can be cured. Illness caused by a patient’s own evil acts can be cured by the patient (Tsenin-zaarin, personal communication, ). See divination by throwing the cup, chapter . Kenin-Lopsan , – in Tuvan; – Russian version. Sung by Hertek, Seree Burulbaevich, born  in the Bai Taiga region. Recorded in Kyzyl by Kenin-Lopsan in . It is the song of an older shaman, Dalai-khaam. The liver is understood as the seat of the emotions. An evil spirit. Evil spirits. Oitulaash is described by Kurbatski as a time when young people rode wildly from one settlement to the next, singing, playing games, and making love (Kurbatski , –). Radlov . Recently scholars in Abakan have reissued the rituals of worship of heaven, fire, mountain, and water. (Katanov ). Kenin-Lopsan quotes from Katanov, in Kenin-Lopsan , . See chapter . “Incising the core” refers to the traditional way of slaughtering an animal by making an incision in the chest and reaching inside to stop the aorta, thus not spilling any blood onto the ground. Black heads: Khakass people Caroline Humphrey writes about a stone in Mongolia,Avgai Khad, that receives a similar reverence. She adds that desperate people may “borrow” from Avgai Khad, as long as they return what they have taken by a specified date. If they fail they will have misfortunes (Humphrey , ).

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 notes to pages 157–77  Translation from Khakass to Russian by Larissa Anzhiganova.

Chapter Seven  One was the blues singer Paul Pena, whose story is related in the film Genghis Blues. See www.genghisblues.com  For an analysis of changing government policies see Gorenburg .  However one heroine in Ai-Khuuchin, another well-known Khakass epic, is ugly. The poet explains that in fact she is beautiful, but she has chosen to wear a mask of ugliness in this life, to avoid the distractions of male attention. But this subtlety was beyond the range of the discussion that day about Altyn Aryg.  Details from an interview with Valentina Kharitonova of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Kharitonova ) and from my own conversations with Tania.  See Where the Eagles Fly www.siberianshamanism.com,and the film Moon Heart by Costanzo Allione.Together with Anna Saudin, who interprets from Russian to Italian,Allione heads the organization Where the Eagles Fly, which has sponsored Ai-Churek Oyun’s workshops and other events.  Buriat shaman Nadia Stepanova uses a similar setting in the city of Ulan Ude.  See the foundation’s website: www.shamanism.org  I have also seen a similar practice in Buriatia, where shaman Valentin Hagdaev runs spiritual excursions on Olkhon Island through the Baikal Parks Service.  There are many such places all over Siberia. In Buriatia, shaman Nadezhda Stepanova frequently sends her clients to their sacred clan places to conduct rituals that contribute to their healing.  The time was right. Larissa says her father favoured forming a separate Khakass republic years ago and proposed the idea to Brezhnev in ,but the only results were severe problems for him in his professional life.

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references and suggestions for further reading

Aksenov,A.N. . Tuvinskaya narodnaya muzyka [Tuvan Folk Music]. Moscow: Muzyka Anzhiganova, Larissa. a.“Renaissance of a Culture: How Khakass Shamanism Survived and Flourishes Today.” Active Voices:The Online Journal of Cultural Survival. www.cs.org – b. Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie khakasov [Traditional Khakass World View]. Abakan – . Evoliustsia mirovozzrenia etnosa [Evolution of the Worldview of an Ethnos]. Moscow – . Khakasy vo vremeni i prostranstve [Khakass People in Time and Space]. Abakan Atkinson, Jane M. .“Shamanisms Today.” Annual Review of Anthropology: – Balzer, Marjorie M., ed. . Shamanic Worlds.Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe – .“Shamans as Healers, Rebels and Philosophers: Exploring Cultural Repression and Resilience in Siberia.” In Funk, D.A. and V.I. Kharitonova, eds, Shamanizm i inye traditsionnye verovaniya i praktiki [Shamanism and other Traditional Beliefs and Practices]. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences Basilov,V.N. a. Izbranniki dukhov [Chosen by the Spirits]. Moscow: Politizdat – b.“Vestiges of Transvestism in Central Asian Shamanism.” In Hoppál, M., ed., Shamanism in Eurasia. Gottingen: Herodot – .“Chosen by the Spirits.” In Balzer, Marjorie M., ed., Shamanic Worlds. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe Batianova, E.P. .“Predstavlenia teleutov o prirode shamaskogo dara” [“Teleut concepts about the nature of the shamanic gift”]. In Funk, D.A. and V.I. Kharitonova, eds, Shamanizm i inye traditsionnye verovaniya i praktiki [Shamanism and other Traditional Beliefs and Practices]. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences Butanaev,V.Y. . Traditsionnaya kul’tura i byt khakasov [Traditional Khakass Culture and Way of Life].Abakan: Khakass Book Publishers Campbell, Don. . The Mozart Effect. New York:Avon Books

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 references Chadwick, Nora. . Oral Epics of Central Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Chaussonet,Valerie. .“Needles and Animals:Women’s Magic.” In Fitzhugh, W.W. and A. Crowell, eds, Crossroads of Continents.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Cornu, Philippe. . Tibetan Astrology. Boston and London: Shambhala Cox,Allison, and David Albert, eds. . The Healing Heart: Communities. Storytelling to Build Strong and Healthy Communities. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers Coxwell, C.F. . Siberian and Other Folk-Tales. New York:AMS Press Diachenko,Vladimir. .“The Horse in Yakut Shamanism.” In Seaman, Gary and Jane S. Day, eds, Ancient Traditions: Shamanism in Central Asia and the Americas. Niwot: University of Colorado Diakonova,Vera Pavlovna. .“Religioznye predstavlenia Altaitsev i Tuvintsev o prirode i cheloveke” [“Religious Concepts of the Altai and Tuvans about Nature and Humanity”]. In Vdovin, I.S., ed., Priroda i chelovek v religioznykh predstavleniyakh narodov Sibiri i severa [Nature and Humanity in the Religious Concepts of the Peoples of Siberia and the North]. Leningrad: Nauka – .“Tuvinskie shamani i ikh sotsial’naya rol’ v obshchestve” [“Tuvan shamans and their social role in society”]. In Vdovin, I.S., ed., Problemy istorii obshchestvennovo soznaniya aborigenov sibiri [Problems of the History of Social Consciousness of Aboriginal Peoples of Siberia]. Leningrad: Nauka – .“Shamans in Traditional Tuvinian Society.” In Seaman, Gary and Jane S. Day, eds, Ancient Traditions: Shamanism in Central Asia and the Americas. Niwot: University of Colorado – .“Female Shamans of the Turkic-speaking Peoples of Southern Siberia.” Paper presented at the conference on Shamans: Epics and Ecology,Tampere, Finland Ergis, G.U. . Yakutskie skazki v dvukh tomakh [Yakut Tales in Two Volumes], vol. .Yakutsk:Academy of Sciences Forsyth, James. . A History of the Peoples of Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Fredericks, Linda. .“Why Children Need Stories: Storytelling and Resiliency.” Resiliency in Action, summer issue: – Funk, Dmitri. . Teleutskoe shamanstvo [Teleut Shamanhood]. Moscow:Academy of Sciences – .“Shamanskaya bolezn’ sayano-altaiskikh skazitelei” [“The Shamanic Illness of Sayan-Altai Storytellers”]. In Funk, D.A. and V.I. Kharitonova, eds, Shamanizm i inye traditsionnye verovaniya i praktiki [Shamanism and other Traditional Beliefs and Practices]. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences Gorenburg, Dmitry. .“Regional Separatism in Russia: Ethnic Mobilization or Power Grab.” Europe-Asia Studies, vol. , no. : – – . Ethnic Mobilization in the Russian Federation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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references  Grebnev, L.V. . Tuvinskii Geroicheskii Epos [The Tuvan Heroic Epic]. Moscow: Eastern Literature – . Boktu-Kirish i Bora-Sheelei [Boktu-Kirish and Bora-Sheelei]. Kyzyl:Tuvan Book Publishers Harner, Michael J. . Hallucinogens and Shamanism. London: Oxford University Press Hodgkinson,Tim. .“Siberian Shamanism and Improvised Music.” Musicworks. http://users.unimi.it/~gpiana/dmls01th.htm Humphrey, Caroline. .“Theories of North Asian Shamanism.” In Gellner, Ernest, ed., Soviet and Western Anthropology. New York: Columbia University Press – .“Avgai Khad:Theft and Social Trust in Post-Communist Mongolia.” Anthropology Today, vol. , no.  Hutton, Ronald. . Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination. London and New York: Hambledon and London Ingerman, Sandra. . Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco Katanov, N.F. . Khakasskii fol’klor [Khakass Folklore].Abakan: Khakass Book Publishers – . Altyn Pichik [Golden Book].Abakan: Rosa Kazachinova, Galina, and Kira Van Deusen. . Mountain Spirits: Khakass Stories. Vancouver: Udagan Books Kenin-Lopsan, Mongush. . Obryadovaia praktika i fol’klor Tuvinskovo shamanisma [Ceremonial Practice and Folklore of Tuvan Shamanism]. Novosibirsk: Nauka – . Magia Tuvinskikh Shamanov [Magic of Tuvan Shamans]. Kyzyl (In Tuvan, Russian, and English) – . Algyshi tuvinskikh shamanov [Tuvan Shamans’Algysh]. Kyzyl (In Russian and Tuvan) – a. Shamanic Songs and Myths of Tuva. Budapest and Los Angeles:Akademiai Kiado and ISTOR – b.“Tuvan Shamanic Folklore.” In Balzer, Marjorie M., ed., Shamanic Worlds.Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe – c. Summary of doctoral dissertation. Moscow – . Tuvinskie shamany [Tuvan Shamans]. Moscow:Transpersonal Institute Kharitidi, Olga. . Entering the Circle. London:Thorsons Kharitonova,Valentina. .“Izbranniki duhov, preemniki koldunov, posviashennye Uchiteliami: obretenie magiko-misticheskih svoistv, znanii, navykov” [“Chosen by the Spirits,Apprentices of Sorcerers, Initiated by Teachers: obtaining Magical-Mystical Abilities, Knowledge, and Skills”]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie [Ethnographic Review], , no. , – – .“S G.G. Kazachinovoi beseduet V.I. Kharitonova. Izbrainchestvo i dar tvorchestva: sud’by khama, khaiji, takhpakhchi” [“V.I. Kharitonova chats with G.G. Kazachinova. Selection and the Gift of Creativity: Destinies of the Shaman, Storysinger, and Takhpakh Singer”]. In Funk, D.A.,V.I. Kharitonova,

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 references and N.L. Zhukovskaya, eds, Shamanskii dar [The Shamanic Gift]. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences Kostiakov,A.A. .“Nebesnaya religia khakasov” [“Heavenly Religion of the Khakass”]. In Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie khakasov [Traditional Khakass Worldview].Abakan Kotozhekov,Alexander. . Kniga Gadanii [Book of Divination].Abakan: Khakass Book Publishers Kurbatski, G.N. . Tuvintsi v svoem fol’klore [Tuvans in their own Folklore]. Kyzyl: Tuvan Book Publishers Kuzhuget,A. and M Tatarintseva. . Etnopoliticheskaya situatsia v respublike Tyva nakunune i posle vyborov v federal’noe sobranie Rossii v 1993g [Ethnopolitical Situation in Republic of Tuva just before and after Elections in the Federal Meetings of Russia in 1993]. Moscow Kyrgys, Zoya. . Khöömei, zhemchuzhina Tuvy [Khöömei, Pearl of Tuva]. Kyzyl – . Ritmy shamanskogo bubna [Rhythms of the Shaman’s Drum]. Kyzyl: International Khoomei Center (English translation included) – .“Muzykal’noe ispolnenie tuvinskikh skazok” [“Musical Performance of Tuvan Folktales”]. In Samdan, Z. B., Tuvinskaya narodnaya skazka [The Tuvan Folk Tale]. Novosibirsk: Nauka Leisiö,T. .“Octosyllabic Song Patterns.” Paper presented at the conference on Shamans: Epics and Ecology,Tampere, Finland Levin,T., and Michael Edgerton. .“The Throat-Singers of Tuva.” Scientific American, September . Can be downloaded at: www.sciamarchive.com L’vova, E.L., I.V. Oktyabrskaya, et al. . Traditsionnoe mirovozrenie Tyurkov yuzhnoi Sibiri [Traditional World View of the Turks of South Siberia]. Moscow: Nauka Mainogasheva,V.E. . Khakasskii geroicheskii epos “Ai-Khuuchin”. Pamyatniki fol’klora narodov Sibiri i dal’nego vostoka [Khakass Heroic Epic “Ai-Khuuchin. Monuments of the Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East]. Novosibirsk: Nauka Mänchen-Helfen, Otto. . Journey to Tuva.Translated by Alan Leighton. Los Angeles: Ethnographics Press Menovshchikov, E.M. . Skazki i mifi narodov Chukotki i Kamchatki [Tales and Myths of the Peoples of Chukotka and Kamchatka]. Moscow: Nauka Nahodil, O. .“Mother Cult in Siberia.” In V. Dioszegi, ed., Popular Beliefs and Folklore Practices. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press Napsaraeva, Sayana. .“Polezno li rodit’sa v Rossii?” [“Is it Healthy to be born in Russia?”] Nezavisimaya Gazeta, // Narby, Jeremy. . The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. New York: Putnam Nettle, Daniel, and Suzanne Romaine. . Vanishing Voices:The Extinction of the World’s Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press Pearce, Joseph Chilton. . Evolution’s End: Claiming the Potential of our Inheritance. New York: Harper Collins

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references  Potapov, L.P. . Altaiskii shamanizm [Altai Shamanism]. Leningrad: Nauka Radlov,V.V., ed. . Obraztsy narodnoi literatury tiurkskikh plemyon [Examples of Folk Literature of the Turkic Tribes]. Part IX. St Petersburg Radlov,V.V. . Iz Sibiri [Out of Siberia]. St Petersburg Sagalaev,A.M. . Uralo-altaiskaya mifologia [Ural-Altai Mythology]. Novosibirsk: Nauka – . Altai v zerkale mifa [Altai in the Mirror of Myth]. Novosibirsk: Nauka Samdan, Zoya B. . Tuvinskaya narodnaya skazka [The Tuvan Folk Tale]. Novosibirsk: Nauka Seren-ool,Vladimir. . Kang-kys. Kyzyl:Tuvan Book Publishers Shibaeva,Yu.A. .“Vstrecha s shamankoi” [“A Meeting with a Female Shaman”]. Sovietskaya Etnografia, , no., – Shternberg, Lev. . The Social Organization of the Gilyak. New York:Anthropological Papers of the Museum of Natural History Stoyanov,A.K. .“Iskusstovo khakasskikh khaidzhi” [“The Art of the Khakass Khaidzhi”]. In Mainogasheva,V.E., ed., Altyn Aryg. Moscow: Nauka Süzükei,Valentina. . Tuvinskie traditsionnye muzykal’nye instrumenty [Traditional Tuvan Musical Instruments]. Kyzyl:TNIYaLI – . Burdonno-obertonovaya osnova traditsionnovo muzitsirovaniya tuvintsev [The Fundamental-Overtone Basis of Traditional Tuvan Instrumental Music-Making]. Kyzyl:TNIYaLI Taksami, Chuner M. . Skazanie o prostore [Tales of the Open Spaces]. Leningrad: Lenizdat Tanaka, Sherry. .“Bringing Dragon Home: Spiritual cartography of northern Tsugaru.” In Funk, D.A., and V.I. Kharitonova, eds, Shamanizm i inye traditsionnye verovaniya i praktiki [Shamanism and other Traditional Beliefs and Practices]. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences Taube, Erika. .“South Siberian and Central Asian Hero Tales and Shamanistic Rituals.” In Hoppál, M., ed., Shamanism in Eurasia. Gottingen: Herodot – . Skazki i predania altaiskikh tuvintsev [Tales and Legends of the Altai Tuvans]. Moscow: Eastern Literature Publishers, Russian Academy of Sciences Troyakov, P.A. .“Promyslovaya i magicheskaya funktsia skazyvania skazok u khakassov” [“Hunting and Magic Function of Telling Tales among the Khakass”]. Sovietskaya Etnografia , no. : – – . Kore Saryg na bulanom kone. Khakasskie narodnye skazki, predania i legendy [Kore Saryg on his Dun Horse. Khakass Folk Tales and Legends]. Novosibirsk: West-Siberian Book Publishers – . Altyn-khys, khakasskie skazki [Altyn-khys, Khakass Stories]. In Russian and Khakass.Abakan – . Mifi i legendy Khakassii [Myths and Legends of Khakassia].Abakan: Khakass Book Publishers Vainshtein, S.I. . Tuvinskoe shamanstvo [Tuvan Shamanhood]. Moscow: Nauka – . Mir kochevnikov tsentra Azii [World of the Nomads of the Centre of Asia]. Moscow: Nauka

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 references Vakhtin, Nikolai. .“Native Peoples of the Russian Far North.” In Polar Peoples: Self Determination and Development. London: Minority Rights Group Van Deusen, Kira. . Shyaan Am! Tuvan Folk Tales. Bellingham,WA: Udagan Books – . Raven and the Rock, Storytelling in Chukotka. Seattle: University of Washington Press – . Woman of Steel:A Tuvan Epic.Vancouver: Udagan Books – . The Flying Tiger:Women Shamans and Storytellers of the Amur. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press Vinogradov,Andrei. .“The Role and Development of Shamanic Discourse among Southern Siberian Ethnic Groups in the Post-Soviet Period.” The Anthropology of East Europe Review: Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, vol. , no.  Yolen, Jane. . Favorite Folktales from Around the World. New York: Pantheon Books

Recordings Smithsonian. . Tuva:Voices from the Center of Asia.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Folkways

Websites Khakassia information site: www.khakasia.ru Paul Pena: www.genghisblues.com Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire: www.eki.ee/books/redbook/introduction.shtml Republic of Tyva information site: www.tuva.ru Shamans and Stories: www.kiravan.com Tuva Trader: www.tuvatrader.com

unesco Red Book on Endangered Languages: http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/endangered.html Where the Eagles Fly: www.siberianshamanism.com

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index

Ahura Mazda,  Ai-Khuuchin, – Aksal,Aksakal Ak Sakal (old man of the mountain), , ,  algyschi,  algysh (algys), , –. See also poetry Altai languages, xi, xiv. See also Turkic languages altered states of consciousness, , , , – Altyn-Aryg (Khakass epic), , , , – Amur River, x, n animal: helper, ; imitations, , ; sacred, , , , –, . See also bear, mountain goat Anzhiganova, Larissa, , –, , –, – passim, , n arrow, , , , n assimilation, ,  Association of Tuvan Shamans,  astro–archaeology,  astrology, , , –, n; Chinese, , n;Tibetan,  Atknine,Victor, xix,  ayahuasca,  Baikal, , n Batianova, Elena, n bear, , , , n

beauty, –, – birch, ,  bird, , , , , language of, – blacksmith,  Blavatsky, Helena,  bones, xii, , – Buddhism, –, , , , . See also lamas Buddhist temple, ,  Buriat people, , n byzanchi, , , . See also musical instrument camels,  Campbell, Don, ,  cardinal directions, , , , –n Casteneda, Carlos,  cave, –,  Centre for the Study of Tuvan Shamanism, ,  ceremony, –, –, , , –. See also shaman chadagan (zither), –. See also musical instrument Chakar, Rada, xix, n, n chakra, , , n Chankov, Dmitry, ,  chatkhan (zither), , , , –, . See also musical instrument

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 index Chayaan, , ,  Chebachakov,Valeri, , – Chinghis khan,  Chir Ine, –. See also earth goddess Chir Su, . See also earth goddess Christianity, ,  Chuldum-ool,Andrei, –, –, ,  clairvoyant, xv, , , , . See also divination; shaman, diagnosis clinic, shamans’, , , –, , , ,  clothing, ,  cloud layers, – colour symbolism, , –, n, n consecration, , ; of shaman, . See also drum costume, shaman’s, xiii, , , , , , – creation stories, xvi, , , , n cultural revival, , , –,  Dalai Lama, ,  death and rebirth, , –,  deities: See Chir Ine, earth, fire, Kudai, Kurbustu, Ulgen, Umai, water Diakonova,Vera, , , , , n dinosaur,  divination, xiii, , ; on pebbles, –, –, ; on shoulder blade, –, ; throwing the cup, –  , –, ,  dragon, ,  drum, , , –, ; in ceremony, ; in competition, –; consecration of, –, –; and horse, , ; making of, ; under persecution, ; photos, , , ,  duck, –,  earth, ; goddess –, . See also Umai, Chir Ine, Chir Su

ecology, ,  education, , , , n eeren: See spirit figures Einstein,Alfred,  elements,  energy systems,  epic: language, ; styles, n. See also storytelling epic tellers and singers: See storytellers Erlik-khan, , ,  evil spirits: See spirits “extrasense” healers,  fanning, –,  Fedorov,Anatolii,  fire, , ; rituals, xiv, ; spirits and deities, , – flute, –. See also musical instruments folklore policies,  Foundation for Shamanic Studies, ,  frequencies, sound, ,  funeral, , ,  gender, , , ; pronouns, . See also women Geser, , n glass palace,  goddess, xiv. See also Chir Ine, Chir Su, earth, fire, Umai Golden Lake,  golden princess,  Grant, Bruce,  Hagdaev,Valentin, n hair, , , ; yellow, – hallucinogens, –, n Harner, Michael,  healing journey, xiii, , –, , , . See also shaman healing: self, xiii, . See also herbal medicine, shaman

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index  hearth, . See also yurt herbal medicine, xiv, –,  heroic journey, , ,  hitching post, ,  Hoppál, Mihály, – horse, , , –, ; and drum, , ; sacrifice, ; thief, –,  humour, xv–xvi, ,  Huns,  hunting, –, . See also storytelling, music Huun Huur Tu, ,  igil, , , –, –. See also musical instruments image formation, xvi imagery: and music, ; resonance of, ; shamanic, – improvisation, , ,  Indo-Iranian peoples, , . See also Tagar people Ingerman, Sandra, n inner senses, , , ,  Itpekov, – jaw-harp, , , , –. See also musical instruments Johansen, Ulla,  Kaigal-kham,  kam yiash: See tree, shaman’s Kang-kys, , ,  Karaty-khan, , – passim,  kargyraa, , . See also overtone singing Katanov, N.F., ,  Kazachinov, Dmitrii, – Kazachinova, Galina, –, , , , ,  Kenin-Lopsan, Mongush: and algysh, –; and arrows, ; and cultural revival, ; divination, ; and

drums, , –; life, , ; and mirrors, , ; photo, ; and shamans, , , , , , ; and upper world,  khai, , , , –, , , . See also overtone singing khai eezi. See spirits khaiji, , , , –. See also storyteller Khakassia, Republic of, xi, –, , –, n Khakass language, xi Kharitidi, Olga, – khomus. See jaw harp khomys (string instrument), , . See also musical instruments khöömei: See overtone singing Khurtuiakh Tas, –. See also stone figures khut: See soul Kidiekova, Irina, ,  Kirghiz, ,  Kobezhikova,Tatiana (Tania): and cave, ; costume, ; and drum, , ; and healing journey, vii–x; and herbal medicine, –; illness, –; initiation, ; and mirror, ; and music, , ; photos, ix, ; practice, vii, , ,  Kombu,Anatolii, ,  Kostiakov,Alexander, ,  Kotozhekov,Alexander, , , , , –, n Kuchenov, Slava (Vyacheslav), –,  Kudai,  Kurbatski, Georgii, , , n Kurbeltinova, Matrona,  Kurbizhekov, Petr, – Kurbizhekova,Albina, ,  Kurbusteev, Dmitry, – Kurbustu, , , , – kurgan, viii, , ,, 

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 index kut: See soul Kuular, Mokur-ool,  küzüngü: See mirror Kyzlasov,Yegor,  Kyzlasova,Alisa, –,  lama, , , –, , , , . See also Buddhism language, ; of animals, –, ; endangered, ; indigenous, –; in shamanic poetry, ; spirit, , , –;Turkic, xi Larichev,Vitaly, –, n Levin,Theodore, , , n literacy,  literature, oral: See storytelling magic tale. See storytelling male-female interaction, ix, xvi. See also gender manaschi,  Manichaeism,  Marxism,  menge (spiritual birthmark),  milk lake, ,  millet, , n Mindriyaa, Choodu,  mirror, –, –,  Mongolian language, xi, ,  Mongols, , ,  Mongush, Osur-ool ,  moon, , ,, , n mountain goat, – mountain pass. See ovaa mountain people, –,  mountain, sacred, ,  mountain spirits, –, –; abduction by, ; and cave, ; and music, , –, ; prayer to, –; and storytellers, , , –, . See also spirits Musaeva, Chechek,  music: analysis of, , ; in shamanic ritual, xiii, ; under

communism, ; functions, ; and healing, , ; and hunting, –; and nature, , ; and place, ; Soviet policies, ; and storytelling, . See also rhythm, timbre musical instruments: consecration of, ; and spirits, ; and storytelling, –; strings, , –. See also byzanchi, chadagan, chatkhan, drum, flute, igil, jaw harp naming, , –,  Narby, Jeremy, –, ,  Nestorian Christianity,  Nivkh people,  Norilkov, Gerasim, – observatory,  Ondar, Kongar-ool, –, – Ondar, Marzhymal,  Oorzhak, Dugar-Sürün, ,  Oorzhak, Nikolai, ,  oral literature, xvi, . See also storytelling orphan, , , ,  Osküs-ool, –, . See also orphan ovaa, , , , n overtones,  overtone singing, , –, , ; and storytelling, , ; and women, ,  Oyun,Ai-Churek: and astrology, ; and ceremonies, ; divination, ; and music, –, ; practice, –; shamanic ancestry, ; and shamanic language, ; and spirit figures, ; teaching, , ,  Panchatantra,  patriarchy, ,  Pazyryk, n pebbles: See divination pentatonic scale, 

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index  petroglyphs,  Pluzhnikov, Nikolai,  poetry, ; in ceremony, –, – pog’o, – psychotherapy, , ,  Radlov,V.V., , , , n, n, –n rainbow, , n religious beliefs, xii, , –n revolution of ,  rhythm,  ritual, vii, , ; clan, ; hair, ; mountain, –; personal, ix,; religious, , ; seasonal, ; shamanic, , , ; solstice, –; women's, , –. See also ceremonies, shaman Russian Academy of Sciences,  Russian Orthodox Church, , . See also Christianity sacred sites, vii, , – Sakha Republic,  Salbyk kurgan, viii–x, ,  Salchak, Ludmila, , , ,  saliva,  Sandan, Ondar, – Saryglar, Borbak-ool, , ,  Sayan Mountains, xi,  Sazhena,Vera,  Scythians, , , . See also IndoIranian peoples secrets,  sex-change: See shape-changing shaman, xii; abilities, ; activities, xiii, ; ancestry, , , –; associations, ; black and white, , , ; community support for, xiv; competition, –; consecration, ; diagnosis, , , , , , ; dismemberment, xii, , ; equipment, , ; fees, xiv, ; healing, xiii, , , , ; illness,

xii, , –, , ; initiation, xii, , , , , , , ; language, xii, , ; names for, xiv; outside contacts, –; persecution of, , , , , ; as political advisors, ; psychopomp (accompanying the dead), xiii, , ; and society, ; soundscape, –; study and teaching, xii, , –, , –, , , n , n; sucking, ; testing, ; women, xiv–xv, , –. See also clinic, costume, divination, drum, fanning, healing journey, lama, mirror, ritual, soul retrieval shamanic gift: artist’s, , ; refusal, , –; revealing, – shamanic massage,  shamanic texts, ,  shamanic tourism, – shamanism, xii–xv, ; ecology, ; ecotourism, –; as religion, –n; revival of, , –, – Shambhala,  shape-shifting, , –, –,  sheep, slaughtering, , , n shoulder blade: See divination Silk Road,  singing, , . See also overtone singing skeleton, xiii, , , n sky: See worlds, upper snake: flying, ; and language, –; petroglyphs, ; as shaman’s helper, xiii, , , ; taboos, – solstice, , – song, improvised (takhpakh),  soul, , , , , , , –; theft, ; types, – soul retrieval, xiii, xiv, , –, , , , , , ; and story, , – Soviet Union, , , , 

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 index spirit figures (eerens, töster) ; types, –n spirits, xii, xiv, , –; abduction by, ; animal, ; calling, , , –; evil, , –, , , , , , ; helping, xiii, , , , –, , ; language of, ; lower world, ; of nature, , ; of place, –, , , ; of story, xvii, –, , –. See also shamans, storytellers, mountain spirits spiritual birthmarks,  spirituality, xii,  Stalin, ,  Stepanova, Nadezhda, n stone figures, –, , , , ; contemporary, ; Khurtuiakh Tas, –; Mongolian, n story: formulas, ; shamanic, xiii, xv, ; truth of,  storytellers, xv–xvi; healing, –, ; initiation, xii, xv, –, , –; inner vision, ; precepts, xvii, , , ; and shamans, , ; and society, –; spirit protectors, –, –; women, xv storytelling, xv–xx; and child development, xvi; competition, , ; and history, ; and hunting, , –; improvisation in, ; as interaction, xiv; listeners, –; and music, , ; policies on, n; purpose, . See also spirits, of story storytelling festivals, n suicide, ,  sun, , , , , , , n Sunduki Mountain, –, ,  Süzükei,Valentina, – passim swan, , , ,  sygyt. See overtone singing syllables, –

taboos, , – Tadar Khan, – Tagar people, , , , . See also Indo-Iranian peoples Taiylgan,  tall tales,  Tanaka, Sherry,  Tatarova,Valentina, , –,  Teleut, , n theatre, –,  three worlds. See worlds threshold, . See also yurt throat-singing. See overtone singing Tibetan Buddhism. See Buddhism, lamas timbre, musical, , , , ,  time,  Tiukhteneva, Svetlana, ,  toolchu. See storyteller Topoev, Petr (Petya), , , , , –,  tos karak (nine-eyed spoon) ,  trance, , , , . See also altered states of consciousness translation, , –, ,  trees, –, –, –, , ; birch, , , ; shaman’s, –, , n Tungus languages, xi Turkic alphabet, ,  Turkic languages, xi, , . See also languages Turks, ancient, , , ,  Tuva, Republic of, xi, –,  Tuvan language, xi, ,  Tuvan Republican Museum, xiii, , ,  tyn. See soul Tyva, Republic of, xi Uibat kurgan, ,  Uighur, 

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index  Ulgen, , ,  Umai, , , , ,  upper world. See worlds Üstegei Mountain, , – Vainshtein, S. ,  Vancouver Folk Music Festival,  vowel harmony,  warrior, sleeping, – water spirits and deities, ,  Windhorse,  wolf, , n woman, old, , 

women, xvi, –, , ; as storytellers, , – worlds: lower, –, , ; middle, –; spiritual, , ; upper, –,  ydyk (sacred animal), , ,  Ymai,  yurt, , , –, , ,  yzykh (sacred animal), , ,  zither, –. See also chadagan, chatkhan Zoroastrianism, , 

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