Asian Ethnicity
Vo. 11,
No. 2, June 2010, 229‒238
Contemporary shamanisms in Mongolia
Mátyás
Balogh*
Department of Inner-Asian Studies, Eötvös Loránd University,
Budapest, Hungary
The aim of
this paper is to outline the current situation of shamanism in
Mongolia. It examines the relationship between shamanism and
ethnicity, the phenomenon of urban shamanism and the emergence of
shaman associations and shamanic enterprises in Ulaanbaatar. The
study is based on a year-long field-work in Mongolia 2004‒05,
during which the author came into contact with the ‘Heaven’s
Dagger’ association and had interviews with the members, and
attended a number of shamanistic rituals that they conducted. The
field study was conducted at a time when these associations and
enterprises had already ‘grown up’, i.e. they had recruited a vast
number of members and attracted enough clients to operate, but
still had not reached the stage of economic prosperity. This was
also the time when the partly conscious attempt of forging a
standardized Mongolian shamanism mainly from Darkhat and Buryat
sources and the recreation of Khalkha shamanism began to take
place.
Keywords: Mongolian shamanism;
Darkhat; Buryat; Khalkha; Uriankhai; urban shamanism
Shamans in Mongolia
In the
past two decades, a vast number of shamans have appeared and
reappeared in Mongolia, and shamanism and the concepts and theories
connected to it have started to gain more and more popularity.
Besides the revival of genuine shamanic traditions, a kind of
Mongolian neo-shamanism came into existence in the
1990s.
A number of modern Mongolian shamans have their own
offices and staff, like any other enterprise in the major towns in
the country. These are usually called Böögiin
zan üiliin töw (Centre of
Shamanic Activities) in Mongolian. In most cases the head of a
centre is a shaman, a high proportion of whom are often
self-appointed. Many of those who used to be folk artists during
the communist era started to practise as shamans after the fall of
the regime. Performers of any kind of folk art, which they believe
to have something in common with shamanism, often feel predestined
to become shamans and claim that their artistic activity used to be
the manifestation of their shamanic power, suppressed by the
communist ideology. According to Mongolian traditions, however, the
one who is predestined to practise shamanism never feels this
predestination and does not want to undertake the fearful task of
acting as a vehicle for the spirits. It is believed that they only
become shamans when they are forced and tortured by the spirits to
such an extent that they cannot bear it any longer. The shamanic
vocation usually manifests in a long-lasting mysterious illness ‒
the shaman’s illness (böögiin
öwčin) ‒ with the
symptoms of epileptic seizures (tataj
unax) and losing
consciousness. According to tradition none can cure this illness
but the sick person him/herself by accepting the shamanic vocation.
It is always an experienced elderly shaman who diagnoses the
shaman’s illness and accepts the sufferer as his/her apprentice. In
most cases those who are prone to this kind of illness are members
of a shamanic lineage (udam), which
they might not know of prior to their initiation.
In the Mongolian cultural region and even within the
borders of Mongolia there are a number of shamanic traditions,
which can greatly differ from each other, but the ways of becoming
a shaman are very similar in all of them.
In Mongolia, shamanism is chiefly practised by
minority groups such as the Darkhat, the Buryat or the Uriankhai.
Superhuman knowledge and spiritual power are often attributed to
these ethnicities.
Territories of Mongolian shamanism
In
Mongolia the shamanic traditions of different ethnic groups are
regarded as different ways and traditions of practising Mongolian
shamanism, when in fact none of these traditions have Mongol roots.
The shamanism of the Darkhats is closely related to that of the
neighbouring Tuvans, and many of the contemporary Darkhat shamans
are descendants of famous Tuvan shamans. According to ethnographic
accounts the Darkhat ethnic group comprises a number of clans of
Tuvan origin.[1] The
Uriankhai, also known as Mončoog, is also
an ethnic group of Tuvan origin inhabiting the Mongolian Altai. The
shamanic practices of the Buryats resemble those of the Ewenk and
Daur. Most Buryat dieties, shamanic tools, accessories and rituals
have their Ewenk and Daur equivalents which are alien to the
Darkhats and Uriankhais. For instance, the consecration of
shaman-apprentices known as shanar among the
Buryats is also known and performed in a similar way among the
Bargas, Daurs and different tungusic-speaking ethnic groups in
Manchuria. Two of the most important spirits in the Buryat shaman
pantheon Abagaldai and Xoimoriin
aaw are widely
known among the shamans of these peoples. Likewise the names of
spirits that are amongst the most well known ones in Darkhat
shamanism as for example Iwidää
yum, Xosiin
aaw, Delden
Mend, Ärildää
börgöd etc. and
who are all related to a shaman of Tuvan ethnicity
shamanJotog are
not known to the Buryats, Bargas or Daurs at all. There are only
basic commonalities like the concept of the tripartite
world[2] or that of
the 99 tengris (deities)
that connect these otherwise clearly distinct shamanic
ambiences.
It is the language of the shaman’s ritual songs which
happens to be Mongolian and the Mongolian identity of the shamans
that make these different shamanisms Mongolian.
The territory of the Khorchin-Mongols, Southwest
inner Mongolia and the western parts of Jilin province in China,
which I refer to as the south-western region, is another centre of
proliferating shamanism. The shamanism of the Khorchins has also
very few in common with the shamanism of the Darkhats, Buryats and
others but has more proximity with that of the Manchu and Shibe.
For this entire territory is outside the pale of Mongolia and thus
does not exert much influence over other Mongolian shamanic
traditions I am not going to elaborate on its distinctive
features.
The Darkhat territory
The
Darkhats live in north-west Mongolia west of Lake Khövsgöl in the
Darkhat-Basin. This area is regarded by many Mongolians as an
exotic and remote region where the purest form of Mongolian
shamanism managed to survive. The Darkhats, in the minds of the
Mongols, especially in Ulaanbaatar, are often regarded as dangerous
people, endowed with the special ability of calling down curses to
those who treated them badly. It is believed by many that Darkhat
descent goes hand in hand with possessing numinous powers. Besides
the Darkhats another ethnic group, the Tsaatan ‒ numbering about
1000 individuals ‒ is regarded as having the most powerful shamans.
The Tsaatans are one of the poorest, if not the poorest, people of
Mongolia, making their living from reindeer breeding and hunting.
They are of Tuvan origin, and their elders still speak a dialect of
Tuvan language. Their traditional lifestyle differs greatly from
that of the neighbouring Darkhats and other Mongolian groups. Their
peripheral position, different language and lifestyle make the
Darkhats believe that what the Tsaatans practise is the essence of
shamanism. The rituals, costumes and tools of Tsaatan and Darkhat
shamans do not show significant differences: the greatest of all
differences is the language; Tsaatan shamans are more likely to
conduct their rituals in their own Tuvan language, while Darkhats
rarely utter words of Tuvan origin during their rituals.
Darkhat and Tsaatan shamanism is often referred to as
‘pure black’ (cewer
xar) shamanism, for
it is believed that its concepts and practices are void of any
Buddhist influence.[3] However,
the Darkhats and Tsaatans do make a distinction between two kinds
of black (xariin
böö) and yellow
shamans (šariin
böö), the latter
being a religious practitioner employing a mixture of Buddhist and
shamanist methods and ideas in his/her practice. There is also a
third category of shamans, the white shaman (cagaanii
böö), who is
interpreted by the Darkhats as the shaman who communicates with the
spirits of the heaven (tenger) and does
not ‒ and according to some cannot ‒ use his/her power to harm
people or any kind of living being. Consequently, the black shamans
are feared by many for their abilities of calling down evil forces.
Therefore, shamans who in fact practise black shamanism tend to
introduce themselves to their clients as white shamans and explain
that they never do harm to people.
The ideas of yellow shamanism seem to overlap with
those of white shamanism. A Tsaatan yellow shaman from the district
of Ulaan-uul claimed that only yellow shamans are beneficial for
the people, only they can serve them in a righteous way. He said
that the yellow shaman heals the sick, while the sickness is caused
by black shamans’ curses.[4] The
Buddhist idea of alleviating the sufferings of the living beings is
very much emphasized in yellow or white shamanism. Black shamans,
who admit that they follow the black direction (xar
züg), also seem to
hold to these principles, adding that they are much more powerful
than the yellow and white shamans, and they only use their superb
power over evil forces when there is a need to defend themselves
from the curses of their envious rivals.
Among the Darkhats and Tsaatans a distinction between
powerful and less powerful rituals can be observed. The less
powerful one is called ‘shamanizing on foot’ (yawgan
böölöx). Daytime,
usually divinations (mereg
tölög) are performed,
or later appointments with the shaman are arranged. During these
daytime visits the shaman would diagnose clients’ illnesses or
other problems by inquiring the spirits about the causes and the
way the illnesses or any other problems should be cured or solved.
The ritual that is conducted in order to solve a client’s problem
is a typical night time ritual (šönö
böölöx), also known as
‘shamanizing with a drum’ (xengeregtei
böölöx), for the
shaman’s spirits are believed to ride his/her mount
(unaa), the
drum, during these rituals. Night time rituals require donning the
full shamanic costume, referred to as ‘armour’ (xöö
xuyag) because the
evil forces to be fought and ousted by the shaman are held to be
hostile and powerful. The shaman’s armour is also an arsenal of
miniature weapons made of forged iron. In comparison, during
daytime rituals shamans only wear a traditional gown
(deel) and a
headscarf (alčuur). Though
the daytime ritual is called ‘shamanizing on foot’ Darkhat shamans
might play their jaw harp (aman
xuur, xel xuur), which is also
considered to be a kind of mount of the shaman as it is kept in a
wooden box always with an image of a racing horse on its
top.
The Buryat territory
The
northern parts of the two eastern provinces of Mongolia, Xentii and
Dornod, are mainly inhabited by Buryats. Their parents,
grandparents and great grandparents emigrated from Russia during
the 1920s and 1930s. The reasons for their migration were the
increasing Russian influence and the growing number of Russian
settlers in their territories, the situations created by the
Russo-Japanese war, World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Mongolia’s independence from the rule of the Manchus in 1911 raised
the Buryats hopes that they could live a peaceful life and would
have the possibility to preserve their traditional lifestyle in
Mongolia. Many of the renowned shamans of that era came along with
the emigrants and now their apprentices are the well-known shamans
of the territory.
During 60 years after the 1930s it was prohibited to
practise shamanism in Mongolia, but shamanic initiations and other
rituals were performed in secret. Since the 1990s Buryat shamanism
has become more and more known to people in Mongolia, but books
that are published are in Mongolian and on Mongolian shamanism; not
much is written on the shamanism of the Buryats. The northern parts
of Xentii and Dornod are viewed as a secondary centre of Mongolian
shamanism.
In the 1990s, at the beginning of the great revival
of the religious life in Mongolia, elderly Buryat shamans started
to accept clients from the Russian Buryats and they received many
of those afflicted by the mysterious shamans’ illness as their
apprentices. Some of the masters initiated not only Buryat but also
Khalkha individuals into shamanhood. The initiation and the
practice of these Khalkha and later other non-Buryat apprentices
required a set of rules and regulations that would make a clear
distinction between them and the Buryats. The rules were applied to
the non-Buryat shamans’ initiation and consecration rituals, and
their costume and paraphernalia. In the consecration rituals of the
Buryats, birch trees (Buryat xuha) are
erected at the sacral site, but in the same ritual some Buryat
masters replaced them with pine trees (gacuur). The
birch, venerated as a sort of sacred tree by the Buryats, seemed
inappropriate to use for religious purposes of other
ethnicities.
Certain accessories of the shamanic costume are also
to indicate their wearers’ descent, but most of their tools are the
same as those of the Buryats. For instance, instead of a
Buryat-style round skull-cap (Buryat maixabša) they
wear a headgear adorned with vulture-feathers, but their shamanic
whip, which they use for purification and blessing during the
rituals, is made of the same material and has the same miniature
weapons hung on it as that of the Buryats. The distinctive features
of non-Buryat shamans’ requisites and rituals are allusions to
characteristics of the particular ethnicity attributed to them by
the Buryats. In case of the apprentices, for example, one would
find a number of Buddhist symbols on their costumes and Buddhist
elements in their practices. This is in accordance with the fact
that Buryats regard Khalkhas as an ethnic group having been exposed
to Buddhist influence to a greater extent than
themselves.
The most well-known Buryat shaman in Mongolia, Ch.
Tseren (Čoijiliin
Ceren), was the one
who had the most apprentices, numbering about 300, and he was the
one who made most of the rules and regulations of Buryat shamanism
applicable to non-Buryat apprentices. His apprentices spoke of him
as the master who reconnected them with their shamanic traditions
(Khalkha
böögiin udmiig zalguulj ögsön) that had been
blurred by the Buddhist ideas during the past centuries. Thus
Buryat shamanism started to become the basis of a new Mongolian
shamanism, a ménage of different traditions.
Originally in Buryat shamanism the distinction
between powerful and less powerful shamans and rituals, similarly
to what we can see among the Darkhats, is manifested by the
contrast of ‘black’ and ‘white’, Black shamans
(Buryat xara
zügei böö, xara talai böö, xarain böö) are regarded
to possess serious magic power and be capable of solving serious
problems and cure serious illnesses. Ordinary peoples’ attitude
towards black shamans, whether they are Buryats or Darkhats, is
usually the same ‒ they are feared for their powers. A Buryat
shamaness, Altantsetseg (Altanceceg), at the
beginning of an interview in relation to her shamanic practice,
said that she performed various kinds of rituals except for curses
(xaraal
žatxa) and anything
that she might consider harmful. As she explained, Buryat shamans
have to take ninety-nine oaths[5] (yürön
yühön tangarag) during their
first initiation, which prevents them from causing any kind of
harm: it is prohibited to endanger human life (xünii
amind xürexgüi), put obstacles
in people’s way (xünd
saad xiixgüi) and quarrel
(xerüül
margaan xiixiig xorgilono), but they have
to help all the living creatures (xamag
amitnii tusiin tuld yawana).
White shamans (Buryat sagaanai
böö) are not
regarded as ‘real shamans’ (jinxene
böö biš‒not real
shaman) but as bone-setters (bariaš). They
are able to set broken bones, and they are skillful masseurs and
familiar with the medical treatments of minor illnesses. During
their rituals they invoke Buddhist divinities (burxan
garwal), the most
important of whom is the White Old Man
(Buryat Sagaan
übgen; Cagaan
öwgön). Instead of
the drum (Buryat xese) of the
black shamans, the whites have a bell
(Buryat xonso) ‒ the
same type of bell used by Buddhist monks in the lamaseries.
Buddhist incantation formulas such as aryaa
wade and om
mani badme xum are often
the initial sentences of their invocations. The dualism of black
and white qualities appear in various forms in the Buryat shamanism
and are associated with the notions of hard
(Buryat, xatuu) and soft
(Buryat zöölen), heavy
(Buryat xünde) and
light (xüngen), and
male (Buryat ere) and
female (Buryat eme). As
Buddhism is an institutionalized religion and its rituals do not
involve the killing of animals, shamanic practices influenced by
Buddhism are regarded somehow weaker, softer and
lighter[6] than those
of ‘pure shamanism’[7]. The
white[8] colour
also expresses these characteristics to the Buryats. The term
‘yellow shaman’ is also used by the Buryats, however less
frequently than ‘white shaman’. The ‘yellow shaman’ is more a
Mongolian term directly referring to its Buddhist elements; while
the ‘white shaman’ is more of the Buryats own expression that
alludes to the softness and lightness of it. One would not greatly
mistaken by interpreting these two terms as synonyms.
Having both black and white qualities, i.e. becoming
black and white shamans (Buryat xara
sagaaniiye xabsarhan böö), is not only
possible but a commonplace phenomenon among the Buryats. There are
also shamans ‒ mainly among the less trained, non-Buryat
apprentices ‒ who classify themselves as yellow and white
(cagaan
šariig xawsarsan) and even
black-white and yellow shamans (xar
cagaan šar gurwuulangii ni xawsarsan), adding that
they are engaged in all fields of shamanism.
The Uriankhai territory
Very
little is known about the shamanism of the Altai Uriankhais. The
Golomt centre has an Altain Uriankhai shaman among his members,
whose grandfather Darichuluun allegedly was a famous
shaman.[9] Nevertheless,
neither about him nor about other shamans from the Altai region do
we have considerable data in the specialized literature. There are
only rumours and allusions considering the mere existence or
survival of shamanic traditions in that territory. For example, the
Mongolist S. Dulam, in the preface of his
book The
Tradition of Darkhat Shamans, writes that it
is intended to be the first volume of a series
called Texts
of Mongolian Shamanistic Literature and is
planned to be followed by The
Tradition of Buryat Shamans, The Tradition of Uriankhai
Shamans andTexts
Related to Shamanism in Mongol Script. The
Tradition of Darkhat Shamans was
published in 1992, but the other volumes have not come out
yet.[10] However,
the thought that Uriankhai shamanism might be a rich source of
shamanic texts and traditions already existed at the beginning of
the 1990s.
The problem of Khalkha shamanism
The
ascertainment that shamanism no longer exists among the Khalkhas is
widely accepted in Mongolia. In fact, there are practising Khalkha
shamans, but they have all been trained by either Darkhat or Buryat
masters. In a strict sense the word böö ‘shaman’
only refers to the masters, the shamans who have been practising
for a long time and have apprentices. Since the revival of
Mongolian shamanism none of the Khalkha apprentices have acquired
mastership. It does not mean that they do not have their own
apprentices, in some cases they do, and even their apprentices
might have their own apprentices as well. In these cases the oldest
master in the chain is the ultimate master, who controls the whole
society of apprentices belonging to his/her circles. The statement
that there are no Khalkha shamans in Mongolia should be understood
that there are no Khalkhas among the oldest shaman
masters.
Every shamanic circle has its own traditions, and
shamans belonging to the same ethnic group can differ from each
other if they are trained by different masters. Thus, contemporary
Khalkha shamans ‒ following the path designated by their Darkhat or
Buryat masters ‒ practise Darkhat or Buryat shamanism. It means
that there are in fact Khalkha shamans, in Mongolia, but there is
no Khalkha shamanism. The reconstruction of Khalkha shamanic
traditions is the major concern of many Mongolian shamans,
including the Darkhat and Buryat masters who have apprentices. It
is commonly accepted that the extinction of Khalkha shamanism is
due to the spread of Buddhism between the sixteenth and nineteenth
centuries, and that institutionalized religious practitioners such
as the gürten,
the choijin or
the lüüjinch took
the place of the shamans among the Khalkhas. These practitioners
are also often referred to as yellow shamans. Apparently based on
this rationale, the implements of the contemporary Khalkha shamans
(and also the implements of white and yellow shamans of the Buryats
and Darkhats) are made to resemble those of
the gürten, choijin andlüüjinch. Although
Khalkhas usually differ greatly from their Darkhat and Buryat
fellow apprentices, their incantations and the way of conducting
their rituals, i.e. the nucleus of their shamanic practice, is the
same.
The attempts to reconstruct shamanism are interwoven
with the disturbing notion that despite the Khalkhas are held to be
the direct descendants of Chinggis Khan, not only the ruler of all
Mongols, but also the greatest promoter of Mongolian shamanism, it
is in fact the Khalkhas who have completely lost their shamanic
tradition. In contemporary Mongolian shamanism, where minority
descent is an obvious benefit, Khalkhas (who give the majority of
Mongolia’s population) play the least significant role, despite of
the fact that Khalkha apprentices in many shamanic circles
outnumber the Darkhats or the Buryats. According to the accounts of
a young Khalkha shamaness, Z, descent often reflects discredit upon
a shaman. Z disclosed that she had been instructed by her master (a
Buryat shamaness) to conceal the fact that she was in shamanic
circles for her clients might not trust her abilities and her
Buryat and Darkhat rivals would spear no effort to tarnish her
reputation.
Urban shamanism
Since the
1990s a number of shaman centres, associations and offices have
appeared. Most of them, which are the smaller ones, are like
private enterprises offering shamanic services such as
fortunetelling, healing and solving different kinds of problems.
The largest and most well known of shamanic organizations is
the Golomt Centre, in
Ulaanbaatar. The Golomt is
not exactly like other shaman centres in the country. Its main goal
is to unify those shamans who follow the traces of their ancestors
and practise the genuine traditional way of their faith, hence the
organization’s full name:Mongol
Böögiin Golomt Töw (The
Hearth of Mongol Shamans). Organizations of similar purposes can
also be found in other parts of northern Asia, like
the Düngür Centre in
Tuva or the Xese
Xengereg Centre in
Buryatia. Golomt members
also have their own offices, and they certainly make some profit
from doing their job, but the costume they wear, the tools they use
and the songs they sing are all parts of the heritage descended
from their shaman ancestors. Possessing this heritage is the main
factor which differentiates the Golomt from
other organizations. Studying Mongolian shamanism, though not in an
academic way, also fits in the scope of the Centre’s activity. As a
result of their research several papers and a few books have been
published in Ulaanbaatar.
Another well-known shamanic organization is
the Tengeriin
Sülder Böögiin Xolboo (The
Heaven’s Dagger Shamans’ Association) founded on the initiative of
G. Gantogtokh, a Buryat ethnographer and university teacher, who is
the president (yerönxiilögč) of the
Association. The Head (tergüün) of the
Association was Choijiliin Tseren, the renowned Buryat shaman,
until his death in 2005. The members are all apprentices of Tseren
numbering more than 200 individuals, many of whom are natives of
Russia and China. One of the Association’s main purposes is to lay
down the foundations of shamanic education and to establish a set
of rules and regulations that could be applied to the apprentices
of different ethnicity. Thus the Tengeriin
Sülder began to
take the shape of an educational institution that even issues
certificates and degrees.
The shamans belonging either to
the Golomt or
to the Tengeriin
Sülder are not
‘genuine’ urban shamans. Most of them were born in Khövsgöl or
Dornod, where traditional forms of shamanism are flourishing.
Although a great many of them have moved to Ulaanbaatar and
practise there under urban circumstances, they are still adherent
to their Darkhat or Buryat traditions. They might perform their
rituals in a living room, but the performances are very much alike
those performed by their masters in the countryside.
‘Genuine’ urban shamans, however, come from other
parts of Mongolia, where shamans are extinct, probably for
centuries. One of the most widely known urban shamans in Mongolia
is probably shaman Byambadorj, the author of several
books[11] on
shamanism. He is frequently referred to as a ‘State Shaman’
(Töriin
zaarin), and he
performs the great sacrificial ritual for the Burkhan Khaldun
mountain, a sacred place near to which ‒ according
to The
Secret History of the Mongols ‒ Chinggis
Khan was born, and where he used to pray to
Heaven.[12] His
sacrificial ritual is classified as a ‘State Sacrifice’
(Töriin
Taxilga) and is
conducted with the participation of the Mongolian president.
Byambadorj was born in Khovd a province where Uriankhais actually
live, but far from his exact birthplace (Darwi
sum). It is
uncertain whether he is or not, since he claims that he belongs to
the Olkhonud (olxonuud) clan,
which is known from The
Secret History, but there is
no group of people who would consider themselves Olkhonud today in
Mongolia. Byambadorj has a one-storey brick-house in Ulaanbaatar
called ‘The Centre for Shamanic Activities’ (Bögiin
Zan Üiliin Töw), where he
performs his rituals and receives his clients. The building is
located next to a private university
called Chingis
Khaanii Neremjit Ikh Surguuli (The
Chinggis Khan University of Great Rule), with which Byambadorj and
his activities are closely affiliated. It might be of interest that
the university was founded by a Buryat politician, Nyam-Osor, whose
political idea has long been to restore Khanate as the ideal form
of the Mongolian State.[13]
Another important figure in contemporary Mongolian
shamanism is Zorigtbaatar, the uneducated (bolowsrolgüi) shaman ‒
as he often refers to himself. Zorigtbaatar has a plot with a small
building and two yurts in Ulaanbaatar. One of the yurts, the ‘Yurt
of Rituals’ (nomiin
örgöö) is built on a
wooden foundation with wheels, which resembles the bullock cart of
the great khans of the Mongolian Empire. The other yurt is called
the ‘Yurt of Meditation’ (byasalgaliin
örgöö), where
Zorigtbaatar and his apprentices (4‒6 people in 2004) and followers
meditate every Saturday. Zorigtbaatar distinguishes between black
and white shamans and firmly holds to the idea that people should
respect only white shamans for what is white is clear and
benevolent while black colour can only bring adversities, impurity
and misfortune. He even prohibits wearing black pieces of cloth
during his rituals. Zorigtbataar despises shamans who foam at the
mouth and lose consciousness at the end of their rituals. According
to him these are signs of the black shamans’ deceptive behaivour
that attracts the attention of their audience.
Before a ritual begins, Zorigtbaatar dons his
costume, a glittering gown made after the fashion of the great
khans’ caftan and seats himself on his richly carved throne paced
in the northern part of the yurt. After a while he would spring up
from his throne as he was startled by something and he would start
speaking angrily to the audience. The rituals always begin with
Zorigtbaatar’s long (one to two hours) speech, during which he
elaborates his ideas about shamanism and the Mongols. Shouting,
scolding and vituperation are regular components of his speech,
which is a means by which he gives vent to his anger and lets his
people know that he is greatly discontented with the life of
contemporary Mongolian people. He blames them for their
incapability, their powerlessness. He most often lifts up his words
against alcoholism, unemployment and against the desire of many
Mongolians to leave Mongolia for a richer country. He also attempts
to convince people about not eating Korean or Chinese food for they
are unfit to Mongolian stomach.
According to Zorigtbaatar, what should be followed
and always kept in mind is what he calls ‘The Essence of Chinggis’
(Čingisiin
xoromson): before making
a decision or doing something, Mongolian people should always
ponder about what Chinggis would do in the particular situation.
Zorigtbaatar compares the triumphant deeds of Chinggis Khan to the
failure of the most afflicted and distressed people of contemporary
Mongolia. The striking contrast is obviously to make the audience
feel shameful and acknowledge Zorigtbaatar as an authoritative
agent of the ideas attributed to Chinggis Khan. The
ritual[14] itself
that follows Zorigtbaatar’s speech is a singing performance usually
accompanied by the play of two horse-headed fiddles
(morin
xuur). The
incantations are bilingual; first Zorigtbaatar sings in Mongolian,
and then as he claims, sings the same song in the spirits’
language, which he learned directly from the spirits. As he says
this language is intelligible to every spirits around the world.
After the ritual, food and drink brought by the participants are
distributed among them and a flask of sacred water
(aršaan) is sold
to each of them for 9,999 tögrögs (approximately 9 US
dollars).[15]
The revival of shamanism in Mongolia is closely
connected with the cult of Chinggis Khan being also a revival of
nationalistic pride that had been suppressed during the Soviet era
similarly to other forms of practising religion. It is essential to
bear in mind that the religious revival is mostly about the
renaissance of Buddhism, and shamanism plays a more and more
significant but still a secondary role in the religious life of the
contemporary Mongolians. The fact that Mongolians often think of
shamanism as their primeval religion (yazguur
šašin), the core of
the Mongolian way of thinking, and the essence of nomadism and
Mongolness, makes shamanism provoke the attention of an
increasingly wider public. Primarily it is the ancientness of
shamanism that makes people think that it is more indigenous to
Mongols than Buddhism. Darkhat and Buryat shamans’ need for a
larger number of apprentices and clients lead them to the capital
where through the miscegenation of different shamanisms and
ethnicities the differences between Buryat, Khalkha and
Darkhat