Siberian shaman faith re-emerges in Russia

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Siberian shaman faith re-emerges in Russia

 

By Maria Golovnina

Reuters

Posted August 2 2003

 

KYRLYK, Russia -- Ertechi Klesheva's weatherworn face showed little

emotion as she conjured up the gods of Siberian mountains and rivers

who she says flock to her hut on command.

 

She set ablaze a branch of juniper, sprinkled milk into her deified

fireplace and mumbled prayers in the ancient language of Turkish

nomads, who have for centuries lived in Russia's desolate Altai

Mountains dividing Siberia and Central Asia.

 

Ertechi is one of a handful of shamans, their traditions rooted in

Siberia, who have survived 400 years of Russian expansion and are now

enjoying a post-communist revival.

 

In the dim light of her wooden hut in Altai's forgotten Djan-Yusok

mountains, she knelt and bowed to the spirit of Altai's sanctified

Mount Belukha.

 

"The gods of fire, rivers, lakes and holy Mount Belukha, which gave

birth to the universe, have come to me to protect the health and well-

being of the people of Altai and their livestock," Ertechi whispered,

tiny bells tinkling on the shoulders of her dusty dark red robes.

 

Villagers in Kyrlyk say Ertechi, in her late 50s and a descendant of

an ancient and powerful clan of Altai shamans, can cure disease and

curses, conjure up or banish plague, and explain the inexplicable.

 

Her healing rituals draw dozens of people daily, sometimes from as

far away as Moscow and Turkey, many desperate for magical cures in

these lush valleys on Russia's border with Mongolia, China and

Kazakhstan.

 

Siberian shamanism, its roots entrenched in animism, is thought to be

linked to Iranian Zoroastrianism, Japanese Shinto and Indian Tantric

Buddhism.

 

It unites ethnic groups in areas stretching from northern China to

the Altai. Shamanism nearly disappeared in the 17th century under

pressure from China's Manchu dynasty, but some exponents doggedly

carried on the faith in Siberia.

 

Healing rituals, practiced by dozens of shamans in the old days, are

newly popular in Russia's Gorny Altai where hospitals remain scarce

even today and roads often amount to no more than a track across a

windswept plateau.

 

Today, only six or seven prominent shamans remain in the region, but

Ertechi, spiritual elder among them, says numbers are growing as

young Altaians become more open about their past.

 

In valleys dotted by herds of wild horses, shamans erect piles of

stones and tie shredded white cloth on branches to honor gods and

mark sacred springs streaming down from Belukha.

 

Altai shamans worship all natural deities including the sun, the

moon, thunder and the increasingly rare snow leopard.

 

Shamanism has always coexisted in thinly populated Altai alongside

Islam, brought by nomads from the steppes of Kazakhstan, and

Buddhism, spread by traveling Tibetan lamas.