Baikal shamans. Forest paths and labyrinths of shamans. Severe hu…fat service
Hi all. The Circum-Baikal Railway didn’t fit you, so today we’ll ride along largest island Baikal covered with mysticism and legends from which there were fewer reports. We visited it a month later on the way back, when Baikal was already free of ice.
Russian name he got his from the Buryat word "Oikhon", which in translation means approximately "Forest". The island is 73.5 km long and 15 km wide. It has all kinds of landscapes. This and coniferous forests larch species, and steppes, and dense forests of relict spruce forests, and sand dunes, And marble rocks covered with red moss. The most dangerous animal for humans on the island is ... gopher. :)
In general, there are no animals dangerous to humans. Even with ticks, it is tight here and you need to try hard to catch it. There are only a couple of rivers on the whole island, but since the island is surrounded by Lake Baikal fresh water not here. By the way, the locals call Baikal itself not a lake, but a sea. And he deserves it. There are sandy warm bays, and a rocky coast with sheer dangerous cliffs. The weather here is almost always sunny and only about 48 days a year it is overcast.
According to popular beliefs, here you need to make wishes about family well-being and children.
And of course we also tied a ribbon. :)
And the views here are just gorgeous.
Here we lingered longer, could not stop admiring the local beauty. Despite the usual rocky views of the seaside, we were still impressed. Everything here is special. not like that, in their completely unique colors.
But it's time to go to reverse side to other attractions.
And again the hills with grazing domestic animals. By the way, they are everywhere on the bare hills. Horses, cows, goats, sheep.
The burnt pier of the former Gulag women's camp. Here they were engaged in the processing of fish. There was nothing left of the barracks themselves and a new micro-village managed to grow in their place, which also almost died, so there is nothing to photograph here. On the ground, in some places, a "wooden road" has been preserved. These are boards laid on the ground along which 200 kg barrels of fish were rolled from the processing place to the pier and back.
Shaman tree. Here we said goodbye to our new acquaintances and decided to spend the night not far from Cape Buluk.
Cape itself. Behind him looks out the island of Kharantsy.
On the way, on the shore, we saw such a creation for visitors. But we decided to go further to a small rock.
local inhabitant Baikal waters. Something between a coral and a sponge.
We stopped at the rock immediately behind which Saraisky begins sand beach.
And we saw a gorgeous sunset here.
Morning came and we went back to the village of Khuzhir. It was only 5 km away. But again, a wave of the hand and the only morning car with local residents stopped and drove us to the village.
Directly from the village there is a road to the most famous sights of the island.
Cape Burkhan.
On which one of the main shrines of Asia Shaman-rock (Shamanka) is located.
A place of mass pilgrimage for tourists and religious people.
Shamanism - ancient religion. Over the long millennia, shamans have mastered such knowledge that they still amaze people and baffle scientists.
Of course, not every person dressed in this way is a real shaman. During the years of Soviet power, an active struggle was waged against shamanism, as a result of which thousands of shamans were physically exterminated, and with them a whole layer of unique knowledge about human nature, about interaction with environment. But some of the shamans managed to survive and retain many of their knowledge and skills. 
Shamanism is widespread in Asia. In particular, on Olkhon. Here such a scene is not at all uncommon. The usual thing.
Here shamanism coexists peacefully with Buddhism and Orthodoxy.
Everything is clear with Buddhists, they preach non-violence. Use force only in extreme cases. But how does aggressive Orthodoxy put up with shamanism? Where are the crusades and rivers of blood? Let us recall the baptism of Rus' - after all, a huge part of the population was simply destroyed. However, everything is peaceful on Olkhon.
Shamanism is by its nature completely non-aggressive. Simple worldly wisdom, that's all. With the Orthodox a little more difficult, but only at first.
Olkhon has Orthodox Church where services are held, all are celebrated Orthodox holidays. Orthodox residents regularly attend church. By the way, Father Vasily is the smartest person ...
If it's hard on the soul, the Orthodox go to church. Pray, light candles for the repose, repent of sins. But if a real problem arises - a cow gets sick or a bad harvest - then they turn to the shaman.
The shaman will not call for humility and patience, explaining the problems with fate. The shaman will provide specific assistance. People see it, compare ...
Orthodox newcomers, who have barely arrived on the island, at first are indignant: "How is it that a Christian turns to a shaman for help? This is a sin!" But if they live here for a year or two, they change their minds. Although, perhaps not all.
The powerful influence of Buddhism and shamanism is enhanced by the presence on the island of Burkhan - famous place power that people have been using for tens of thousands of years.
Not only Buddhists and shamans from all over the world go to Burkhan, but also just pilgrims, as well as the curious.
It is clear that the photographers are happy - where else will you see this.
On Olkhon, the world festival of shamans is held annually. Where else? Of course, near Burkhan.
True, Lithuanian shamans stopped coming, probably ...
Shaman from Irkutsk
Shamanism is the first and most ancient religion of people. It was formed at the dawn of human history. So, there are male shamans, and there are women. Female shamanism is a trace of the era of matriarchy. The traditional religion of the Buryats was shamanism. Buryat shamanism has developed a whole system of emotionally rich rites and ritual actions that can have a huge impact on the psyche of the believer.
To meet a shaman is a great success. A shaman or shaman is a bearer of the deepest knowledge of his people. Such a meeting helps to understand the culture of the region, makes the trip as colorful and bright as possible.
Shamans and shamans, as intermediaries between believers, on the one hand, and supernatural forces, on the other, were considered the chosen ones of heaven or god. The first indispensable condition for becoming a shaman was the presence of an udha - a shamanic origin or root. The second true sign was the presence of a shamanic disease - severe headaches. The chosen person either began to communicate with spirits and help people, or, if he refused to accept the gift, he soon died.
In the caves of Olkhon Island, archaeologists found drawings depicting shamans with tambourines and figurines of totem animals: eagles. Just as the relic forms of plants on the Baikal land (for example, larch) were preserved, so was the traditional faith of the indigenous population of Siberia - Shamanism of the Northern Tolka. Shamanism has not only survived, but lives among the Buryat, Tuvan, Yakut, Mongolian, and even Russian populations. The Siberian will start the meal in the forest by treating the host spirit of the place with tea or milk, leaving a coin by the stream. Along the roads or on the picturesque Baikal capes one can often see special places worship. The traveler recognizes them by the colored ribbons on the trees, big stones with an offering in the form of rice, tobacco and coins, according to serge - hitching posts. All this is a living culture, so attractive in an age of mass erasure national characteristics. Olkhon Island is the center of Northern Shamanism. For many centuries, a sacred fire was lit on the sacred cape Burkhan. Perform a ceremony for the well-being of yourself and your family on the island famous rock The shaman is the most traditional way touch shamanism. There is also an opportunity to meet a shaman in Ust-Orda, the shaman Bashila receives guests. There is a forge there, and there is a yurt.
Shaman rituals are not a simple religious act, but a whole complex of theatrical cult actions using words, music, singing, visual arts, incense, alcohol, light, fire. The influence of the word was one of the main means in the arsenal used by shamans. Their singing, reading prayers, recitative, striking the tambourine, strumming dozens of iron and bone pendants on the costume, dancing, hypnotizing made a strong impression on the masses, excited, educated.
It is worth highlighting a number of rituals associated with the worship of ancestors. It is widespread and in demand. The sacred fire is kindled. Participants in the ritual are cleansed by the smoke coming from the fire. Then, they treat the fire with tea, milk and alcohol. A bowl with refreshments is passed around in a circle to each other by seniority. After that, they treat the fire with a cigarette and pass it on to each other in the same way. The shaman at this time addresses the spirits in Buryat, can knock on a tambourine or on a symbolic anvil. The shaman asks the spirits for blessings for the living. There is a symbolic exchange: we give treats to the spirits of our ancestors, and they give us good luck for this. Luck is distributed as well-being in various areas of life: family, financial and spiritual. Before and after the ceremony, a friendly and unhurried conversation is conducted - this is also an important point.
There is also a conversation format. Alone with the shaman, the guests ask him questions about his personal life and fate. Once, a woman came and complained to the shaman about total failure in all spheres of life. In the course of the conversation, the shaman described the place in the city where this woman's house was, and then said to buy a meter of red fabric and tie it in a certain place relative to her house. After that, the shaman said that everything would be fine. Another story about how a childless woman turned to a shaman and told him about her trouble. For many years, she and her husband were registered in the clinic as infertile. The shaman told her to take the black grains from the windowsill. The woman took it, and the shaman ordered to take a little more, specifying that she herself would drink and give to her husband. He said to drink grains before Sagaaalgan - the Buryat new year. And it turned out that on the last day of the old year, according to the Eastern calendar, the last grains were eaten. The shaman seemed to have calculated and knew without counting how many of these grains were needed. And after a while, the long-awaited son was born to this couple. They came to ask for a second child, but the shaman did not help anymore, but said that the second child, if born, would be born sick.
There are also interesting option communication through a shaman with an ongon spirit. At this ceremony, the shaman becomes an empty vessel, and the spirit enters his body. To do this, the shaman enters a trance. To enter a trance, he sings with throat singing, puts on a special bright costume and a face mask, and plays the harp. Eyes are painted on the mask, but it is forbidden to look into them. Animal figurines are attached to the costume - they help in the journey through the subtle world. Often a confidant, sometimes a wife, sometimes a close friend, helps the shaman to dress and prepare for the rite. When the spirit enters the body, it is treated, given a piece of meat. The spirit asks, for example: “Whose body am I in? Why such bad teeth? And then those gathered communicate with the spirit. From such conversations, people will learn how the "honghe munhe tengri" - the eternally blue sky - works. Tengris live in the ever-blue sky - the gods who lead the life of the nobility, are engaged in hunting. Shamanists ask tengri for help and protection in earthly life for themselves and their families.
Shamans by their calling and purpose are cult servants. But in their person the traditions of a fortuneteller, a soothsayer, a healer, a poet, an artist, an expert on genealogy, rituals and traditions were combined; connoisseur and performer of works of oral folk art; connoisseur and guardian of the norms of customary law.
Public and collective prayers are held in the open air - on the top or at the foot of a mountain, near a river, near a spring, near an unusual tree or rock. The places of sacrifice were permanent and, being revered, they belonged to the shrines of the ulus, clan. Shamanists themselves compare such large gatherings with hunting. The women help prepare by sending the men, but they don't participate themselves. Only men participate in public prayers.
Olkhon Island is the center of Northern Shamanism. For many centuries, a sacred fire was lit on the sacred cape Burkhan. Performing a ritual for the well-being of yourself and your family on the island near the famous Shaman rock is the most traditional way to get in touch with shamanism. In addition, in the second half of August, a gathering of all shamans on sacred ground is held. This event is called teylagan. There is also an opportunity to meet a shaman in Ust-Orda, the shaman Bashiila receives guests. There is a forge there, and there is a yurt. On the way to Olkhon, the very famous shaman Valentin Khagdaev also receives him - his distinguishing feature is that he has six fingers on one hand. There are shamans in the Tunkinskaya valley too. Walking around Arshan, you can see such estates where there is a house of the owners and separately standing house(not a barn and not a bathhouse, but a house). In such a homestead, a shaman is very likely to receive. In a separate house there is a reception so that the negative does not get into the owner's house. After all, there are a lot of people who want to talk, in Arshan it is not uncommon to have to stand in line all day. Therefore, it is better to negotiate through local residents in advance.
Olkhon is amazing in itself. You can get around it in a couple of days, and at the same time there is an incredible variety of landscape: there is a steppe and sand dunes, marble rocks and swamps, ice grottoes and relic spruce forest. On Olkhon there are 143 archaeological monuments - burial grounds, the remains of ancient settlements. Electricity was brought here only 12 years ago, although the island has long been inhabited. For a long time, but not always - before the arrival of the Russians, only spirits lived here, which were worshiped by the Buryat people.
And here, albeit with changes, his traditional worldview has been preserved. In many ways, this was helped by the isolation of Olkhon: it became possible to get here at least by ferry only in 1992. Today, a lot of people come here - tourists, pilgrims, sectarians who are looking for a direct connection with the Cosmos, real shamans from Yakutia or America. Olkhon cape Burkhan and Shamanka rock are revered by Buddhists and lamaists as one of the nine shrines of Asia.
SHAMANISM- the oldest religion, it was formed in primitive times, and almost all peoples passed through it. Shamanic Techniques different corners worlds are similar and have hardly changed throughout history. The core of this early form of religion is the veneration of Earth and Heaven. Earth is the middle world, where every object and place has its own deity, and Heaven combines the material and spiritual principles. Shamanists believe in the soul and its afterlife in another world, so they have a special relationship with the dead - they are revered on a par with the forces of nature and coaxed with sacrifices. And everything that happens to a person is predetermined by spirits that punish or reward.
For us, shamanism is a "spectacular" religion, but all shamanic paraphernalia is utilitarian. For example, a horbo cane helps a shaman travel to the other world. Together with the whip, the tushuur horbo symbolize the power of the shaman over people, his privileged position. The orgoy costume, which is worn during the sacred ritual of shamanism, is perhaps the main element of the shaman's wardrobe. Orgoy is sewn from blue or white silk, decorated with ornaments. A shamanic crown with horns is called a maihabsha, it is usually made of metal cords and can be decorated with ribbons, bells, and animal figurines. A metal mirror of roofing felts hangs around the shaman's neck - for protection from hostile spirits. They help the shaman to keep his spirits up and “go down” to the other world musical instruments: tambourine and mallet - hese and toybor. The equipment also includes a khuur, similar to a jew's harp, a spear, a shanginuur bell, a zhodood fir bark for fumigation (purification of space and people) and a sheree altar for storing all these ritual details.
Intermediaries between the worlds - shamans - of course, are trained to conduct rituals, but one cannot simply become a shaman at will. Firstly, for this you need to have an udha - a shamanic origin, a "root". Secondly, the spirit of the ancestors should point to the chosen one. In this case, a person will have a “divine mark” - some kind of physical feature: for example, the modern Olkhon shaman Valentin Khagdaev was born with six fingers on his hand. Thirdly, a “shamanic illness” is sent to the future shaman - visions or illnesses, a kind of moment of rebirth before the last step: the rite of passage, shanar. After that, in addition to communicating with spirits, the shaman will be entrusted with many duties: healing, keeping traditions and customs, in fact, the well-being of the community.
RITES- one of the main functions of the shaman, they are most often carried out in the sacred oboo places, which we talked about at the beginning. These places are inhabited by ezhins - spirits, and the traveler, passing by, should bow to them: throw a candy, a coin or sprinkle the ground with vodka. It is better if it is Buryat milk moonshine - tarasun. The ring finger is dipped into the drink, and then you need to sprinkle drops in the four cardinal directions.
There are nine levels in the shamanic hierarchy: the higher the degree of initiation of a shaman, the more opportunities he has. A shaman of the first stage is only an "apprentice" of a more experienced comrade, at the fifth stage a shaman can already go into a trance and make a shamanic journey (when the soul "walks" through other worlds), and a shaman of the ninth, highest rank is already capable of miracles - for example, he can fly. But such personalities were very rare already in the 19th century.
MOST OF The Buryat adhered to shamanism until the 17th century, then Buddhism came to Baikal, and shamanism began to lose its dominant position. The place of shamans began to be occupied by Buddhist monks, Buddhist stupas (temples) began to be built, many shamanic sacred places began to be considered Buddhist, and the names of shamanic spirits turned into the names of Buddhist heroes. But the Buryats-Olkhons, who adopted Buddhism, did not particularly go into its philosophical component. Now on small island Olkhon peacefully coexist different religious traditions - shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity. In the late 1990s, Olkhon Island officially began to be called the most important sanctuary, the center of traditional culture for all Buryats, and considered their ancestral home. Although rituals are still performed on Olkhon, and the traditional way of life of the Buryats has changed little, the knowledge of the ancients has been lost in many respects, including “thanks to” Soviet anti-religious propaganda. It is difficult to find a real shaman today - often they do not advertise their duty (and shamanism is precisely a duty, not a profession) and live an ordinary life, the same as their fellow villagers: they have a family, work at an ordinary job.
BUT THEY ARE, AND TO APPLY both Buryats and Russians can come to them - for treatment, advice, everyday ritual, assistance in difficult times. Shaman Gennady Tugulov says so: “People who have lost their faith and sense come to me.” Twelve of Tugulov's ancestors are shamans, and he himself was a simple worker for a long time. The shaman's son Vladimir Buinov used to work at a weather station; he calls himself simply an elder and rarely shamans, on occasion. But he has distinguished guests - for example, once the American saxophonist Paul Winter and the writer Valentin Rasputin stopped by, to whom Buinov showed one of the rites.
The most famous Olkhon shaman - Valentin Khagadaev - was born in a Buryat yurt, was the grandson of a shaman and was brought up by him (there are 19 shamans in his family). In addition to the usual shamanic work - healing and rituals - Khagadaev writes scientific papers, gives lectures a lot, leads excursions to holy places. Politicians and pop "stars" come to him, so Khagadaev is often called a "showman". Indeed, primordial shamanism does not imply mass character, but the "guardianship" of a small community - a clan or tribe. However, at a time when traditions are forgotten and mixed with alien ones, someone should also take on educational functions - it is better if it is a professional. And now a lot of home-grown "psychics" have divorced, nothing to do with ancient art who do not have, they turn ceremonies into business. A true shaman will help even the enemy, if necessary, but will not ask for money for it.
The most popular ceremony regularly held on Olkhon is tailagan, honoring the gods: when people ask for a successful and fruitful year, for the well-being of families, and getting rid of diseases. There are spring, summer and autumn taylagans, and the most crowded and solemn is Yekhe taylagan: The Great Sacrifice early summer. These days, all the people dress up and gather for mountain top(sometimes on the shore) - in terms of scale and significance, this can be compared with our New Year. But in terms of the tailagan format, perhaps even more interesting. In the summer of 2016, a tailagan took place on Olkhon Island, which brought together shamans from all over the world.
TOGETHER WITH THE PROBLEM"false shamanism" in the Baikal region, an environmental issue has become acute. Hotels are now being built in virgin forests and fields, sacred places for the Buryats, where not everyone had the right to go before, are being defiled, material culture ethnic group is gradually being destroyed. Even from the Shamanka rock - the main sacred place Olkhon - the spirits, according to the shamans, have already left: it has become too crowded and dirty there. Cape Burkhan, where sacred mountain Shaman, once was forbidden place For ordinary people, especially non-believers. Local residents, driving up to Burkhan, even wrapped their horses' hooves in rags - so as not to make noise on the holy land. In the 1930s, a settlement and an oil depot appeared near the cape, and since then the folk trail to Shamanka has not been overgrown. The Buryats treat guests calmly, only guests feel too free here: they treat other people's shrines without respect, and Olkhon is filled with garbage. Island, among many unique places Earth, is experiencing a meeting with "civilization". Thus, local shamans have a modern and very timely mission: to maintain a subtle connection between man and nature.
Continuation
YOUNG shaman Valentin Khagdaev showed me his brush and allowed me to photograph it. He is six-fingered - thumb right hand forked and with two nails. In medicine, this is an anatomical anomaly, and according to the Buryat belief, it is a mark of spirits, a sign of belonging to a caste. “I am the chosen one,” he explained, “but only an intermediary, a“ liaison ”…”. In 1990, he was ordained a shaman by the elders of the clan. After that, a capable young man became a graduate student of Buryatsky scientific center and defended his dissertation on shamanism, and then visited the United States, sharing his experience with the leaders and sorcerers of Indian tribes ... According to him, the connection with the other world makes itself felt when Valentin comes to Olkhon. He gets there like everyone else, by ferry, listens to local old people, sings and lectures for tourists. Once Khagdaev decided to "consecrate" local history museum and almost lost his composure. The shaman was confused by the spirit of his predecessor, the shaman Odegon, who died in the 19th century.
Mysticism began after archaeologists gave the museum her personal belongings left over from the ritual burning of her body - bracelets, rings, a pipe, a device for communicating with ancestors, mirrors to reflect "negativity", etc. Ancient shaman costume with iron pendants, figurines animals and bells - a rarity, none of the current shamans have such. In addition, according to legend, using items that belonged to ancient shamans is a big risk, including for initiates. Therefore, Khagdaev approached the showcase where Odegon's things were laid out with a proper ritual. “And suddenly,” according to the director of the museum, Kapitolina Litvinova, who was present at the incident, “his eyes widened in surprise! He turned pale all over, and exclaimed, stammering: "The spirit of the shaman is here!"
It turned out that when the shaman raised his “marked” hand over the window and sang a spell, things under the glass suddenly mixed up as if by themselves. Later, another shaman (by the way, a cardiologist) from the village of Ust-Orda on the mainland, who visited the museum, said: “He didn’t have to do this. He wanted to measure strength with Odegon, and she showed him that she was stronger.” And one of the museum visitors, who introduced himself as a healer, approached Litvinova: "She's alive!" "Who?". "Odegon!" The “healer” took the arrowhead from the display case for a while and “summoned the spirit” of Odegon on the sacred Cape Burkhan. According to his story, Odegon appeared in white clothes, tall, thin, and told by signs that she wanted a ram to be sacrificed to her. That she was not from the island, but from the mainland, was married here and gave birth to four children ... “And then,” said Litvinova, “she was terrible night- a terrible thunderstorm and downpour after a clear day. In the morning, a local girl turned to the director: “Some woman is walking around the museum in a white dress! I sat on a bench at the entrance and went to the water.” A rumor spread through Khuzhir: “The spirit of the shaman was disturbed”… “And our cashier said: “My daughter and her friends also saw a ghost here in the fall at one in the morning. Three girls were walking and ran to sit in the museum fence. They see a woman sitting on the porch with her head bowed. They giggled and came up to ask something. She did not move and did not answer, and then she got up and entered the museum door.
“I myself once saw something strange,” Loginova added, “I’m sitting in a museum during the day on a chair, reading a book, I turned around, and suddenly, a silhouette as tall as a man flashed. It's like an ethereal being. She got up and looked, no one was there. I think it messed up. But that summer I saw the same picture twice more.” The shamans brought a “milk sacrifice” to the spirit of Odegon - they sprinkled milk around the window, as usual, and Litvinova was advised to do the same on her own - like pouring food for a snake or a cat in a saucer. Approaching the "shaman's window" late at night, I bent down and touched the glass with my nose, trying to get a better look at the mystical objects. I did not want to repeat this experience again ...
On Olkhon there is an everyday concept “spirits lead”: that is, a person left alone on the outskirts of the village can be confused by the ancestors of those who lived on the island. The five-year-old boy Vova from the village of Ulan-Khushin got lost: he went with his Buryat grandfather to graze sheep and did not return home. Found him on the ninth day. A motorcyclist met the boy on the road: Vova was walking in the rain in light clothes, but he turned out to be healthy and did not even sneeze. And to the question: “Where were you?”, He answered: “I was not cold, I was not hungry and I was not afraid. I went with someone else's grandfather. He took care of me, we were looking for my grandfather.” “My father Nikolai Revyakin (a local teacher - the founder of the museum - Auth.), - recalls Litvinova, - also met with “spirits”: he spent the night in the forest by the fire, and they woke him up: as soon as he falls asleep, he hears a voice: “You don’t belong here !". And so on until dawn.
EXCEPT for shamans, representatives of sects regularly visit the island, eager to “communicate with the cosmos,” for example, “Reiki teachings,” after a close acquaintance with which, according to one version, the soloist of Ivanushki International, Igor Sorin, stepped out of the window. Adepts of Reiki, having previously “worked” in Altai, settled at a weather station, began to recruit local residents and tourists into “priests of the service of the orange and red ray”, performed initiation mysteries on Burkhan and very carefully courted the museum staff. They called themselves "physicists from Moscow" and "power engineers". The payment for the “seminars” was calculated in round sums, but now in Moscow the gurus of the “Reikites” drive around in limousines.
“Eleven thousand years ago,” they assured the inhabitants of Olkhon, “here, on Baikal, you lived ancient civilization Gill-Loss, who moved underground. And we are her successors.” “There, below,” the Reikites taught, “life is in full swing now. You can hear the noise of cities, the hum of transport. Put your ear to the ground and you will hear for yourself." At the same time, the sectarians repeated with suspicious persistence that the “underwater civilization” was asking Russian scientists to stop research work on deep drilling in the north of Baikal, started in the mid-1990s, and even called in their sermons the exact coordinates and limits of the area in which drilling is undesirable. “Otherwise,” they warned, “Olkhon will collapse and, like Atlantis, will go under water. And all the Buryats from the island will be relocated to a foreign land.”
By the way, this part of the sectarian “horror story” partly coincides with the prophecy of the Buryat Nostradamus, the prophet and holy fool Varnashka, who lived near Olkhon in the 19th century. According to legend, Varnashka went from ulus to ulus and predicted the future, for which he was persecuted and stoned. He could approach, for example, a wealthy Buryat who was building a house for himself and say: “Oh boy, however, you’re doing it in vain! They’ll come and take everything from you. to talk about everything, iron threads between dead trunks will be stretched ... ". “The time will come,” he said, “and not a single Buryat will remain on Olkhon.” According to Baikal historians, Varnashka predicted the fall of the “Red Empire” on the Asian mainland and prophesied other global things - for example, a “fiery war”, after which people the size of an elbow will survive and will look for each other around the world; mining “black gold” from the bottom of Baikal, then draining and pumping water from the sea-lake into an artificial basin, settling the shores of Baikal with foreigners, etc. “When I die,” he asked the Buryats, “do not burn me according to custom, but put the body to the platform, and when one skeleton remains, golden letters will appear on the bones - from them you will read how to live on. But the last will of the prophet was never fulfilled.
The shows that exalted pilgrims put on on the “shamanic” island are, in fact, a fascinating sight. Somehow, two hundred men and women from the religious-occult sect "Joy" stripped naked, entered the water at the pier and began to "perform the ceremony" together. And to the protests of the Buryats passing by, they reacted as follows: “Baikal is sacred, which means you can’t enter it in clothes, even in a bathing suit. And in general, soon all people will become related, there will be neither men nor women! “With such “sacrifices,” one of the eyewitnesses noted, “there will soon be no more Buryats with their shamans on Baikal…”.
Not so long ago, an Orthodox church was built on the outskirts of Khuzhir. Prior to that, Russians could only pray there at home. Buryat shamans treated the temple with sympathy. “Let all the flowers grow here!” - Elder Vladimir Buinov told me. “But not the “neo-shamans” sectarians,” Khagdaev added. “These are liars…” However, shamans are jealous of those cases when visiting missionaries become impudent, desecrating their shrines. A witness of such a "religious conflict" was the head of the science department of the Pribaikalsky national park Vitaly Ryabtsev. “One evening,” he said, “I stopped under a mountain and suddenly I see - against the background of the sky on top of a wooden black cross on metal braces 6 meters high. The proportions are clearly Latin. Who established it, God knows!.. For five years the shamans endured and corresponded with the lamas, but decided to demolish the cross. They entrusted the case to the forester, and he found a team of hard workers. By chance, I ended up there with a group of Hungarian Catholics ... We look, some people are busy at the cross. The chainsaw worked. The cross was brought down (in front of the Hungarians). And not just like that, but sawn into 7 parts, burned in seven fires and sprinkled with milk moonshine. But, as soon as we went down, a terrible blew Baikal wind- sarma. And he blew so hard that the racks broke and the tarpaulin at the Hungarian tent was torn. And the workers on the "UAZ" turned over on the way back ... ".
ACCORDING TO LEDITION, the powerful family of Olkhon shamans descended from an eagle that turned into a man. Leaving the island, I came to a clearing, which was chosen by the "sectarian brothers", who had laid out circles of colored stones in the grass.
Not far from the circles there is a Buryat memorial pillar - obo, which, as usual, is tied with colored rags. On the shore, if you climb the mountain, you can see the dome of the church. An eagle soars above the forest... In the cradle of shamans, indeed, all flowers grow. And no one tramples them.
Continuation
Vladimir Kozhemyakin,
active member of the Russian geographical society
(Saint Petersburg)
