Sharapov Daba, Bundaeva Elena, Zydrabyn Butidma

We offer the traditions of modern Buryat-Mongols:

A Buryat Mongol must know the history of his region and historical figures.

A Buryat Mongol must know his family.

A Buryat Mongol must know his native language!

All events (official, holiday, family) must begin with the performance of the Anthem of Buryatia against the background of the state flag of the republic. During the anthem, everyone must stand and place their hand on their heart. The anthem must be sung in the Buryat language. We should all know the anthem by heart.

All folk, tribal, and family events must be held in the Buryat language.

Each clan must monitor the cleanliness and safety of springs, streams and rivers in its area!

The earth is sacred - littering and desecrating is dangerous to life!

Buryats are prohibited from leaving garbage in inappropriate places!

Every Buryat must plant a tree.

The Buryats used to give a foal to a boy from the age of 5. He learned to look after him, ride him, and by the time he came of age he was already a real horseman. In Mongolia, very young children take part in the races! We need to revive this noble tradition.

On his Coming of Age Day at the age of 14, every young man needs to prepare a national costume, behe, a Buryat knife, and give him “Buryaad Araday Shene Belig.”

It is also customary to give newlyweds sets of Buryat silverware and jewelry in the national style to the bride.

For graduation parties at schools and universities, we advise graduates to wear clothes in the national style.

A Buryat Mongol should strive to live in conditions close to nomadic ones.

Therefore, it is necessary to create family estates and raise 5 types of livestock.

1. Buryat-Mongol and his mentality.

The main thing is that a Buryat Mongol must be mentally connected with his homeland, Toonto, language, and ancestors.

A Buryat, cut off from its mental “I,” loses itself...

Knowledge of the covenants of our ancestors makes us strong in spirit, responsible, honest and decent.

All religious actions (urgel) must be performed with awareness of the meaning of the actions performed, with an appeal to the gods and ancestors. We must understand that all prayers are real and related to ordinary life.

When performing prayers, all people must turn to Heaven. Prayers should not be divided according to gender. The first prayer begins with the words: “Ehe orondoo, arad zondoo.”

Prayers are performed in the Buryat language!

Our people are not allowed to use vodka during any rituals (Buddhist and Tengri)! You can only urgehe with milk, tea and tarasun!

2. Buryat-Mongol and his attitude to the land of his ancestors.

Ehe orondoo Buryaad Huney Hanaan

From Belig Genghis Khan: He forbade them to put their hand in the water and ordered them to use something from the utensil to draw water.

Ehe oron - toonto - is a place where a person is mentally connected to the earth.

We came to this earth temporarily from heaven. We came here to improve ourselves.

Do not throw garbage into the fire or pour water on it. This can anger both the Spirit of Fire and the Spirit of Water. - You cannot chop anything near the fire with an ax.

It is believed that the ax cuts the head of the fire. - You can often see how “smart” drivers wash their cars next to a lake or river, when the dirty water flows back into the reservoir. The wrath of the Water Spirit Lusad Khan can be harsh and inevitable. A person will begin to be haunted by illnesses and failures. - You cannot wash dirty things or spit at a healing spring, arshan or any body of water. (Household prohibitions)

Everyone must, in his lifetime, multiply and strengthen the position of his homeland - Toronto.

3. Buryat Mongol and his people

Genghis Khan believed that the Mongols should live in nomadic conditions. And today we must strive to live in conditions close to our original nomadic traditions.

Today, in the context of globalization, many small nations are under threat of assimilation. The fate of every nation depends on its ability to self-organize, on the ability to demonstrate political will in implementing the most important tasks.

We all need to learn to speak positively about our people, public figures, scientists, sons of the people, and not allow unfounded criticism. Statements are allowed in Khurals for the public to judge. “Muu yuumyen daraad, hain yumyen Yrgood. Gar khuharaahaan - hamsi soogoo.”

The Buryat Mongols should strive to learn from Genghis Khan the ability to achieve results.

Every representative of our people should strive to be a creator and an enthusiast.

We need to strive, while preserving the old, to strive for everything that is advanced. This is the meaning of Genghis Khan's philosophy!

The most pressing issues of the Buryats must be resolved at the people's suglaan in the uluses "Zone Suglaan - Ereshuudei Baga Khural", where the popularly elected Sayn Ereshuud will resolve pressing issues. Every Buryat man can come here, raise a question and take part in its solution. Once a year, Ereshuudei Ekhe Khural should be held, where the leaders of Baga Khurals gather. Here the results are summed up and tasks are set. After Khural, Eryn Gurban Naadan is held.

Sain er - elected by the people as the most authoritative and respected husband of the Ulus. Sayn er is a person who is responsible for his words, honest and fair. His nobility is beyond doubt. He has his own land, his own livestock. He will not allow outrages on the territory entrusted to him. He can provide for a family with several wives. And most importantly, he lives in accordance with Baelig.

4. Relationships between Buryats and Mongols.

From Belig Genghis Khan: “Whoever can cleanse within himself can cleanse his possessions from thieves...

Any word that three knowledgeable (smart) people agree on can be said everywhere; otherwise it cannot be relied upon.

Compare your word and the word of others with the words of those in the know: if it is in agreement, then you can speak, otherwise you should not speak at all.

Every word that is said, I think that it is strong if it is said seriously, but if it is said jokingly, it cannot be fulfilled.”

Friendship is the main thing for a Buryat-Mongol. Since ancient times, steppe people have lived in the spirit of steppe mutual assistance. The worst thing for a Mongol is betrayal.

Friendship will be tested in difficult situations.

It is very important to be able to communicate - to control your speech, to think about what you are talking about, having previously thought through your words in your thoughts.

You need to treat people very evenly. Even if there is a conflict today, tomorrow you need to learn to treat everyone with peace.

After a quarrel, it is important to remain human.

If you consider a person an enemy, you should be able to kill him, and if not, then don’t make imaginary enemies.

The main thing for a person is to fight envy.

A Buryat Mongol must be able to restrain his anger.

Genghis Khan valued honesty and directness in people.

5. Attitude of the Buryats to career and power

Now the people do not trust the authorities. To succeed, people are forced to sell their souls, make money, and come to power by paying. Such power does not give people good. People who have earned universal respect due to their personal qualities should come to power.

Genghis Khan believed that a ruler must have generosity and humanity that attracts the hearts of people, but at the same time have firmness of will, not succumb to other people's influence and intrigue, and be able to show rigor.

People of a special type, high-quality personalities-passions, who by vocation must be engaged in national affairs - NIRUNS, can lead their people to revival and prosperity. For them, Honor and Dignity are above all!

People born for this must come to power. Such people are reborn, and the ability to lead and lead people is inherent from the very beginning. Ekhe buyantai ailda iime deede zergyn khun turekhe.

The people must raise niruns for their development.

A Buryat who comes to power must really stand for his people and understand that he received the people’s trust not for narcissism and to satisfy his ambitions.

If a person in power betrayed our interests, he must be punished.

To be nominated to the official government, you need to get the support of your people in Baga Khural.

To be continued...

XII Winter Festival “Traditions of Tuvan Shamanism” in Yekaterinburg. Join us!

1. What gods did ancient tribes pray to?
2. Genghis Khan and local tribes
3. Roundup hunt
4. Evenks in the army of Genghis Khan
5. How did the Ekhirites live in the country of Dzungaria?
6. How did my Abzaev family appear?
7. Division of the peoples of Dzungaria into Kalmyks and Khudari-Buryats
8. The arrival of the Russian Cossacks to the lands of our ancestors. Change in prayer services
9. The technique of performing the ritual is the sacrifice of a ram
10. Technique for performing rituals - “Tarima” and “Gal Taiha” (invoking the soul or children)
11. Patrons and protectors of local tribes
12. Great gods and where they live
13. What other gods are there?
14. Rituals for boys
15. How my ancestors ended up on Kabanskaya land
16. My direct ancestors
17. Local Kudarin gods
18. A few questions for the shaman

PROLOGUE

Shaman's oath: “Do not fight against the power of power, the forces of the elements - water and fire. Don't be happy when people give big rewards. Don’t be offended when they don’t give you enough.”

INTRODUCTION

I, Borboev Leonty Abzaevich, was born in 1935 in the village of Korsakovo, Kabansky district of Buryatia. I have two sons, one daughter and seven grandchildren. The shaman’s gift was discovered in my youth, and since then I have been trying to help my fellow countrymen, my people, as much as I can.

For a long time I had a desire to tell those legends and tales that I heard in my youth. They were passed down from generation to generation - from one shaman to another. They contain the history of our people, our ancient religion - shamanism. I want to pass on this knowledge, “memory of generations,” traditions to my descendants. I will tell you about the Great Gods, the patrons of our localities and clans, about the rituals performed in their honor, about the appearance of my ancestors - the Abzai clan, about how our people lived under Genghis Khan and the royal power. I want to make it clear right away that my stories have nothing in common with scientific historical work. If everyone who reads it takes away at least a grain of useful information, I will be glad. I will consider that it was not in vain that I took on this WORK, which is unusual for me.

I sincerely thank the sponsors who helped in publishing the book, all those who supported my endeavor. I address special words of gratitude to my wife, Ekaterina Dugarovna.

Part 1

WHAT GODS DID THE ANCIENT TRIBES PRAY?

In ancient times, our places - Buryatia, Irkutsk, Chita, Amur regions, Krasnoyarsk Territory - were inhabited by the Huns. They lived in tribes. The most famous were the Khalkhas, Chakhars, and Derbets. In Buryatia, six tribes emerged: Ekhirits, Bulagats, Khorins, Hongodors, Songols, Sartuls.

When the bulk of the Huns left under the leadership of their khans to conquer the western fertile lands, the remaining people lived peacefully in their native places, raising livestock. Each tribe annually prayed to the Great Gods for the happiness of their loved ones, their livestock, and asked for luck in the round-up hunt.

The people of the Ekhirite tribe worshiped the highest god - the Eternal Blue Sky (Khuhe Munhe Tengeridee). The Bulagats prayed to Budarguu Sagaan Tengaridee. Khorin people - to the Sky of Lightning and Thunder (Sahilgaan Sagaan Tengeridee). Khondogorians - Nebu Colostrum (Uurag Sagaan Tengeridee). All Tengeriyas, with the permission of the Eternal Blue Sky, ruled not only tribes, but also lands. All floods, hurricanes, droughts, pestilence, epidemics, and wars occurred at their command. Therefore, each tribe asked their God to protect them from disasters and anomalies and made their own sacrifices - an unbroken horse, a cow, goats, sheep and forest animals.
The ritual was performed only by the supreme shamans, who had great power, and they were assisted by other shamans of the given tribe.

During the prayer service, part of the animal meat (deezhe myakhan) was given to the gods of heaven, the bones were burned separately, and the remaining meat was eaten by the ritual participants.

In addition, the tribes prayed to many other gods: the western Baruunai 55 Tengeridee, who were annually presented with milk vodka, boiled milk, whitened tea, salamat or shara topon. Northern Zuunei 44 Tengeridee enjoyed natural unboiled milk, black tea, salamat and nuts.

Every 3 or 5 years, horses were presented to these gods.

Baruunai 55 Tengeridee was asked for well-being, longevity, peace, wealth, tranquility. Zuunei has 44 Tengeridee - health for oneself and domestic animals, so that there are no epidemics and pestilence, so that in the heavenly book of life a person does not have the number of years allotted to him shortened.

Part 2

GENGISH KHAN AND LOCAL TRIBES

Historians and writers have left many memories of the great commander Genghis Khan. I’ll tell you what I remember from the stories of shamans - my ancestors.

At the request of the Eternal Blue Sky, in the family of the leader of the Borjigin tribe on the banks of the Onon River, the Great Man Temujin was born - Genghis Khan, who united different peoples, surprising the world with his courage, intelligence, and wisdom of decisions. All local tribes were subordinate to him, and all men from almost 16 years old served in his troops. They were united into tumens of 10,000 soldiers, now these are divisions, into myangasha of 1000 people (regiments), zuunai seregshen - 100 warriors (hundreds or companies) and arbanai seregshen of 10 souls (sections). According to the regulations of Genghis Khan, after the battle, each surviving warrior returned to his regiment under his own banner. Violators of the charter were punished as deserters and dealt with very cruelly. That is why Genghis Khan’s troops, despite their large numbers, were disciplined and easily controlled.

When tumens were formed from local tribes, each was given a banner with its own symbol. Since the Shonoev clan was numerous, and it was united into two tumens, there were two banners: on one - the Yehe Shonoevsky - a Big Wolf was depicted, on the other - the Shonoevsky Baga - the same beast was depicted only on half of the canvas. On the banner of the Galzut family there was a ferocious dog, the Bodongut family - a boar or wild boar.

By order of the khan, each tumen, myangash, and hundred had their own blacksmiths with a traveling forge - darkhashuul. They enjoyed great honors and were considered people of a higher rank than ordinary warriors, equated to centurions. They made arrows and arrowheads for the army, sharpened sabers dulled in battle, repaired shields and armor, harnesses for horses, and made horseshoes.

The patron saint of blacksmiths - darkhans - is considered to be a god who lives in the west named Bozho-maakhan on the lands of the Kachug region. It is he who gives a person the talent of a blacksmith. For this, the masters pray to the 99 Darkhans of Heaven. Today, blacksmith jewelers remain only in the Galzut and Olzoev families. Darkhan traditions, unfortunately, are being lost. I will remind you how they pray to the gods - darkhans.

The ritual takes place in the forge at the altar near a burning fire. Baked milk is served in a mug, a bottle of vodka, a small teapot or milk jug, whitened tea in a mug, salamat or melted butter in a plate. Shamans first drip on the fire, then splash.

When pouring vodka from a bottle into a teapot or milk jug, they invoke the god of each working tool:

masters of fire - Hapain Ezhen,
ezhen, horn - Khurhein ezhen,
anvils - Dusheen ezhen,
hammer - Alkhain ezhen,
hammer - Baltain ezhen,
chisels - Sulbariin Ezhen and others.

During the ritual, men and children are in the blacksmith's room, and women stand at the door. These gods are prayed to by families or by adults alone. The reasons for this prayer service may be different.

Part 3

ROUND HUNT

All Genghis Khan's warriors were steppe people - Aradzons and Oirats. They were engaged in breeding cattle, horses, and sheep. Sometimes the whole family organized a round-up hunt, the rules of which were strict.

The hunters closed the ring, and no one had the right to let a wild animal pass on the right side of their body. Each participant in the hunt took an oath before it began, the meaning of which was the following words: if the animal approaches from the right side, I should not be afraid of it, I will attack it first. In the Buryat language it sounds like this: “Baabgay gezhe bahardakhaguib, shandagan gezhe shamarlakhaguib, uyen gezhe golokhoguib.” The frightened hunter was not recognized as a man: he was expelled from the clan or turned into a dumb god-slave. The steppe people did not hunt; they mostly roamed with their livestock in search of lush grass, walking long distances. Only sometimes, in order to preserve livestock and not let it feed their families, they organized round-ups twice a year.

As soon as a centralized state was created, a kind of administrative body appeared - an assembly - kurultai (translated - council, survey, reports from the field, etc.). Only the heads of tumens and leaders appointed by Genghis Khan had the right to attend it. The place where the meeting took place was fenced off to avoid surprise attacks. A canopy was made on top, which protected from the bright sun and rain - this structure was called Iarai or barn. Perhaps this is where the name of the light wooden structure, which is built for various village needs, comes from.

Part 4

EVENKI IN THE ARMY OF GENGISH KHAN

The great commander decided to head to the country of the Tanguts, and then to China, and before that he gave the order to his tumens to expel forest hunters with their families from the forest and collect one or two tumens from them. The Evenks were excellent shooters, and the khan then needed archers. They shot so accurately that when they hunted a bear, they first blinded it by shooting an arrow right into the animal’s eye. Having lost his bearings, the bear could no longer attack a man and overwhelm him.

The Evenks, having learned about the commander’s intentions, attempted to escape, moving in two directions. Genghis Khan's troops overtook them and pressed them to the bank of the Khotonso-Lena River in the current Kachugsky district of the Irkutsk region. Some were detained near a steep ravine (Seel), others at Kyuli (Khair). After this, a saying arose: “Seel deere hashagdaban segeen haytal, Khair deree hashagdapan haytal.” Khaital is one of the Evenki tribes. Of course, the commander dealt with the disobedient ones, punishing the tribal leaders. And he appointed his chiefs over the Evenki tumens.

During one of the battles, the troops were lined up in front of each other at a great distance. Genghis Khan placed lightly armed archers - Evenks - in front. They came very close to the army of Khorezm Shah and accurately, accurately attacked him. Then they quickly retreated to the rear flank, giving way to the main, heavily armed army, which attacked the enemy cavalry.

The Evenks played a big role in the outcome of the battle: they practically lured the enemy into the depths of the army, which easily dealt with the enemy. They shot so accurately that they hit the rider on the horse between the helmet and the shield. During the siege of cities, they destroyed the walls with ramming machines and were the first to climb the bastions.

Genghis Khan passed through many lands with his army and, having reached the Black Sea (where Essentuki is now located), he began to think about what to do next.

First of all, he gave rest to his army: he ordered wounds to be healed and dull weapons to be sharpened. Inspect and heal the hooves of war horses. At that time he himself sent messengers to Tibet, where the Great clairvoyant astrologer lived, and it was he who demanded to be brought to his headquarters.

At the same time, on his orders, the first coachman roads began to be built, which connected the khan’s headquarters with Mongolia. Yama are government checkpoints where civil servants rested and changed tired horses: “Yama daaha Baishan.” The noen with the guard was in charge here. It was along this route that a Tibetan astrologer arrived at his headquarters while resting at the Yama stations.

He said great words to the khan, which have not been forgotten to this day. They were passed down for many generations by word of mouth. I will give only an approximate content of them, as I heard myself from the old people.

The astrologer turned to Genghis Khan’s army and said something like this: Khan Temujin has gathered you into a single invincible people. Under its flags you will go down in the history of our land. And from this day on you will be “munhe zone” - eternal people (from the word “munhe” they were called Mongols). And your leader will go down in history under the name Genghis Khan - Shangaas Khaan - Strong Man.

After this ceremony, the Great Ones retired to a yurt. The commander asked where to lead his multilingual army, in which direction to go. The clairvoyant replied: you will defeat and overthrow everyone who stands in your way with weapons in their hands. For the Eternal Blue Sky will grant you great victories, relying on your intelligence and talent. In the west, you will defeat a monolingual and unfriendly people, thereby closing the path to these lands for a warlike enemy for many years. He will not attack the lands where the feet of your eternal warriors and the hooves of your war horses have trodden.

Then your relative grandson, with the permission of your descendant, will again go west and repel the Mangadhai invasion of these lands.

To unite these unfriendly peoples, you will place a leader-prince on the throne of Rus' - a young man. It is his descendants who will unite Rus' into a single strong state.

In many ways, the astrologer’s words came true: at the behest of the Mongol Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan’s descendant Batu Khan, a young man, 17-year-old Daniil I, the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, was placed on the throne of the Moscow principality. Alexander Nevsky himself, with the help of the Mongolian tumens and his retinue, destroyed the troops of the Swedish king Charles and the regiments of the knightly Teutonic Order. The Mongolian tumens helped the Russian princes defeat the army of Mamai. Everyone probably knows about the Battle of Kulikovo Field, so I won’t dwell on it.

At the end of his campaign, Genghis Khan decided to return to his native lands. The homeland misses its sons, he explained to the soldiers, and the younger generation should know where it came from, where its ancestors lived. On the conquered lands, the khan left his service people, appointing them noyons. They had to keep order, collect eso - yasak - tribute from these peoples in favor of the state.

Some of the tribes that fought under the leadership of Genghis Khan - the Ekhirits, Bulagats, Hongodors and others - by order, remained in the territory of the present Altai Territory - in the country of Dzungaria (Zuun garai Mongol Guren). The Khan's protege ruled here. The remaining soldiers left for Mongolia.

After the death of Genghis Khan, elections for a new khan were held at the kurultai, where representatives of all tribes gathered. The newly elected khan took an oath in which he promised to lead honestly, observe the laws of his ancestors, and be faithful to his chosen path. These traditions were observed for many years.

The great Mongol Empire, which Genghis Khan created with such difficulty, collapsed due to carelessness. The descendant of the great commander, the Khan of Mongolia, settled in Beijing, found himself cut off from his people, and surrounded himself with Chinese dignitaries. His people were also careless, migrating with their livestock from pasture to pasture. At this time, the Manchu-Uyghurs (Uyharnuud) began to hatch plans to attack the Mongols in order to free themselves from their power forever. It all ended with the destruction of the flower of the nation - young men aged 14 and older, those who could hold weapons in their hands. The rest fell into slavery, and the khan himself was deposed in Beijing. Thus, the all-powerful Mongol empire lost its centralization.

Part 5

HOW THE EKHIRITS LIVED IN THE COUNTRY OF JUNGARIA

As I already mentioned, the Ekhirits and Bulagats tribes remained in the country of Dzungaria at the foot of the Altai Mountains. They lived amicably, without interfering with each other, considering themselves related tribes. Each had several clans, the most famous: Shono (Ekhe Shono and Baga Shono), Pengelder, Bayandai, Olzon, Baltai, Togtoo, Abzai. The Abzaev family, my family, is the youngest, and I will tell you about the history of its formation a little later.

People lived by raising livestock and hunting in order to preserve livestock. They used the gifts of the forest - berries, nuts. Over time, craftsmen appeared among the former warriors who learned to make household utensils. They made wooden utensils - tebshe saelenkhi; they were made from solid wood, hollowing out the container with an ax or knife. Meat was usually stored in it. Especially during a successful raid hunt, when a lot of meat was obtained, it was possible to preserve it for a long time in such a container.

It should be noted that all prey was divided equally among all hunters, families and relatives. Pai was not allocated only to those families who were offended by their family for some serious reason. Either in cases where the head of the family died, or the children were too small and could not participate in the hunt. The issue of allocating a share was finally decided at the council of elders.

Wooden buckets were made for milking cows, and tues for other needs. Copper utensils were most often used for cooking meat - they were exchanged with merchants for game and furs, gold and silver.

As you know, people in those days used mainly birch bark utensils. The craftsmen - modon - darhashuul made it in different ways: large and small, for food and water, for collecting berries and saran. They also learned to make ha6a - a vessel for whipping the collected sour cream into butter and for collecting sour milk, which was then distilled into tarasun - milk vodka. It was necessary not only for treating guests, but also for prayer services, when it was necessary to sprinkle the gods.

Tarasun was done something like this: a fire was lit, a 25-40 liter bowl - togoon - was placed on the hearth, formed from even stones folded in the shape of a triangle. Sour milk was poured into it. Then a wooden barrel without a bottom, but with a small side hole and a sorghum - wooden channel, was placed on this bowl. The top of the barrel was closed so that the resulting steam did not escape, which condensed and flowed as a liquid through the sorghum into the dombo - a wooden container. This is how milk vodka was obtained, which was even used to treat internal organs, taking it strictly according to the norm. The technology for preparing tarasun in our time is approximately the same.

Women knew how to skillfully process wool shorn from sheep. Sitting in a circle, they first beat the wool with one and a half meter sticks and then pulled it into yarn. Then, using a wooden round press, they made homemade felts, seat holders, etc. Stockings and socks were knitted from yarn with wooden needles. Wool was used to make good, dense coats for men and women. Fur coats - degels - were made from lamb skins. After processing, domestic animal skins were also used for shoes and harnesses.

To prevent moths from spoiling things, our ancestors came up with one very effective method of fighting insects. People dug a small hole and lit a fire in it. Even sticks were stuck around with an angle towards the center, then the skins were hung tightly on them - the smoke came out into a small hole in the middle of this “tent”. The skins prepared in this way served for many years and were not wasted by moths.

Part 6

HOW MY ABZAEV CLIN APPEARED

In the country of Dzungaria, by the will of the gods, a new tribe appeared, formed on the basis of two clans: Hengelder and Shono, later called Abzai. My family is considered the youngest, although it appeared in the last years of Genghis Khan’s life.

There is a beautiful legend about how our Abzaevsky clan appeared: in the Khengelder clan a young man named Naita grew up and matured; he was not short of hunting prowess and courage: he dealt with a bear one on one, and always shot straight at the target with a bow. A girl with extraordinary beauty, skillful, quick hands, and a kind character flourished in the Shonoi family. The parents were very pleased with their daughter.

One day, the elders of these two clans decided to organize a large round-up hunt - aba agnuuri - to test the strength, dexterity and accuracy of their warrior-hunters. A lot of animals were caught - meat and fur. The young hunter of the Hangelder family of Knight distinguished himself with his daring and dexterity. Celebrating a holiday in honor of a successful hunt, the elders decided to marry the guy, wooing a beauty of the Shonoev family. Which they did with their mutual consent. The guy and the girl liked each other for a long time, so they happily started a family. The newlyweds were given a nice winter yurt and a lot of pets. The guests of the wedding feast wished to give birth to many boys - future warrior-hunters.

The family lived in average income, but most importantly, very happily - the wife gave birth to nine boys. On the tenth, they sheltered an orphan out of pity and gave him the name Otonkhoy - “Otorzho erepen khubun.” The names of the sons were: Borto, Edegey, Mookhoi, Khakhai, Booholdoy, Boloi, Ongoi, Sherge, and the late-born son was named Nyalkha. People began to envy the family happiness and plotted against the young family. While the youngest child was in the womb, Knight's father died while hunting.

Very difficult days began for the family: their cattle began to be stolen, and they ate the remaining cattle. They were no longer given a share from the round-up hunt: the children could not replace their father in the hunt, so they were not entitled to meat. The woman did not have the right to vote in her family, and therefore could not stand up for herself. They lived almost from hand to mouth. And at this time, in order to feed such a large family, the woman and the boys began fishing in the Altai mountain rivers and their tributaries. Using a sharpened stick, they carefully speared fish - mountain grayling - and fed the whole family. They lived poorly, but amicably. The elder brother Borto took over all the worries.

A little later, the woman learned to weave nets from horsehair, set them and catch fish. At that time, the fish were not yet shy, so the catch was always good. Yes, besides them, there were no other fishermen in the area. So fishing was always good. That is why our clan, when it prays to its patron gods - Abzain ugta - always puts boiled fish in its natural form with white scales. They fit. grayling, ide, omul, yalagaana - sorog. Other fish, no matter how tasty it may be, is considered rotten and the gods will not accept it.

So this family lived separately from its clan. The woman, of course, harbored a grudge against her husband’s relatives, who left her alone in trouble, stole livestock and waited for her to come ask for help and give her children as workers to the rich. If she had done that, the boys would no longer be able to become warriors.

However, despite all the difficulties, the woman did not break and did not bow. One day, after consulting with the children, she decided to wander to her native places - to her Shonoi family. With great difficulty they reached their relatives, stayed with their uncles for several days until the council of elders met. He decided that a married woman of the Pengelder family could not live among them. Because the woman is hari hunuud geeshe, and the children are manay zeened - nephews.

Another ancient proverb says: “Strangers cannot live in a strange family. An elk shin bone does not fit into the brew bowl” - “Hariin hunuud kharida bagtaha gui, khandagain semgen togondo bagtaha gui.”
The woman was shown a place near a river where she could live separately. The Council of Elders gave her horses, cows, sheep, and several yamans. “If you are a smart woman, you will preserve and increase what we have given you. If not, then you will eat all the livestock and go to work as workers, working off what you were given.”

Accustomed to hard work, the children and their mother expanded their household. The woman's brothers, uncles, were pleased with their nephews. And all the children of the Shonoev family always came to visit them - in winter and summer - to their hospitable aunt - Aba Ezhydee. The sons grew up, became avid, experienced hunters, and started families. She arranged a good wedding for everyone, without turning to her husband’s relatives from the Gyungelder family for help, although she always invited them as guests to her sons’ weddings.

This wonderful woman, who showed a lot of courage and perseverance, withstood great difficulties in life, gave the name to our new family - from the word aunt - Abgazy - Abzai. At present, by the will of the gods, there are many of us.

Part 7

DIVISION OF THE PEOPLES OF DZHUNGARIA INTO KALMYKS AND KHODARI-BURYATS

According to the stories of our ancestors, after one and a half to two centuries, life in the country of Dzungaria became turbulent. Mongolia has lost its centralization. The raids of the Manchus - Honghuz - on the lands of our clans became more frequent. They destroyed those who tried to offer them even weak resistance, and took away livestock and prisoners. Then the elders of the tribes and clans of Dzungaria decided to assemble a Great Kurultai - a council and decide what to do next. Many spoke out in favor of providing armed resistance to the enemies. They elected a leader, but he was unable to gather warriors under his banner; people did not want to fight, quickly getting used to peace and quiet.

At this time, there was a rumor that in Manchuria, at the behest of the Chinese Altan Khan, many troops had gathered and were preparing to attack Dzungaria. A second kurultai was hastily assembled, at which it was decided that part of the clans would go to the places where Khan Bata ruled - to the west. Others will return to their homeland in Transbaikalia, where their ancestors lived before the coming of Genghis Khan. Thus, childbirth and large families were divided into two camps. The people leaving to the west began to be called Kalmyks (among them such clans as Torgauts, Chonos-Shono, Khingeldir - Khengelder are still preserved); those leaving for their former place of residence were called Khodari.” (palazha yabakha arad Halmag gezhe neretey boloho, Khodorzho Yabakha zon hodari gezhe neretey boloho."

After the Kalmyks left for the west, life became even more alarming. The elders decided to gather the people according to their families and move their families to the east. This took a lot of time and effort. The men lit large fires in several places to make the enemy think that the people were preparing to repel his attacks. And undercover, they removed themselves from their homes and hit the road. The last settlers were covered by soldiers who could repel a surprise attack by the enemy. The Khodari clans were joined by the clans Segeen Haital, Haital, Khuramsha Segeen Haital and others. The Segeen Khaital and Khaital clans belonged to the Evenki, and the Khuramsha clan to the field Kirghiz, but the older generation died, their children and grandchildren adopted the language and customs of the Mongol tribe.

Upon returning to the homeland of the ancestors, the elders divided the land. The Bulagat tribe and its clans received the western lands of the modern Irkutsk region. And the people of the Ekhirit tribe of the Shonoev, Khengelder, Alzonov, Baltai, Bayandaev clans still live on the lands of their ancestors. The young Abazaev family got a place not far from Mount Orgoli, where the descendants of Abgazi now live. The name of the mountain is given in honor of the horned goats that once lived there; in Mongolian they were called orgoli. The Khaital and Segeen Khaital clans inherited the current Kachugsky district, where the Evenks then lived.

They were very opposed to the invasion of strangers, resisted the aliens, committing unexpected armed attacks. Then the shamans asked the heavenly gods to save the coming people from destruction if they pleased them. Which is what the gods did.

They sent to the aid of a hero-god born in the womb of a man, popularly called “Khara Honiton” named Ukherey khubun - Azharay Buhe. He forced the Evenks to calm down, and over time they left their places, venturing even further into the taiga. These two clans received places for raising livestock and hunting.

Having moved to new lands, no one forgot the tradition of worshiping the heavenly gods. Mostly killed wild animals - deer, elk - were given as offerings. The animal was skinned, the meat was fried, boiled for offering, and hay was stuffed into the skin, from which the head and legs were not separated, and sewn up again. The effigy was mounted on a long, thick, pointed pole and placed, tilted at approximately an angle of 45-60 degrees in the direction where the god was in the sky. These rules were strictly adhered to by the Haital clan, which revered the traditions of their ancestors.

After the prayer service, the meat was eaten by the participants. The remaining part was allowed to be taken with you for relatives. The bones were completely burned on a sacred pyre.

Part 8

THE ARRIVAL OF THE RUSSIAN COSSACKS TO THE LAND OF OUR ANCESTORS. CHANGE IN PRAYERS

Before the arrival of the Cossacks to the land of our ancestors, i.e. modern Irkutsk region, people lived quietly, breeding domestic animals and hunting. In the middle of the 17th century, the Cossacks began to develop new lands, oppressing the local population, taking away livestock, imposing excessive taxes, etc. Local governors, proteges of the tsar, thought only of their own interests. The people, driven to despair by such arbitrariness, began to move, flee to uninhabited places with families and even uluses - to Mongolia, modern Barguzinsky, Kurumkansky, Kabansky (Baikal-Kudarinsky) regions. The officials got scared and decided that the people were fleeing to an inaccessible land - Mongolia. They reported this to the king: they say, if this continues, there will be no one to take the tax from, and there will be no benefit from the people.

Just at this time, representatives of the Khorin tribe made a bold attempt - they went to the Russian Tsar Peter the Great to personally tell about the outrages that his governors were doing in the Siberian lands. This campaign was of great importance for the Buryat people. The issue was resolved this way: since the Siberian and Baikal lands were captured without major wars, the tsar issued a Decree in which he ordered the appointment of his proteges from the local peoples - the most intelligent and progressive. They kept order and collected tribute twice a year in favor of the state. Then the local people were able to once again engage in livestock breeding, hunting fur-bearing animals, etc.

There is a legend about how my family first met the Cossacks. The ancestors lived near the Khotonso River, near Mount Orgoli, as I mentioned above. Around 1670, the Cossacks reached the village of Mukhar (now Bayandaevsky district, not far from the village of Khogoty). The Supreme Shaman Shanarta-zaarin Boo, the son of Bortoy Oilongo (Bortoev Oilongo), lived here. They reported to him that strangers were sailing on a boat along the river - Cossacks, they were very close. For fun, foreigners kill game on the shore, without even taking it with them... The Supreme Shaman gathered all the people and ordered them to go behind Mount Orgoli and take cover. He himself remained with one hero, Bator Buhe, and decided to meet the uninvited guests. He stood behind a pile of white stones and brought out the ancient banner of the warriors - a horse's tail impaled on a pole, with a hundred squirrel skins.

The centurion, who landed on the shore with his people, asked the shaman who came out to meet him: “Who is this? Where are the local people, why can’t you see anyone?” Then he explained that he is the Great Supreme Shaman, who lives on this land by the will of the Eternal Blue Sky and, with the help of the heavenly gods, protects the people living here. The Supreme Shaman resolved the differences peacefully: by decree of the king they gave him administrative power over his people, a dagger and a pennant in the form of a banner - now he collected yasak from his people. Shanarta did many good deeds: he sent local young men to the Irkutsk governor so that they could be trained as clerks, interpreters, translators, and administrators.

However, as he carried out his shamanic and administrative duties, he began to realize that they were incompatible with each other. Having taken permission from his superiors, he transferred his administrative responsibilities to his assistant, Shonoin Khubun Shodorto (Shonoev Shoodor) from the Shonoev family.

And along with them all the attributes of power - a decree, a seal, a pennant, only the dagger he kept for himself as a reward for his work. Shodoev Shodor received a new dirk as a symbol of the royal noyon. Freed from administrative work, Bortoin Khubuun Oilongo Taabay-grandfather began to think that every year it was becoming more and more difficult for his people to sacrifice a horse to the gods. The entire livestock of each family was registered with the administrative authorities of the Steppe Foreign Duma.

Just at this time, on Mount Orgoli, where the shaman’s camp was located, the Gods of heaven were gathering a meeting. As an earthly representative, my shaman ancestor had the right to be present there; other shamans were also called in with an advisory voice - the Gods wanted them to hear everything and convey to their people the essence of their decisions. Bortoin khubuun Oilongo spoke at this meeting with the following words: our people are subordinate to the White Tsar. Every year it becomes more difficult to sacrifice horses to the Gods, and it is desirable that the Gods agree to accept sheep as a gift.

The Gods got angry and refused, and the northern Tengerii even left the meeting and said that they would no longer participate in it. Their resentment was so strong that they directed a pestilence at the people. Cattle were dying out in the meadows. No one could help people cope with the big trouble. Then Baruunai 55 Tengaris with Esege-Malaan, who stood up for the local tribes, again gathered for a meeting. They decided how to help the affected people.

Many opinions were expressed. But everyone accepted the most successful proposal of Bukha-Noen-Baabai, who proposed to marry his beautiful daughter to the son of one of the representatives of the Northern Tengaris, Haluud Burkhanai Khubuunde. The son was a scribe, he entered the souls of dead people into the Book of Life: did he come on time, for what reason did he end up in the dark kingdom, what sins did he commit on earth, is punishment required in heaven, etc.

They did it as they decided. It came down to the wedding celebrations. During the wedding, Bukha-Noen-Baabay asked his matchmaker Khulud Burkhan, who was in a complacent mood, to accept a ram as a sacrifice from people. Then Khaluud Burkhan demanded that people present 33 rams at once during the prayer service, and only on this condition did he give his consent. Over time, the number of sheep decreased from 33 to 12 heads, then to nine, three, and since the end of the 19th century, people at prayer services bring one ram or lamb as a gift. Typically, such rituals of sacrifice are carried out when a person, according to the book of life, should live for many years, but a severe illness or tragic incident has seriously undermined his health, or his soul is caught by another person, then the shaman, bringing a ram as a gift to the gods, asks to release the soul and correct it in the book confusion in life, etc.

More recently, residents of Buryatia began to make mass prayers to the heavenly gods. Since the 1930s, they have practically not been committed. However, even in the most difficult times, the Kaban, Baikal-Kudarin shamans held prayers to the ancestral gods - the patrons and owners of the local mountains and lands. People pray mainly in families. Sometimes they perform a ram ritual for one of their children in order to receive more protection and energy for him from God.

Part 9

TECHNIQUE OF PERFORMANCE OF THE RITE – RAM SACRIFICE

The technique of performing the ritual of worshiping local mountains and peaks and all tribal gods is the same. And now I will try to describe it. In front, for each god, two birch branches 120-180 centimeters high - shandagata - are installed, white clean scraps of material are tied to them.

On the top branch, which is called serge-tethering, clean ribbons are also tied - zalaa (white material 2-3 cm wide, 20-30 cm long). Serge turge is always higher than shandagata turge. It is believed that any hitching post should be higher than the riding horse. The branches are stuck in the direction where God - Tuurge modon - is located. A clean board, approximately 10 by 30 centimeters, is installed in front of the branches. A bottle of vodka (usually half a liter) is placed on it, salamat or ghee (100 grams) with a teaspoon in a small plate, money, preferably metal, if God smokes, then you can put cigarettes.
You can have some sweets, cookies, money in coins (except for one penny) and leaf tobacco. The whole thing is called “tahilai edeen”. Then four birch flyers measuring 40-50-60 centimeters (preferably the same size) are placed to the side of the tuurge or one meter behind it. This place is called "sheree". Unnecessary waste from the ram is collected here, bones are placed on them strictly according to their location in the skeleton.

If the bones are confused, then it is believed that God did not accept the ram and the whole ceremony will be in vain. To prevent this from happening, they carefully monitor the location of the bones of the skeleton and ensure that all bones are completely burned.

Before the start of the prayer service, the shaman, if he has a tambourine, beats it, calling on God. Then they start splashing, holding the still living ram on its feet near the sheree. Three people are involved in this. The shaman splashes from a saucer, pouring boiled milk into it from a mug. The assistants do the same. Everyone sits in one row and serves the Gods the food that they took with them - salamat or ghee from a teaspoon.
After sprinkling, the shaman takes a saucer of milk and puts it into the ram’s mouth. Then it drips, starting from the tail, moving towards the animal’s head. At the same time, he explains what kind of people offer sacrifice to God, what sins they atone for, or what they ask from the patron.

Then they put the ram on its back and cut it: first, an incision is made with a knife near the sternum. Then the miner, sticking his hand into this hole, pierces the pleura and tears off the artery with his fingers. When the ram stops showing signs of life, assistants carry it to the fire and butcher it.

When the meat and bones are cooked, they are pulled out of the bowl onto the table.

Meat from the head, cervical vertebrae, brisket, back back to tail is collected in small pieces into one bowl for the main shaman. The other one is for the assistant. The boiled intestine of the anus with meat and the lower incision of the tongue are placed in the dalgan bucket. Half a boiled heart, two kidneys, two eggs (if the victim is male), a cut of brisket without the breast bone.

Boiled meat, cut into small pieces, is placed on the right side of the table. Nearby is a sheep's stomach with boiled blood. Then they put the large intestine, also stuffed with blood, gurel myakhan, oroimog - the meat of a ram connected to each other from the back, then an incision of strip tripe, lastly small pieces of tripe and mutton fat. Chopped small pieces of meat are also placed on the right corner - after the end of the prayer service they are “given” to the fire on which all the lamb was cooked, thanking it for helping to cook the meat. After the table has been prepared, it is brought forward. The remains of the ram are collected inside the sheree - they are then burned along with the bones of the ram. They do it like this: first they lay out the firewood, put the bones on it according to the skeleton: first the lower jaws, the brisket - the heart is on it (lungs, half of the heart, tongue with the throat part; half of the upper part of the tongue should be placed in the lower part of the jaw). Then the head of a sheep is placed on the jaw - tooloi.

In front of the firewood - two front legs, without confusing the left with the right. Then semgens are placed on them - a continuation of the solid front bones of the limbs. Then the shoulder blades are placed on them, and the cervical vertebra is placed behind the head. Next, the vertebrae with ribs are laid out on one side, and the ribs without vertebrae on the other, parallel to each other. Last attribute:

• the tail part with bones, then there are two hind legs with hooves, you need to place them again, without confusing the left and right. They put samgens on them
• solid bones of the hind limbs and then the tibia

Only after this the sheree is lit, surrounded by four small branches in the form of flyers. Behind them they place a piece of meat taken from the cervical spine with flax - they string it on a sharpened stick 30-35 centimeters long.

PRAYER-CHAMBER WITH THE CALL OF GOD - KHORYUULGA ABAKHA

Together with the shaman-performer, three people rise to perform the ritual. Everyone is served a bowl of meat according to their rank. Afterwards they sit in one row, without violating etiquette.

Then a dalgan (sacrifice) - a bucket of meat - is placed near the first person. Before the start of the prayer service, the shaman fumigates everything with lit fir bark - he cleanses the place of prayer from evil spirits and dirt.

After all this, the prayer service begins. Each of those present at this time mentally turns to God. You can ask that your life be long and without mistakes, that your family be healthy and happy, that your work brings joy and a lot of success, etc.

After the end of the ritual call, the shaman is served a dalgan - a bucket of named meat - this includes a whole brisket, half the lower part of the tongue, half the inner part of the heart, an anus with meat 25-35 centimeters long, two kidneys, a liver, if the victim was a male , then two eggs, a lamb “book” with a piece of meat attached - barcincar - a bag of tripe filled with internal fat. And the ritual begins again, but now the shaman pronounces the name of the family of those people who gathered for the prayer service. On their behalf, he asks for help, health, success. The prayer is read three times.

Those gathered for the prayer service pray by joining their palms together. In this case, men must take off their headdress, and women, on the contrary, cover their heads with a scarf. This unwritten rule was established by our ancestors: a woman always had to walk with her head covered; it was allowed to remove her headdress only in a yurt or hut. And what is also very important: on “critical” days, women cannot participate in prayer services.

During the prayer service, those women who married men of a different clan pray separately to their ancestral gods.

The prayer service with dalgan was called Khoryuulga abakha. While performing it, you can meditate ongo oruulkha. The shaman again calls on God, asks to help all those praying. Then the god is served small pieces of meat from the table with a small ladle or a large spoon. After this, tahil khurailgan began. Tuurgezha (ritual branches) and other food, except vodka, are removed from the table. The shaman distributes all this to his assistants and prayer participants. Everyone stands in one line, led by the shaman, and when he makes the last call, people serve food to the god. Afterwards, the shaman pours vodka into a tea saucer and also sprinkles it. After this, everyone prays: men, sitting on their knees and removing their headdresses, joining their palms. Everyone asks God for the most intimate things for themselves and their families. This concludes the prayer service on the field.

A shaman or shaman, upon arriving home, must definitely pray to his ancestral god or local gods. Standing near a stove with an open pipe or near a window, the shaman must open a new bottle of vodka and clean it with lit fir bark. Then, from a small teapot, adding vodka into the saucer, sprinkle it to ensure that the ritual is performed, that his calls reach God without errors or complaints.

After this, one of the worshipers pours a full saucer of milk, drips it onto the fire, drinks a little and gives it to the shaman or shaman. They also take a sip and pass it around to other participants in the prayer service. Then everyone sits down at the table and eats meat.

After three days, the shaman carries out the final stage - he sprinkles boiled milk, vodka, whitened tea, ghee or salamat for this genus. This concludes the prayer service.

Part 10

TECHNIQUES FOR PERFORMING RITES - “TARIMA” AND “GAL TAIKHA” (CALLING THE SOUL OR CHILDREN)

For Tarim, strip iron without holes approximately 30-60 cm long is used; thick knives can be used. They are heated on fire until red. Then the shaman, calling on the master Tarim, licks the hot iron and blows away all the bad things from the person. He asks God to remove diseases, witchcraft, and misfortunes from a person.

All this is repeated three times. If the illness is not severe, then after this ritual everything goes away immediately. Sometimes, in severe cases, “Tarim” has to be repeated.

The shamans themselves are not afraid of witchcraft or other similar things, since they are under the protection of those Gods to whom they pray.

The Tal Taiha ritual is done in order to call on a departed soul or call on children if they are not in the family. The technique of the rituals is the same, only the words of invocations to God change.

A person’s soul can leave for various reasons, most often from severe fright. Sometimes this happens to very touchy, capricious people who like to feel sorry for themselves. If the soul has left, a person begins to get sick, becomes sleepy, lethargic - his aura is open, there is no protection.

For the ritual of summoning the soul, prepare pure boiled milk, 150-200 grams, tea - deezhe sai, whitened with this milk, ghee, which is sprinkled on the fire. The stove is lit in the house; in city apartments, pine splinters are burned (pine produces lighter smoke) in a thick brazier. The shaman asks the God of Fire to help this house with his power. Three invocations are made.
First: The fire that burns, give light and warmth to this house.

By your power, return the departed soul here so that the person can live here for many years. The second is addressed to the God of heaven “Zayaasha” - Zayaasha tengeriin Burkhand, from whom they ask that there be many children in this house, and a lot of livestock in the yard. Then they ask to return the departed soul to the person, so that he will live here for a long time, so that many children will be born to him. With the third invocation, they turn to the mistress of Fire - Galai ezhen Gankhuuraikhan Khatan with a request that the called soul live in the house as an owner, not knowing troubles and grief.

Shamans can call upon souls that are lost far from home, even abroad. After the ritual, as a rule, the soul returns to its “golden body” and the person regains health and strength - his “I”.

When calling children, they turn to God with the following words:

Gal ehe Gulamta Gurban saldagan maylagad Dushen ulaan susal Durben saldagan maylagad Durezhel baigshn Gal Dulaa ugen harakha Nosojo bayan gal Gerel ugen harahyn ​​Tulee murgene. Uteg uner kharakha Bairlapan bayryen Bayan bolgozho, Kharahyntnay tulee murgene. Zol Yehe Zayaasha Hunpee huu gargazha Khuleg morinhoo Unaga gargazha baihan Burkhan beleit. Turemel ene gerte Huney hulde zayagyt. Tergende hulleetey morindo Unaganay hulde zayaagyt. Hungue xyy garguulit Khuleg moringyuo Unaga garguulit Uteg uner kharyt. Bayrlapan Bayryen Bayan Kharyt. Ulam saashaa Uritey bolgoozho, Under ugta bolgon kharyt.

Translated it sounds something like this:

I call upon the Fire that burns in the hearth,
so that it gives warmth, light and comfort to the entire hut.
The owners pray for this.
So that the ancestral root continues in this house without breaking.
So that the female daughter-in-law gives birth to a child to continue the root.
So that the owners can live here without problems.
So that there are no thefts or other troubles in the house for many years.
So that the Fire of the Hearth protects from all this.
So that children born here will grow up
They continued their lineage as real people.

Part 11

PATRONS AND DEFENDERS OF LOCAL TRIBES

The highest god of our Abzaev family is the owner of Mount Orgoli in the Bayandaevsky district, which is located near the village of Khogoty, - Boyrtoin Khubun Oylongo toobay. It was he who asked the assembly of gods to accept rams rather than horses as sacrifices from people, so as not to create difficulties for those praying. With great difficulty, but it was done.

Then one can name one of the sons of Buurunai Bayan Sagaan Tengariin Basai under Ogtorgyn, born again at the behest of the Eternal Blue Sky in the womb of a woman, Noensyn khubun Noen Tahai Nomgon Tushemel. The clairvoyant of that time said that when he came into power, he would become the main god of the Abzaev family, its patron and protector.

This god has an assistant - his close and devoted friend Khalzaanai khubuun Sogdookhon. They are connected by an interesting instructive legend that the old people told me. Noensyn khubun Noen Takhai grew up to be a prominent young man and had great authority among his peers. Already in his young years, his wonderful abilities manifested themselves: he could benefit people with his energy. Sometimes he showed amazing things: during naadan he asked a well-aimed shooter to shoot an arrow at him while he was racing on his blue horse. At full gallop, Noen Takhai caught the arrows with his hands, broke them and threw them to the ground. His prowess and agility pleased a beautiful girl named Bulzhuukhay, whom her parents had already betrothed to another guy. Nevertheless, the lovers met secretly. The parents, having learned about it, decided to get married quickly so as not to anger the future matchmakers. Then Noensyn khubun Noen Tahai decided to steal his beloved right during the wedding feast, which was considered a common thing in those days. Sogdookhon ordered his assistant Khalzaanai to wait near the bridge near the Khaluuzhan River with horses.

Everything happened as he had planned: he stole a girl during the wedding of Noensyn khubun Noen Tahai and galloped to the bridge. Panic began at the table; no one expected such a turn of events. Then the shaman from the matchmakers asked for tarasun and, splashing, turned for help to his heavenly god to return the bride.

In broad daylight, in the direction where Noensyn khubun Noen Tahai rode away, a heavy downpour began and lightning flashed. Then the guy stopped the horse, dropped the girl off and told her: “If I can ride to the bridge, I’ll come back for you, if not, then marry the guy you’ve matched.” And he himself addressed a challenge to the heavenly god: “huhe morimni khurdan baihagu, huhe Tengeri khurdan baihagu” - either my horse will gallop faster to the bridge, or the arrows of the blue sky will hit me. With these words, he galloped towards the bridge, catching lightning arrows as he went and throwing them to the ground. So he extinguished eight arrows. According to the agreement, the Heavenly God, the patron of the groom's family, was supposed to shoot nine arrows at him. The clever young man caught eight of them. But the latter turned out to be fatal. His friend Khalzaanai khubun Sogdookhon, hiding from the downpour under the bridge, suddenly heard the familiar clatter of hooves, unexpectedly jumped out to meet him with the words: “uu shimni iime turgen erebe gush” (“how quickly you arrived...”). The horse, seeing the man, darted to the side, and Noensyn khubun Noen Tahai could not catch the ninth lightning arrow. She pierced both friends, their bodies fell dead on the dusty road.

Then the astral body of Noensyn khubuun Noen Taahai says to Sogdookhon: “We cannot lie on the road, we need someone to take us to the side of the road, on the grass. Not far from here there is a village of the Otonkhoy Abzaishuul clan, go there and ask for help.” Then his friend answers him: “How can I go if I don’t have anything on? People won’t understand me, won’t see me.” Then Noen Takhai helped make a body out of hay, a belt out of twigs, and sent his friend on the road. When he reached the Otonkhoy-Abzaishuul area, the men refused to help them. Then Noen Takhai sent his assistant to a summer retreat, which was also nearby. There Sogdookhon met a grandmother with her grandchildren, who said that all the men and women had gone to collect the hay and there was no one to help them either.

Only one of the granddaughters - a girl of seven or eight years old, Abaalain Basagan Dorzha - volunteered to go with him, asking her grandmother to send one of the children to fetch her parents. As a token of gratitude, Noensyn khubuun Noen Tahai endowed the girl with divine power, she removed the bodies of the men from the road, their horses and remained to wait for the adults. Having matured, that girl married a man, Buur, of the Pengelder clan, became a shaman of this clan, and later, when her soul flew to heaven, and the clan god.

The men who arrived, shamans of the Abzaev family, decided to burn the bodies, sending their souls to heaven. When the ritual began, many shamans called on their souls. They said they wanted to keep their names the same. Noensyn khubuun Noen Takhai volunteered to be the protector and patron of the Abzaev family and took his faithful friend Khalzaanain khubun Sogdookhon as his assistant. “You will pray to me with a ram, Sogdookhon will accept a yaman goat. In difficult times for yourself, say a prayer with my name, I will always rush to help.” This is the legend our old people told.

Once, having talked with one of the participants in the Great Patriotic War, I learned that during battles and bombings he always read a prayer and called for help from Noensyn khubun Noen Takhaya. And he remained alive and well. One day his patron came to him in a dream and said that he would be wounded and after that he would be sent home, and so it happened. Since then, the war veteran has greatly revered this god.
The patron of the Shonoi family is considered to be the son of heaven, born at the behest of Esege - Malaan-Baabai, by order of the Eternal Blue Sky - Amanai khubun Barlag. When the boy was seven years old, he began to show extraordinary abilities. In winter, his soles did not leave marks on the snow, which greatly surprised his peers. When they played catch-up, no one could ever catch up with him, much less overtake him. In the forest, he was the fastest to climb the tops of trees and jump from one to another, which even the older guys did not do. If he came across a dry tree, he would climb it to the top and calmly go down. All this surprised those around me.

Having become a young man, he fell in love with a girl who had also already been matched to another guy. There was nothing left to do but steal her beloved. The wedding began, Amanay khubun Barlag was invited as an eminent guest. When the wedding cortege went home, the girl got into her future husband's carriage.

A shaman who was present at the wedding and had clairvoyance predicted that the girl might be stolen, and therefore he strictly ordered the groom and his friends to keep an eye on the bride. They literally couldn't take their eyes off her. Suddenly, in an instant, the groom felt that the girl was not nearby. Having discovered the loss, the shaman, taking the tarasun, began to sprinkle it on the heavenly gods, asking for protection. Then the gods returned the bride’s hat, knowing that the bride would not go anywhere without a headdress and would not be able to enter any house. After this, the bride was forced to return to the groom.

Amanai khubun Barlag did a lot of good to people; he went into the world of the gods and became the protector and patron of the Shonoi family. There is another great goddess in this family - Suutain Basagan Nilhan Teedey. During her lifetime she was a great shaman. When Amanai khubun Barlag was born, she became his protector - Naija, knowing that he was born to become the great god of the Shonoi family.

The Great Shaman, Uhaandain Basagan Hiikheen Teedey, is considered the patroness and protector of the Olzon family. In life she was a very beautiful, full-breasted, tall woman. She had a smart head and an extraordinary property - at night, when she slept, her face emitted rays that illuminated the room like the sun.

The patron and protector of Buur of the Khengelder clan was the same girl from the Abzaev clan who volunteered to help Noensyn khubun Noen Takhai and Sogdookhon by removing their bodies from the dusty road - Abaalain basagan Dorzho. Having matured, she married a young man from the Buura Iengelder clan. During her life she was a shaman of the clan, having passed into another world, she became the goddess of the Buura 11engelder clan.

Part 12

THE GREAT GODS AND WHERE THEY LIVE

All twelve Great Gods live in the Irkutsk region. The thirteenth lives in the Barguzinsky district in the Baraghkhan area. All the gods occupy the tops of the mountains by order of Huhe Munhe Tengeri and Esege Malaan Tengeri.

The first Bukha Noen Baabai lives on the top of a mountain in the Tunkinskaya Valley, not far from the village of Tory. He is the protector of both the Buryats and the Russians, the main patron of the entire Bulagat tribe with its numerous clans - Alaguy, Ashabagat, Gotol, Khurhuud, Sharaldai, Murui, Olzoy, Noed, Enguud, Bulad, Ongoy, Onkhotoy, Khogoy, Dalkhai, Khoibo, Barai, wake up.

After him comes the owner of the Irkutsk region and the city of Irkutsk - Irhuugey ezhen Burkhan Elbed Noen, Turain ezhen Tulama noen. The old people said that this god was Russian. Its symbol is a certain icon brought from Moscow at the request of the governor to protect these lands. One day, the Great Shaman of the Abzaev family, Boyrdon Khubuun Oilongo, came to Irkutsk on administrative business to receive the governor. He was the first to pray to the icon and deify it. Since then, it has become sacred for the Buryats.

The third Great God is considered the owner of the Angara lands, living on an island in the Angara River in the area of ​​the Shaman Stone - Angarain ezhen Ama Sagaan-Noen. In ancient times, shamans held large prayer services in this area with sacrifices in defense of their people.

Then come the gods, who descended to earth on the orders of Esege Malaan Tengeri. The fourth Great God is the owner of Khurtei - Khurteen ezhen Khurten Baabai Noen, Boorin ezhen Boshon Baabai Noen.

The fifth is the owner of Khurmey - Khurmeen ezhen, Buudal Burkhan, Khuudal noen Khurmeen ezhen "Khub Sagaan Noen" - Khuntir Sagaan Baabai.

The sixth Great God is Sarmain ezhen “Sab Sagaan Noen Burkhan” - the master of sarma. In the old days they said that when this god is angry, he sends an unexpectedly strong hurricane wind towards Baikal. It led to shipwrecks and the death of fishermen. No one could determine when Sarma would begin. Therefore, people living on the shores of Lake Baikal held large prayer services to this god every three years so that he would not get angry and show his tough temper.

The seventh Great God is the owner of Anga - Angain Ezhen Burkhan, who has great strength and power, the patron of the entire Buryat people.

One of the most powerful gods is considered the eighth - the owner of the island of Olkhon - “Oikhon Baabay Burkhan”. The old people said that he descended from heaven to earth at the time when people first appeared on the island. Among them were shamans, they prayed to this god and understood his signs. He left them on the walls of ancient caves. During the tailgan, the shamans explained to people what they mean and what they warn about. Usually the signs appeared before natural disasters or major events in the country. I was told that the last time the shamans saw them was before the start of the Great Patriotic War.

The next, ninth, highest god is considered to be Shubuun Noed, Shoda Burged Burkhan. There is a legend that tells how this god appeared. One day, Oikhon-Baabai Burkhan was reborn in the womb of a woman in order to return to Olkhon Island again. Having become a young man, he entered the service of the Moscow prince, becoming his falconer. However, his service did not last long. Based on a dirty denunciation, he was sent into exile in the Irkutsk Voivodeship - to his native place. Here he found a small eaglet in a nest and began to teach it how to hunt animals, birds, and fish on Lake Baikal. The eaglet turned out to be a capable student.

Soon the young man married a girl of the Haital family. But, unfortunately, they did not have children. He considered the grown eagle his own son. He obtained animals and birds for them, and caught fish on Lake Baikal. Their table was always rich. When the old man passed away, in gratitude he made the eagle the Great God, giving him a human appearance. Now he is worshiped by the Buryats of Olkhon, Kabansky, and partly Bayandaevsky, Barguzinsky, and Kurumkansky districts. Shubuun Noed helps with diseases of the back, stomach, eyesight and many others. Moreover, only those shamans communicate with him whom he appointed himself or who sacrificed a ram or sheep to him. He does not accept requests for help from other people. Moreover, if any charlatans turn to him, he can severely punish them by directing illness, etc.

The tenth Supreme God is considered to be “Hara Honiton”, who accepts only a black or dark-colored ram as a sacrifice. It is also desirable that the animal have a white mark on its forehead. It is located on the top of a mountain in the Kachug region and helps young men and women, especially those who serve in the army and participate in hostilities with weapons in their hands.

This god showed his power back in those distant times, when our ancestors came to these places from the country of Dzungaria. They could not live here in peace; the Evenks, the forest people, did not give them peace. Then representatives of the Sageen Haital and Haital clans brought a shaman here so that he would ask the god “Hara Honiton” for protection for them, which was done. Using his strength and power, God sent the Evenki further, and peace and tranquility reigned in the lands of Khuiteney Khashaa daya (the name of the region “Kachugsky” came from the Buryat word “squeezed, pressed”).

Not far from the peak where “Khara Honiton” lives there is another god, his friend - “Tumershe noen Burkhan, Tuudegshe Khatan Ezhy”, who bestows gifts on people of Mongolian origin.

Part 13

WHAT OTHER GODS ARE THERE?

I named thirteen Great Gods. I'll list the rest:

The fourteenth god named Ezhmain Ezhen lives on Olkhon Island at the top of Mount Ezhmain Khada.

Fifteenth is the Abzaev tribal god - Abzain khuhe Moriton with his faithful friend Khalzaanain khubun Sogdookhon.

Sixteenth according to the numbering, again comes the god of our Abzaev family - the owner of Mount Orgoli - Bortoin khubun Oilongo.

The seventeenth patron god of the Shonoi clan is Amanai khubun Barlag, who is located in the Irkutsk region in the area of ​​Gushan tolgoi Akhaadai, Gurban tolgoi Bulag.

The eighteenth is the owner of Goloustnaya Mountain, located almost on the shore of Lake Baikal, Goloustnay ezhen Burkhan.

The nineteenth is the owner of Mount Shorod, where the lighthouse is located, illuminating the way for ships at night.

The twentieth is Khaan buudalnuud, located in the Baikal region in the Talanka area. Previously, this god was considered the patron saint of the Evenks, who were engaged in fishing and hunting here.

The twenty-first god is the owner of the source of the Goryachinsk resort. You need to turn to him with the following prayer if you want to be cured of your illnesses: “Emtyn gazarhaa em ugedeg Burkhan, house uhaaraa dureen tuhatai Burkhan, haluun yhaapaa hamag zondoo tuhatai Burkhan, ebshe edegeedeg Burkhan, tahal ebsheee taraadag Burkhan.”

Twenty-second - the owner of the area Gremyachinsk - a god of Evenki origin.

Twenty-third is the owner of the Uda River, patron of the city of Ulan-Ude, Udeen ezhen Burkhan.

The twenty-fourth god is the patron of Kyakhta, the master of trade in Buryatia. Before you start your business, you should spray this god. Many Buryat businessmen do this.

The twenty-fifth owner of Tulunzhi - an area on the left bank of the Selenga.

The twenty-sixth god is the owner of Mandrik, who helps to get to the destination without any trouble. Every person passing through prays to this god.

These gods also include the daughter of Bukh Noen - named Erhe Noen Taizha, she knew how to sew a whole outfit from a small piece of material: “alganain zergeen torgoor ara enger eshadeg burkhan, khurganain zergen torgoor hoyto enger eshadeg burkhan.” She helps all the people with her husband named Shandan Turgen besheeshe. When a person is very sick, they pray to these gods. They ask to lengthen life, restore order in the book of destinies, or exchange the departed soul for a sacrifice - a ram, thereby returning its soul to the body. Men always place a ram, women - a lamb.

Part 14

RITES FOR BOYS

If a boy is born into a Buryat family, especially in our Kabansky region, then as soon as he turns three years old, his parents perform a ritual for him, bringing a ram to the gods as an offering. Moreover, first they pray to the god who protects the male sex, and then to their ancestral gods. At the same time, turning to the god Ulaan Khurganai Burkhan, they say the following prayer: “Ere khubuuney turekhede, Alba toolozho abahan burkhan, emnig unaganay turekhede khazaar toolozho abahan burkhan. Khubun hunei turekhede khazaar toolozho abahan burkhan. Khubun hunei turekhede alba toolozho abahan burkhan, huleg unaganay turekhede khazaar toolozho abahan burkhan.”

When the boy grows up, you can pray to another god, who also protects the male sex. The prayer is: “Dobo gazar guideltei doshkhon khurdan moritoy, Doedoy mergen burkhan, etc.”

Before being drafted into the army, parents try again to pray to God “Hara Khonisho Burkhanda”, who is the Great Patron of all young men and men who put their lives in danger if they participate in hostilities or serve in the police, etc. This god swore the following oath: “Dainai gazarta daragdahagui, seregei gazarta buligdahagui aikhal beeden amin bolon tuhalhab, eshehe beeden nuur bolon tuhalhab.” These prayer services are held for one person once in a lifetime.

If a girl is born, then they pray only to the ancestral god of the father. Moreover, they try to do this ritual before marriage.

Part 15

HOW MY ANCESTORS ENDED UP ON KABANSKAYA LAND

Our ancestors, persecuted by heavy taxes and the lawlessness of the Irkutsk governor, fled from their homes. So one of my ancestors, son Borto, with his father’s permission, moved across Baikal and found a new place of residence in the area of ​​Dulaan (translated as a warm place). Together with their two sons, they built an octagonal hut here and began to live peacefully. The authorities did not pursue them; there was enough wildlife in the forests to feed themselves.

They lived like this for several years, not knowing grief. But one day during lunch, the family heard someone calling: “Master, go outside!” Everyone was surprised, but Bortoin khubun Halsey still went out into the street, wearing a headdress. Squinting from the bright sun, he saw a tall man sitting astride a horse. In his hands he held a bow with a taut string. Bortoin khubuun Halsey immediately understood - this was the Master of the taiga. Angry, he asks why the settlers are killing animals on his property without his permission. Halsey fell on his knees and began to pray and ask for forgiveness. He explained why he migrated to these places, repented, and admitted his big mistake in not asking permission from the Owner to hunt his animals. He promised to fix everything in the future... God answered him: “Since I pulled the bowstring, I must shoot an arrow.” He shot at the stallion standing in the stall and disappeared from view. At the same time, the owner of the taiga warned Halsey that this land would still go under water in a few decades, which is what happened.

Over time, many people moved to these places, and the Halsey family moved further into the forests. Both sons were married. The eldest daughter-in-law had a special gift - it was predicted at the wedding that she would become a shaman. However, no dedication ceremony was performed for her, so no one paid attention to her predictions. But one day, when the brothers once again gathered to hunt, she asked her father to postpone everything until better times, explaining that something terrible could happen - one of the brothers would not return alive. The father got angry at such words and told her: “If a man is going to hunt, then he must go, if a woman has taken up sewing, then she must complete her work.”

The hunt was successful, the sons killed a lot of animals and decided to spend the night in the forest. They lit a fire, ate, and at night set fire to the dead wood nearby so that they could sleep warm and not be afraid of an attack by wolves.

In the dead of night, the younger brother woke up from the sound of falling dead wood and saw that the charred tree had firmly crushed the elder Khangai. Hastily loading the horses with booty, he hurried home with sad news to his father.

Great was the grief of the father who lost his son. He became even more angry with his daughter-in-law and decided to cruelly punish her by tying her hair to a ponytail. With all his strength he hit the horse and it rushed off into the distance with the woman. When they arrived at the place where the eldest son died, the horse with his daughter-in-law tied to its tail was already there. Their bodies were burned according to the old custom, the ashes were collected in leather bags and, according to shamanic belief, they were tied to a young larch. This place is located not far from modern Dulan, whose patroness is that shaman. Our Abzaev family now prays to this goddess, asking for forgiveness for the suffering caused and protection from various troubles.

This is the fate that befell the Halsey family and his sons in the new lands.

Part 16

MY DIRECT ANCESTORS

Halsey's father and his other sons lived in the Irkutsk region in the village of Mukhar. My ancestors were born here: Boodolgoin khubuun Borto, Bortoin khubuun Kholsi, Kholsiin khubun Khoodogon. He had a son, Nikita-Mikhitei. Together with whom, remembering the legend of his ancestors about the failure of the earth, he moved to new places, now the village of Korsakovo, Kabansky district, is located there, and settled in the Doloogono-Boyaryshnik area. Later, the village of Khushuunai Abzaishuul appeared here near the Bugeter River.

Nikita had four sons, the eldest of whom, Motooroi, became the great shaman of the Kudarino land. I was told that he was famous for his extraordinary strength. When local sorcerers challenged him to a fight, he dealt with them without much effort, which is why everyone in the area was afraid of him. After Motoora’s death, fellow villagers, fulfilling the shaman’s order, burned the ashes and put them in a leather bag along with shamanic attributes (tambourine, bells, khuur, etc.). The burial place was Mount Durete, which Motooroi himself chose. While still alive, he told his relatives that from this mountain he would have a clear view of the entire area. He will be able to warn people from any misfortune. In any case, after his death, our ancestors who lived in this area did not lose livestock, and there were no major misfortunes.

Old people also said that before the collapse of the earth in 1861, people heard the warning blows of the shaman's hese drum. Then on this mountain they buried the shaman of our family - Sabasiin basagan Manta teedey-odegon and the shaman - Ortoobiin khubun Suushkhe teebey bee-shaman - the ancestor of people bearing the surnames of Albataev and Ubonov.

I want to tell you about him an extraordinary legend that I myself heard as a child. Ortoobiin khubun Suushhe teebey bee shaman had an amazing ability - he could turn into a werewolf.

Fellow villagers told how one winter they gathered at his place and suddenly heard the howl of a lone wolf. The shaman said that he was asking God for food - the live meat of that young horse that was grazing nearby. And he invited everyone to go outside and see what would happen next. The night was dark, the moon had not yet appeared in the sky.

Having stripped almost naked, he put a sheath with a knife and a fur coat turned upside down around his neck. And then, before the eyes of astonished people, he turned into a wolf, which instantly disappeared into the darkness. His guests waited a long time. Suddenly they heard him calling them, asking them to bring clothes and help carry arbin and liver. When everyone was already sitting at the table, curious villagers began to ask how he managed to negotiate with the wolf. The shaman answered them: “I mentally told him that I would take some arbin and liver to treat my guests and leave. Everything else is yours. I called you when, out of habit, it was already difficult to carry prey in my teeth, and it’s hard to be in someone else’s skin.” This is the story I heard, which began to be told in the village only after the death of this shaman.

Nikita's second son, whom I mentioned above, was called Khaluuzhan. He had one son, Hebhey, but he already had four sons: Darkhan, Darnaa, Nahuu, Danshaa. The elder Darkhan also became the ancestral shaman of the Abzaev family, and later the shaman of the entire Korsakov area. Nahuu was also our ancestral shaman.

Hebhay's second son, Darnaa, is my direct ancestor. He had a son, Borboo, whose name we now bear as a surname. They say that Borboo raved about shamanism since childhood, predicted to people what awaited them, what not to do, etc. Darnaa's father did not support his son, believing that there were already many shamans in the family, therefore, when Borboo grew up, the local people, with the permission of his father, chose him as the local head-gulvaa noen, assistant to the taisha-head of the Kudarin Steppe Duma.

Borboo had three sons: Muhuulkha-Nikolai, Mikhailo-Mikhail, Ivan. My grandfather was Boorbogoy khubun Mikhailo, his son Abzai is my father.

So our pedigree looks like this:

Bortoin khubun Oylongo teebey - Great shaman of the Irkutsk land.

Oilongoin khubun Burzai.

Burzayn khubun Boodolgo

Burzain khubun Borto.

Bortoin khubuun Holsi.

Kholsiin khubun Khangai

Kholsiin khubun Khoodogon.

Hoodogonoy khubun Mikhitei-Nikita - shaman.

Mikhitei khubuun Haluuzhan.

Khaluulzhanai khubun Hebhee, his brother Nakhuu - shaman

Khebkheen khubuun Darnaa, brother Darkhan - shaman

Darnaagai khubun Borboo.

Borboogoy khubun Mikhail, brother of Mikhulkh - Nikolai - acting. shaman.

Mikhaylayn khubun Abzay.

Abzain khubun Leontiy.

I have two sons who continue our family:

Leontiin khubun Vitya.

Leontiin khubun Sergey.

Vitiin khubun Leva.

Sergein khubun Vitya

Part 17

LOCAL KUDARIN GODS

Doloon Doshkhon Buudalnuud - the seven strong gods of the Kudarin land are located on the territory of the current Kabansky district.

The first god is the village of Fofonovo. The following prayer is read to him:

Fofonoin ezhen Burkhan

Khaan Dorogtyn khubun

Khaan Doshhoo Baabai

Hungar Zula

Zuun Naiman Zulata Burkhan

Tabin naiman tahilta Burkhan

Uragshaa kharan togtokhodoo

Uula dayayaa ezhelen huurdahan Burkhan beleit

Khoishoo kharan togtokhodoo,

Khudariin dayayaa ezhelen huurdahan burkhan beleit.

Khazhuudatnay khani boloho,

Hargyda yabahadatnay nuher boloho,

Ivan Timofeevich gezhe orod nuhertei beleit.

They say that this god was born in the ancient Mongolian country. One day, being a man, he came into conflict with the khan and was forced to leave his native place. Having arrived in our region, I fell in love with the Fofonov area. More than once he helped the local people in difficult situations.

Several unusual legends are associated with the Fofonovo area. One legend is about two sisters from the Kizhinga region, who were given clairvoyance and the opportunity to become shamans. They were born at a time when shamanism and extraordinary abilities, such as clairvoyance, began to be persecuted. It wasn't easy for the girls; their stepmother mocked them as best she could, and their father couldn't help. Unable to withstand the bullying, the souls left their bodies and flew off to look for calm lands. They liked the Kudarino places, but the god Fofonov directed their path to the Irkutsk province, thereby protecting his people from the wrath of the offended shamans. They caused a lot of confusion until our ancestral god, the owner of Mount Orgoli, calmed them down, taking them to his summit. Since then, when we sprinkle our ancestral gods, we also call upon our sister goddesses to protect us.

Another legend is associated with the revolutionary period of our history, when Kolchak’s troops fled from Irkutsk. They reached the places where the villages of Istok and Posolsk are now located. And they were going to move to the Kudarin lands. The old people began to pray to God to help ward off trouble from them.

And the following happened: before moving towards Fofonov, the commander of Kolchak’s troops decided to look through binoculars and saw the following picture: on the mountain, in the thickets of the grove, armed cavalry flashed, the soldiers were wearing hats with red ribbons, checkers shimmered with sparkling steel. Fearing an ambush and the defeat of the remnants of their troops, the White Guards moved around the village of Fofonov to Verkhneudinsk. In fact, as the old people say, there were no horsemen in the village. This local god, using his miraculous power, saved the village from attack, and at the same time the Kudarino steppe from harm.

The second god of the Kudarino land is considered to be the owner of Ilyinka. This god is invoked with these words:

Under zaimka huudalta burkhan

Urgen Selenge Seldeetey Burkhan

Zayimkayn ezhen Burkhan

Deged noen, Degei Khatan Burkhan.

Emtey uhanhaa em ugezhe edgeedeg Burkhan

House of uhanhaa, house of ugezhe edegeeedeg burkhan beleit.

Our old people told such a legend about the owner of Ilyinka. One day, a Russian grandmother got lost in the forest. She walked for a long time, could not find her way home, until she came across a tree with an icon hanging on its branch. She crossed herself, as expected, and asked permission if she could take it with her to take it to the local church. It seemed to her that no one opposed her wishes. And so, together with the icon, the grandmother found her way home in a matter of minutes. This is how the owner of Ilyinka patronized his people.

The third god of the Kudarino land is considered to be the owner of the Elan area.

The fourth is the patron saint of the Tugnuy-Timlyu area - Tugneen ezhen Burkhan.

The fifth god is the patron of the embassy land. They turn to him with the following prayer: “Ambassador Noen Zasol Khatan, Posolskoyin ezhen burkhan Khashkha Turgen Noen, Khotigor Posolsk huudalta burkhan Khuhe Dalai seldeete burkhan. Under Posolsk huudalta burkhan Urgen Dalai seldeete burkhan, Khazhuudahi nuher boloho Donskoy hasaguudaaraa durduuldahan belet.”

They say that in tsarist times an ambassador and his retinue passed through here. He was heading towards China to clarify the borders of Russia and clarify other state issues. The travelers decided to spend the night in the open air, not far from the road. But that halt turned out to be fatal for them: at night the Evenks attacked the people and brutally dealt with them, taking their firearms with them. The local people, having learned about this, deified that ambassador so that he would not be angry with them, but would patronize them.

The sixth god of the Kudarino land is considered to be the owner of the Srednye Ustye (Dunda-Selenge) area, a tributary of the Selenga. This god lives where the Sredne-Ustinsky lighthouse used to be.

According to legend, he appeared in these places like this: three wise men lived in ancient Mongolia, but one day they quarreled with the khan and were forced to look for a new place to live. One of them chose the lands of Fofonov, which I already talked about. Another Dunda Selenge - Middle Estuary. The third stopped not far from the old Bur-Ulus, in the area of ​​Baraniy Cape - Khara Khushuun. Now the village of Ranzhurovo is located here, and only they pray to this god.

The seventh god of the Kudarino land is the owner of Mount Gakhana, which is located near the village of Shergino. They address him with the following words: “Under Gakhana puudaltai Burkhan Urgen Khara yhaH seldeete Burkhan. Nam Gakhana huudaltai Burkhan Urgen Haara uhan soldeete Burkhan.”

Part 18

A FEW QUESTIONS FOR THE SHAMAN:

— Leonty A Bzaevich, tell us how the shaman’s gift was passed on to you?

— when I came out of the army and got a job on a collective farm, I began to get seriously ill, my legs were bothering me, something like thrombophlebitis. From time to time my illness worsened. At that time, the shaman Chimit Ochirova lived in our village, and one day she told me: “You are healing your physical body, there is no point in it. You must become a shaman, then the disease will go away.”

At that time, the Soviet government was strong and distrustful of our religion. I didn’t want to create unnecessary problems for myself; I brushed aside these words as best I could. I didn’t go to tailgans for five years until I finally fell ill. Only then did I begin to seriously think about what that woman told me. I wrote a letter from the hospital to my brother in Korsakovo: go to the Khandalin shaman Boris Bukhanaev, ask why I’m sick. The answer I received was this: if I don’t become a shaman, I’ll soon die. When I felt a little better, about a week after the hospital, I myself went to see Boris Yegorovich. We had a difficult conversation, he tried his best to convince me to do the initiation ceremony: “As long as I’m alive, I will save you, but after me you won’t live long.”

I kept repeating my point to him: you are a well-known, respected person, you went through the war, you were always at the forefront, that’s why the authorities don’t touch you. What will happen to me if I become a shaman? Who am i? No name, no titles. “Time will change,” he answered me, “people will know your name.”

Afterwards I had a dream: it was as if we, seven young guys, were called to Mount Orgoli, put in a line and began to ask questions.

Personally, I was asked how people prayed in ancient times and why they began to present the gods with a sheep instead of a horse. I answered all the questions correctly and received the Order of Lenin. Some of the guys were given medals and badges. Only two were not given anything, as if they had not earned the right to become shamans. Leaving Mount Orgoli, I said that I did not understand my calling. I don’t know how to pray, turn to the gods. They told me that they would bring all this to my attention and let me understand how and what was being done.

One day I lay down to rest during the day, my wife Katya was talking to someone in the next room, the children were watching TV here, it seemed to me that I began to doze off. There was such a state - between sleep and reality: I heard what they were saying in the house, and at the same time I heard the voices of two or three Gods who explained to me what I should do. I didn’t understand much, I often asked again, the Gods were angry. Their time to communicate with me was strictly limited; they had to fly away on time, second by second. Then such communication was repeated more than once, so they explained to me what and how I should do.

Boris Egorovich Bukhanaev, about three years before his departure to another world, began sending people to me so that I would pray for them to the Great God - Oikhon-Baabai, who cures stomach, diseases of the hands, feet, etc. I started to refuse, to send people back. Boris Yegorovich got angry with me and told me: they say, if you don’t start doing the ritual now, it will be bad for you. There was nowhere to go now; I started performing the ritual. Then he called me to Khandala, forced me to spray all the Great Gods, do “Tarim” - “Tarimay ejende urgeed, tarim buteehe” - to pray to the owner of Tarim so that he would help with his power to save people if they do not have ancient family curses. After all this, Boris Yegorovich, as parting words, told me to help people in their troubles, to save them from misfortunes, witchcraft, the evil eye, and diseases.

I agreed to become a performing shaman, performing rituals only for my family. But it didn't last long. One Aginsky clairvoyant warned me: “Only your three great gods are protecting you for now, this man said, but they can also abandon you...” Then I gathered our elders, consulted and accepted the initiation rite, becoming a legal shaman.

— They say that shamans take an oath?

- Necessarily. It contains such eternal commandments: do not fight against the power of power and the forces of the elements - water and fire. If people give a large reward for performing rituals, do not rejoice; if it is small, do not be offended. We have great energy, both dark and light. If I am offended that a person has given me little, the entire ritual that I performed will go down the drain.

- Do you have clairvoyance?

— After I became a shaman, about two years later I received a small clairvoyance that the Gods gave me. I could determine whether a person's soul had left, what might happen to him in the near future, etc.

A lot of people began to contact me, I began to understand that this was interfering with my shamanic duties. I didn’t have time to do both: here a woman asks to see where the trouble came from, here are several people waiting for me to do a ritual for them, to sprinkle it on the Gods... And when the Gods wanted to give me Great Clairvoyance, I refused. They gave me another exam - it all happened as if in a dream. They gave me a burnt sheep shoulder so that I could look at it and say that I would see it. I didn’t even look, I turned it over and gave it back.

The Gods were very angry with me. I got very sick and ended up in the hospital. There, in a dream, the Gods came to me again and asked why I was refusing Great Clairvoyance. I began to explain that I wouldn’t be able to help the people, I didn’t have time to do everything at the same time: doing rituals and predicting destinies was too much. I convinced them, they agreed with my arguments. They promised not to bother me anymore. Small clairvoyance still remains.

Female shamans can be clairvoyants, since they cannot spray to the Great Gods. The main thing, of course, is not to make mistakes, to correctly understand what you see. By the way, my ancestor Oilongo also abandoned clairvoyance, becoming the administrative head - taisha. He had a dalsha assistant - his right hand, who practiced clairvoyance, burned shoulder blades, looked at vodka, and he sent people to him. I often send them to my student Nadya Stepanova, who has clairvoyance.

—Which of the shamans of your kind did you know during their lifetime?

- Nobody. Obodoev Afanasy, not a direct ancestor, was repressed in 1937. When he was taken in the courtyard of the house, he managed to tell the local men not to forget their family, not to forget to pray so that their life would not become even worse. My direct ancestor is acting. shaman Borboev Nikolai died in 1943, almost from hunger.

- Do you feel that the Gods have accepted your prayers?

“The gods are not visible, but I feel whether they accepted the prayers or not.” Most often they accept, they rarely refuse to help. Only if the praying person has an ancient generational curse, which was imposed for great sins - murder, theft, etc. In this situation, when the shaman prays, he always asks the Gods for forgiveness for this person, asks that the mistakes of the past be corrected and forgotten. Previously, shamans took upon themselves all the troubles of people when the Gods refused to help. Then this was reflected in the fate of the shaman, his family. I do not do this.

- Do you help everyone? Do you refuse anyone help and advice?

— I basically help everyone who comes to me. It’s good if a person gives his all energetically during the ritual, because we ask almost thirty gods for help.

There are cases when a person is already at the end of his life, and it is impossible to help him, I still perform a ritual so that he dies calmly, without being offended by his loved ones. I try not to take on those who were born with major developmental anomalies, with severe curses, and burdened by heredity. But by and large, a shaman must help everyone, even the enemy. The gods themselves will figure out who to reward and for what...

(From the diary)

Every summer, before the onset of haymaking, the Buryats of the Alar department make entire uluses (one village of their closest relatives) trips to the mountains to worship the spirits of ancient shamans at their burial place. These shamanic spirits are simply called ubuguts (elders) or mountain elders.

There are few such “mountain elders”. Within the Alar department, the spirit of the ancient legendary shaman Bogdan is universally revered, to whose burial place on certain days people come from all the nearby uluses, and each ulus community in turn makes a sacrifice to the spirit of the shaman, asking for favors and protection from him.

The wooded hill where Bogdan is buried is called “Imat Height” (Imaating Yonder); it is located 10 versts from the village of Alar to the north.

On July 14, 1922, the Buryats of the Ulzetuy ulus gathered to go to pray to Bogdan. On the recommendation of the late P. P. Bagarov (an intelligent Buryat from the “honored elders”, known as a researcher of Buryat life), who belonged to the same ulus, the Buryats allowed me to go with them and attend the prayer.

Residents of the Ulzetuy ulus, although officially Lamaists (some are baptized), nevertheless continue to perform their ancient shamanic rituals. They gathered to leave from 20 houses - men, women and children.

They bring with them tarasun (milk vodka), “sagan” (white) milk in bottles and in birch bark tuyas, and one sheep intended for slaughter.

Among the Buryats, sacrificial sprinkling is always performed with cow's milk; mare's milk is not used. (The Yakuts, on the contrary, offer only kumiss, fermented mare’s milk, to the gods and revered saints).

The prayer will be performed by the ulus shaman Makhoshkeev, who is called “tailgan boo” (tailgan shamai) - a shaman without initiation. He performs public prayer - tailgans and petitionary prayers to the spirits of deceased shamans. Having driven a mile through the taiga and climbed a slight slope, we stopped at three birch trees that grew near the road to perform the “Barnes” ritual. Blue and white scraps of fabric hang on birch trees. Apparently this is a regular stopover.

A small fire was lit in front of the birch trees. They immediately laid out “sagan” - milk food and tarasun - in two dishes. Ribbons of white and blue fabric and a bunch of hemp were tied to the birch trees. They are called "saba". Near the sacrificial food, in front of the fire, they stuck a birch twig into the ground, the so-called “tuurge”; One Buryat sits down in front of him, with both legs tucked under him. This is the traditional prayer pose of a person who is a representative of the entire ulus. During prayer, the person sitting raises his right palm vertically, sideways forward, and makes small oscillatory movements in front of his face. (Exactly the same prayer gestures among the ancient Etruscans when burning a dead person on terracotta, tablets from Tsere. See World History, edited by Dr. G. Helmolt, vol. 4, p. 324, as well as in the Hermitage the figure of a praying Greek ). All Buryat shamanists pray in the same way on all occasions, sitting and standing or crouching on one knee.

The shaman put a bunch of juniper to the fire and fumigates the sacrificial dishes and food with it. This sanctifies and purifies them. Then, milk food was poured into one flat wooden bowl, and from tarasun into another, the same one. He takes the first cup himself, and gives the other to one old man. Both stand facing east. The shaman has a bunch of juniper on his left hand, and a bowl of milky liquid on his right. Sh. reads a prayer, ending each individual address with the exclamation - “seek”. His assistant repeats the same exclamation.

The exclamation is accompanied by sprinkling of the sacrificial food forward. Pour into the bowls again, read the prayer and sprinkle up to three times. Finally, the shaman and his companion throw their sacrificial bowls high forward with the exclamation “tuyorik.” They watch how the bowl fell - straight to the bottom or overturned. The first position serves as an omen of happiness. In case of a good sign, green grass, a symbol of grace, is pulled out from the place where the cup fell, brought and placed near the tuurge.

(By the way, the Buryats themselves do not understand the meaning of the clatter “tyuyornk”, and in the Buryat language there are no derivative words from this root. Apparently, this word for them is foreign, borrowed from other tribes. Among the Yakuts, “tyuyoreh” means lot , fortune telling, tyuorehtee - tell fortunes; cast lots (by throwing an object). The word “seek”, widespread among all tribes of the Altai-Sayan Highlands, is probably not of Buryat origin).

Following this, the shaman and his assistant approach the “tuurge ubugun” (an old man at a birch tree stick stuck in the ground), who pours sacrificial drinks into the bowls. The shaman drips milky slurry onto the fire, muttering some words, then dips the ends of the branches of growing birches and hanging rags into the slurry. His assistant sprinkles it on the birch trees from his bowl, then gives the Buryat sitting at the “tuurge” a drink, who, having tasted it, passes it on to others. (A meal with the spirits of all those present or the most honorable persons is one of the basic principles of developed shamanism. At the same time, the gods and spirits get crumbs and drops, and the lion’s share of the sacrificial food and drinks is consumed by the worshipers themselves, first of all, of course, by the shaman priests. Therefore, chronic alcoholism of the priestly class and the associated manifestations of mental illness probably constituted one of the typical features of shamanic religious life).

A second stop is made near the winter roads in Kuku-nora, on the top of the hill, which offers a beautiful view of the lake and the Buryat winter roads. We stopped at the edge of a birch grove. They also make a fire under a forked birch tree. According to the Buryats, the shaman Bogdan himself stayed here during his lifetime. Here the commemoration and refreshment of “Ezhin”, the spirit of the Kuku-nor area, takes place. The shaman, taking off his hat, kneels, facing east. Makes prayer gestures, and then says a prayer with splashing in the order described above.

Usually the shaman and one person who is in charge of pouring the sacrificial drinks pray, representing, as it were, the face of the ulus. The rest of the Buryats are indifferent to prayer, do not listen and are busy talking loudly. The libation is also made three times with the throwing of the cup and the taking of grass, a symbol of happiness.

Among the traveling Buryats, many drunken people can be seen, for the Tarasuns began to drink in the very morning, consorting with the spirits. An hour before departure, a special treat for the Khats is served in the ulus on the occasion of the holiday. Each splashing of the gods gives everyone a reason to sip on the joyful drink. Apparently, the meaning of splashing is not so much to please the gods, but to find a decent reason to please yourself.

Further the road runs through the Imat ulus (winter road). On the slopes of the hill you can see about 25-30 houses, good Russian-style log houses, covered with planks of four slopes. Behind the winter road there is an ascent to a high hill, all overgrown with dense, tall-trunked forest. This is the “Imatskaya Vysota”, the habitat - “sudal” - of the revered spirit, the shaman Bogdan. According to the Buryats, yesterday people from many uluses visited the shaman’s grave. In view of the fact that at this time people always come to Bogdan from many uluses, it is necessary to establish queues. And today parties can be seen traveling from everywhere - some in carts, others on horseback. There are also people returning from the shaman grove.

A wide dirt road, well-trodden, perhaps, leads to the grave. for a hundred years, fans of the famous shaman.

Place of prayer at the very top of the hill. There is a small open area among tall trees. Traces of fire pits and whole heaps of ashes are visible everywhere.

At the site of the prayer site there is a pillar, 2 arshins high, with a small recess just below the top. This is “serge” “ubuguta”, i.e. a pillar, an ancestor’s hitching post. It is hung with ribbons of white and blue fabric. There is a small fire ahead.

On the left side of the “serge” there is a small table. Further, to the east, a few paces away, a whole horse skin with a head sticks out, threaded onto a slightly inclined pole. The animal's head is facing east; the skin of the legs is removed with the hooves. According to the Buryats, this last year’s sacrifice to Bogdan is called “tsagyl”.

This is the place of public prayers to the spirit of the shaman. There are a lot of Buryats scurrying back and forth, there is noise, hubbub and drunken hubbub.

Newly arriving old Buryats near serge, having taken off their hats, fall on their left knee, putting their right leg forward and praying, that is, bringing their right hand forward to the level of their faces, moving it. Apparently they are whispering something. In other words, the deceased shaman is the real deity, more real and understandable than any distant Tengris.

Some Buryats come up to the shaman’s hitching post and pour out tobacco from the pipe and treat the spirit, while others stick fresh birch branches into the crack of the hitching post. At the top of the “serge” copper coins are visible, pieces of fir bark and juniper branches are placed. In short, everyone expresses their attention and respect to the spirit of the “ancestor” in their own way. Many people immediately drink tarasun, invariably dripping onto the fire.

Prayer and sacrifice

The main sacrifice to the spirit of the shaman is the slaughter of a sheep. But before this, a preliminary prayer to the spirit is performed, divided into two separate acts, accompanied by the sprinkling of dairy products and tarasun. The first splashing takes place on a common area near the “serge” hitching post. All those who arrived are present here, not excluding women and children. The second prayer is performed a little to the side, to the south of the common area, under a large spreading birch tree, which is the real “serge” of the spirit. Only a few, selected persons, led by a shaman, have the right to be present here; Women and children are strictly prohibited from entering there. This is, as it were, the holy of holies, the closest residence of the revered spirit. A narrow path leads to this sanctuary, located 30-40 fathoms from the place of general gatherings.

On the revered birch tree, according to the Buryats, hangs a small model of an iron stirrup, which the deceased shaman carried during his lifetime on his horse canes (“sorbi”), but, with all my effort, I could not see this sacred relic of the Buryat saint on the birch tree. On the main birch tree and on two growing nearby, white and blue scraps of material are hung.

In the old days, Buryat shamans were burned at the stake; the bones were collected in a bag and placed in a special hole hollowed out in the trunk of a growing thick pine tree. In this case, the tree bark was not broken, but carefully removed. Having placed the bag with the relics of the shaman, the hole was tightly closed with a plank, on top of which the removed bark was placed, and it was hammered in with nails. At the site of the burning, signs of shamanic dignity and other objects were hung on growing trees. (See the excellent work of N.N. Agapitov and M.N. Khangalov - Shamanism among the Buryats of the Irkutsk province. Izv. East-Sib. Department. Imperial Russian. Geogr. General., vol. 14, I 1-2, 1883, pp. 53-57).

Therefore, over time, when the hanging objects decayed, rotted or were taken away, and the tree that received the shaman’s ashes fell, of course, all external signs of the ancient shamanic burial disappeared. So in relation to the shaman Bogdan, who, according to Buryat legends, died nine generations ago (i.e. almost 300 years ago), no obvious traces of the shaman’s grave have been preserved, and none of the Buryats can show the pine tree in which it was placed urn-bag with Bogdan's bones.

As a result, the veneration of the souls of the most ancient, and therefore most revered, shamans is addressed simply to growing trees, and, moreover, mainly to birches. Among the Buryats, it is strictly forbidden to cut down any tree in a shaman's grove. Thus, in connection with the veneration of shamanic souls, a kind of independent, cultic veneration of trees is born. The Buryat shamanist must get used to treating his spirits through the branches of trees growing on the grave, and then through each birch tree, if it is not possible to go to the burial place. Apparently, this is the origin of shamanistic customs - the constant use of felled birch trees or their branches in all appeals to gods and spirits, as well as, of course, growing birch trees. The replacement of pine (conifers) with birch probably appeared later, in connection with the development of the cult of white spirits. Among the Yakuts, for whom the cult of light (heavenly) and black (underground) spirits has two polar poles, birch is related to the former, and spruce and larch are related to the latter.

First appeal to the spirit

At the back of the common area there are two fires burning, where two large cast-iron bowls for cooking meat are placed. Upon arrival, they immediately begin to boil water in them. This business is done by men; Women are generally prohibited from participating in the preparation of sacrificial meat.

All those who arrived, about 60 people in number, sat down in a semicircle near the serge, facing south. Men form the first, inner row, and women are placed behind them. In front, on a spread felt, there are dishes with sacrificial drinks (milk and tarasun). Near the serge a felled birch tree is stuck - “zalma”, from which a twig is broken and stuck in front of the felt with sacrificial food. One honorary elder sits behind the felt - “tuurge ubugun” - as a representative of the praying ulus and to pour out the sacrificial food. Near serge, in front, there is a small fire. Tassels made of fabric are hung on the hall. In front of those sitting, one Buryat holds a sheep intended for slaughter, turning its head to the south or southeast.

“Sagan” from milk pizza is poured into two cups, and tarasun into the third. The shaman takes a cup of milk, and the other two are taken by two Buryats, who together with the shaman say the words of prayer and sprinkle. In front of the “serge” of the spirit, the shaman takes off his hat and kneels, and two Buryats repeat the same after him; while saying the words of prayer, “serge” drips from the cups. Then, facing the east and holding a sacrificial bowl in his outstretched right hand, the shaman says a prayer. Two others in the same position repeat the words of the shaman; They pronounce “seek” at the end, and splash water from the bowls with a wide wave. The splashing is repeated three times. After the third appeal, bowls with the word “tuyorek” are thrown forward, guessing about happiness. At this time, Tuurge Ubugun prays, moving his right hand. After the prayer, the shaman, having filled the bowl again, drips on the fire, dips the branches of the zalma birch tree and the ends of the hanging tassels in the liquid. Then, having taken a sip from the cup himself, he passes it to Tuurge Ubugun to drink. Next, the bowl is passed from hand to hand to everyone sitting. They drink tarasun, pouring it from the glass.

Then they begin to slaughter the sacrificial sheep. The shaman first sanctifies and cleanses the sheep with prayer, smoking juniper, brings “sagan” in a bowl to its lips and sprinkles it on its back. Two men take the sheep by the front and hind legs and throw it on its back, keeping it facing south. They kill in the usual sacrificial way: having made an incision in the stomach, the Buryat sticks his hand in and ruptures the aorta. They are freshened with a knife without breaking the bones. The meat of sacrificial cattle is always cut lengthwise into slices and then boiled in a cauldron. The skin is not removed from the head; parts of the throat, tongue, lungs and heart are not separated from the head.

Second appeal to the spirit

While the sacrificial meat is being cooked, the shaman, accompanied by nine people, goes to the main “serge” of the deceased shaman, to the sacred birch tree with his relic. One of the accompanying persons performs the duties of tuurge ubugun, the other eight sit in a semicircle under a birch tree, facing southeast. The shaman, in the usual manner, prays and sprinkles three times, turning his face to the birch tree, and also tells fortunes with a bowl. He wets the ends of birch branches, drips it onto the fire, drinks and passes the cup to others, who also treat themselves to tarasun.

During prayer it is not allowed to pass from the eastern side. Each appeal to a separate spirit ends with the mysterious exclamation “seek”. When mentioning and treating one spirit, one must not forget its constant retinue. In this case, Bogdan's treat is apparently accompanied by the remembrance of the names of his descendants - shamans (Tangaran, Balikhai, etc.).

While representatives of our ulus were praying at the sacred birch tree, a preliminary prayer to Bogdan of another ulus began on the common platform. For some reason, four of them spray together with the shaman.

Feeding the spirit with meat

Treating the spirit with sacrificial meat among the Buryats also comes down to the acts of a collective meal of the ulus community itself, and the share of the spirit goes to the bare bones that are burned on the “shire” altar, small pieces of meat and splashes of soup, for the cooked meat is eaten immediately by all those gathered.

In this case, the spirit was presented with a boiled sheep's head as an honorary snack. First, a triangular piece of meat with skin was removed from the forehead. This head has a special name - “tuulei”. Two Buryats hold a trough of meat in front of a fire. The shaman comes up and says a prayer three times; at the end of it, the Buryats with the trough spin around in the salt water. The shaman puts small pieces of meat in a wooden spoon and carries them to the altar, where a fire is laid out on an old heap. Treating the spirit with meat is accompanied by drinking, that is, sprinkling tarasun on the altar, on serge, zalma.

The head of a sheep - "tuulei" - was presented with special solemnity. A shaman without a hat, holding the “tuulei” high with both hands, says the words of a prayer. At this time, another Buryat comes up, takes the sheep’s head from him and carefully places it on the altar, where it burns.

After treating the spirit, the meat in two troughs is brought to the circle of odnoulusniks, who immediately eat it, throwing the bones wider. The meal is accompanied by copious amounts of drinking.

According to the Buryats, the shaman’s prayerful appeal to the spirit comes down to thanking him for taking care of them, to a request to give offspring to livestock and children.

● Worshiping Grandma Huathai

The weekend before last in the Irkutsk region, not far from the Bayandaev village of Nukhnur, in the valley of the lake that gave the village its name, from a thousand to one and a half thousand people gathered, representing all the Buryat tribes and a huge number of clans, mostly immigrants from these places. They gathered for a tribal tailagan - an ancient Buryat ritual of honoring the spirits of their ancestors.

In recent years, since the beginning of this century, tailagans, as part of the revival of spiritual values ​​and national traditions, have been held regularly, several times a year, in the summer. This ceremony was the first this year. The correspondent went to the Buryat steppe to try to understand the deep truths - why rituals are held, how the place and time are chosen, what meaning the Buryats themselves put into these pagan “dances with a tambourine,” which are creepy in the eyes of the average person.

True story like a fairy tale
Once upon a time, when the Internet had not yet been invented, and perhaps electricity itself was invented only theoretically, a woman named Huathai lived in the village of Nukhnur. Don’t let the fairy-tale beginning deceive you - in the Buryat religious tradition, all the spirits of ancestors are real people, and problems with determining specific dates of life are associated with the national attitude to the philosophical category of “time”. For the Buryats, it is not divided, as for modern people, into hours and minutes by the corresponding hands running across the dial, but rather represents a river, where the present, past and future are connected into a single smooth flow.

The woman, as they say here, “got married here”: she was born in the Korsuk ulus, got married in Nagalyk, and the family settled in Nukhnur, adjacent to the family estate of her husband’s family. Nukhnur ancestral shaman Victor Ilyin says: by birth she was supposed to become a shaman, but among the Ekhirit-Bulagat tribe a woman cannot be a shaman, so she lived happily and correctly all her life, gave birth to children, raised grandchildren and for holiness at the age of 80 was taken alive to heaven.

“In those days, we had great shamans who directly communicated with the other world - our gods, the spirits of our ancestors - and she told them from there, from above, during the ritual that she had been given a new name - Saint Alyaa-tuede,” continues Victor Alsatkinovich. “She described the ritual that needed to be done for her, how many rams to sacrifice and what diseases she would help with. Therefore, the ritual that we perform today should protect the births gathered at it from diseases associated with childbirth. It helps women against infertility, men - against impotence and prostatitis, and against kidney diseases. In general, this ritual is dedicated to fertility - people, livestock, land. If it is not carried out on time, women will have difficult births, sick children will be born, cattle will not give birth, people will get sick. All the Baikal Buryats turn to this grandmother, Alyaa-tuede, asking for help, wherever they are.

Gathering a huge number of people from all over the district and from the Republic of Buryatia to conduct a separate ritual dedicated to such an applied issue as “obstetrics” may seem strange to the average person (as if holding a ritual with a sacrifice might not seem strange!). But the secretary of the shamanic community of the Ekhirit-Bulagat district “Sahilgaan” Galina Balyueva explains that love of children and attitude to traditional family values ​​among the Buryats has been elevated to the rank of a national virtue.

“Before, we couldn’t get a divorce at all.” If a man took a woman on the side, then he was sure to take illegitimate children into his family - otherwise the laws of the clan and the continuity of generations were violated, the spirits of ancestors were angry, and the blood was spoiled. Therefore, a Buryat woman had no right to be jealous. In those cases when a woman was infertile, she herself chose another wife for her husband, and raised her children as a grandmother, says Galina Andreevna. – Until now, there are no Buryat children in orphanages, because it is a disgrace for the family and orphans are taken into the families of their closest relatives.

The shamans could not explain why the ritual was being carried out today, and out of helplessness they switched to the Buryat language. The most approximate explanation sounds like this: in the old days, when great shamans lived, they directly communicated with their colleagues who had already gone to heaven, and they dictated the dates for the rituals and who needed to be worshiped at each specific time, from what misfortunes the Buryat people needed to be saved . Then followed a long period of oblivion associated with the struggle of the young Soviet government against pan-Mongolism, when the great shamans were exterminated as a class.

Now the traditions of primordial shamanism are just beginning to be restored. And the conduct of rituals is a fairly bureaucratic matter: at the beginning of spring, the council of elders meets and, according to the calendar, adhering to weekends, schedules the dates and themes of the tailagans that need to be held during this coming summer. For example, the next tailagan, which will be held at the end of July in Kapsala, will be devoted to an even more pragmatic issue - so that the guardian spirits of these lands protect the population from car accidents.

Meeting place can not be Changed
But there are no discrepancies in determining the place where the tailagan will be held.

“The tribal ritual in Nukhnur has been performed here since time immemorial, where it was first performed by great shamans, where Alyaa-tuede herself indicated, and it has never, not once, been transferred to another place,” the tribal shaman Viktor Ilyin is convinced. – Tailagans are held at places sacred to the Buryats, and here is such a place. Lake Nukhnur itself is holy and also healing: the mud from it heals joints and bones. From here they specially bring dirt to the famous Nukhnur hospital.

Holy places among the Buryats do not have their own names and are not marked in any way on the map or area - they simply exist, and everyone knows them. Ancestral holy places are another matter. Tribal tailagan is a large ritual common to all Buryat tribes, to the entire people. But it is preceded by ancestral tailagans - rituals performed by ancestral shamans for representatives of only one clan, family, surname. Such rituals are performed without fail once a year, until the end of May. They bring together all people from the same family, from the same grandfather - the founder of the clan, wherever they are.

The ancestral rite is held in a place called “Toonto”. Galina Balyueva explains:

– Toonto is the afterbirth that comes out of the mother after the birth of the child. According to Buryat traditions, it is buried somewhere in the estate. Now in local maternity hospitals, doctors, at the request of mothers, give out the placenta specifically for burial according to tradition. So this is where the grandfather’s toonto is buried - this is a holy ancestral place - and there the ancestral tailagan is held. If the tribal rite is not carried out, the spirits of the ancestors will be angry and such a clan has no right to participate in the tribal tailagan.

The ancestral ritual is a miniature copy of the tribal one. Representatives of the clan chip in money for sacrificial rams, gather on Toonto, dig up birch branches with multi-colored silk ribbons tied on them at this place - everyone could see such ribbons on the Burkhans along the Buryat roads. It turned out that the colors of the ribbons have their own meaning, their own message and requests to the spirits of ancestors: blue is the color of the sky, an inextricable connection with departed ancestors, red is the color of blood ties, family unity, green is the color of the steppe road, the endless path of the family.

“I don’t know where this tradition came from, perhaps we adopted it from these... Buddhists, but a tree is definitely needed,” admits Galina Andreevna. “Only a family shaman can perform this ritual; a stranger simply does not know the names of the spirits of this family, does not understand who to contact and what to ask. And representatives of the clan gather, drip white food, sacrifice rams and ask to solve the problems that have accumulated in families of this clan over the past year. I have one distant relative, a modern girl, who married in the village of Kudareika, into the Tadai clan. And she and her husband didn’t even know that such a ritual needed to be performed. They lived poorly and quarreled all the time. I found out about this and told her that a ceremony needed to be performed. They didn’t know anything at all - they asked which shaman to invite, how many rams to buy. I say: “Grandfather Tadai had how many brothers? Two? So, you need to bow to two sheep.” She later came, thanked me, and told me that everything had worked out between her and her husband...

Three quarters of a century later
The practice of widespread tribal tailagans was interrupted by Buryat shamans at the end of the twenties of the last century, when the new government began to fight shamanism as part of the general fight against religion. They called this direction the ideological struggle against pan-Mongolism. Old-timers will not remember exactly when the last tribal tailagan took place, but approximately it was in 1928-1929. During the entire period of Soviet power, not a single tribal tailagan was held in the Buryat territories (at least in the district). At the same time, many shamans say that ancestral rites were performed quite often in secret.

Large ceremonies resumed only in 2000. Then the Ekhirit and Bulagat shamans gathered together to remember how this was done in general, and to determine the time and place. Galina Balyueva, who herself took part in organizing this ceremony, recalls:

– Many shamans refused to go to tailagan. Not out of fear of reprisals from the authorities, but because they considered their strength and authority insufficient. The gift of a shaman is passed on from generation to generation, old shamans can predict by signs that the birth of a new strong shaman is coming, and the boy is prepared from childhood for this difficult fate - he will not have his own life, he will always serve other people. In Soviet times, no one trained new shamans, and when traditions began to be revived, shamans again studied, remembered, and exchanged knowledge with each other. None of the modern shamans have a real traditional shaman outfit - made of leather, with iron amulets, connecting him with the spirits of the upper and lower worlds. I managed to persuade only 16 shamans. We went to Tunka...

– Why exactly to Tunku? – the correspondent was surprised.

– It was necessary to revive traditions from the very beginning, where everything came from. There, in the Tunka Valley, according to legend, the toonto of the ancestor of the Buryats, Bukha-Noyon, is buried. First, in Ust-Orda, they held a ancestral rite of worship of grandmother Bubai-tuede, our ancestress, whose holy name is Begueen Erhe. Then they agreed with the supreme shaman Tunki and performed the ceremony on their land.

At the beginning of the 2000s, tribal tailagans were performed once every three to four years, but in the last few years they have been held three to four times in one year. This time, people from these places and representatives of all Buryat tribes from Alari, Bayandai, Kachug, Bokhan and Nukut gathered in the valley of Lake Nukhnur. Representatives of Olkhon and residents of Ulan-Ude also arrived. More than one and a half thousand people were expected to arrive - only the head of the family and sons are noted on the lists. It is believed that they will be the ones who will be patronized by the spirits who are addressed during the ritual. Daughters are not included in the lists, since they will marry into another family and will be protected by the ancestral spirits of that family.

The form of tribal tailagan has not changed for centuries. By noon, a spontaneous parking lot appeared in the valley of Lake Nukhnur - dozens of cars covered the hillside. The women remained in the valley to cook and communicate - their presence at the ceremony is strictly prohibited. The men retreated to Toonto - an ordinary clearing on the border with the forest. Each district lit its own fire and stuck ancestral branches with ribbons tied into the ground. The same branches limited the perimeter of the ritual site, and the shamans from time to time carried over them, as if connecting the boundaries with an invisible thread, smoking coals from a common sacrificial fire - this was protection from evil spirits, and it was strictly forbidden to cross this border.

Each action was full of meaning incomprehensible to modern man. Here is the shaman Alari pouring vodka for ritual purposes, “splashing.” Vodka is poured into one common pan, and then poured into numerous bottles in two glasses so that from the top it pours onto the edge of the bottom and only then gets into the bottle.

- Why exactly, from two glasses? – asks the correspondent.

- So as not to be alone. You can’t be alone,” the shaman explains incomprehensibly, smiling slyly. Tribes and clans line up along an invisible line facing the sacrificial fires. Shamans read prayers in the Buryat language. Seven rams are sacrificed to Alya's grandmother. Then the local tribal shaman Shaende (Alexander Abgaldaev) reads a general prayer. The ritual takes more than two hours, after which the men descend into the valley, join the women, and then outwardly it is no longer at all different from a grandiose picnic, a large family holiday of an entire people.

There was a time when shamanism was practically forgotten. Now the era of its widespread revival has arrived. The media and social networks are full of notes about shamans. Laws adopted by states contribute to the revival and formation of new religious associations, such as the shamans of Buryatia "Tengeri", or "Tengeri". In addition, 3 more organizations are currently operating in the Republic of Buryatia:

• spiritual center of Baikal shamans "BӨӨ murgel";
• center of white shamanism "Lusad";
• Barkhan organization.

Shamans of Buryatia are working to restore shamanic customs and traditions, which are based on a natural cult, ecological worldview, and Tengrism.

History of Tengrism

Before the widespread world Turks arrived on the territory, they had their own, original and very ancient religion. They worshiped the heavenly deity Tengeri. The idea of ​​it dates back to the 5th-4th millennium BC, it was widespread throughout the Great Steppe. The term "tengeri" literally means "sky", that is, that part of the universe that we can see, and also means "lord", "master", "master spirit", "god". An equally widespread version is that the word “tengeri” is formed from two words - “Tan-Ra”: from the Turkic language “tan”, which means “sunrise”, and the fairly well-known, ancient, religious name of the sun - “Ra”. These are just versions. The real etymology of the word has not yet been solved.

How did Tengrism appear?

Tengrism was formed naturally. This is a rather significant and obvious difference from the Abrahamic religions, which were created by the prophets. Tengrism is based on the worldview of entire peoples; it is associated with the relationship between man, the surrounding nature and the elements. Man is defined as a conscious being belonging to nature, who lives in a natural environment, is strongly dependent on it, but nevertheless can both fight with it and adapt to it. Tengrism speaks of the family connection between man and nature. This religion honors the spirits of ancestors and deifies nature. The Mongols and Turks worshiped natural forces not because its elements were formidable and not because of fear of it, but because they were grateful for its generous gifts. They felt the natural Spirit, realized themselves as an inseparable part of it and knew how to live with it in balance and harmony, obeying its rhythms, rejoicing in its beauty and enjoying its changeability. Thanks to their understanding of interconnectedness, the Turks lived very ecologically, caring for nature as their home. Its ruin was considered an unforgivable insult to the Spirit of Heaven Tengeri and natural spirits.

Hierarchy of gods and spirits

In Tengrism, deities live on three levels of the Universe. In the celestial zone live bright gods and spirits who are friendly to humans, although they occasionally punish people for disrespectful treatment. In the earthly zone live natural spirits, elementals or winds, and various divine beings, as well as the spirits of deceased shamans who were closest to people. We communicated with them without the mediation of the kama. The third, divine, zone was the underworld.

Who are shamans?

The word "sha-man" literally means "wise man" and comes from the Tungus language. A shaman is a person who was able to overcome the physical limitations of the body, expand the boundaries of his consciousness and experience deep spiritual experiences. This word first appeared in letters from Russian servicemen from Siberia in the 17th century. They, in turn, heard it from the Tungus, a tribe living on the Uda River. Izbrand Idesa and Adam Brandta, who went by order of Peter the Great to China through Siberia, brought this word to Europe. Among the Siberian peoples, the word “shaman” in the meaning of a minister of worship (the only exception is the Tungus group) was not and is not used. They called shamans differently: sorcerers, sorcerers, magicians, priests, etc. The Türks, speaking about a person who possesses knowledge and magical powers, called him kam.

Shaman and Kam

They managed to preserve the definition of "kam" in the meaning of the word "shaman", although they have professed Islam over the past several centuries. Today we call the Kams nothing more than shamans. In the literature, a term has been preserved that calls the shamanic ritual a ritual. It was believed that shamans are the chosen ones of spirits. They have their own philosophy and their own worldview, which makes up their inner world. But this is no longer Tenegri, since this is the religion and worldview of the entire people. Being Mongols and Turks, the Kams in those distant times were Tengrians. The strongest shamans of Buryatia and nearby territories, possessing state mentality, could become, if they wanted, Tengri priests.

The shaman of Ulan-Ude talks about the commandments of Tengrism

Today, thanks to the Internet, there are too many imaginary commandments from supposedly mystical shamans: “Work for the good of the state,” “Don’t spend too much time in front of the monitor,” etc. But what are the true commandments that the shamans of Buryatia keep? Do they even have them, like all other religions? Shaman Bair answered these questions. Buryatia was full of rumors about him. Today he is recognized as one of the strongest shamans. The dedication took place back in 1993. Having received the education of a veterinarian, he took the shamanic path and in 2003 organized “Khaan Tengeri”.

In shamanism, God is spoken of in a broad sense; everything that exists, including people, is God. By studying various traditions and religions, a person gains access to God in a much broader form. It is necessary to teach and respect the traditions of other peoples - this is what one of the commandments says. The explanation to it says that there are many people, many traditions, but we all have one land, common, and we have one God, although we call him by different names. And by studying other people's traditions, we can study another hypostasis of God and Goddess. Among the commandments there are those familiar to Christians: “Do not kill”, “Do not steal”, but there are also purely shamanic ones: “Pray to your family”, “Remember that you are a man”, etc. Not all shamans of Buryatia follow the commandments of Tengeri. Unfortunately.

Shamans of Buryatia. Treatment

Shamans have a lot of useful things in their arsenal, both for the state as a whole and for each individual. The basis of shamanism is a connection with nature, humanity, respect for ancestors, and maintaining harmony in all life. Kams perform rituals to instill a child's soul in a woman who cannot get pregnant, to call rain during a drought, and in general to change the weather, to heal the sick. Usually, when people have tried all possible traditional healing methods and lose hope of healing, they turn to shamans.

The shamans of Buryatia use the common method of wrapping the patient with the entrails of an animal for treatment. This is a dangerous and difficult undertaking. For this you need to buy, for example, a sheep. Must be of the same gender as the sick person. The sheep is sacrificed to the spirits and, according to the Kams, it seems to give its life to a person as a gift; thanks to the energy of its organs, the patient is cured and gets back on his feet. Liver is placed on liver, heart on heart, etc. After death, energy remains on the internal organs of the sacrificial animal, and they are used as a kind of battery. Many chronic diseases are treated in this way.

Shaman's prediction

The supreme shaman of Buryatia told the world that Europe will face serious disasters in 2017. They will cover mainly its western part. Also, the shaman, whose family includes 50 generations of seers, pointed out that Europe is most likely to face a man-made disaster associated with natural disasters. Similar to what happened in Japan at a nuclear power plant after the tsunami.

Shamans of Buryatia. Reviews

Recently, numerous angry messages have appeared on social networks. They say that the shamans of Buryatia demand fabulous money and even sex services for their work. After the ritual, they begin to tell the patient that there was a strong shaman in his family, and his gift can be passed on to the patient, so it is urgent to carry out the ritual, which will cost one hundred thousand rubles. You also need to take a couple of people with you. And if suddenly the patient does not want to do this, then he is told that he will get sick and may die. Naturally, a person is suggestible, he is hypnotized and rushes to collect money, takes a few relatives or friends and goes to perform the ceremony. And then it’s like they end up in a sect. Constant rituals, money. And new arrivals with a patient are also taken into consideration: this hurts you, this doesn’t work out for you, etc. There are many stories about shamans drinking, and students providing sexual services to teachers.

Many accusations come against the Tengeri organization. But a representative of the society, Lyudmila Dashitsyrenova, replies that the Tengeri shamans do not require payment for rituals. When you take this path, you need to take an oath not to ask for payment for your services. Shamans should help people, not rob them. The only thing they ask is to bring the necessary products for the ritual. No donations are being collected. They are voluntary. Lyudmila also notes that recently the Tengeri organization, which is located on Barnaulskaya Street in Ulan-Ude, has received many reports that under the name of their organization there are people working alone or creating groups and deceiving people, who trust the name "Tengeri". They give patients a price list with prices, but the shamans of the real Tengeri organization never do that.