The shamanic paraphernalia are the tangible and objectified representation of the origin spirits. Each piece of paraphernalia is animated by an origin spirit. In order to summon these spirits, the descendants must remember each one's identity and identification. Each origin spirit has a name, kinship and social identifications, earthly and celestial titles, and huudal buudal - "addresses," or places of birth, death, residence, and visitations. These addresses point to multiple locations that mark the life passages of those who have become origin spirits: their birthplace, where they lived and died, and their rites of passage from burial through cremation to degdeh (ascent to the celestial world).
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As shamans summon the origin spirits one by one, poetically reiterating the names, geographi... (查看原文)
The official shamanic powers consist of completing thirteen shanars for male shamans to become zaarin and seven for females to become equally powerful duurisah. The shamans stage their shanars at intervals of two to three years; thus, the entire process of becoming a zaarin or duurisah usually takes between fifteen and twenty years. Timely, well-organized public performances of shanars are the most well-accepted and visible manifestation of a shaman‘s power. For each new shanar, a shaman acquires corresponding items of paraphernalia (e.g. a bracelet and a mirror for their first shanar and an antelope-skin gown for their final, culminating shanar) and enlivens them with newly connected origin spirits of the shaman‘s family or clan. Each new origin spirit is given an item of paraphernalia as... (查看原文)
When Baasan recalled the dates and circumstances of the deaths of her great-grandmother, Otgon, and grandfather, Amar, she became convinced that the two skulls her brother Bat saw before he died represented these two ancestors. Otgon and Amar had died at a time of repression and could not receive proper burials, mourning, and rituals of sending their souls to the next destination. "There was hardly anyone courageous enough to seek a lama to recite sutras. Whispering a mantra was the best most people could do at the time, said Baasan. Without the proper rituals of mourning and grieving, souls do not leave the living in peace, but come back to torment them.
Otgon and Amar were ordinary people. They were not shamans or lamas, so after death their souls were not destined to become origin spir... (查看原文)
