The revival of an ancient religion has taken Mongolia by storm. Decades of oppression and religious conversions could not stop Mongolia’s first religion, Shamanism, from surviving. The hundreds of years of Chinese influence over Mongolia before the turn of the 20th century brought in heavy pressure for the region to convert to Buddhism. A majority of the area took to the reform, but their original religion continued to hold on in the background. Practices and rituals stayed preserved through the generations via underground teachings of the traditions. The more difficult time period to survive was the Soviet era during the first half of the century. The Soviets suppressed both Shamanism and Buddhism for decades by killing off shamans and monks and destroying sacred ritual sites. The native religion seemed to disappear until Mongolia regained its independence in 1990. Shamanism returned to the spotlight in full force, holding onto many of their original traditions. However, a new era has spawned shamans who do not follow the traditions as closely as others.
The return of Shamanism was bound to take place. A religion so embedded in the origins of a country could not stay suppressed forever. The shamans may have had to hide their practices for hundreds of years and teach their children, grandchildren, and apprentices in secret, but their faith was not lost. A majority of the original traditions survived along with that faith. Shamans today still take on the responsibility of communicating with the spiritual world. They become a channel through which people can talk to their ancestors. Mongolian people, even those that have doubt of a shaman’s true abilities, have taken to visiting shamans over the last couple decades in order to get a glimpse of what parts of their past got wiped away during the Soviet regime. By talking to the spirits of a family’s ancestors through the spiritual conduit, they can reestablish a family archive.
Spirit and ancestor communication is just part of what a shaman can do for a person. Another of the aspects of Shamanism in Mongolia involves natural healing. This involves more than just giving an ill person medicinal herbs or chanting over them in an effort to cure the person’s energy fields. Shamans believe that the sick person carries an underlying supernatural evil or a natural harmonious imbalance that causes the illness. A shaman seeks out the help of spirits to find where the disharmony or evil comes from in order to help an ill person. The spirits also protect the shaman as he embarks on his supernatural journey. The more spirits that help the shaman the more powerful the shaman’s work will be.
To seek the help of spirits a shaman must make a voyage into the spiritual realm. These journeys begin with rituals that follow specific procedures. A shaman may need to go into two separate trances in order to help a person fully recover. The first of these happens in the daytime and is referred to by some groups as “shamanizing on foot,” or “daytime shamanizing.” This journey consists of a divination and would only involve finding what the underlying problem includes and what it would take to solve the dilemma.
The other half of the ritual would need to take place at night. This ritual is referred to as “shamanizing with a drum.” Sometimes, the trances that a shaman enters into to speak with the spirits during this part of the rituals becomes induced by large amounts of alcohol or by smoking specific herbs. During the ritual a shaman will wear a full traditional costume consisting of a gown known as “armour.” Along with this costume, a shaman would wear a head dress made up of either deer antlers, eagle feathers, or owl feathers. Magic tools such as arrowheads, mirrors, bells, and a staff are carried by the shaman as well. Costumes and magic tools help to protect the shamans from any supernatural being that wishes to inflict harm on him during his journey. If all goes well during this part of the ritual, disharmony leaves, and the ill person returns to a balanced state.
Restoring a person’s harmonious balance is part a shaman’s calling. An unspoken part of that vocation involves helping people without asking for anything in return. The reformation of Shamanism in the past few decades has led to people getting the help previously unavailable to them. Unfortunately, the newer shamans have begun charging for their services. Many groups of shamans or centers for shamanism education have popped up within the last couple decades. These groups have become one of the main reasons that shamanism in Mongolia has come under much criticism. This newest component of shamanism has been termed Neo-Shamanism.
The criticism of these Neo-Shamanism groups evolved from the groups having differing views from traditionalist shaman practices. These new groups began creating empires in many Mongolian towns after Shamanism started to become popular again. The growth in newer shamans came from the lack of people with jobs. Becoming a shaman was a way to gain a job, and going to a shaman was a way to put the mind at east that there existed a future even after everything seemed to have fallen apart. Offices with fully running staffs popped up all over the region that offered shamanic services. Though against original Shamanism tradition people would pay for the services they were provided. One of these newer shamanic organizations refers to themselves as Mongol Böögiin Golomt Tow, or “The Hearth of Mongol Shamans.” This group doesn’t follow the original traditions in every aspect, but they do use the same basic shaman magic to help others.
The larger groups of the new era of Shamanism do not follow the traditional ways, but some of their ideas do have positive aspects. The Mongol Böögiin Golomt Tow group in Ulaanbaatar make a profit from their service to people, but they are also trying to create an organization to help educate the future practitioners of their religion and come up with rules and regulations to be followed. Some experts believe that there aren’t many “genuine” shamans left in the world. The teachings that have been the basis for the revival might be accounts from people who have heard stories, but few have gone through the true apprenticeship with a true shaman. Thus, some believe that the idea of educational organizations might not be such a bad idea.
Being appointed as a shaman by an organization is not the only way a person can follow the shamanic path. The traditional determination of a shaman still takes place in Mongolia. The ones who still follow the traditional path are chosen by a spiritual messenger. They will fall into an illness like no other they have ever experienced. They may suffer from terrible pain, epileptic seizures, falling into unconsciousness, or a variety of other sufferings. It takes a shaman himself to diagnose the person as a chosen one. Many who truly possess the shamanic powers try to resist in the beginning because they know how deep the responsibility is that the job holds. They will not feel relief until they decide to take up the practice and become apprentices of the shaman who diagnosed them. Thus, many give in and follow their predestined path. The ones chosen in this original way usually follow tradition and do not charge for the service they supply. They usually live on only the basics of having a roof over their head and little food in their stomach. They do not mind this since they know it is their calling to provide for others.
Shamanism consists of a variation of factors that are not well understood by everyday people. To have the ability to talk with spirits and heal people with the help of those spirits can frighten people. The traditional Mongolian practice of shamanism once had the label of being an evil practice due to the need for the Soviets to control the region. The practice was banned and persecuted. Generations of underground teachings have kept the religion alive. With the recent founding of independence shamans can come out of hiding. Children and grandchildren can take up where their elders left off, helping others in ways that modern medicine can’t.
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Linsey Arpad is a nurse at Beginnings Birth Center. She enjoys travel and writing.
