A Buryat Mongol tale
Buryat is an
autonomous republic of south
Russia in
Asia next to
Mongolia and east of Lake Baikal with the capital in Ulan-Ude. The
indigenous religion is a kind of
shamanism that has persisted in the spite of the Russian presence in the
region since the 17th century.
In the distant
past Ulgen Tenger created
human beings, who lead an
idyllic existence without
disease or any sort of
disturbance. However, his brother, Erleg Khan, who ruled the
spirits of the
eastern direction, wasn't very happy with the
conditions
humans enjoyed. Consequently he sent disease and
tribulation to them and they began to die and fight among themselves. Ulgen and his spirits of the
western direction gathered in the
Pleiades to discover what could be done to
reverse the work of Erleg. Finally they decided to send
Eagle to be mankind's shaman.
When Eagle
descended to
earth, he tried to tell people that he was sent to be their shaman. But he didn't know how to
communicate with them in a human
language and finally he had to return to the western spirits to tell them that he could not help humankind. They instructed him to return, but this time look for a
woman, with whom he would
mate. Their
child would be the first
shaman. Eagle found a beautiful woman sleeping under a
tree, he
impregnated her and eventually her son became the first shaman. Even today shamans remember the flight of the eagle in their dances and fly up to heaven when they functioned as a shaman.
One of the most famous spiritual descendants of the first shaman was called Hara-Gyrgen. Ulgen Tenger, observing the
arrogance of this man decided to teach him a lesson. Tenger removed the
soul of the
daughter of the
clan and the girl appeared to be
dead. The arrogant shaman was summoned and he saw at once that the girl's soul had been removed. When he ascended to the upper world he saw that Tenger had placed it in a
bottle that he was was holding, covering the top with his thumb. Hara-Gyrgen took the form of a
bee and stung Tenger's
cheek, whereupon Tenger dropped the bottle to slap the bee. Hara-Gyrgen grabbed the girl's soul and flew back to the earth.
Ulgen Tenger was so angry at the power of the shaman that he made him jump up and down on a
mountain so that when the mountain was beaten down completely shamans will no longer have their powers. After
jumping 100 years Hara-Gyrgen was becoming tired. That is the reason why shamans now are not as strong as they used to be, and why people no longer understand many of the shaman songs.
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Source: A Buryat Mongol Tale