These performances were collected between 1996-2000 during Manduhai Buyandelger’s fieldwork in Dornod Province in Mongolia. The shamanic chanting are verbal memorials for the ancestral spirits that the shamans used to evoke in their rituals.
The translation doesn’t match with the invocation/chanting in order to protect the privacy of the informants and their personal details that shamanic evocations sometimes contain such as the names of their ancestral spirits.
The Initiation Ritual
A shanar is a ceremony for advancing a shamanic rank. Among the Buryats of Mongolia, a shaman needs to stage thirteen shanars to become a full-fledged shaman (zaarin) for males and seven for females. I chose to present fragments of invocations of a shanar instead of other shamanic rituals, because it requires the most elaborate and complex preparations and an invocations of all Buryat communal dieties and a shaman’s “origin” or ancestral spirits. Also, during the shanar, a shaman is expected to get possessed by his or her ancestral spirits. A shaman’s goal for staging the shanar is to advance one’s powers in healing, divination, and magic. All shamans and all spirits sing, they never just recite the poetry. In addition to the descriptions of the ritual I present some samples of transcriptions and translations of the shamanic invocations in the ritual arena.
Each shaman has a set of “white” (healer) and “black (black magic) spirits. Although the initiation ceremony is called shanar, it actually consists of two ceremonies: the shanar – the gift giving to the “black” spirits, and the shandruu – the gift giving to the “white” spirits. The ceremony takes three days (two days for shanar and the last day for the shandruu). The first day is spent on preparation of the gift of trees (“forest”) and evoking the spirits, the second day is spent on preparing the sheep and the shaman getting possessed by the ancestral spirits and conversing with the audience, and the final day is devoted to the shandruu – making the distilled alcohol for the “white” spirits. The more ranks a shaman gains the more numerous are its spirits. A shanar, as a major Buriat ceremony shows that while its immediate premise is to obtain powers for a shaman through gift giving, the social implication is to enact how genealogies are remembered (not only through monuments, graves, and texts), but mainly by performing memories as a persona from the past.
A clanging bell marks the start of a ceremony. The first spirit they call is Burhan Garval – the Deity Originator. The Deity Originator is a “white” spirit (benevolent and protective), and the most powerful one and governed both the “white” and the “black” (aggressive) spirits. Thus, he and his entourage was summoned both at shanar and shandruu.
Aahai Yohoi Min ee höö, Ayaduu Baidaag Min ee höö
[terms of endearment for the spirits] , O the Deity Originator,
The peaceful and gentle one, the white silvery one, please descend!
Descend to lead my initiation ceremony with other spirits,
Correct my mistakes, deflect the thieves and other misfortunes
Hover near us, sing to us, and make a beam of light with your arrival
Connect your speedy silken mediator [the shaman] with the powers of spirits
Um Ma Ne Bad Me Hum, Um Ma Ne Bad Me Hum…[a Buddhist prayer]
My clan is Sharaid, my uraa is Khar shono (black wolf)
I am Tomor the son of Luvsan, I am your speedy silken mediator [a shaman]
…Your speedy silken mediator [the shaman] is singing out an invitation
Descend, hover over the offerings, take them with joy, and savor with pride
We lit golden candles for you on the fragrant rosewood table
In the light of the hundred-legged candles we put six worldly offerings
The strong red tea that we keep from the white hare – the forest thieves
The abundance of white liquor, the gifts of money and yards of silk
The Deity Originator, the Great King Spirits, descend…
The shamans repeat the evocations several times. During the first round of evocations the shamans summoned the top ranking common Deities and spirits (but not yet their personal ancestral spirits). The Deity Originator, the fifty-five tenrgis (skys) from the West, and the forty-four tengris from the East, the Thirteen Lords of the Oihon (an island in Lake Baikal in Russian Buriatia) such as the lord of disputes, the lord of the river Angara, or the lord of Erhuu (the city of Irkutsk), the Dorlik (the Deity of smithy and blacksmiths), and a House Mother were all summoned to take their seats at the feast.
All these important spirits descend to the rituals, but they neither possess the shaman nor they engage with humans all that much. The only top-ranking communal spirit who possesses a shaman and communicates with the audience is the leader of shanar – Manjilai.
Another communal spirit that possesses and serves the humans is Avgaldai. He is, however, a low-ranking trash-taker. He is called on by a shaman after a washing-off ritual and takes out the waste water and paper with which people dry their skin in the washing off ceremony. He is also called on to get rid of dangerous items. Avgaldai is one of the most useful spirits. Removing pollution is extremely dangerous. By now the shaman(s) complete evoking the common higher spirits and are about to evoke their own ancestral spirits.
Enlivening the paraphernalia with ancestral spirits
After the evocations of communal deities and spirits, the shamans evoke their ancestral spirits, who are the main mediators between the spirit and human worlds. As the following excerpt calling on Tömör’s spirit named Hairtai Buural Ejii (The Beloved Mother Silver Hair) illustrates, a shaman needs to sing out the names of the spirit’s main residence, her places of burial, play, and bathing, as well as her title and occupation in the celestial realm. A shaman gives the directions for the spirit to descend, whom to meet, and what to expect. A shaman also prepares elaborate paraphernalia for all spirits, each of whom possess their designated items. The Beloved Mother Silver Hair is the possessor and the protector of Tömör’s mirror – the main shield from witchcraft and pollution.
In the three streams of Rashaant [a place name] you paddle and play
In the Blue Hills [a place name] you reside
On silver strings you spin and fly
Over tall birch trees you were sent off [this refers to the smoke from cremation]
The key-keeper of the Western fifty-five lords of heaven
The daughter of Damba and the wife of Bat, Hairtai Buural Ejii (the Beloved Mother Silverhair)
We are calling your body from the celestial realm
Descent to the country called Mongolia, to a place in Dornod
Your speedy silken mediator, Luvsan’s son Tömör
Is striving for his fourth shanar and promising the fifth one
He is inviting you to lead the initiation ceremony and bring luck and prosperity
Descend and hover over our fire, our hearth
Descend and possess your silver mirror darkened with age and power!
Descend and saddle your speedy brown steed!
By describing each spirit’s distinctive place, title, and name in matching rhymes, Tomor sang and drummed another half day calling on his ancestral spirits to descend into the feast and possess their respective objects of paraphernalia. As Tomor sang, his ancestral spirits descended into his heart pendant, drum and drumstick, metal headdress, capes, mirror, shielding sticks, cloth gowns and headdresses. The rest of the paraphernalia were hung on a leather rope next to his altar. Through poetry, a shaman “animates” the paraphernalia by investing them with spirits.
The shanar Tömör began the daatkhal — a request for guardianship from spirits for all the people in shanar. Then, he introduced every single attendant (even if there were more than a hundred people) to the spirits and asked them to take these people under their protection.
Speaks Buriat, lives in a place in Dornod
He is from the Mergen clan
His parole is Altan Tov
In his thirty eighth year old
He is the son of Bazar, his name is Bat
He is here to support your speedy silken mediator
Please take Bat under your protection, guard his health …
Bring him luck and prosperity
Tomor continued his drumming and singing in order to make sure that everybody who came to the ceremony was under the protection of his ancestral spirits.
Then the family members and attendees spent a few hours building forest out of trees brought from the mountains and creating a new universe for spirits. Through poetry Tomor animated the animals of the forest to offer them to the Deities and spirits:
The mountain trees I did not cut, the real trees are growing
The cliff trees are not used, the growing trees are brought
The trees with gilded trunks and silvered branches are offered to you….
The bright yellow sun shining over my tent
That is a gift of a golden earth to you
The grey-haired moon that brightens the earth
Is a gift of air and sky for you
The nine sky persons to entertain you
Now the quick white hare bellows
The dashing red antelope is bellowing
The favorite son of the deepest forest,
The playful weasel is running up and down the hill
Moving his ears and smiling at us
The quick white stoat is out of his hole and shaking his fur
Seventy seven containers of distilled butter
Are offered to you, please descend
The trees are silent, but the chorus consisting of nine boys and girls called Yöhönchin[1] all dressed in their finest degels (traditional robes) brought life to the scene. They skipped around the “forest” rattling bells, playing cymbals, and singing “Aahai, Yohoi Mini ee Höö, Ayaduu Baidag Mini ee Höö.” The spirit entertainers, the Yöhönchin, did the background singing for the shamans in order to aid the shaman to attract the spirits, and to entertain them in the ritual arena. They used the word degdeh (to jump or to hop) to describe the movement of the spirits who possessed a shaman. The spirits, as “air-bodied beings” were attracted to “light” and “decorous” things, like songs, poems, bright colors, and incense (smoke of dried thyme and juniper).
After the attendees had readied the “forest,” Tomor continued to evoke his spirits.
The sudden arrival of Manjilai – the leader of the shanar — did not surprise anyone. Manjilai (possessing Tömör) complained that the shanar was taking longer than it was supposed to and that the preparations needed to be faster. He requested some tea, said that one of Tömör’s ancestral spirits, Badam will lead a large part of the ceremony, then requested some milk and left.
In addition to inviting them to the feast, Tömör also called on the landscape spirits outside of his tent:
The great spirits of this place
Who hover in groups and clusters, all come and descend to
The tea that we hide from the white hare, the delicious food,
The white alcohol and the milk from the brown cow
Hold with joy and savor with pride
The pirates [spirits] who seize the gifts on the roads
The divers [spirits] who steal the gifts from the sailboats
The haunters who take the gifts from the mountain cairns
The thieves waiting to steal during floods and disasters
Do not fight over the offerings,
Everyone, take with joy and savor with pride.
The Deities of four sides of the universe
All landscape spirits of the country Mongolia,
The thirsty ones, please take the drinks,
The hungry ones, please take the food
The nameless creatures summoned by the drum beating
The ones who rummage here and there
The ones who are attracted to the bell clanging
Please hover without confusion and descend without hesitation
I have not heard your name and have not seen your face
The nameless […] spirits
The fiery snake – whip holders
The leaders of fierce wolf-soldiers
The cities and buildings dwellers
The copper-brown rock hearted ones
The ones who leap within four directions
All take with joy and savor with pride!
Grace with your presence, join the others
To protect my white shanar from dangers
From the curses of an armored shaman
From the black magic of the spirits and Deity
My clan is Sharaid
My parole is Khar shono (wise wolf)
I am the son of Luvsan, my name is Tömör
I am here to advance in my degree and improve my quality
Tomor finished the part of the ceremony evoking the landscape spirits, and now, it was time for his teacher Tsend to give his instructions as to what to do next and whether the shanar was on the right track. He did it by evoking the leader of the shanar – Manjilai.
Tsend, Tomor’s teacher became possessed by one of his ancestral spirits who wished well to the audience. Tsend/spirit sang:
…Let all be under the blue sky healthy and free of pollution.
Let no flu touch you.
Let the dirt fly away…
Töörög is a ceremony for checking the presence of souls in the bodies of persons. No soulless person is admitted to the shanar, because that person might get possessed by dangerous spirits or attacked by demons or ghosts. He might also simply fall ill. Tömör called on his ancestral spirits and then introduces everyone to the spirits and asks the spirits to let him know if the person’s soul is intact in his or her body.
Tömör is evoking: The great origin spirits of my clan hover over us
The King Originators sing close to us
In the tall Mountains of Khok Nuruu
In the Yellow Hills you reside
The three Rocks are your place of departure
The key keeper of the thirty three tenrgis (sky)
Pagma the mother, the wife of Galt, the Daughter of Davaa
The gate keeper for the thirteen lords of the Oihon
Tsolmon, the daughter of Bum…
The gate keeper for the Rock Tengri
Balta the zaarin (full fledged shaman) the son of Bayar…
The wife of Davaa, and the daughter of Bymba, the Hairtai Buural Ejii
Please let us know without confusion, without mistakes
Please do not be stopped by white or black magic
With Yöhönchin: Aahai Yöhöi Mine ee Höö, Ayaduu Baidag Mine ee Höö
It was the time to do the divination if the souls were intact. The kitchen attendant put a bowl of milk on Tömör’s drum while he held it horizontally. While standing under the tent skylight window, he rotated his drum with the bowl and sang
O, the Great Origin Spirits, please sing and hover closer
His clan is Sharaid,
His uraa (the secret parole) is Khar Shono (the black wolf)
He is Tamjid, the son of Dorje,
He is seventy two years old
Please let us know if this son’s golden soul
Resides intact in the body of his
Establish the truth through the divination with a golden bowl
This son is the “father” in my white square shanar
Show your eternal mastery in silvery divining with a golden bowl
Hover and establish the silver divining
Tömör the Yöhönchin, and the Audience: Aahai Yöhöi Mine ee Höö,
Ayaduu Baidag Mine ee Höö (several times).
If the soul was not intact in the body, then
Tömör immediately picked up his drum and called on one of his ancestral spirits:
I am calling you without confusion and mistakes…… The daughter of Damba and the wife of Bat, Hairtai Buural Ejii (the Beloved Mother Silverhair)
Without being blocked by either black or white magic
My old mother, please sing your beautiful songs closer
Bring the golden soul of Davaa, the son of Bayar
Do not lose it to a thief, do not give it to a liar,
Please hear me
Do not hinder in the lowlands, do not stop on the highlands,
Please hear me
Tömör and the Audience are calling Davaa’s soul: Iree, Iree (Come, Come)
A hurii, a hurii. A hurii a hurii. (a pacifying calling)
Your sons and daughters are crying for you
Your “mother” is waiting for you
We are calling you from all three universes
A Hurii, a hurii
To protect the attending chorus children:
The Deity Originators, please hover closer
[Guard] the nine wonderful Yöhönchin of mine
Guard them like a hat, attend to them like a scarecrow
Do not lose their golden souls in the wilderness
Do not lose their purity
All of you together, guard them collectively.
Connect all the Yöhönchin together
Join the hands and the legs of all Yöhönchin together
Connect their necks and bodies together (Tömör lightly knocked on the children’s arms and shoulders. The Yöhönchin and the audience kept giggling).
Each Yöhönchin was asked to wear a red tassel pin on their chest so that the spirits could distinguish them from other children. Tömör also connected all the Yöhönchin’s souls into one. For the entire shanar, the Yöhönchin stayed together and did not allow a person or a dog to pass between them. The töörög continued with the altar keeper, with the kitchen staff, and the rest of the audience. It took several hours to check the presence of everyone’s soul in his or her body. At the end, everyone purified themselves with the thyme smoke and were ready for the spirits to possess the shaman and converse with the audience.
Inviting the ancestral spirits to the forest and introducing the audience
Tömör possessed as Balta is drumming: I helped to complete the töörög
I came back to feast at the table with foods arranged nicely
I am the gate keeper of the Gujir tengris (Gujir sky Deitys), Balta the son of Bayar
I came to posses my arhali (cape)
Aahaai Yöhöoi Min ee Khöö, Ayaduu Baidaag Min ee Khöö… (with the Yöhönchin)
Tömör/Balta’s drumming is getting faster then there is a change of tone and music from fast to slow: shh, shh, shh, noyon, noyon, noyon,
I am ninety nine years old
Noyon, noyon, noyon (with the Yöhönchin)
I descended to the invitation of my quick silken mediator…
Audience and Dondog: yes
Tömör/Balta: I came to the shanar erected with the trees from the rocky mountains
I came to came to the feast of the white square shanar
The red boys and the red daughters in-laws and the girls, are you all well?
The audience: yes we are all well.
The spirit sings “noyon, noyon, noyon oo” and slowly walks out of the tent door and goes around the “forest.” Yöhönchin are singing and following the spirit.
Tömör/Balta stands next to the “grand” (leader) tree: what kind of tree is this?
Audience: the “grand” tree.
Tömör/Balta: why is it so small?
Dondog: yes, our trees are all burnt in the forest fire, trees are scarce now.
Tömör/Balta: shh, shh,
Dondog to the audience: accompany the spirit!
Audience is singing: noyon oo, noyon oo, noyon oo.
Tömör/Balta: … there are some squirrels had fallen from the branches
Fix them, children. Noyon oo noyon oo
I would like to smoke cigarettes and
Open a bottle of Beijing wine
Let’s combine smoke with conversation, children.
Audience, yes, yes
The spirit and the audience: noyon oo, noyon oo, noyon oo.
The altar keeper decided to joke with the spirit: Burhshuul (endearment for a Deity), what kind of smoke would you like?
The spirit ignored him, so he lights up a cigarette and hands it over to the spirit.
Dondog (attendant): Burhshuul, please take the hard black drink (alcohol).
Tömör/Balta: for health, everybody
Audience: for health. (The spirit takes a sip from the alcohol)
Dondog: Burhshuul, we had no rain this summer, what is the winter going to be like?
Please tell us the truth, make things transparent for us
No grass has grown for storing up in the ground or for making hay…
Tömör/Balta: You have accumulated too much sin
The winter looks harsh
The time might come when an orphaned baby-goat finds nothing to eat
Dondog: ok.
Tömör/Balta: the lord of underworld is angry at you.
Dondog: how to appease him, Burhshuul?
We cannot see your body and cannot hear your voice, the Deitys and spirits
We are your later generation descendants-dear ones
We are your dear ones who cannot know things like this
Tömör/Balta: there is a way to appease
The entire community must bring a sacrifice for the lord of underworld
Tömör/Balta is singing with the Yöhönchin: noyon, noyon, noyon oo.
Where are the father and mother of the square white shanar?
The father keeps stumbling with his introduction, unable to remember his clan name and parole (secret code). The audience is trying to help him.
Tömör/Balta: your brain is leaking (audience is laughing)
Then mother introduces herself followed by nine little Yöhönchin, who confidently and loudly introduce themselves to the spirit.
Tömör/Balta: have all the relatives of my quick silken mediator arrived to the shanar?
Audience: yes, all of them
Tömör/Balta: how many clans, and how many families are here?
Dondog: sixteen clans and three hundred sixty four [nuclear] families [2]
Tömör/Balta: live long and happy, children.
Audience: yes
Tömör/Balta: I fly between earth and heaven.
There is a place to descend for me in the celestial world as well
I am Balta the son of Gombo
I will have some tea that a white hare wishes to have
Before I take off
Please purify my two horses, children.
Noyon, noyon, noyon oo (singing with the Yöhönchin).
Someone brought thyme burning on a charcoal to purify the horvi (two metal horses).
The attendant from the kitchen hands him some tea in a bowl, then gives some milk to indicate the departure of the spirit.
Tömör/Balta: Have a hundred red cows in your summer place
Have seventy red calves tied there, children.
I need to depart for the celestial world
The audience is seeing off the spirit: ehuug, ehuug, ehuug. (Tömör joined in saying ehuug ehuug).
There was a small conversation after the spirit left and before Tömör began evoking his next ancestral spirit. He occasionally needed a break. During his breaks he liked to listen to the comments about the spirit’s behaviors during the possession ritual and was interested in what the spirits/he said to the audience. This time Dondog commented on the spirit who just left: “he is so gentle. He does not scold when one get confused.”
The ceremony continued with TOmor’s spirits’ evocations and visits…
[1] Means part of the nine.
[2] Dondog included all the families that requested protection from the spirits. Some people in the audience asked protections for the members of their extended families, who have their own nuclear families.