
Spirit of the steppe around lake Sut Khol. |

Kyzyl. Spirit of the bird on a ovaa (chamanic altar). |

An ovaa (shamanic altar) on the road to lake Tere Khol. |

Village of Belder. Nomad's yurt and cattle in the taiga.
|

Village of Belder. Shamans MOKUR-OOL (seated) and ANISSIA cleanse the
inside of a nomad's yurt of evil spirits. They drum up their dungurs.
|

Village of Belder. A shaman heals a patient inside a nomad's yurt.
|

Moscow. Russian shaman VERA cleanses a patient of evil spirits, by drumming her
dungur. She operates in a small forest set in the capital.
|

Kyzyl. Russian Shaman VERA cleanses, with smoke from a juniper twig, a
patient possessed by evil spirits. She operates in the TOS DEER (nine skies)
shaman association.
|

Kyzyl. Shaman ZOE drums up her dungur during a ritual of
cleansing a patient of evil spirits. She operates in the TOS DEER (nine
skies) shaman association.
|

Kyzyl. Birds become spirits over the ovaa (altar) of the TOS DEER shaman association.
|

Kyzyl. Shaman AY CHUREK leads a night kamlaniye (ritual with fire)
outside the TOS DEER shaman association she founded.
|

Kyzyl. Shaman AY CHUREK leads a night kamlaniye (ritual with fire) in
the open.
|

A boy drinks water from a brook.
|

Kyzyl. Shaman LUDA uses smoke from a juniper twig to clean up a patient of
evil spirits. She operates by the ovaa (altar) of the TOS DEER shaman association. |

Hunter VALERY in the taiga near the village of Eshtehem. |

On Sept. 13, 2001 I went with Vera to visit the new shaman clinic she had
set up in the village of Chaganar. On the way from Kyzyl, we stopped at the
sacred mountain of Hayirakan ( the bear) where Vera wanted to perform a kamlaniye to pay respect to the mountain. I asked her if she could perform
one for Richard Feynman. Although a strict rationalist - like me - I am sure
Richard would have appreciated....I would.
I showed her Richard's photo printed on the back of his book adding that
Professor Feynman appreciated drumming. "Good, good - said Vera - it means
that he was close to shamanism" and she performed a full kamlaniye. At the
end of the ritual she added : " He was an enlightened soul, his spirit moved
south west". I think Richard would also have appreciated the antenna in the
background : shaman and antenna, are they not both about invisible communication
?
|