I. S. Sh. R., 2nd Conference = Shamanism & Performing Arts

Appendix – Contents

Article

PP.

How to Turn Spirits into Relatives

165-9

Intonation in Nanai Shaman Caerimonies

170-1

Practicians of Dreaming

176

Bondage in Mongolian Shamanism

177-80

Manc^u Shamanic Epic Wubuxiben Mama

182-5

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pp. 165-169 Isabelle Daillant : "Shamans, C^imane and "Inside-People" – or How to Turn Spirits into Relatives". [Bolivia]

pp. 166-7 integration of "inside-people" in spirit-world into relationship with the kindred in the world of mortals

p. 166

A shaman’s "spirit helpers" are conventionally designated in the C^imane idiomatic usage as "people-from-inside-the-mountains". {cf. the common Taoist belief that deities and/or souls of the dead dwell within the interiors of the sacred marchmounts of China.}

 

"When a spirit, invited by the shaman, mentions the type of kinship tie that links him to any one participant in the gathering, all the others can immediately deduce the nature of their own relations with him ... . The same system of equations also makes it possible to classify all the spirits whose kinship relationship with the spirit of reference is

p. 167

known. Moreover, the shamans themselves also marry "inside-women" [viz., spirit-women abiding inside the spirit-world {shaman’s own system of souls may be interior to, or "inside" of, shaman, as in the Taoist proposition that "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you"}] and get children.

C^imane traditional religion http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Chimane-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html

p. 168 differences of C^imane from Siberian modes of reckoning kinship-terminology of relationship between one’s spirit-affines and one’s mortal affines

[C^imane] "When a shaman marries an "inside" woman, therefore, the brother of his wife becomes his brother-in-law, but also the [classificatory] "brother" of all his [including mortal] "brothers-in-law". If, among the "inside-people", one knows a "brother-in-law" of that spirit he will be the shaman’s "brother" ... . ...

In Siberia, on the contrary, ... by marrying a female spirit, the shaman establishes an alliance ... not only between his consanguines and the spirits, but also between these and his affines. For the latter, the spirit brother-in-law of their shaman brother-in-law is equally a brother-in-law [of those mortal affines of the shaman,] which can never happen in society."

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pp. 170-171 T. Bulgakova : "On the Meaning of Musical Intonation in Nanai Shaman Caerimonies".

pp. 170-1 the various types of Nanai rites

p.

#

rite

170

1.

"a person (not necessarily a shaman) influences a spirit ... appealing to him [the spirit] with a speech. ... Thus, in the rite tsecteriuri ... speech addressed to him [the spirit] is not sung, but said and ... is accompanied with non-semantic word that is pronounced melodiously (in our example the word-tune "tseah-tseah"). ... The melodic intonation as if extends, prolongs the gesture directing it through the border between worlds toward a non-material" spirit.

 

2.

"The spirits come into the shaman’[s] body and act through it. Thus, ... a spirit ... would eat when someone puts a small piece of food into shaman’s mouth. {holy communion} Constant presence of the spirit in shaman’s body is maintained with singing, beating a drum and clanging metal pendants on a belt."

 

3.

"the most proficient Nanai shamans were able to bring spirits in the real {waking-world, not "real"} space in such a way that everyone could see their dim visible contours.

171

 

They ... did not need ... the music sounds ... . So, the shaman does not sing and beat the drum in this case".

 

4.

"all actions are performed in the other world. ... . ... the shaman performs such rites in darkness and closes his eyes."

 

5.

"rites are performed in shaman dreams, while a shaman is sleeping."

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p. 176 Michel Perrin : "The Practicians of Dreaming : Shamanistic Model and Dreams".

book by Michel Perrin, concerning shamanistic dreaming amongst the Wahiro (Guajiro) of the northern Venezuela-to-Colombia border – "Les Practiciens du re^ve. Un exemple de chamanisme (Paris : PUF, 1992)."

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pp. 177-180 Alice Sa`rko:zi : "The Rope : Symbolical Bondage in Mongolian Shamanism".

p. 177 rope or cloth-strip as bridge for souls coming into life in this world, and for exiting this life into otherworld

"The first king of Tibet Gna-khri-bstan-po has come down from heaven by a rope called dmu-thag. This descent formed a bond between heaven and earth and this bondage has never been broken since then. {Its non-brokenness may perhaps be a subject of controversy.}

Dead people were believed to go back to the heavenly area. There was a special class of priests who had ability to guide the dead to heaven by help of a rope. They were called dmu "master of rope".

Among Na-khi people a piece of cloth represents this "bridge" over which the soul passes to the heavenly regions."

pp. 177-8 caerimonial construction of cords or of ribbons as connection between worlds, in initiation into shamanic office

p. 177

"The Buriat shaman’s soul meets his future celestial wife in the sky two or three years before his initiation. ... Cords connect them as an emblem of the union between the shaman and his spirit wife. ... All ... are

p. 178

connected ... by ribbons of different colours symbolizing the rainbow that also joins earth and sky, the realm of people and that of spirits.

 

A similar initiation ceremony takes place among the Tungus of Manchuria. [They are] connected by a string or narrow thong supplied at every thirty centimeters with bunches of ribbons. The rope is made of red silk or sinews coloured red. This is the road along which the spirits will move. On the strings a wooden ring is put that moves freely ... . The spirits are believed to house in this ring. The teacher shaman calls the spirits one by one to enter the ting and sends them one by one to the candidate who is sitting in the middle beating his drum."

pp. 178-9 exorcism by cutting bond between sickness-spirits and the living

p. 178

"Another bond is represented by the rope is between the diseased ... patient and the spirits that caused the illness. ... Mongolian [ritual text] ... "Cutting the black noose of a fiend" ... : a striped rope must be bound to the hands and feet of the patient joining him to the ransom figure, then the head of the ceremony cuts this bondage. Later a golden rope is tied to the patient and to the door of the house and then it is cut off th[r]ee times. In the meantime the shaman or the ceremony master addresses the evil spirits : "I cut your noose ... !""

 

"It is not __ that I cut off,

it is the __ ."

 

"striped rope"

"tongue of the thousand evils."

 

"offering meat"

"hindrance."

 

"raw meat"

1,000 daimones of the 4 directions

 

"multicoloured stripe"

"neck of the devil."

 

"black rope"

"gossip of the evil."

p. 179

Mongolian Vajra-yana ritual text "Cutting off the Lasso" : "After the lasso-throwing the leader of the ceremony transformed himself into the deity Heruka and in this form he cut the fastening between the harming spirits and the patient. He repeated this transformation five times, always changing into another form of Heruka, thus taking on the forms of Buddha-Heruka, Vajra-Heruka, Patna-Heruka, Padma-Heruka and Karma-Heruka one after the other. ... The ceremony master took the weapons of Heruka and used them to cut the lassos that bind people."

pp. 179-80 liberating souls of the dead from miscontrol by the living

p. 179

"A Mongolian handbook of death ceremony called "Method of tearing off the clasping hands of ... the dead" ... . According to this booklet the officiating lama ... makes a ransom figure ... . ... The officiating lama sticks the head and the throat of the human figure with a crow’s feather then ties it with a black thread ... . ...

p. 180

The two ropes attached to the two arrows must be bound together, symbolizing the attachment between the dead and the living. ... At the end of the ceremony the lama tears off the ropes with which the black and white arrows had been bound together, symbolizing the detachment of the realm of the dead from that of the living."

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pp. 182-185 Fu Yuguang : "The Transmission and Value of the Manc^u Shamanic Epic Wubuxiben Mama".

pp. 182-4 the epic : its text and its transcription onto cave-walls

p.

epic

182

"Wubuxiben Mama was created in epic form ... during the Jin and Yuan dynasties ... . It describes how Wubuxiben – female

183

khan of the Wubuxun clan of the ancient Nu:cen in Donghai (East Sea) as well as ancestress of the Manchu – devoted her whole life to the protection of her clan members with her shamanic power, and how she brilliantly governed seven hundred tribes in Donghai."

 

According to the epic itself, "After the heroin[e] Wubuxiben died, the shamans followed her wish to hold a grand sea funeral ceremony in her honor, and carved her achievements on a cave wall at Deyan Mountain by Donghai. The epic was inscribed with graphic symbols from the cave opening down the walls, as if there were thousands of animals and birds inside. ... The epic was initially circulated in the form of pictographs. ... Later it was recorded by Manchu ... writers and preserved by descendants of the Lemuhe clan. {cf. the Mormon name /LEMUEl/; the Mormons likewise claiming that their scriptures were originally written in pictographs.} ... Then the Lu clan has preserved the epic in ... Manchurian ... scripts.

 

The incomplete epic found so far has 4,000 lines and parts of the text use a dialect of the Woji clan originally from Donghai. Particularly valuable ... is that it has retained almost one hundred graphic symbols copied from the cave by the east Sea. ...

The epic tells how Wubuxiben,

184

with her courage and astuteness, unified seven hundred tribes in Donghai, and developed maritime routes across the Sea of Japan to Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands. Wubuxiben demonstrated her shamanic power and performed immortal feats."

p. 184 the epic : its myths

The epic retains many creation myths of the Tungus groups. These myths retell

how the East Sea was formed;

how seals nurtured humankind during the Great Flood;

how the celestial birds brought fire during the Ice Age; and

how totems and shamans and shamanesses came into being."

p. 184 the epic : its rituals & dances

"The epic records an enormous nature pantheon of the ancient Nu:chen, and vividly displays ... the rituals recorded as

Offerings to the Sea,

Sea Funeral Ceremony,

Divination,

Ecstatic Dance,

Soul Flight,

Sea Diving,

Fire Swallowing,

Fire Walking, and

Soul Calling."

"The epic ... preserves more than thirty different kinds of ritual dances : the

Fish Dance,

Bird Dance,

Feather Dance,

Hundred Animal Dance,

Flower Dance,

Serpent Dance,

Sea-Spirit Dance,

Goddess Dance,

Head Dance,

Face Dance,

Breast Dance,

Hand Dance,

Shoulder Dance,

Feet Dance,

Double-Hit Dance,

Tussling Dance, and so forth."

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Miha`ly Hoppa`l & Pa`l Pa`ricsy (edd.) : Shamanism and Performing Arts. Ethnographic Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Budapest, 1993.

[2nd conference (1993) of the International Society for Shamanistic Research, in Budapest, Hungary] appendix (pp. 165-190).