An American in Mongolia: Part XIII

Mongolian anthropologists’ definitions of the “authentic” shaman

In Mongolia, a shaman is defined as a human being who is chosen by a spirit to be the link between worlds because she is “talented, clever, and moral.”28 Mongolians, despite being traditionally strict adherents to the animistic tradition of worshipping the eternal blue sky or tenger, say there is no such thing as a “heavenly sign”; ancestral spirits alone can chose people to become shamans. When the chosen shaman (hopefully) learns that she has been chosen she will experience a number of symptoms that are recognizable to Mongolians as “shaman’s sickness.”29 As an interviewee poignantly put it,

I was 17 years old while still in high school and I would black out. My parents were very worried and took me to the doctor but no diagnosis. I had very bad dreams, and some places I would go I could feel the bad things that were happening there. My parents took me to a shaman who is now my teacher. I didn’t want to be a shaman. I thought it was very funny. I didn’t believe it. But the bad dreams I could no longer separate from reality and I was going insane. Now I’m ok.30

In order to complete shamanic initiation and gain more power yearly from then on, the shaman must undergo chanar31, a three day ritual in the summer during which a shaman is partially possessed32 continually over the course of three days and nights, under the guidance of a teacher, who is a more experienced shaman. As a result of initiation, the new shaman will develop skills with the aid of her spirit, either in healing sickness, casting curses or curing curses. The ancestral spirits (usually of deceased shamans), according to Mongolian cosmology, are able to learn new abilities and increase powers in the realm that they typically occupy which they can impart to the shaman who they possess. Alternately, the shaman may gain the knowledge of new skills or increase their own power directly when their own (1/5-1/9 according to both gender and the cosmologies of different ethnic groups within the political boarders of Mongolia) soul travels into another realm. The guiding spirit who initiates contact with the shaman may be of several origins, either a protector spirit of a piece of land or a body of water that used to have a human or animal or plant form or the ancestral33 spirit of the shaman. Thereafter, the shaman’s (usually) ancestral spirit or ongod34, as well as local spirits are appeased with offerings of milk, vodka, and meat three times a month according to the lunar calendar (these rituals fall on the 9th, 19th, and 29th of each month of the Gregorian calendar.) Other days of the month the shaman may ask her own ancestral spirit or others to perform tasks during ritual35s, and ongods are interested in helping because of a personal investment, which is appropriate, because shamans are more accountable to human needs than spirit needs.