Chilling theme - shamanic burial. How many legends about them are circulating in Yakutia, how many mystics are in this topic, which, even in the 21st century, is now spreading around the world with the help of new technologies and does not cease to excite anyone in whom there is even a drop of ancient Sakha blood.
Numerous cases passed from mouth to mouth or recorded in various sources, works and media suggest that the mystical power concentrated in the places of shamanic burials has a certain intelligence. She responds to humble requests for help, She accepts the ritual of repentance, and She takes revenge in a terrible way for the insults inflicted. And the punishment in this case is quite proportionate to the crime.
The examples given below are all the more interesting because the same scientists, painstakingly fixing the artifacts found on the graves, do not analyze all kinds of cases clearly associated with the disturbance of ancient burials.
The article uses the works of Aiyy oyuun (White Shaman), Professor Vladimir Kondakov and poet, writer, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Yakutia" Vladimir Fedorov.
Historians testify to three types of burials in Yakutia: air, underground and incineration. The last type - burning was uncharacteristic, but still met. The second type - underground burial - began to spread especially actively from the 17th century with Russian colonization and the introduction of Christianity. The third type of burial, aerial, is the most ancient.
There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the harsh winter, which, combined with permafrost, for most of the year turned the earth into a solid ice monolith, in which it was not so easy to dig a grave. At the same time, the very low population density and the presence of huge forests made it possible to place rare burials in them without any sanitary problems, literally "drowning" in the taiga.
The second reason for the air burial was the preserved pagan traditions that then existed not only in the territory of modern Yakutia and not only among the ancestors of the present Sakha. They were practiced in the adjacent taiga territories by many northern, northeastern peoples up to the Mongols.
Not everyone knows today, but the distant ancestors of the European Slavs and their neighbors once, even before the funeral pyres, buried their dead in a similar way. From here come Russian folk tales, for example, about a princess sleeping in a crystal coffin, suspended on chains. And if we recall from this angle the description of the "hut on chicken legs" and "Baba Yaga - a bone leg", in which "the nose is rested on the ceiling, the head is on the wall, the legs are on the door", then it becomes clear that it is about air burial. Then the superstitious fear that grips the good fellows before the accidentally discovered and seemingly harmless forest "hut" is understandable.
Promotional video:
For the construction of the arangas, the Sakha (as well as the Evenks, Yukagirs, Evens) chose four adjacent trees, sawed off the tops with them and connected them with crossbeams at a height of about 2 meters. On these crossbeams, the coffin was installed, which was a hollowed-out deck of two halves of a solid and fairly thick trunk. Special fasteners and wedges tightly pressed the upper part of the deck to the lower one and fixed the entire coffin motionlessly on the platform. Sometimes, so that the roots of trees rotted less, they were exposed, removing the sod from above and really turning them into "chicken legs". Samples of such burials can be seen in the Open-Air Museum of Friendship in the village. Sottins of the Ust-Aldan ulus.
With the arrival of Russians and Orthodoxy, the priests began to demand from their flock "Christian burial." The Arangases were also considered "barbaric" and dangerous from the point of view of widening epidemics to the Soviet authorities. So burial in the ground was finally legalized.
But since shamans were the main spokesmen of traditional culture, the tradition of air burial continued to be preserved for them until the first years of Soviet power. Therefore, having discovered an ancient arangas in the taiga today, we can assume with almost one hundred percent certainty that it belongs to oyuun or udagan. However, shamanic graves require reverence regardless of what type of burial is used.
Some arangas have survived to this day also because there was a rather strict ritual for the reburial of shamans, especially the great ones. The remains of each of them lay in the arangas until it collapsed naturally. However, Siberian larch is unusually strong, it can hold the arangas for more than a century. In such cases, the descendants performed the reburial ceremony exactly 100 years later. Word of mouth passed on the necessary information to the next generation so as not to miss an important date. The second time the shaman was reburied again after 100 years, or earlier if the arangas was destroyed. For the third time, the remains were buried. The shaman's descendants carefully monitored the state of the air burial, each time bringing gifts. At the same time, they tried not to disturb him unnecessarily. Each time the shaman performed an ancient ritual. Arangas was built by nine young men who did not yet know the woman. A black-colored stallion with a white muzzle was sacrificed.
In response to this concern, the shaman continued to keep his descendants and provide assistance in difficult situations. To get help from a shaman, they came to his grave and asked the ancestor aloud or mentally. Sometimes they quietly knocked on the arangas or the grave structure in the form of a domina.
Legends have recorded cases when in conflicts or physical confrontations with aggressive strangers, the injured descendant of the shaman received help. A black whirlwind broke loose, scattering offenders and their belongings on the sides. It happened that the presumptuous guests were flogged by lightning and hail, often they went crazy. Sometimes the help was expressed not so clearly outwardly, but was of a constructive, humanitarian, healing character. But not all shamans became patrons of their descendants. This is typical for shamans who served the forces of light, writes Kondakov.
But if the relatives themselves forgot to reburial the ancestor or were disrespectful to his memory, he himself reminded them of himself, appearing in dreams or visions. If this did not have any effect, there would be reprisals against their own clan oyuun.
And, of course, shamans continue to protect their graves by all available means from outsiders. Let's move on to examples, mostly described by journalist and writer Vladimir Fedorov.
The oldest burial of a shaman woman in Yakutia is located in the Rodinka area in the Kolyma. It was opened by archaeologist S. P. Kistenev. All the finds were handed over to the institute, and the bones were sent to St. Petersburg for radio-carbon analysis, which showed that the remains of a shaman woman are 3.5 thousand years old.
About 10 years later, several families built their own summer cottages in the excavation area. And the pit from the excavation was turned into a garbage dump. Almost immediately, the newly-minted summer residents, despite the beauties of nature, began to feel an oppressive, heavy atmosphere, ailments and troubles fell on them. And a woman began to come to one of the summer residents … Only then the summer residents began to wonder where they had settled. They even found an archaeologist, from whom they received comprehensive information. The excavation site was cleared, an appropriate sign was placed over it, apparently, forgiveness was asked more than once. This happened a few kilometers from Chersky, where, of course, displaced by the migration flows of the twentieth century, the settlers knew nothing about local traditions and customs.
And the residents of the Yakut uluses are well aware of the possible consequences of disturbing shamanic graves, therefore, the demand from them is stricter. The villagers do not consider it necessary to help ethnographers. In one central ulus of Yakutia, for several villages around, only one man let himself slip to the scientist, and even then, being drunk. On his tip, scientists found a rich arangas woman, some massive gold rings were worth what! But the joy was short-lived. One of the expedition members went crazy, and the other went deaf. All kinds of troubles swept through the inhabitants of the surrounding villages.
Shamanic graves protect themselves not only from human curiosity, even if it is scientific research, but also from the onset of technogenic civilization. In the Evenk village of Kuberganya, Abyisky ulus, it was decided to build an airstrip. However, the old people from the very beginning raised a fuss that it was impossible to build in a designated place - there is a shaman's grave nearby. But in a land of triumphant atheism, the runway was built where it was planned.
The bosses arrived, a solemn meeting was held, and then, on the occasion of the holiday, they decided to take the local kids on a plane. They happily packed into the An-2, the plane ran along the runway and suddenly froze. On the occasion of the holiday, a full-fledged commission appeared in the village. We examined the An-2 and could not believe their eyes! Engine failure and propeller breakage, which in practice at the same time are generally very unlikely. Others were baptized because it all happened on earth. And the old people explained that the shaman took pity on the children.
Others were less fortunate. In the evening in the river in which everyone swam, the foreman of the builders drowned. His wife, who arrived at the funeral, could not believe that one could drown in such a place. Less than a month later, the second builder died from appendicitis, which turned into peritonitis. The next scheduled An-2, having run all the take-off 700 meters, could not take off. And according to the norms, 400 meters is enough. The plane flew to the stumps of the clearing, and people did not die just because the co-pilot at the edge of the site abruptly dropped the gas. The first pilot was shocked by everything that happened and was practically insane for a whole week.
When analyzing the causes of the accident, not only the experts, but also the recorder confirmed the absolutely correct actions of the pilots and the complete serviceability of all aircraft systems. And the incident could only be explained by mysticism.
Finally, conclusions were drawn, and a decision was made that ran counter to the entire communist ideology. They found the old people who so vehemently opposed the construction and asked them to perform a special ritual, asking forgiveness from the shaman. At the expense of the state and state farm, a sacrifice was made in the form of a bull. After this ceremony, the troubles ceased.
Another story happened in the village of Elgesk, Verkhoyansk ulus. A flat area in front of the grave of a shaman who lived in the 19th century was chosen as an airfield. And again there was an old man who walked around the district authorities for a long time and argued: "You can't!" Again, no one wanted to listen. The project was approved, work began. In the very first summer, they came quite close to the burial and stumbled upon an invisible line. Tractors and bulldozers, as if bewitched, broke down one after another. There was passive resistance. Trampled to cold weather, they threw the "unfinished".
The next spring, a new assault on the shaman began. And the shaman had to defend his grave with a more effective method. Soon the tractor driver drowned. Then the brigadier, driven to despair, went to the shaman's grave, in his hearts poked at it with a stick and even spat with words of curse. The end of the foreman was terrible - at first he completely went blind, and then died of terrible headaches. The site was never completed …
The aviation-shamanic theme can be continued with an episode connected with the most famous Udagan woman of Yakutia, the beautiful Anna Pavlova - Udagan Dokhsurum. Stories about her were collected and systematized by Aiyy oyuun Vladimir Kondakov, with whom they belong to the same clan, going back to the legendary Duo5a boatur. Anna Pavlova did not allow herself to offend even after her death. One day, lumberjacks settled close to her grave. But their beams burned out, then all sorts of troubles began. In general, the lumberjacks got away. Then in this place they decided to pull a gas pipeline, because this is the Vilyui ulus, oil and gas fields. But again nothing came of it. The gas pipeline had to be turned around the Udaganka grave, which caused the project to rise in price. Finally, helicopters began to fly over the shaman's grave. However, the pilot assigned to these flights soon requested other flights. He explained that whenever he flies over a certain area, a formidable woman takes off into the sky, capable of causing terror in everyone. The pilot was laughed at, and his colleague volunteered: “I came up with some kind of flying woman, just to avoid work! Give me this route! His helicopter crashed … The flight routes were changed. Now no one bothers the grave of Anna Pavlova - Udagan Dokhsurum.
Contact with shamanic graves does not always cause horror and panic. Sometimes contact with shamanic graves becomes a sign of a coming initiation. Two such cases are described by Vladimir Kondakov. However, it must be said that one of these cases happened to him, and the other also happened to the great shaman. So the examples are not typical.
The spirits of departed shamans do not want to put up with the changes taking place in society. They demand the fulfillment of a compulsory cult program. Amazing events related to the reburial of the shaman took place in the 1930s in the Gorny Ulus. Their details were collected by the teacher of the village of Bas-Kyuel I. Pavlov, who published them in the regional newspaper in the Yakut language in the 90s. This story was dealt with by the NKVD, which gives the incident a special color and reliability.
Oyuun Monnyogon, whose name is translated from Yakut as Black Currant, lived one and a half to two centuries before the events described. During his lifetime, he enjoyed the good reputation of a healer. In due time, his descendants reburied him. And in the 20-30s of the twentieth century, he began to bother descendants more and more often, although the arangas looked pretty decent. Moonyogon complained that he was flooded with rain, and a tendon on his right hand had decayed, so the finger rolled under his back. It must be put back and secured. In the old days, the request of the shaman would have been fulfilled immediately, but during the struggle with the remnants of the past and the emerging cult of personality, the relatives were timid. Finally, the shaman's patience ran out, and "repression" began. The unfortunate descendants of ouuin were caught between two fires. They had to choose, either to fulfill their family duty and incur the wrath of the authorities,or continue to feel Mongnogon's disfavor.
Family ties won. In the summer of troubled 1937, the village council of Atamai held a Stalinist ysyakh in honor of the new constitution. And after this event, without unnecessary publicity, Mongnogon was reburied. The chairman of the collective farm "Krasnaya Zvezda" A. S. Maksimov was appointed responsible for this event, and the ceremony was conducted by the invited oyuun Omokun.
80 people present were convinced that one finger is really missing on the right hand. He was found under his back, secured with a tendon from a sacrificial stallion. But this was not the most exciting moment of the reburial. In the voice of oyuun Omoka Monnyogon demanded a guide for himself, because he feared that he would not find the way. In ancient times, the Yakuts, together with a noble person, also buried a guide, usually a boy-strider. But what about the crowd of collective farmers? There were no volunteers to go to the next world ahead of schedule. Then Mongnogon said that in this case, a rutting oyuun would go with him to the next world, but in this case, all descendants would be haunted by rock. Oyuun Omok began to have seizures and began to collapse when 70-year-old Grigory Fedorov took a step forward, who said that he had lived enough in this world and was ready to be accompanied.
The audience took a deep breath, but Mongnogon once again frightened everyone, preaching in the voice of Omok: “Because of today, a big trouble awaits you in the future. It will happen through the fault of one young man and will go to trial. But you are only telling the truth and bear with it for several months. I myself will appear in the city to whom I need, and your suffering will end there."
With a feeling of accomplishment, the relatives went home. Including Grigory Fedorov. He calmly rested after the Ysyakh, ate, ordered the children around the house, went to bed and … died. They buried him with the whole world, as a hero.
Soon things went well in Atamay - diseases disappeared, the death of livestock stopped, the former fugitives began to return. But one day a young authorized auditor arrived from the regional center. Not finding the chairman of the collective farm on the spot, he decided to look through the documents and found the folder "The Old Man's Expenses File" with all the statements and cash expenses. The good fellow quickly realized what kind of career you can make in this matter.
This is how the investigative case "on embezzlement of state property, religious propaganda and murder" was born, which gave the right, in accordance with the famous Article 58, to call the main culprits "enemies of the people." The collective farm chairman, a shaman, two active assistants were arrested, and the rest of the participants in the event were summoned for interrogation. It was 1937. The NKVD sent an order to the regional department to promote the case as much as possible and arrange a loud, show trial. It is clear that such a texture is rare, and many could receive the coveted stars, professional fame and promotion. It was unthinkable, unrealistic for the victims of the NKVD to slip out of these iron gloves.
And suddenly … the Chief Prosecutor of the Republic ordered to "close the case for lack of corpus delicti." The NKVD-shniki did not understand anything, because they put so much effort into it. But it was the right thing to do. Apparently, Mongnogon indeed appeared in the city to whoever he needed, the fellow countrymen decided and sighed with relief. Thus, the spirit of the shaman, intensified due to the reburial, was imbued with the problems of the descendants and helped to resolve the problems that they got into because of him.
The story continues. In the mid-70s, ethnographers visited the shaman's grave. The photographer was with them. Before leaving, the photographer's documents and wallet with money disappeared. They searched everything around - but did not find it. Such a sacrifice happened. And the film turned out to be translucent, and all summer the poor fellow was pursued by misfortunes.
Film director Alexei Romanov was also unlucky, who, while working on the film Orto Doydu (Middle World), decided to capture the reburial of Aiyy oyuun - the remains of the great shaman Ergis in the Khangalassky ulus. At first, the film crew did not find the arangas. Then, for two nights in a row, the filmmaker saw a shadow approaching his son's crib and the sound of bells. But even here he did not draw any conclusions. Finally, when the film crew got to the arangas, everyone heard a neigh, although there were no stallions nearby. Then they saw a huge eagle in the sky, which does not exist in nature. In the end, the strongest whirlwind with snow fell on the clearing. And the whole situation indicated that something mystically terrible was happening in this area. People fled, and the communication between the film group and the great shaman ended. Well,shamans do not want to attract public attention to their places of rest.
Not only technology, even natural elements recede before the shaman's graves: both fire and water. Numerous cases are well known when taiga fires bypass shaman graves. And here is a fresh example of a water element that respected a shaman. Yakutians remember the huge flood of 1998. It also did not bypass the village of Cheriktey in the Ust-Aldan ulus. Many houses were in the water up to the very top, and their owners had to escape in a stone building of a two-story school in the center of the village. And from there, the villagers observed such a miracle. A powerful current tore the terrace away from the hut of the late Vera Nikolaevna Rozhina, a healer and clairvoyant, and carried it a hundred meters down. Then the element, as if on reflection, first stopped the stolen part of the dwelling, and then carefully returned it to its place. The villagers were shocked, the more so that they called Rozhina Udagan-Vera. And her house,with whom all this happened - a long time ago uninhabited - is a kind of monument to the famous countrywoman. People believe that from time to time the hostess is a guest in it. And when the water came down, the villagers were surprised again. In all the flooded houses, the floors were covered with a thick layer of silt and mud, and the stoves collapsed. And only in the house of Udagan-Vera, the floor shone with cleanliness, and the stove was completely dry. The flood also bypassed the village cemetery, where Udagan-Vera rests.
Returning to the intellect of the mystical power contained in shamanic graves, it can be assumed that with the death of a shaman, only the physical body dies. And the astral essence - Iye-kyl remains, as well as his spirits-helpers. In his works Aiyy ouyuun, Vladimir Kondakov calls this phenomenon a connection with the Cosmic Forces, which after the death of the shaman not only does not disappear, but, on the contrary, intensifies. In the old days, the Sakha believed that the shaman maintained such a cosmic connection for another 44 years, in some cases - 250 years, and the great shamans - up to 400 years.
It cannot be assumed that when in contact with shamanic graves, a person receives what he deserves only for the style of behavior in this short episode of his life. This is too primitive an approach. Vladimir Kondakov calls this contact "a manifestation of the unwritten forces of the Universe." When in contact with this force, ALL the WORDS and ACTIONS of a person undergo a thorough "revision", and a person "is responsible to the entire Universe for his actions." It turns out that shamanic burials are places of power, a moment of truth, or, if you like, a terrible judgment that takes place on earth.
And in conclusion, a quote from Vladimir Kondakov: “Let the ancient secrets be kept, let no one imagine himself to be all-knowing and omnipotent. Ancient secrets, including shaman's graves, with a blasphemous and disrespectful attitude towards them, are very dangerous, jokes with them do not pass."