Baikal has long been not only a lake of unusual beauty, but also a sacred place. Since ancient times, legends and mystical traditions have been written about him. Contemporaries also add to their list. Local historian, shaman and ufologist told about the secrets and mysteries of Lake Baikal.
CHINGISKHAN'S LEG
The director of the Taltsy Museum, Vladimir Tikhonov, says that there are many legends and stories about the sea-lake, because since ancient times people have endowed Baikal with magical properties. For example, there is a legend that Genghis Khan “crossed Lake Baikal with a dry foot in the area of Olkhon Island”, that is, he did not swim across the lake, but walked.
“Allegedly, a land path passed through Olkhon on dry land, through Lake Baikal. Most likely, this is a wrong interpretation: there was no land bridge across Lake Baikal, it could not disappear so quickly. Simply, he did not swim by swimming, but by land, perhaps bypassing Lake Baikal,”Tikhonov said.
In his opinion, the story that the shores of Lake Baikal move apart along with the movement of the continents sounds more truthful.
“Considering that Baikal is actually a living being, it is a rift (fault, depression), Baikal is actually expanding. Our Angarsk part remains in place, while the Buryat part is being pushed back towards the United States, after many millions and hundreds of years. This is a real movement of continents,”the historian is sure.
Promotional video:
FROM BUDUN
There is, according to the director of the museum, a rather funny and realistic legend about how the famous expression “from Budun” arose, which is characterized on the eve of those aggravated by alcohol.
“On Olkhon, in the Khalgai region, there is a Cape Budun. During the war, there was the most fishy place, fishing brigades caught omul for the army and the population. There was no food, but there was a lot of alcohol, and the fishermen, especially in winter, warmed themselves with alcohol. When they came home to the village, they said about them: “Oh, they came again from Bodun,” Tikhonov explains.
CIRCLES OF WITCHES
Shaman Valentin Khagdaev recalls seeing glowing balls over the lake for seven to eight years, which could be mistaken for unidentified flying objects.
“There are glowing balls, they are standing over the strait, this was seen not only by me, but also by the federal judge and my son. The plates or not, they lit up the water and then suddenly disappeared. It is not clear what it is. It shocked me,”the shaman said.
Mysterious luminous objects have been seen on Lake Baikal many times before. Back in 1971, the Leningrad engineer Georgy Filippov wrote that he saw luminous columns on Olkhon, forming even pyramids.
According to Khagdaev, he also saw circles on Olkhon Island, which are popularly called "witches". The circles are definitely not like animal tracks: on the border of the circle there is a strip of more succulent and taller grass. Ufologists believe that these are traces of aliens. Biologists are sure that these are just myceliums.
“In addition to the witch circles, there are mysterious rock paintings in the form of a space helmet, maybe aliens are depicted, maybe something else,” Khagdaev said.
The head of the Irkutsk-Kosmopoisk organization Nikita Tomin, in turn, said that for several decades there have been talks about the possible existence of some alien station at the bottom of Lake Baikal, but there is no evidence of this worthy of attention.
“There is no actual evidence. There were dives to the bottom of Lake Baikal, but no one found the station. There were episodes of glow, we saw how unidentified luminous objects take off from the surface of Lake Baikal, but the problem is when we try to find out, it turns out that many stories are retellings of retellings,”said Tomin.
PLACE OF POWER
“There are places that give energy, strength, for example the Shaman rock itself, where spirits protect, contemplate. Baikal has always been a sacred place, and after UNESCO began to protect it, the lake attracted scientists from all over the world,”said the shaman.
Shamanka is located on Cape Burkhan and consists of white marble, granite and quartz. Inside the rock there is a cave where shamans have performed rituals and sacrifices for centuries. This place has been considered "strong" for as long as the local population remembers its history. But at the same time, the strength was not characterized as good and life-giving.
In the old days, suspects were brought to the Shamanka, checking their guilt. If the water knocked a person down, then this confirmed the suspicions. There is a legend that the loyalty of wives was also checked here. They left them overnight at the Shamanka. If by the morning the woman did not go crazy, then it means that this is a respectable wife.
There are other so-called places of power - these are the Bogatyr, Ryty and Khoboy capes, but not each of them can be visited by a tourist, according to the interlocutor, the locals carefully cherish them.