The sorcerers of the northern peoples - shamans - are so powerful that even their graves are considered to be a place of enormous power, to which both people and elements obey. Those who dare to desecrate the shaman's burial will face severe punishment.
Shamanic arangas
From time immemorial, Yakut sorcerers were buried in arangas - coffins hanging on trees. Many researchers explain this custom by the desertion of this boundless land and its permafrost, in which it is difficult to dig a grave (especially in winter). At the same time, they seem not to pay attention to the fact that only shamans were buried in the arangas, for the rest of the mortals there was enough space in the earth.
However, the remains of the shaman, after their triple reburial in air coffins (every hundred years), were ultimately interred. How did the locals follow this? It turns out that the dates of the reburial of shamans were passed down by their descendants from generation to generation and were strictly observed. If the relatives forgot about their mission, the shaman would come to them in a dream with a reminder. Those of the relatives who opposed the observance of the rite began to get sick or were subjected to all sorts of misfortunes.
Even Orthodoxy, which came to these lands, respected local customs and allowed shamans to be buried in arangas. They can be found in this endless wild territory even today, since, as we have already said, the betrayal of the northern sorcerer to the earth occurs only three hundred years after his death.
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The spirit of the shaman against the "omnipotent" workers of the NKVD
When Soviet power was established in Yakutia, shamanism, like any other form of religion, began to be persecuted, and the observance of the age-old customs of the people was infringed upon. An interesting case on this topic occurred in the thirties of the last century in the Gorny region (described by Professor Vladimir Kondakov, who has the title of white shaman).
A powerful sorcerer Oyuun Monnyogon once lived here. At the time we are talking about, the time has come to re-bury him in a new arangas. As it should be, the spirit of the shaman began to appear in a dream to his descendants and demand to observe the ritual of reburial. He even reported such a detail: a finger fell off on the dead body's right hand and rolled behind its back. It needs to be returned to its place.
Relatives of Mongnogon were confused: on the one hand, failure to fulfill the will of the great shaman threatened them with misfortune, on the other, for such actions one could fall under the repressions of the Soviet regime. As a result, fear of the sorcerer's power won out, and his family invited the shaman Omokun to conduct the ceremony. The whole event was held under the leadership of the chairman of the local collective farm and at the expense of the cooperative. About a hundred people took part in the reburial of Oyuun Monnyogon.
The finger of the dead shaman was actually found under his back and attached back with the tendon of the stallion chosen for the sacrifice. The remains of the sorcerer were transferred to a new arangas. Everything was done as the ancient custom demanded, with the exception of one: there was no accompanying boy who usually agreed to follow the shaman to the afterlife. This did not like Monnyogon, and through Omokun he began to demand a guide - anyone, otherwise he threatened to take Omokun himself. A seventy-year old man, Grigory Fedorov, saved the acting shaman, who decided to accompany Mongnogon. He agreed to this sacrifice and even promised the collective farmers to protect them from the wrath of the NKVD officers, who would soon come down with a check.
Grigory Fyodorov died on the same day, although he was still a sturdy old man. And soon an inspector appeared in the village, who dug up the “expenses for the reburial of the shaman” in the collective farm papers. It was nonsense; the chairman of the cooperative, the accountant and a number of other specialists were threatened with a loud trial and indefinite hard labor … Suddenly an order came from the republican prosecutor's office to dismiss the case for lack of corpus delicti. Local nkavedeshniks shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment, and all the Yakuts involved in this case understood: Mongnogon helped, as he had promised …
It is strictly forbidden to desecrate the graves of shamans
In the sixties of the last century, another high-profile event took place in the republic, associated with the arangas of the northern sorcerer. Students of the Yakutsk University went to excavate ancient burials. One weekend, future archaeologists decided to rest on a nearby lake, near which, according to rumors, there was a shaman's coffin in air.
Despite the fact that many were overcome by vague anxiety, the atheistic upbringing took over, and a significant part of the group went to the lake. There, the guys bathed, played volleyball and, of course, drank vodka, which is why they were immediately drawn to exploits, namely, to search for the mysterious grave of the sorcerer.
They found Arangas quickly, although no one dared to approach and look inside even in the drunkenness. But to shout loudly, laugh and throw rubbish was enough. Two guys even celebrated a minor need near the burial.
By nightfall, the students walked up to the tent and fell asleep. They woke up from a terrible storm that threatened to sweep away their temporary refuge. Suddenly, the youth heard someone walking with a heavy tread behind the walls of the tent. The remoteness from human habitation somehow did not fit with the thought of a lost traveler …
The guys tried to ask who it was, but there was no answer to their cries. In fear, the boys and girls froze, huddled together. Meanwhile, the wind intensified - and suddenly a voice sounded outside, which ordered the guys who had desecrated the shaman's grave to come out. The frightened culprits began to resist, but they were literally pushed out, realizing that everyone was under threat of death, and therefore it would be wiser to sacrifice little.
Having flown out of the tent, the young men did not see anyone and only witnessed how the wind uprooted the grass, bends and breaks trees, mercilessly tearing off the leaves from them … After standing for a while and not waiting for the revenge of the "owner", the guys decided to return to the rest. And here a real nightmare awaited them: all the students in the tent were dead, a mask of horror froze on their faces.
In a state of deep shock, the guys somehow got to the camp and talked about what had happened. The investigation began, and the two unfortunate students barely had time from one interrogation to another. The investigators did not believe them, since no storm was recorded on that fateful night. The intercession of the local Yakuts, who realized what was happening, suggested mysticism, and, as you know, you can't sew it down to business. The only thing that saved the students from prison was that the examination showed that all their comrades died of heart failure, without surviving the horror. However, the investigators were powerless to find the cause of this horror, and even more to explain it materialistically. And the case was closed …
How the shaman's burial was disturbed by aviators
In the last century, in one of the Evenk villages, it was decided to build an airfield for An-2 aircraft. Upon learning of this, the local old people murmured that the place for the construction of the runway had been chosen unsuccessfully, since the shaman's burial was located nearby. However, Soviet atheists - both bosses and ordinary builders - did not listen to anyone, especially since a plan is a plan, a law for implementation.
The airfield was built, in honor of its opening, a holiday was organized, to which guests of honor, the authorities from the republican center, arrived. Even children were put in the first An-2. However, for some reason the plane could not take off: it suddenly stopped and its engine stalled. Everyone was glad that this did not happen in the air, and the locals decided that the shaman simply felt sorry for the minors. And again, no one believed them, although the plane's engine failed simultaneously with the breakage of the propeller - this is generally difficult to imagine!..
In the evening of the same day, the foreman of the builders drowned in the river, where even the little ones splashed without fear. A few days later, another participant in the construction of the runway died from peritonitis - a healthy guy who had not complained about anything before. But even this did not alert atheists, who still did not believe in the power of the shaman, whose grave they had desecrated.
A month later, another festive opening of the runway was arranged. And again, the An-2 did not take off, although in all respects it was serviceable, and experienced pilots were sitting in the cockpit. Not a single attempt to lift the airplane into the air was successful. Only after that did the bosses become thoughtful: indeed, something is unclean here, smells of mysticism …
After that, through the joint efforts of collective farmers and local old people, an ancient ritual was carried out to seek forgiveness from the spirit of the shaman for desecrating his grave. The cooperative even allocated a young bull for donation. And what? The troubles stopped immediately.
So it is not recommended for anyone to disturb shamanic burials. It is too dangerous, because the spirit of the shaman of Yakutia remains omnipotent even several centuries after the death of the northern sorcerer.