What kind of sect is shamanism?

One of the late primitive religions. Was widely spread in China's northeastern and northwestern border areas manipulation of the Altai language family Manchu a Tungus, Mongolia, Turkic language group of many ethnic groups, Oroqen, Ewenke, Herzhe and Daur to the early 1950s still preserved the beliefs of the religion. Because the Tungusic language called the sorcerer as a shaman, so get this title. Usually refers to the whole of Asia and Europe between the Bering Strait in the east, west to the Scandinavian Lapland region of the northern Uralic Altaic peoples believe in this kind of religion; there are also broadly borrowed to refer to today's primitive societies around the world the beliefs of indigenous peoples of primitive religions, in particular, the North American Eskimos, the Indians and the Australian Aborigines of the original religion. In the middle of the twelfth century, Xu Mengxin of the Southern Song Dynasty used the term "Shanbans" to describe the shamanism practiced by the female Jinns in his book

The Shamanism of the female Jinns is described in the book

The Shamanism of the female Jinns.

The religion has a more medieval concept of the soul, under the belief that everything has a spirit, in order to worship the ancestral spirit of the clan or tribe as the main, and the western nature worship and totem worship content. The objects of worship are extremely wide-ranging, including all kinds of deities, plants and animals, as well as inanimate natural objects and natural phenomena. There are no written classics, no religious organizations and specific founders, no temples, and no unified, standardized religious rituals. The position of shaman is often transmitted orally from one generation to the next in the tribal clans.

With the dissolution of the primitive commune and the emergence of class society, shamanism declined, and the upper classes of society converted to Tibetan Buddhism, Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Some of the primitive elements of the religion were drawn and fused with the above religions to varying degrees. However, it still has a strong influence on the people, and even survives in a mutated form.

Basic Beliefs

I. The Concept of the Soul

It is believed that all kinds of objects in the world have souls, and that the changes in the natural world that bring about misfortune and good fortune to the people are manifestations of the will of all kinds of spirits, ghosts and gods.

Shamanism believes that man has several souls. The Hezhen people believe that there are three souls:

1) the soul of life (good luck). It is given by the God of life, it is always with the human life***, and when a person dies, he or she leaves the body forever and disappears.

②The soul of thought (Hani). For people in waking thoughts and dreams, it is temporarily away from the body and other souls to meet. It does not disappear after death, and the shaman must be asked to send it to the netherworld so that it will not haunt the world and harm people and animals.

3) Spirit of Transmigration (Fagaku). The spirit of reincarnation is given by the God of reincarnation, according to the character of the person after death, or reincarnation as a human being, or reincarnation of plants and animals, women are infertile, miscarriage, that they do not have the reincarnation of the soul or the soul is taken. Each of the above mentioned souls is only heard but not seen.

The Altaians and Yakuts called the souls and beings "Teng", "Sunay" (or "Sur") and "Kut". The Yakuts called the soul and life "Teng", "Sunay" (or "Sul") and "Kut", believing that all living things have Teng, and that once it leaves the body, the person dies. Sune is unique to humans, it makes them have thoughts, wills and feelings, and it can leave the body and wander around during sleep. Inanimate objects have Kut inside, can give them feelings and will, sheep pen stables with Kut, livestock will be prosperous, the owner will be rich, if it is attached to the shepherd's whip stick, the disease and the evil wolves will not dare to harm the herd. They also believe that the human soul, especially the soul of the dead, can interact and communicate with all kinds of souls or spirits in the natural world, and even transfer each other; the spirits of the dead are happy to be attached to the body of a living person or attached to other objects, so that they change.

Second, the concept of gods

Shamanism often give fire, mountains, rivers, trees, sun, moon, stars, thunder, clouds, ice, snow, wind, rain, rainbows and some animals to personify the imagination and mystical spirit, as the master of nature and the earth's gods. In particular, the concept of ghosts and gods formed by the dead spirits of ancestors and the fear caused by various diseases and deaths on earth are the core of the shamanistic concept of deities. It is believed that all kinds of spirits have wills, desires and lusts just like human beings, and that there is a distinction between good and evil, which cannot be disobeyed or violated. Various types of deities have different attributes and functions, each master of their own business, each line of the party, the status of the general equality, rarely subordinate, the vast majority of the hierarchical differences, and there is no master of all God. But in the feudal society of Mongolia, Manchu and Daur and other ethnic shamanism, the emergence of the concept of the sky god (Tengri), gradually rose above the position of the gods.

Some ethnic groups, with the development of private ownership and the influence of the outside class society, gave new connotations to some of the ancient gods. The Oroqen's "Jiyaqi", originally a god that blessed the reproduction of livestock, became the god of wealth, which is worshipped in every household; a few upper-class people used to work as officials in the local organizations of the Qing Dynasty, which made them believe in a variety of Yamen gods, whose statues are mostly the images of officials.

In some of the ethnic groups that entered the class society, there appeared the god of poor birth. Inner Mongolia Huisomu region Ewenke people have been enshrined Ha Yin God, is said to be a pair of poor old couple of poor food and clothing, after death into a god, mostly for the poor to worship; Zhuozhi God is a slave, lifelong for people to raise cows for milking, old age fell to his death in the cow dung, died after being enshrined as a god, the image of the god is painted on a rectangular board of the old man and the calf with the milk cow. Whenever the milch cow became ill and did not produce milk, the owner offered sacrifices to it.

Three, the concept of three worlds

Hezhe thought the universe is divided into the upper, middle and lower three worlds, the upper level of heaven, where the gods live, and divided into seven layers, the most authoritative gods live in the top; in the middle of the world is the people, animals and plants are located; the lower world is the netherworld, but also divided into a number of layers, respectively, for the ancestral spirit, the general spirits of the dead and the size of the ghosts live. Humans are caught in the middle and are subject to the blessings of the gods and the hauntings of the ghosts. Only the sorcerer-shaman can reach the upper and lower realms and unblock the affairs of the three realms.

Major Worship

I. Nature Worship

①Fire Worship. Fire is considered to originate from the heavenly realm, the most sacred, clean, but also the most friendly, can wash all the dirt, drive away the devil, divination, etc., any religious rituals can not be separated from the fire, a variety of offerings should be offered to the fire god first. Yakut thought only with flint fire is sacred and pure. Altaic people pray to the fire and say: you are a part of the sun and the moon. The first thing the Ewenki bride does when she marries into her husband's house is to bow to the fire of her husband's house and introduce herself to the fire god of her husband's house on her own accord. Oroqen people called the fire god as "good offices to Ba Rukan", the legend is an old woman, who offended her can not light the fire, so it is forbidden to poke the fire with an iron tool or a sharp stick, prohibited to spit in the fire, splash water and pouring dirt; meal or drink, the first to throw some meat and wine in the fire in honor of the god of fire.1

② worship mountain. Mountain was once the clan tribal ancestral home or place of origin, and dominate all kinds of beasts. Ancient Turkic Khan every year with the tribal chiefs to the ancestral habitat of the cave to kill sacrifices, known as the sacrifice of the holy mountain. Oroqen, Ewenki hunters believe that the beasts belong to the mountain god (white nacha) kept, daily can hunt what kind of beasts and hunted more or less, all rely on the god of the mountain to give. Legend has it that the mountain god can turn into a tiger or an old man to help the people. It often wanders in the mountains and forests, so when you go hunting in the mountains, you are forbidden to make noise so as not to offend the mountain god; when you pass through old forests and steep cliffs, you have to pray to the mountain god for good luck. The mountain pass tree is often cut off the bark, painted into a picture of the mountain god's face, for the passing hunters to bow down and worship, offer meat to smoke, well to its mouth smeared with animal blood and meat fat.

3 worship the sun, moon and stars, wind, rain and lightning. Ewenki people say that the sun comes out of the place there is a white-haired old woman, breasts are huge, all the children are given to her. Oroqen people kowtow to the sun god (Delechin) every Spring Festival, and doze off to the moon god (Beiya) on the 15th or 25th day of the first month of the lunar calendar to pray for a year of peace and prosperity. They also believe that the Big Dipper can give people a long life and should be bowed to. Ewenki people say the wind is the north of the wind goddess old woman fanning the big dustpan. Oroqen people believe that crossing the place where the cyclone is blowing will offend the wind god, which will lead to madness and crooked eyes. The rain god is often called the Dragon King, there are countless scales on the body, each scale contains more than a hundred quintals of water, rain is the Dragon King sprinkler. Daur people every year to open the net fishing, are to sacrifice the Dragon King, praying for a good harvest. Herzhe people think that thunder and lightning is "Lei Gong", "flash mother", Lei Gong pounding anvil striking the devil, flash mother aside with a mirror to shine the demon. Oroqen people are forbidden to approach the trees struck by thunder, so as not to offend the god of thunder and illness. Whenever the summer rain affects the hunting, the hunters see the rainbow and kneel down to pray for clearing.

Two, animal worship

Ewenke, Oroqen people on the bear exceptionally revered, that is their ancestors, hunting is prohibited. Later, guns were introduced, hunting bears gradually open, but whenever the hunt to the bear, are to hold a ceremony, cut off the bear's head, placed on the tree stand, we kneel down on it to honor the smoke kowtow to pray: grandfather! (Female bears are called grandmothers.) Are you asleep? Don't blame us, we don't mean to hurt you, it's a mistake to kill you (the style pretends to be killed by people of other nationalities). Don't be angry with us, and give us more luck in the future. Bless us with more wild beasts! We doze off again and again and burn grass to smoke the bear's head, believing that this will make the bear's spirit go away. Then the pack returns with the bear's meat. When the hunters entered their own place, they cried out "ga-ga", and the people gathered together, set up a fire to cook the bear meat, and ate it while making "ga-ga" and "gu-gu-gu" sounds imitating those of the crows. After eating, the bear bones are wrapped in wickerwork and carried by men to be buried in the wind, followed by mourners who pretend to be weeping. The Korean people have an old legend that magpies are their ancestors. The Manchus believe that crows saved the lives of their ancestors, and in the old shamanistic rituals of ancestor worship, pork and offal were hung from the top of the traditional sacred poles (solos) for the crows to peck at. The Daur people offer sacrifices to the twelve Duvalan gods, which are twelve animals perched on twelve plants, in large religious ceremonies.

Three, ancestor god worship

The main body of shamanism worship. Oroqen people each clan has its own ancestor god, more than the clan's deceased great-grandfather above the male ancestors. Oroqen, Ewenki, Daur, Hezhe and Mongolia and other nationalities on the ancestral god of the name, have a similar voice or homologous characteristics. Clan shaman is often called "good offices Jiao Ru" shaman, meaning that the ancestors passed down. They are seen by the ancestral god and when the shaman of the people, the main body of the clan ZongLing ancestral god, hold religious ceremonies, to invite the ancestral god to descend attached; with the ghosts and gods when the war, must rely on the power of the ancestral god. This is the recent survival of the shamanism of the same characteristics of the ****.

Under the domination of the concept of worship of the ancestral god, for human and animal illnesses are added to the ancestral god as an explanation. At the same time, special attention is paid to dreams and daily phenomena, which are considered to be omens of good and bad luck from the ancestral gods, and therefore many sacrifices, taboos and superstitions have been stipulated.

Four, idol worship

Shamanism worship of the gods idol with stone, bone, wood carving or grass, animal fur knitting, but also painted on animal skin or paper, more similar to the human figure. After the completion of the production must be sacrificed to have a sacred nature. Each kind of idol is often a group of several, or a male and a female, a male and a female, two side by side, placed on the top of the tent, house lintel, and live near the tree, or specially built huts. Migratory flow is carried, women are prohibited from approaching and touching.

The bear idol of Ewenki and Oroqen people is a pair of male and female bear cubs sewn in their skin; the fish idol is carved from pine wood, also male and female; the snake idol is cut from iron, and so on. Ewenki people's clan ancestor god statue, is in a blue cloth on the left and right each painted moon, sun, the middle cut and paste two small pieces of gray rat skin, under the painting of five gold women and four silver men like, under the painting of the two opposing dragons. Each household offers its own family ancestor god, "Shewchuk". The images of the ancestor gods of the same clan are basically the same, and each husband and wife offer their own ancestor god. The ancestor god of the clan is more honorable than the ancestor god of the family.

Prayer and sacrifice ceremonies

Olai Nalen

Traditional shamanic ceremonies of ancestor worship, in which all members of a clan or tribe participate in praying for the safety of animals and people, and for a good agricultural and pastoral harvest. Clan new shaman to lead the ceremony is often held at the same time. Ewenke, Oroqen, Daur and other ethnic groups held in the spring, also known as "April meeting". At that time, people carry cattle and sheep, animal meat, grain and wine to participate in the party for several days.

Erguna River forest area of Inner Mongolia Ewenke people held an ancestral ceremony, the ancestral god idol hanging in the treetops, east and west sides were hung on the sun, the moon and geese, cuckoos and other wooden models of a tree between the rope hanging reindeer or jail and other beasts, throat, tongue, heart, lungs, kidneys and limbs and tails, the beasts head toward the ancestral god; forbidden to four-pawed beasts they believe that ominous for the sacrifice. The trunks of the trees near the place of sacrifice are smeared with animal blood. The Ewenki people of the steppe often meet in the eighth month of the lunar calendar. The venue is decorated like a forest scene, and the offerings are abundant. During the party, they enjoyed singing and dancing, horse racing, wrestling and making lovers. Shamans wearing god clothes, masks, to each household jumping god chanting that exorcism Na Ji, the master of the house to them to throw yogurt for good luck. Daur people in the party on the third day of the "Kuje" ceremony, when the shaman will be the clan men, women and children gathered in one place, around a leather rope, three times to tighten the leather rope and then relax, if the quality of the rope length each time there is an increase in the number of omens, that is, is considered to be prosperous; people from the rope out of the bottom of the drill, can be free of disaster. That night, the shaman imitates the movements and chirping of birds of prey, holds a blood-eating ceremony, and smears the blood of cows and sheep on the mouths of the idols for blessings.

The second is to ask for "umai"

The ritual of catching the soul of a baby. In the ancient Turkic language, the word U table with the meaning of placenta, the Yakut people believe that it is a kind of auspicious bird, offering bird wheat can make the prosperity of the people. Erguna River Ewenki children with serious illness, that the soul of the sick child went to another world, must be reindeer, Jail as a sacrifice, please shaman held a ceremony to ask for Umei, to catch back the soul. At night before jumping god, kill a black reindeer for shaman to find the soul of the ride. Jumping God, the tent lights out fire, the shaman in the dark running back and forth in search of the shape, and then light the lamp to look at the shaman's drums, such as children's hair, meaning that the soul of the sick child has been retrieved, the parents that is to snatch the hair, wrapped in clean cloth clamped in the armpits or cushion in the buttocks, do not allow it to fly off. The next day, they kill a white reindeer to sacrifice to the ancestral god Maru. They carve umai, a symbol of the child's soul, into a small finch shape out of wood and sew it on the back of the child's clothes along with the image of the god Maru for good luck."

Three, send the soul

Oroqen and Ewenki people funeral, more shaman sent the soul ceremony, that is, tie a straw man, tied to a number of thin lines, dressed in mourning the deceased's children or other loved ones to lead a line, the shaman also hold a line of incantation prayers, the deceased do not love the family old place, quickly leave. Then use the sacred stick will line - a break, try to throw the straw man far, that the soul of the deceased will go with it. After the body into the coffin, placed in the forest wind burial, or burial. Hezhe buried soul, do a small wooden man wearing clothes, on behalf of the dead, incense burning paper offerings, or please shaman jumping god, with meat and wine to entertain friends and relatives for three days. The third day by the shaman shot three arrows, for the dead soul to indicate the direction to the underworld.

Four, pray for prey

Ewenke, Oroqen hunters every encounter hunting unfavorable, often held these ceremonies, that is, the willow preparation of deer, jail model, placed in the usual worship of the idol of the location of the bow and arrow or unloaded bullet shotgun to the model shooting, the presence of members of the clan or the family have to say: hit! Got it! The hunter then pretends to skin and gut the animal and puts it on a trellis for sacrifice. Or at night, in the hunting ground on an empty pot, hunters pray to the moon, the next morning to see what kind of animal hair in the pot, it is possible to hunt what kind of beasts. In winter, when it is difficult to hunt the fine furred beasts with high economic value, the shaman will be asked to pray to the god of Jiguok for good luck

Five, seeking rain and stopping the rain

The Ewenke people in the forest area will kill the woodpecker and put it on the water, with its beak facing upwards, and then put it on a tree to think that it can be rained on. Take the pine tree strip spike, upside down tied to a thin wooden pole, and then one end of a thin piece of wood perforated with a rope, fast hand shake, the sound of the wind, that can be blown away the clouds, stopping the rain and clearing.

Six, spells and spells

According to the legend, the grassland Ewenki people only need to know the name and age of the enemy or thief, then you can ask the shaman to recite the mantra, and use the oil to make a triangular "Chagdol" on a mahogany plate, in the absence of the other side, thrown in the direction of the cursed person that the witchcraft (Zatkha), can be used in the direction of the cursed person. （It is believed that by practicing such sorcery (tzatkha), one can bring misfortune to the other. If the other party is aware of it, it can also be used in the same way to retaliate. Legend has it that some of the shaman in the jumping gods to drive away the ghosts, but also often show "spells", such as walking barefoot in the charcoal fire or steel knife, tongue lick the red iron, throw the fire flame, or cut their lips and tongue, the blood sprayed on the patient's face, and so on.

Seven, divination

In the belief that shamanism is quite prevalent in the ethnic groups, a variety of ways. There are gun divination, bone divination, chopstick divination, etc., Huisuo wood Ewenke people in the region and the "strainer aunt" divination, the main divining the sick what kind of offenses against the gods and the lucky and the lucky and the lucky and the lucky.

The picture shows the mask of shamanism