H^akas & Tuva

 

Tuva & H^akass shamanism

pp. 16-22 Tuva shamanism

 

p. 110 [Tuvan shaman’s costume] "Some of the shamans’ regalia was considered to be their armour; certain pendants permitted them to change into animals and other parts gave them the ability to see and communicate with spirits of the other world and with the souls of the living and the dead. ... Some plaits on the costume were called snakes (chylan) but were also understood as birds feathers ... . During their rituals shamans drew on the bowstring of an imaginary bow and shot arrows, hitting ... the spirit of disease ... . The arrow’s flight was symbolized by the tinkling of a bell".

pp. 31-40 H^akass shamanism

 

p. 183, n. 2:36 ["the earth in the form of a woman’s body."] "In one Tuvan tale a woman who had been abused by her husband wills with her dying breath that her bones will turn into rocks, her eyes into lakes, her braids into the trunks of larch trees, and her blood vessels into rivers."

43-51 spiritual geography

 

p. 59 [Sunduki mountain] "A stone trunk can be seen at the top of one mountain. It has two internal divisions – one contains the water of life and the other the water of death."

pp. 54-55 multiple souls

 

p. 64 "Threads are emanations of the soul, which keep human beings connected to this world while journeying to another".

p. 128 " "spiritual birthmarks," called menge in Tuvan" are ""threads," ... which can be arranged in a magic square with three on each side. ... The nine-part grid is also the basis of reading the forty-one pebbles."

p. 55 hair

 

pp. 55-56 bodily ornaments as shields (armor) for protection of souls

 

pp. 58-60 H^akass divine spirit-beings

 

pp. 60-62 Tuva divine spirit-beings

 

pp. 185-186, n. 3:27 eeren idols of helping-spirits, used only by shamans (not by layfolk)

 

p. 64 [legend] O:sku:s-ool (‘Orphan-boy’) ate gophers and mice.

p. 186, n. 3:27 eeren (created by shamans to cure a specific ailment) for layfolk

 

spirits which are companions of humans

 

p. 90 "spirit figures in Turkic literature have yellow hair – such as certain sun goddesses and the spirit-protector of Mt. Irt."

pp. 97-100 heroines in epics

 

pp. 100-101 spirits of tales

 

p. 112 singing overtones

 

pp. 113-125 musical instruments

 

p. 120 [allegory of H^aiji the son of C^at-h^an] "The boy saw seven black people, each with one eye on the left side. They had no faces, just big mouths and two tusks."

p. 129 nature of time

 

pp. 132-151 language of shamanism

 

p. 133 [legend] variegated-winged yellow-bodied fog-dragon was adversary of single-eyed yellow-winged fog-dragon.

'''p. 134 the variegated-winged dragon taught to a man the languages of 70 species of animals. {cf. Melampous, to whom 2 snakes taught the languages of the animals  http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Melampus } '''

 

p. 198 websites

 

Kira van Deusen : Singing Story, Healing Drum : Shamans and Storytellers of Turkic Siberia. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston, 2004.