20 years since the Siberian Expedition: A small note on worshipping spirits
It is the 27th of January today 2004, -40°F and we’ve put a big pot of fresh ribs from the caribou on a long boil on the stove, together with the last of a 100 kg:s (220 lbs) of potatoes we were given when we arrived. There’s no way I can described the blissful taste of this casserole. No spices, just natural as it is, with a wild taste. Heavenly!
“Ill is he?” I asked when we stepped into the steaming hot kitchen of a couple of friends we visited the other day, when I noticed their stepson handling the firewood with great apathy.
“Nope, he’s just tired” ,they answered and added: “His father hanged himself yesterday, so he’s spent the whole night keeping the dead one company. Together with his brother. This is what we do here when somebody dies. The dead needs the company of a family member when the spirit leaves the body. What would happen to him otherwise?”
This wasn’t the first such incident in the normal daily life of the Yakut, which shows that the Yakut paganism is till healthy and alive. Even, though, when you initially bring the subject up when you get to know a Yakut, they deny it at first, say that they’re modern, whatever that means, and that they’ve left these traditions of believing in spirits and gods of nature behind them ages ago. It is not that they feel ashamed, it is just that they don’t know whether you will understand or not. At least until they realize that we ourselves spend a lot of time in the great outdoor and our peculiar relation with the giant ravens, Hugin and Munin.
“They’re your guards” , they explain and add: “You’re lucky to have them along.”
Even Caucasian Russians who’ve lived along the Kolyma for ages have adopted some of the pagan rites into their daily life. It is best seen if you visit a graveyard, a fresh grave and look at the bottom of the gravestone. This is where people leave the favorite things this person enjoyed in life, which he can bring with him on the long journey. And since it is Russians along the Kolyma, the dead is accompanied by vodka and cigarettes.
“Do you know” ,a nursery school teacher explained for us during a visit to a local nursery school the other week, “that every month has a explicit significance to us Yakuts? And that our calendar year begins with the month of the horse? The horse is like a God to us. And you can see what our calendar looks like here.”
With these words, she brought us into one of many interesting small rooms in the nursery school. This was the room where the kids gathered in the morning and the walls showed with paintings the significance of every month. It was the month of the woman, the month of hunting and fishing and so forth. Important daily occurrences. Free from hocus-pocus. The Yakut form of animism is similar too many of the different tribes of the North American Indian living in the taiga.
“And here…”, she continued and showed us the Yakut world of Gods painted on the ceiling: “Our world is made up of 9 different levels of heaven, each occupied by a God, which we pray to every day. But many of us pray to the animals of our nature. Like the caribou, horse and bear.
To me, the painting depicting the Yakut world of Gods, resembled the Tibetan one, with heaven and hell occupied by good and evil spirits with Evil Gods spitting fire in the corners of earth.
“Maybe this can be of importance to you” ,she said, since she knew what we were presently occupied with, “February is the month of the God who knows about the future. I think that is a good sign for you.”
This nursery school was a treat in many ways. Except this spiritual room, they had another one containing flowers so that both teachers and children could grow with them during the long winter. They had another one with the plants and wildlife of the taiga. One with folklore and things to do with traditional Yakutism, but the one we liked the best, was the one where you had miniature things of normal daily life to be expected when grown-up. A small axe, a small fishing rod, a net, a small rifle, rucksack and so on. So that they early on could learn how to handle these necessities of life!
“We gather here every week” , another woman told us yesterday when visiting the Cultural House to see traditional dancing and singing with a touch of animism: “It is a way for us not only to keep in shape, but to keep our ancient traditions alive and pray to the spirits.”
We were lucky to se how they did the traditional Fire Dance and Song. It was accompanied by an odd instrument, which English name I don’t know, like a mouth harmonica, with a mysterious sound. It was hard not moving one’s legs. In the middle of the dance, the shaman stepped in and began chanting. The witchdoctor which traditionally, and I guess today, is the one which has the ability to communicate with the various spirits. It was a woman dressed in a emerald green dress.
“I think you will come out clean on the other side” ,she said regarding our upcoming trip and without knowing anything about our black flying friends, “as long as you don’t harm your relations with the ravens.”
