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M A Czaplicka - The Burga and the Buran
Identifier
003278
Type of Spiritual Experience
None
Background
There are two winds that affect Siberia enough to make them likely sources of infrasound – the Burga and the Buran
The Buran (Turkish: Boran), is a wind which blows across eastern Asia, specifically Xinjiang, Siberia, and Kazakhstan. It takes two forms: In summer, it is a hot, dry, wind, whipping up sandstorms; in winter, it is bitterly cold and often accompanied by blizzards. Buran winds are strong and full of ice and snow. The skies is often laden with snow which swirls about and reduces the visibility to near zero at times. Over the tundra it is also known as Purga or Burga and the severe north-easterly winds are known as Burga bringing snow and ice pellets..
Just like the Mistral in the Rhone Valley and the Sirocco off the Sahara, the two winds of Siberia – the Buran and the Burga are said to “create periods of momentary insanity”.
A description of the experience
Shamanism in Siberia - excerpts from Aboriginal Siberia by M. A. CZAPLICKA [1914]
Shamanism seems to be such a natural product of the Continental climate with its extremes of cold and heat, of the violent burgas and burans, of the hunger and fear which attend the long winters, that not only the Palaeo-Siberians and the more highly cultivated Neo-Siberians, but even Europeans, have sometimes fallen under the influence of certain shamanistic superstitions. Such is the case with the Russian peasants and officials who settle in Siberia, and with the Russian Creoles