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M A Czaplicka - Siberian shamanism - Symbolism
Identifier
003074
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Shamanism in Siberia - excerpts from Aboriginal Siberia by M. A. CZAPLICKA [1914]
The Olkhon Buryat, say Agapitoff and Khangaloff, have one other property, called shire. It is a box three and a half feet long and one foot deep, standing on four legs, each two feet high.
On the box are hung ribbons, bells, strips of skin, and on one of the long sides different figures are carved or painted in red. Usually on the right side is represented the sun, and on the left, the moon.
The sun is depicted as a wheel, and in the middle of the moon there is a human figure holding a tree in one hand.
In the middle of the long side there are three images of secondary gods, one woman and two men, in whose honour wine is sprinkled several times a year. There are also war implements-bow and quiver and sword, and under each human figure there is a horse.
The shire is used to bold horse-staves, drums, and other ritual implements. The shaman acquires the right of carrying the shire after the fifth consecration . It is asserted, says Klementz, that with every new consecration up to the ninth, the height and other dimensions of the shire increase.