The most sacred animal to the Buryats is the horse. They have such a long history with horses. They raise them as one of the main animals they care for. They have history of riding to battle on horseback. Since they honor the horse very much, their sacrificial animal is horse. Other natives, living in similar regions nearby, like the Yakuts and other Turkik tribes, also honor the horse in the same way.1
There was a shift in religious focus from shamanism to Buddhism once Buddhist notions began entering the Buryat region from Mongolia. Soviet distaste of shamanism was no secret. They called upon the shamans and tried to convert them to Christianity. However, when that failed, the Buryat shamans incorporated more elements of Buddhism into their practice as their way of resisting the forced Enlightenment.2 While some non-shaman Buryats did make the full conversions to either Buddhism or Christianity, many remained loyal to their shamanistic roots.
While many native religions die out, the rejuvenation of shamanism and the return to its roots is bringing the religion back from the brink. Any books on eastern shamanism tend include the Buryat Mongols shamanism, as their belief is so strong and present even today.
Buryats and Buryatia: Now
Following the Buryats' survival through the perils of modern Russia, highlights their strengths as a group, and also reveals their warrior spirits. Standing against hardships and persecution, the Buryats have managed to do remarkably well in comparison to other Siberian natives. It is with hope that the Buryat population will continue to thrive and this culture can receive the recognition it deserves.
It was after the fall of Napoleon that the Russian Empire tried to integrate the Siberian native...
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Plumley, Daniel R.. "Traditionally Integrated Development Near Lake Baikal, Siberia." Cultural Survival. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/traditionally-integrated-development-near-lake-baikal-siberia (accessed June 5, 2014).
Tkacz, Virlana, Sayan Zhambalov, and Wanda Phipps. Shanar: dedication ritual of a Buryat Shaman in Siberia as conducted by Bayir Rinchinov. New York: Parabola Books, 2002.
"World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples." Minority Rights Group International : Russian Federation : Buryats. http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=2496 (accessed June 5, 2014).
Unlike most other Native American tribes in the southwest region of Texas, the Karankawas held one thing in their society that was different to their neighbors of the north and south -- they were non-nomadic. This nation built semi permanent homes near the coast and only moved inland during the summer, do to fact that their main food source moved out to sea -- fish. They lived in a structure known as the wickiup. It was constructed simply of drift wood or mesquite covered in mud and animal skins. It provided great protection from the surrounding environment, given this regions dry status. The home that they lived in was not meant for anything other than sleep, and very few personal belongings were actually kept by a single family. The tribes were very communal when it came to belongings. Everyone in the society had their jobs and specific roles and kept to them. When one person could not perform their duties, or became to old, they were either held as a revered seer, depending on how old and wise a person was, or they were put to death. Cruel and inhumane by today's standards, however, death held a higher meaning in this society. It wasn't a disgrace to be killed, it was actually meant to be a great honor. It was believed that if your life role was complete, then you could move on to a more divine role in the heavens. Leading them to have very secretive and sometimes almost unknown burial practices. Anthropologists know very little about this tribe do to their secrecy.
Further, prayer and medicine interplay to paint a classical image of the Native’s creed, yet, for many obsolete or preposterous existences of the shaman. To re-install beliefs present in the world for thousands of years, but have been disappearing, writers such as Neidhardt introduce the element of the
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When you mention Alaska and the Arctic Circle, one envisions igloos, dog sleds, and invariably, Eskimos. However, little do most know, that what most refer to as Eskimos is actually a generalization representing three distinct groups. In order to understand the societies that live in this region and acknowledge their cultural differences we must explore the different groups that inhabit this region of which there are two: the Inuit, and the Yupik.
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Materials on the subject reveal that the Eastern Slavs have left us a great spiritual heritage, and, possibly, in their worship and communion with nature, they were even higher and wiser to us as the “kings” of life. Therefore, to better understand what is happening now, it is necessary to study and analyze our past ... Finds of archaeologists and records of ancient beliefs and customs can literally, bit by bit, help us to recreate a complex and original religious system of the eastern Slavs. Representations of the pagan Slavs were very complicated and confusing.