NANI DORO:
THE WAY OF THE SIBERIAN SHAMAN
The Spiritual Path of the Ulchi People of Siberia
This Article Originally Published in Pangaia Magazine, Worldwide Paganism Column
By Denny Sargent
This article is an amalgam based on an interview with Nadyezhda Duvan, Wisdom Keeper of the Ulchi People and Director of the Amba School of Siberian Shamanism. It is augmented by the translations and explanations added by Jann Van Ysslestyne, the Assistant Director of Amba and the olly Ulchi speaker in North America! I wish to thank the Wisdom Keeper Nadyeshda Duvan and Amba for this opportunity to introduce this amazing path to a wider public, many of whom have heard a lot about Siberian Shamanism, but not from a first hand source.
The Ulchi Way of Life
Let me talk about the Ulchi way of life. Our laws, our traditions, our taboos are very large. The Way or Laws of the Ulchi people, and this is roughly akin to what you would call our religion, is called Nani Doro or the ‘Laws of the Nani.’ The Ulchi people call themselves the Nani which means ‘people of the Earth.’ Ulchi is a term used by the Russians and though we are not Russian, we often use this term as well.
Our people live in Siberia. Where we live there is the Amur river and several large mountains, at the base of which is my village, Bulava. It is named after a Shaman’s staff or a Bulawu. There are three main mountains nearby. Everything outside the home is ruled by spirits, therefore when we go out, whether it is to hunt or do something else, we must always respect the spirits. The home is the place of people, of human beings, but Nature is the place of the spirits.
Once you step out of your home, you enter a universe ruled by spirits so you have to be a respectful and grateful guest. Whether you are going to the mountains to hunt or to the river to fish, you are a grateful guest because there are spirits who rule these landscapes. We hunt, deer, rabbit, elk and fox. In the past we basically lived on hunting and gathering wild edible plants, and fishing. Now we grow a lot of our food around our houses, but the hunting and fishing are still important. All the animals have great spirits, but the animals that have the greatest spirits in our culture are the tiger and the bear. They can be seen in many of the amulets and crafts the Ulchi create, especially in our wood and bark carvings and embroidery. Another favorite image seen in our work is the spirit of the mountains, a goddess, and she has a conical shaped head.
The natural world about us is beautiful forest, river and mountains. As for what you call the spiritual world, there is nothing symbolic about it to us, everything is very real, there is no myth, it is real. There is no separation between natural and supernatural, but there are many worlds that coexist. We have access to all these worlds.
There are three worlds. There is the Cosmos world, the Middle World and the Underworld, all are very real. What unites them all is the great tree, which is usually the Larch, but which can be any tree. The top part is the connection to the Cosmos, the middle part is the connection to Earth (The Middle World,) called Taiga the lower part of the tree or roots connects us with the Underworld or Bunee where those who die go. We live in Taiga, so do the animal people called Dhuntay Neesalee.
It is important to understand that everything outside in the Taiga is a spirit; There are rock spirits, river spirits, grass spirits and so on- everything is a spirit- and all the spirits are listening to us all the time. They understand all human languages and understand everything that we say. They are always watching and listening to us, so it is most important that we act appropriately. We must constantly act as a respectful guest and always thank the world for allowing us to be here. We must also acknowledge all the spirits we may come in contact with and realize that they can be very helpful to us, but also can be very harmful to us as well. We only ask for three things from the spirits: Good luck, in our hunting for example, good health and happiness. That is all that we need.
The Ulchi believe in three souls: The soul you fly to at night in your dreams is your Dream Soul. Your second soul lives in your heart and it is always there. The third soul is like your double and it is always out running around and it sometimes can get into trouble. That soulcan be attacked by evil spirits. That is the one that the Shaman goes after when he or she does a soul retrieval to capture and return it. If it is running around and you are feeling very ill, it is because something has happened to that third soul out there. If something is not going well for you, it is because that third soul, it can be like a hooligan.
People who walk the right path on the earth, not only are their lives good but their children’s lives will be good as well. Everything in their families will be in balance. We believe in Karma. If bad things happen to you, but you are living a good life, then you could be paying off negative things that happened up to seven generations ago in your family. Things can stay in a family, if one person did something bad long ago, it may still affect their family. It could also be a past life or something, as I said, an ancestor did. You just have to always remember Doro, the ways of the world.
About Gods or Spirits in Our Life
There are good spirits and there are bad spirits. If you act appropriately and follow the law, then the good spirits will help you. If you do not, then they won’t help you, but they won’t harm you either. There are bad spirits out there, however, and if you are a bad person then bad spirits will be attracted to you. If you do evil things or speak bad things or have a bad attitude, then you attract evil spirits to you and bad things happen to you. Sometimes bad spirits will come after good people, of course, and that is when you need your good spirit helpers to protect you.
We believe that people who kill themselves often turn into bad spirits. If you come into contact with bad spirits you must quickly make an offering to your helper spirits to help you. Everyone must have helper spirits, they can be spirits of the land, ancestor spirits, animals or can come from different worlds. But I must repeat, if you are a negative person you will attract negative spirits to you and they will make you crazy and sick and they just help you feed on your own negativity. But if you are positive and are walking the ways of the Natural world, then you can call upon your good spirits and they will help you quickly in times of need.
Concerning the bad spirits; there are many out there, life is not always wonderful you know. Busawus, for example, are vampiric spirits. Some are suicides, and they suck the spirits of the living.
The spirits are just like people! There are good people on the earth and bad people, people who want to help you and people who want to harm you! Just like People!
Some spirits are ancestors. Our ancestors are always with us and they help us, just as the animal spirits do. It is important to note that the animals are above us, they are more powerful and important than us, always. We are below them, at the bottom. They are, of course, more spiritual. They understand everything and know what we are thinking and saying all the time. Everything listens to us. How you know what spirits are your helper spirits is that they come to you in dreams or visions and you form personal relationships with them just as you do with friends.
To live in balance you follow the law of the spirits, of Nature. You do this by always giving to your helper spirits. They are just like your friends or family, if you don’t pay attention to them or help them out of gratitude, they won’t stay around you or help you. They don’t need us, the animals and spirits do not need us, but we need them.
Important Gods and Spirits
There are many important gods or spirits of the Ulchi:
The most important is Amba or the tiger, and Mapaw the Spirit of the Bear. The House Spirit which is called Masee, BUCHU, the Spirit of the Mountains. Other animal spirits are known and respected as well. The supreme Dragon Spirits of the Cosmos, the God and Goddess called Ama Enduree and Unya Enduree. The Dragon God and Goddess are above all other spirits, they created the universe, they made the Tree, they made everything. Of course they listen to the shaman. There is the Fire Spirit, who is sometimes a Grandmother and other times a Grandfather, sometimes both, but he or she is always accompanied by a dog. There is Temu, the god of the waters, sometimes seen as a man or a woman, depending on the experience of the person. The legends do not really change from area to area, but the spirits are seen by people in different ways, thus the different stories. One time Grandfather Misha, a great shaman, said that the spirit of the sea was a seal. People interact with these gods and spirits in everyday life much as they relate to other people. Differences come about because different people are having the experiences. It depends on whoever shows up! If the Water Spirit shows up as a Grandmother, then that is how the tale is told. It is always very practical.
One more thing, the Buchu Goddess of the Mountains is called Kuljamu and is a sasquatch or yeti The Ulchi have seen these beings and believe in them, they are the mountain people. So there is no overall ‘religion’ at all. There are all the gods and spirits out there and as you live your life, the ones that you have affinity for come to you and so you know who your helper spirits and personal gods are. These are the main spirits you will work with all your life, along with the larger more powerful universal gods mentioned.
Those are the main gods or spirits of the Ulchi, there are, of course, many many more. All animals also have spirits. If an animal spirit is to be one of your spiritual helpers, it will appear to you in dreams or when you are out in nature. Everything is a god, however. The Earth itself is a very powerful spirit, it is the Grandmother. You always give to the Earth no matter whatever else you are doing. Hierarchy is not important to us, we don’t think about which god is more or less important, the Earth is but one of many gods who must be respected.
Rituals of the Ulchi
There are many rituals that the Ulchi do in their lives that are important. There is the basic offering ritual Kasegulliyee, there is the Ritual to the Bear, there is a Ritual to the Water Spirit done twice a year, there is the Pudja or Fire Ritual, there is one to the Sun and one to the Moon. There is also a ritual to the Earth. There is one to the grass and one to the berries that grow in the forest. There are many rituals! Every time you step on the Earth you should be giving thanks! Everyone! In the past, everyone was like that.
Here are some of the more important Ulchi rituals:
The Bear festival is held every three years. The bear is the emissary between the land of the living and the animal spirits. The bear would be a cub that was found in the forest, possibly because it was orphaned or simply lost. It would be brought back to the village and raised like a child in a family inside the house. The cub is fed well, treated very well and loved very much. After three years it is taken about the village to a sacred place that has been prepared and there it is sacrificed quickly by the best hunter and prayed to. It was believed that the spirit flys to the heavens and it’s spirit dives into three lakes: In the first all it’s bones come back, in the second all it’s meat comes back, in the third all it’s fur comes back. Then the new whole spirit bear goes to the Lord of the Animals and says “When the Ulchi people come out to hunt, all you animals sacrifice yourselves to them, they are good people, they obey the laws of nature, they loved me and treated me well and they need your meat and skins- they are good people.” So the bear then becomes the Ulchi emissary.
Every family does the Tudja ritual or Tree Ritual. Every family has a tree (often a larch) next to their home that is their sacred tree. The tree is the ‘telephone’ to the other worlds! You can contact Heaven, the Animal Spirits of the Middle World or the people in the Underworld. This tree becomes the family shrine and is very important. The ritual is only done on the full moon and in it you ask for health and happiness for your family. Everyone in the family goes out to the tree and offers certain things to the tree. Rice, candy, a little salmon and other things are offered, but never meat. Since animals are gods, it would be a kind of cannibalism. These offerings are tossed at the base of the tree and then some alcohol (often vodka) is brought out and drops of this are flicked to the four directions, to heaven and then to earth. And then you speak from your heart, there are no set prayers or hymns of any sort. If you are sick, you go out and offer to the tree also, even if it is not the full moon. You do this tree ritual at least once a month, more if things are not going well.
If there are problems, say illness, then there might be a banishing ritual done. Banishing or spiritual clearing of negative energies is never done outside, only in the house. Before a healing ritual, for example, a shaman might banish by having people dance through the home in a snake-like procession, there is often singing and drumming, and an herb called Sankura is burned as well to sanctify a place or person.
There is a home altar in ever house called the Malee and it always faces South. It often has carved wooden idols (saivens) which are living breathing spirits. They always include the House Spirit (Masee, a female bear spirit or tiger spirit) as well as other helper spirits of that family. Each Malee will be different depending on the family and what their helper spirits are.
The fire ritual or Pudja is very important. It can be done anytime. It is done a lot by hunters before they go out as well. It is the connector ritual to the Taiga, to your spirits and all the ancestors. There is drumming and singing and a large fire is built. Actual goods can be burned as offerings to send them to the underworld for ancestors to use. Again, the four quarters and heaven and earth have vodka offered to them.
It is important to remember that the Ulchi have no written language, dogma or set prayers. All rituals are spontaneous and from the heart. Some songs are memorized but shaman songs are never the same twice.The spirits only care about what is from your heart.
Dances are important rituals and they are the closest thing to set rituals for us because they are shapeshifting rituals that the animal spirits taught us to use to shift into their shape. The dances are performed during many ritual times. The Deer dance, for example, is to bring the spirit of the deer into your body. There are many dances, almost all of them accompanied by drumming. Each animal spirit has a specific ancient rhythm that calls that spirit to the ritual. There are Bear Dances, Fish Dances, Bird Dances, Butterfly Dances, Snake Dances….many. If you combine the right movements, the right drum beats and the right attitude then the appropriate spirit will come. Aside from set rituals mentioned, there are no special times to do these dances. You always listen to your spirits and they tell you when to do the dances.
Traditionally the Bear Festival and the Berry Picking Festival are two times the whole village does rituals together. Most rituals are family-centered because long ago living units were extended families, not villages. Only at these two ritual times did many families gather. Nowadays the New Year festival is also an important time because of the village system. People go out and light a candle that has to burn all night and a special new-years shrine is brought down and heaped with food offerings. People visit each other a lot and the next day the men and boys take the food offerings out side to give them to the spirits. Many people get married on new years day also.
Every Ulchi family does their own their own rituals. Shamans, as members of their family, do the same. One always reads about shamans healing others or doing this or that, yet the truth is that many people shamanize for themselves! They heal themselves and do their own rituals! This is never written about, but it is true. Families are the ritual centers, even the Bear Ritual is done by the family that raised the bear, in conjunction with the elders who remember how the rituals are done.
One last thing; You don’t always need music to do rituals, though it is an important part of our lives. Around the Fire Ritual there is always drums, but not necessarily at other rituals like theTudja.
Death and the Afterlife
The Ulchi have many different ideas about death and the afterlife. First, after you die, your soul may hang around the village for about a year or two in this world. This is why lots of offerings are given to the departed before they finally find the road to Bunee, the Underworld. They may need new coats, cigarettes and so on. Many visits are made to the grave for a year or so, then these visits stop when the spirit moves on. Bunee is a village in the underworld that is much like a regular Ulchi village. It is exactly the same as here; Mountains, rivers, trees- but when the sun sets here it rises there, and when it is dark there it is day here. Your friends are there and you have a life just like your life in this world.
There is a belief in reincarnation too. The Ulchi say that you can incarnate only three times in this world. But who knows how long you may stay in Bunee? Shamans believe they are different, however. They say that they are going to live up in the stars, not in Bunee. They will stay up with the star people. Then we also can easily return as spirit helpers to help and encourage other shamans and help their families. Death is not seen as a horrible thing at all among the Ulchi, it is just a transition to another world, one we already know about. You might come back to this world, or maybe not, but you continue with your journey. It is all very open.
The Way of the Shamans
Shamans do fortunetelling for people, work with children, give advice from the spirits, protect souls and heal people: they often sing to heal them. Shamans do many other things as well. Shamans have many special powers. Shamans also heal themselves. It is the Dragon God and Goddess of the Cosmos that always listen to the voice of the Shaman. Shamans can also be weather makers, or see into the future. The spirits give them the power to see what will happen. They can help hunters to know where game is, though hunters must essentially help themselves by being respectful and following the law when hunting. You can be the greatest hunter, but if you didn’t do your ceremony right, then the spirit of the arrow will not hunt your prey. You can not be out of balance. There are certain rituals hunters and fishers need to do before they go out.
Shamans also help people in their own spiritual paths, they help people understand Nani Doro, the laws and they help people interpret happenings, dreams and visions, though again much is up to each person. Shamans are the judges of the laws, the keepers of the culture and traditions. If something goes wrong in your life, a shaman can tell you what rituals you may need to do, but every shaman may not help you. They will listen to your problem and maybe they will take your case, or they will tell you that it is not their specialty and they may send you to another shaman. Many shamans are specialized, some only do healing, others only do weather working, for example. It is very flexible, you may go to a shaman in another village or even to one from another tribe, if you like. A lot has to do with your relationship with the shaman you choose. There are no set rules about this.
Aside from my other work, I am here on the earth to teach my children the laws of our people. I’m here to teach everything my father and mother taught me. I’m here to teach what the old shamans, the other shamans have taught me: what is good, what is bad, the laws of the world. And I’m here to teach all of this to the other children of my tribe as well, all the traditional dances, the legends, the culture and the language. In my village I’m the director of two traditional dance and drumming troops (Geeva & Geero ) and they are my vehicles to teach them the ancient ways because many of their parents have forgotten the ancient traditions. I’m trying to keep the Ulchi culture alive. Shamans carry all the stories, histories and lessons and they spend many nights telling these to the people around the fires. As long as the lineage of shamans continues, then these things will survive.
To become a shaman is not fun or pleasant. Most shamans have a tough life, it is very difficult and dangerous work, very strenuous. The spirits talk to you, they tell you what to do. Some shamans become crazy because of this. Grandmother TIKA (another shaman) always had trouble sleeping because the spirits were always whispering in her ear, they never stopped!
Becoming a Shaman
Well, in some cultures I know of there is the ‘shaman school’ where one apprentices with a shaman for many years and learns the trade. Yet to the Ulchi, no one can make you a shaman but your spirits. It isn’t something you seek and it can happen you when you are ninety years old or it can happen to you when you are two years old. It drives you crazy, it can make you mad. No one chooses to be a shaman, the spirits choose you and don’t leave you alone until you do it. If you have shamans in your past, it is very common for that gift to be carried on in the blood and often shamans come from a family lineage, so descendants are more likely to be chosen by the spirits. It could actually be a departed ancestor who comes to you as a spirit and passes on the shamanic gift!
Since everyone in the culture should know the dances, the drumming patterns, the various rituals and so on, everyone who knows the Ulchi way can become a shaman- it is up to the spirits! Then, what the spirits teach you is what they teach you andthis becomes what you learn to do as a shaman. The spirits also teach spirit languages, strange new languages no one can understand but the shaman and the spirits. It is common for shamans to speak these strange languages during their travels, they are nothing like Ulchi.
One more thing; Shaman never say they are shaman, they are modest.
The Shaman’s Spirit Journey
OK, let’s talk about the ‘spirit journey’ that so much is written about. If something is not going right for someone, say they are ill, they go to a shaman and he prepares for the journey.
A spirit journey is always in three parts: Calling the Spirits, the Journey and the Return and self healing.
Let’s say that this spirit journey is a Yiyee or soul-retrieval ceremony for an ill person.
The first thing the shaman does is sit down and call their spirits to them before they take the journey. This is done by drumming and singing and calling to them. Also offerings are made to these helper spirits and special dances are done.
When all of their spirits arrive, the shaman takes off, the or she leaves….Each shaman has his or her own particular way of ‘taking off,’ or flying. Each has a different style. They go into a different world. The world they enter is different, but it’s all around us. Then, when they are in the other world, they ask their spirit about the ill person and ask to see his or her ‘way’ and then they travel down the path of that ill person and see what is happening with this person. Have they been attacked by evil spirits? Is this karma? Then they react depending what they find. If an evil spirit is involved, then the shaman with his or her helpers may fight and banish the offending spirit and try to retrieve the soul of that person. The journey is constantly changing, no two are the same. One moment you could be up in the heavens with the Dragon goddess and then you could suddenly be wandering in the underworld. You are constantly shifting realities.
When a shaman heals someone and travels into other worlds, the song he or she sings during this journey tells what is happening right then on that spirit journey. Some things or forms may be similar, but never the same. This is reflected in the shaman’s song and it tells all those watching what is going on. Everyone in the community takes the journey with the shaman! With the changing song and the varied rythems on the drum, the shaman takes the people with him or her and tells exactly what is happening. It is usually an amazing narrative. And it can be anything, there is no set pattern to what the shaman experiences.
Then, if this is the work being done, you bring the soul back to the person who is ill and you fix it back in their body. This is done with song and gesture and the help of the spirits.
Then there is the ending or full return of the shaman back to this world. Finally the shaman has to do a healing for him or herself at the end, this is very important. There is drumming, a special healing dance and often the shaman wears belts of bells that help in this finalizing process. Then they thank and dismiss their spirit helpers and bid them leave.
Nani Doro Today and in the Future
This way of life has been continuous since 8000 BCE, and we hope that it can continue. The young people have all forgotten these traditions, but I have taught my children these ways. I know they’ll go on and teach their children. So I think that it will survive. This dance group I run is a way to help continue the culture. Teaching the children will make sure it continues, I hope.
Why do Americans want to know about our way? This puzzles me too. Maybe they are crazy! I think it is because the way you all came to America caused you to lose your own traditions and so seek to find new ones. There is a very old story:
‘Long ago there was one way on the earth, the way we follow, Nani Doro or the law of nature. Everyone followed it and lived with nature being respectful and giving thanks every day for being on the earth. They were all different colors; white, yellow, red and black, but then they all went their separate ways and most forgot the law. It is said this is why they are all unhappy today.’
Maybe you are remembering the Law of Nature in America now, maybe you remember Doro. Maybe from us you can learn the truth of the world, the truth of life. This is what is important: You must remember to be a respectful guest on this planet!
RESOURCE (May be out of date)
The only resource for the direct learning of Siberian Shamanic teachings in the USA is Amba. Amba, the School of Siberian Shamanism, is dedicated to the preservation of Ulchi traditions of Shamanism. The wisdom is taught by elders from an unbroken lineage of shamans from the Amur river region of lower Siberia in the Russian far east. Ms. Duvan leaves her village to return to the USA to meet with her students and bring further teachings from the elders several times a year. For further information concerning workshops and seminars, ritual items, drums or our school curriculum write: Amba School of Siberian Shamanism teaches trainings, techniques and traditions of the Ulchi shamans from Southeast Siberia. Founded by Nadyezhda Duvan, wisdom keeper and shaman of the Ulchi people, the school hosts classes and events taught by elder shamans and senior students