DAN ASHER

 

JL.  Dan, can you tell me a about your journey to Siberia.

DA. The trip to Tuva ( southern Siberia, bordering Mongolia) was made in the summer of 2002.  The photos of the shamanic rituals were taken at a sacred spring, which in Tuvan is called  an arzhaans.  The spring itself was being blessed by the fire and the chants and dances of  the two shamans, Nadia and Ochurolovich.  I was then lead  into  a wooden shed  where the ice-cold water cascaded down on my back.  After a few "practice runs" to become acclimated to the water, I remained under the falling water for 5 minutes.  This  was one of the many healing springs in this complex.  The shaman also did a number of other healings.  One quite similar to a reiki treatment; and another where the shaman's knuckles were run across one's forehead.  Needless to say, that was quite painful at the onset, but it became less so in a shirt while somewhat akin to the "accommodation" to pain in subsequent shiatsu sessions or the transmogrification of pains of  varying form and intensity in everyday life.  There were a myriad of flies around the camp site which one and all tried to shoo away at every opportunity.  The shaman however looked upon the presence of flies as evidence of abundant life forces.  In the rituals, a sacred drum, the dungur was used.  The  drumstick was a dried bear claw.  Also, there was liberal use of smoke from the juniper leaves and berries to purify and sanctify the area.  

 

The tent like pyramidal structures are called ovvas, and their purpose is to guard mountain passes. There are numerous bits of cloth and paper that voyagers add to the structure when they pass by. One of  the other photos depicts the finish of a 30 mile horse race, a red piece of silk is attached to the horse's tail in this instance. Also occurring at the time of  my journey was a throat singing competition (called khoomai in Tuvan) this is an otherworldly sounding singing (overtone singing) in which two or more pitches are intoned simultaneously in human mimicry of the sounds of the natural world---the animistic worldview of the region demarcates the spirituality of physical manifestations of nature in their form, geographical position, as well as the aural components.  The distinguished-looking gentleman with the cylindrical hat is Dr. Mongush Kenin-Lobsan; shaman, ethnographer and writer who recently turned 80 years of age. He was also the first researcher of the history of Tuvan shamanism.