Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Shaman- EEEKKK!!
Oh my goodness where to begin? I wish I had more chances to update my blog because everyday Mongolia gets wilder and wilder. I suppose the Shaman sounds like an appropriate place to start…please overlook the grammatical errors: for the purpose of time, I will reread this and I might have to end mid blog!
Shamanism in Mongolia is nearly as popular as Buddhism. Alyssa’s dyy, Nora (her little sister), is a Shaman and 15 years old. For much of her youth she was sickly. By the age of 14, she was too sick to go to school. Moogii, my LCF (Mongolian teacher), had Nora in class and attested to the fact that for years she had been struggling with her health. Nora’s family took her to UB and to numerous doctors to try to cure her illness. However, doctor after doctor said they couldn’t find anything wrong with her. As a last resort, the family took her to a Shaman. According to the Shaman, a spirit was trying to contact her. In order to improve her health, the Shaman taught Nora how to open herself up to the spirit.
After two days with the Shaman, Nora was trained on how to properly awaken the spirit within her. Since the first time Nora welcomed OBOO, she has felt completely healthy and back to normal. Now she invites the spirit into her body a couple times a day.
Alyssa’s mom told OBOO (the spirit that enters Nora’s body) about the foreigner living in her home and about the other foreigners visiting Mongolia. OBOO was curious to meet us and told Alyssa’s mother to invite the foreigners to meet him the next day at 3 pm. And that is how I got an invitation to witness a Shamanistic practice.
Nora is a 15 year old BABE! She is so cute, goofy, and girly. As Papa Willy would say, all of the Mongolian boys are chasing after her. Her family built a ger in order for her to perform the Shaman ceremonies. In the ger, candles are lit and vodka, cigarettes, yogurt, milk tea, and other offerings are on a table. First, Nora puts on an oversized robe laced with fringe. In the armpit of the robe there is a hole for the spirit to enter her body. The main leader of the ceremony tightly ties a blue scarf around Nora’s eyes. Then the helper places a brown mask over her head with long fringe hanging and two large eyes painted on. Nora holds onto a large drum and begins her transformation by beating on the drum and slowly spinning in a circle. She starts shaking her head and spinning and beating faster and faster and on the third spin BAM she can no longer hold herself up and is transformed into an 80 year old ancestor from hundreds of years ago—OBOO.
OBOO has an extremely raspy voice and uses an ancient Mongolian dialect. He smokes like a fiend and drinks shots of vodka. His hands and body move awkwardly with a sort of twitch. While in Nora’s body, he can communicate with the modern world, read spirits, and heal the sick. According to OBOO, all the PCTs have good spirits. I hope this is true. For now, this is all I can blog. Many apologies and more to come soon!
Much love, Suzanne
