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A novice shaman makes an offering of milk to the spirits at her initiation outside the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.
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Symbol of eternity, this “mother tree,” a pine in northern Mongolia, draws pilgrims from all over. It gave out under the weight of cloth offerings, the blue ones representing everlasting heaven and peace.
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At night in her tepee-like ortz, Sain Tsetseg (Good Flower), of the Tsaatan ethnic group, beats a drum to enter a trance while an assistant burns juniper twigs, whose fragrant smoke draws in the spirits.
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An assistant holds a burning twig near Nergui, a Darhad shaman, to help him emerge from a trance. Many Darhad, who live in northern Mongolia near the Russian border, regard shamanism as their main religion.
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Driving out evil spirits with a mini-drum, Lyubov Lavrentiyeva wards off spells and ministers to the sick in her office in Irkutsk, Russia. In the postcommunist era shamanism is undergoing a revival. Lavrentiyeva advertises in the local paper and calls herself “a seamstress of souls.”
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By day Sain Tsetseg tends her reindeer in northern Mongolia. At night she conducts shamanic ceremonies in her ortz.
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Pilgrims from throughout Mongolia come to mother trees like the one near Selenge Aymag, in the north, to offer tea, milk, vodka, and candy and to adorn the tree with ceremonial scarves called khadag, symbolizing their prayers and the blessings they seek.
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A woman kneels in front of a fire at a ceremony marking the start of spring at the mother tree near Selenge Aymag. This is the moment each year when the spirits are said to descend from the heavens to communicate with the shamans.
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A female shaman leading an initiation for novices outside Ulaanbaatar holds up the heart she has just removed from a sheep. She sees this sacrificial offering as a symbol of her power over life and death.
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At the initiation ceremony the shaman squeezes blood from the sheep’s heart to mix with vodka. The drink is believed to help the newly minted shamans connect with the souls of ancestors.
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Later, another shaman drums as family members lend support to a novice in a trance.
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Ulaanbaatar shaman Zorigtbaatar Banzar drums a rhythm while worshippers circle a cloth-draped tent post he calls the “white spirit.” He believes it holds the energy of the sun and the power of Genghis Khan.
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At her Ulaanbaatar home a student seeks a shaman’s help to secure documents she needs to study abroad.
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A stone mound, or ovoo, in Mongolia marks a place where spirits are said to have appeared; respectful travelers circle it three times.
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Oleg Dorzhiyev concludes the Bukha-Noyon ceremony with some two dozen other shamans in Siberia’s Republic of Buryatiya as a woman flings a gift of milk toward the sacred rock on the hillside.
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A woman shrieks with emotion as shamans spray her with water they’ve blessed at a tailgan, or group ceremony, in Buryatiya. Men and women line up separately to receive the sacred water, believed to ward off evil spirits.
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The peaks of Burkhan Rock rise like twin spires from Siberia’s Lake Baikal, the world’s largest body of fresh water. People across Asia believe that spirits associated with Baikal live in this rocky outcropping on Olkhon Island, destination of a steady stream of pilgrims.
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