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The Ulchi World View
by Nadyezhda Duvan A Glimpse into Shamanic Culture in Southeastern Siberia The Ulchis are the descendants of the Tungus tribes of Ilou, Mobe and Pohai, a southern speaking Manchu-Tungus language group. The northern section of the Amur River region of Siberia is their home. In the nineteenth century they numbered around 1,500 people but have now grown to 2,500 according to the most recent census counts taken in the early 1980s. The spiritual life of the Ulchi is based on an animistic world view. Animism is the belief that spirits inhabit the world and have an effect on the lives of people, animals and objects. The Ulchis, both past and present, conceive of everything in existence as living beings endowed with reason, spirit and power. Mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, rocks and forests all have their own spirit masters. The Gods and Goddesses are the Siberian Tiger, the Bear, the Dragon of the Cosmos and Sun and Moon. According to the Ulchi’s conception of the universe, the world is divided into three distinct parts. The Upperworld is called Ba and is ruled by Enduri, The Dragon King of the Cosmos. The Ulchis say that there are seven layers to this world. Among the inhabitants are the star peoples, ancestors, deceased shamans, and the Ebaha – beautiful vampiric female spirits who are known to attack and kill living people. All types of birds are considered to be spirits of the heavens. The Middleworld, known as the Taiga, is the land of mortal people. The Siberian Tiger, called Amba and the Bear, known as Mapaw (Grandfather) are the deities to this region. It is here that the land spirits, water spirits and Mountain Goddess reign supreme. The daily lives and rituals of the Ulchi center around these Middleworld spirits. The Underworld is called the land of Buni. This is the world in which the souls of the dead travel to begin their next life. When a member of the community dies, a special type of funeral rite is held for a period of one year, the time it takes for the soul to walk the road to the land of Buni. There he or she will live in a new village, meet with old friends, and continue with all of the daily activities of hunting and fishing. These three worlds are located parallel to each other and exist outside of time and space. The geography is the same, there are animals, mountains, forests, rivers and oceans in all of the worlds. The Ulchi image of this three-world-unity is their Tree of Life. The upper branches of the Tree represent the Cosmos, the center section or trunk is the Taiga, and the lower section and roots symbolize the world of Buni. Temu-The God of the Waters and the Ritual to the Salmon Traditionally, our primary source of food was the salmon, which traveled up the Amur from the sea of Okhotsk. Twice a year, in the spring and fall, a special ceremony is still held to insure the arrival of salmon. Ulchis believe that of all the natural elements, water is the most powerful and most dangerous. The God of the rivers, oceans and lakes is called Temu. He is seen as an old grandfather who lives in his underwater kingdom. In common with the belief that all of the three worlds have the same topography, this underwater kingdom has villages, people and is inhabited by the creatures of the sea. The water ritual addresses this ancient grandfather in the hope that he will send the fish to the nets of the fishermen. If the ritual is performed properly the spirit of the water will appear. He is an ancient man who knows and sees all. That is why we must be very, very, very cautious when addressing water spirits. We must never defile their sacred places, never speak harshly of them and never laugh or speak to loudly around water. The ritual begins with the carving of the sacred sticks. These sticks must be made of willow that grows from the riverbank. Food offerings of tobacco, berries, salmon, rice or millet and the sacred grass, called Wacee, are placed in a little white boat made of birch bark. The sacred sticks are stuck into the water, close to the riverbank, about twelve inches apart, and the little boat of food offerings is sailed out into the river between these two sticks. Prayers are then said from the heart to Temu. We don’t ask the spirits to send the big fish. We will always say, “Send us the tiny fish, whatever you can send. Send us the little fish.” A person should never take more from the world than he or she needs. Fishermen would only take from the river what they needed to feed their own family. After the prayers are given and the boat has been launched, we wait and watch to see how quickly the ritual boat is taken by the water. The speed with which the boat is taken from the bank and the boat’s relation to the sticks reveals how the offering is received by the spirit powers of the water. Ulchis use every part of the fish. We use the kidneys, the liver, the bones, the skin and the bladder, which is the primary source of natural glue known as darpu. Everything has a place and everything a purpose. Everything has meaning. The vertebrae and the cheekbones are dried to make rattles that hang over children’s cradles. Everyone knows this is what keeps us safe from unwanted spirits. We also use the skin to make dresses, hats, boots, pants and jackets that keep us dry when we are out in our boats in the rain. The ancient Chinese, having observed this style of dress called the Ulchis Yup’itatzi, “fish skin Tartars.” Currently, in my village of Bulava, only a few masters still know how to prepare and create our fish skin garments. These masters are elderly grandmothers, commissioned primarily by museums to make the traditional clothing that represents the indigenous folk arts of the people of the Russian Far East.
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