Buryat Shamans Predict Radical Changes in 2016 with Improved Conditions in Siberia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 31 – Many who give little thought to predicting the future the rest of the year nonetheless focus on that task at the end of one year and the beginning of the next, but one group that is involved with this task much of the time seldom gets much play in the Moscow media.

            That is made up of shamans, an important social force in many republics, and as this year ends and a new one dawns, the shamans of the Buryat religious organization Tengeri are predicting that the next year will be full of many changes, including improvements in Siberia (ulanmedia.ru/news/society/29.12.2015/482467/buduschiy-god-budet-nasischen-rezkimi-peremenami-schitayut-shamani-buryatii.html).

            Bair Tsyrendorzhiyev, the head of the Tengeri group says not next year but in the following one, the current crisis will pass and abundance will return. “But for the good life, one must pay and lose something, and this could be both human lives and economic losses” of one kind or another.

            In shamanism, he explains, there are “three tragedies: fire, flooding and war.” They are especially dangerous because they sow death without regard to those involved.  The fires of the last year in the Baikal region should cause people “to reflect why namely in the sacred space around Baikal came such a tragedy.”

            He said that despite all the problems in the economy and with the fires, 2015 had been filled with successes as far as the shaman movement is concerned.  His group has opened branches in Omsk and St. Petersburg and organized 14 meetings of shamans, attracting them and other interested people from Europe and the US.

            Buryatia now has about 12 shaman religious groups, the largest of any republic in the Russian Federation except for Tyva where shamanism is even more widespread. The Buryat shamans hope to complete the building of their religious center, “The Gates of Heaven,” during the next 12 months.

            Tsyrendorzhiyev told the meida that he hopes that despite the crisis, people will be able to preserve their spiritual wealth because “spiritual wealth will ultimately materialize.”