ALL
spells
ICH Elements 8
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Traditional craftsmanship of the Mongol Ger and its associated customs
For thousands of years, nomadic herders of Mongolia roamed across the country-side from season to season. Dry, windy areas close to rivers are best for summers while areas away from river-bank wind and close to mountains or hills are best for winter stays. In the country where pasture always was and still is a public domain, the herders moved freely to the best locations for the season. With this lifestyle of freedom of movement and pastoral animal husbandry was invented the national dwelling called the ‘Mongol ger’. It is a round structure of easily dismantle-able walls, polls and a round ceiling covered with canvas and felt, tightened with ropes. The ger was designed to be light enough for Mongolian nomads to carry, flexible enough to fold-up, pack and assemble, sturdy enough for multiple dismantling and assembling as well as easy for regulating temperatures within. Over many centuries the mongol ger was modified into a perfectly aerodynamic structure which can withstand Mongolia's fierce spring winds ranging up to 18-20 meter/sec. It can be dismantled in half an hour and assembled in an hour by a small family with 2-3 adults. The Mongol ger has many varieties. The most common “5-wall ger” consists of five lattice segments forming a circular wall, a door, a toono (round window ceiling), two bagana (columns that hold the toono), and 88 uni(long poles that connect wall lattices and toono which forms the roof of the ger). There are also several accessories attached to the ger.
Mongolia 2013 -
Coaxing ritual for camels
The Traditional Coaxing ritual expresses the peculiar relationship between a man and animal. The ritual comes under the domain of “social practices, rituals and festive events” and in cases where there is participation in the ritual by a singer and musician, or by a few musicians, it might also come under the domain of “performing art”. While elsewhere spring is a pleasant season for peasants, it isn’t convenient for Mongolian herdsmen. The mother animals give birth to their young in a harsh and dusty spring, so there is a big risk of losing a mother or a baby animal. Mongols have a variety of rituals relating to husbandry in traditional Mongolian society. One of them is a chanting ritual for a new-born baby animal and its mother. To chant is to stimulate, through the use of special words and melody, the adopting of a baby animal to a mother. There are different gestures, melodies and chanting techniques for the five types of livestock in Mongolia. Coaxing (khuuslukh) a camel is a ritual for a mother who rejects her baby; or for adopting an orphan baby to another female who has lost her baby, because only a suckling mother will have milk in harsh spring time. For the nomadic Mongols the camel milk has been not only the source of food and drinks in the severe Gobi Desert conditions, but also the basic means of preventing illness or for healing diseases. Therefore, the coaxing rituals originated from the everyday occurrence of the herdsmen and became one of the important elements of Mongolian folk knowledge and ritual. The performance of the ritual continues for a few hours at early morning or at twilight and requires a high skill of handling camels and a singing talent or skill for playing on a musical instrument such as the horse head fiddle or flute. Most herdswomen engage in techniques and methods of coaxing, but these techniques and methods aren’t enough sometimes, for performing the ritual successfully. If there isn’t a singer or musician in the family, the owner of the camels will invite a coaxer or a few masters in coaxing and players of a musical instrument, from another place. In this case, the coaxing ritual will compose of a small performance by several actors: a singer along with a horse head fiddle, flute or mouth-orlgan players. A mother is tied close to the calf, nearby to a yurt. A singer will begin gently their monotone song ""khuus"", ""khuus"" with a horse head fiddle or without any musical instrument. A mother will bite, savage or spit and show her ignorance to a calf at the beginning of the ritual. The coaxer can change their melody, depending on the mother’s behavioural reaction. Most musicians will perform the ritual traditional Mongolian -sad stories about camels- songs such as “Unchin tsagaan botgo”, “Goviin undur” etc. The musician performs his play with different sounds of walking, running and bellowing of a camel and absorbs words into poems, songs and epochs. When a mother camel is being coaxed into accepting a rejected or an orphan calf, it is said to break into tears at the gentle sound of ""khuus"" and the enchanting melody of the horse head fiddle sung and played by someone skilled in the art of casting spells on animals. In some cases, to perform the ritual more effectively herdsmen use additional techniques such as skinning a dead calf and covering the orphan camel calf with the hide, tying a mother together with a baby quite a far distance from the ger camp for the whole night, or soaking the calf in salt, saltpetre or in the mother’s milk. Also it was common to place the ankle bone of a wild sheep (there is a myth that wild ewes never reject their babies) around the neck of a mother or a calf. But nowadays it is very hard to find these anklebones, as wild sheep are enlisted to the endangered-species list. There is also an exotic remedy in the coaxing ritual where the mother is led to a ger at twilight and shown the fire inside. (A camel can’t enter a ger, because of its size.) All participants in the ritual wear good clothes, remain attentive and focused, using their own psychic vision and imagination in the coaxing process, because the participants express their gratitude to gods of the camels, mountains and waters within the ritual. After finishing the ritual a coaxer or small group of masters will be honoured guests of the family. A person, who had performed coaxing rituals prosperously, will be invited again and again by the families in need of the ritual. When, where, how many times they have been invited - is the main criteria for evaluating the talent of a cultural bearer of this ritual. The evaluation is a prerequisite to their popularity in a society. The coaxing ritual has been transmitted from generations to generations and been enriched by the exchange of camel herding knowledge between the herders of Umnugovi, Bayankhongor, Dundgovi provinces, which are the main territories of Mongolia’s Bactrian camel population. “We should not forget this ritual while we are herding camels, because in both the animal and the human - it transcends genre to become a deeply affecting allegory about the importance of patience and acceptance in so many relationships” that is the conception of elders, the cultural bearers’ communities and camel herders. The knowledge and skills relating to the ritual’s transmission occurs from parents and elders to youth, in home tutoring: Elders with long experience of herding, herdswomen with singing talent and the talented musicians, who can influence the camel’s behaviour, are the main actors of the coaxing ritual. The ritual acts as a symbolic medium for creating and maintaining the social ties of individual nomadic families and dependencies to the community, because it is one part of the traditional intangible cultural heritage of the relationship between man and livestock.
Mongolia 2015 -
Si-dam-pey: Burying the obstacles/negativities
Generally, there is three wrathful tantric rituals; Nen (suppression), Seg (burn) and Phang (throw), exorcize and overcoming destructive evil spirits which the rituals reveal to be our own negative thoughts. In the Norbugang village community there are only a few households who organize the Se-nen ritual, which is performed along with the annual ritual called Lha-sey (lha gsol). Locally called Se-dam-pey, “burying the evil spirits,” the power of blessing of this annual ritual suppresses the source of ill-luck, famine, drought, diseases, quarrels, untimely deaths, and other unfavorable circumstances for the forthcoming year. It bestows peace and tranquility to the members of the family and the community as well. Se-dam-pey is performed according to the Lama Nor-jam liturgy text of the Pema Lingpa tradition, and it also includes local variations and worldly activities such as using household items to suppress the spirits and cheering with songs while dragging the Se to be buried. Locals believe this ritual was performed by Guru Padmasambhava while building the majestic Samye monastery in Lhasa, Tibet in the 8th century. Padmasambhava was invited by the Tibetan King Trisong Detsen to build Samye monastery after Vairocana, the eminent translator, could not control the evil activities at the construction site through compassionate acts. When Guru Padmasambhava arrived he used his unique accomplishment in tantric methods to summon the soul of the evil spirits and gather the country’s bad fortune which he suppressed into the ground and buried underneath the foundation of the building, concealed by vajra seal. Thereafter, the construction of the monastery proceeded without unfavourable circumstances or evil accidents. The final monastery was magnificent and could propagate the tantric teachings. Those teachings were brought to Bhutan by Guru Padmasambhava himself in the mid-eight century, and propagated by numerous eminent Vajra practitioners. Se-nen is revered as one of the most grand and powerful blessing rituals. In contemporary practice, the ritual is conducted by a community for the benefit of the people and is dedicated to all sentient beings. The power of the ritual is believed to suppress negativity and evil spells and leave blessings of peace, happiness and tranquillity. Prerequisite tools to prepare Se: -\tSe-ama or Se-lud (effigy representing the evil spirit), a painted human face on a boiled egg. -\tChong (gourd) to conceal the effigy. Although the original text requires a monkey skull to conceal the Se-ama, villagers use a gourd. -\tThe anchor is inserted through the knot and the rope is fastened to drag the Se ama into the Se-ga gang hole. -\tGo-tham shum (Egg shell to draw the face of the Se-ama -\tNab-sang (black cloth) for wrapping the gourd -\tKud-pa ney-nga (five colored thread) to bind -\tLa-cha (lacquer) for sealing -\tTek-pa (anchor) for clinching -\tRong-shong (rope) for pulling -\tThag-chey (all the traditional weaving tools) -\tNye-shing (pestle) -\tTok-tsi (small mortar and pestle) -\tGu-ga gang-che (drum handle) -\tRol-moi gang-che (cymbal handle) -\tSe-ga wang (hole to bury the Se-ama). The hole is usually dug just outside the threshold of a door. It is believed that the Se ama buried there will always remain underneath people’s feet.
Bhutan -
Tradition of Vedic chanting
The Vedas comprise a vast corpus of Sanskrit poetry, philosophical dialogue, myth, and ritual incantations developed and composed by Aryans over 3,500 years ago. Regarded by Hindus as the primary source of knowledge and the sacred foundation of their religion, the Vedas embody one of the world’s oldest surviving cultural traditions. The Vedic heritage embraces a multitude of texts and interpretations collected in four Vedas, commonly referred to as “books of knowledge” even though they have been transmitted orally. The Rig Veda is an anthology of sacred hymns; the Sama Veda features musical arrangements of hymns from the Rig Veda and other sources; the Yajur Veda abounds in prayers and sacrificial formulae used by priests; and the Atharna Veda includes incantations and spells. The Vedas also offer insight into the history of Hinduism and the early development of several artistic, scientific and philosophical concepts, such as the concept of zero. Expressed in the Vedic language, which is derived from classical Sanskrit, the verses of the Vedas were traditionally chanted during sacred rituals and recited daily in Vedic communities. The value of this tradition lies not only in the rich content of its oral literature but also in the ingenious techniques employed by the Brahmin priests in preserving the texts intact over thousands of years. To ensure that the sound of each word remains unaltered, practitioners are taught from childhood complex recitation techniques that are based on tonal accents, a unique manner of pronouncing each letter and specific speech combinations.
India 2008 -
Traditional knowledge in medicine
Knowledge of the Kyrgyz concerning treatment and use of medicinal plants is distinguished by depth and diversity. It contains knowledge and practice about harvesting, drying, and storing medicinal plants, and their use in traditional medicine. Different tinctures, decoctions, ointments, and powders made of plants for treatment purposes are used today in traditional medicine to treat bleedings, heart deceases, kinks, scabs. Except plants, natural objects, minerals, and animal limbs are used in traditional medicine. The so called psychological treatment methods such as spells and exorcisms were used in the past, to which the Kyrgyz, rarely, but still resort to nowadays.
Kyrgyzstan -
Death Ritual of Lhop Communities
Death is often considered as a great loss but not more than the fear incurred from the unnatural deaths; such as accidents from falling off a tree or death caused due to an encounter with wild animals as they strongly believe that death has been caused from dishonoring the deities or by evil spirits or by bad spells from somebody. They conduct very elaborate ceremonies to appease the spirit of the deceased and deities, especially the deceased with food and drinks so as to prevent misfortune to the surviving people. Lhops believe in the dual existence; that when death occurs, the soul, Se-hok, leaves the body and dwells in the emptiness for certain period and later joins the world of Sim-pu (death).
Bhutan -
Mongol Tuuli, Mongolian Epic
Mongol Tuuli is an oral tradition comprising heroic epics that run from hundreds to thousands of lines and combine benedictions, eulogies, spells, idiomatic phrases, fairy tales, myths and folk songs. They are regarded as a living encyclopedia of Mongolian oral traditions and immortalize the heroic history of the Mongols. Epic performers are distinguished by their prodigious memory and skills, combining singing, vocal improvisation and musical composition coupled with theatrical elements. Epic lyrics are performed to musical accompaniment on instruments such as morin khuur and tovshuur. Epics are performed during social and public events, including state affairs, weddings, a child’s first haircut, naadam and worship of sacred sites. Epics evolved over many centuries, and reflect nomadic lifestyles, social behaviors, religion, mentalities and imagination. Epic performers cultivate epic traditions from generation to generation, learning, performing and transmitting techniques within kinship circles, from fathers to sons.
Mongolia 2009 -
Spells and Incantations
Spells and incantations are the ancient forms of ritualistic poetry accustomed since tribal development. They consist of few lines with firm words which endeavor to achieve their ends through the supernatural powers of words, sounds, and gestures. Spells and incantations are unique in a way that they are not used towards human but only towards natural phenomena. Spells and incantations are the ancient form of the literature that features the behavior to reach the goal with use of words, gestures and magic. Spells and incantation are classified into ordinary and special level. There is no restraint to the ordinary spells and incantation, and everybody can say and do it whatever time they wish. In reverse, only experienced person can do the special spells and incantations.
Mongolia