Dmitry A. Funk

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology,

Russian Academy of Sciences

The Teleuts. Spiritual Culture: Mythologies, Traditional Beliefs, Holidays, and Rituals

Religious beliefs  

Scholars have mostly looked into shamanism as the widespread type of religious worship among Teleuts. Even though it manifests significant similarities with shamanism practiced by other peoples of the Sayan-Altai area, it also had some unique features. 

In 1910, two large Teleut uluses (hamlets) of Chelukhoevo and Shanda simultaneously had five practicing shamans ( kams ), while in 1912, there remained only three elderly male and female shamans. Since the 1930s, Teleuts had no professional shaman, although periodically, some people would engage in healing practices, and some of them were believed to be (and called themselves) shamans ( kams ). Despite the long-standing propaganda of atheism, Teleuts preserved many shamanistic views of the world and the spirits that inhabit it, of the means of combating harmful spirits, rituals for feeding fire, clan and family guardians. So far, however, there is no neo-shamanic movement / revival. 

Teleut shamans’ cosmology is highly detailed and manifests one of the most impressive and unique pictures of the universe compared to the views of other Turkic peoples of the region. The universe is divided into five worlds vertically and horizontally. Our world ( pu jer ) has the shape of a plate that rests on four gray oxen and is populated by people and spirits of individual localities: of rivers, lakes, and forests ( yiyk ). This world is surrounded by a wide swath of an imaginary world, “the earthly path” ( jer joly ) that lies between the horizon and the real earth. Several dozens of payana spirits live in the east and south of this world; they are mostly kind toward people. The real and imaginary worlds are covered along the rims with the firmament ( temir kapkak, the iron lid). Far to the east of the world, “beyond an empty space,” there are two worlds of truth ( chyn jer ) inhabited by powerful worshipped deities Adam (Ada-Kizhi) and Jöö-Kaan. Having traveled to the foundation of the Sky ( tengere tös ), a shaman would go beyond its boundaries through one of two openings. The shaman would fly through the next space and signify it by spinning on the spot and making over a hundred turns without stopping. People present at the ritual would surround the shaman in a dense ring to make the flight a success. When the kam set foot at the “land of truth,” people present at the ritual would sigh with relief, and the host who had asked for the ritual to be held started to serve wine to the guests. Adam was thought to be a particularly powerful deity who not only could give a child to a childless couple, but could even create heavenly deities at will. 

The heavenly world included 16 spheres or strata, each (with the exception of the first two) was the abode of some deity Teleuts denoted with the general term Ulgens . At the same time, Ulgen ( Pai-Ulgen ) was a proper name, too. Mother Pai-Ulgen was on the very top of the universe, but was not considered to be the strongest or most powerful compared to other ulgens . Ulgens were thought to be patrons of Teleut clans: Pai-Ulgen was the patron of the Tötpör, Totoy-Tengere of the Merkit, Eksey-Meksey-Tengere ( Adam Burkhan-Tengere ) of the Choros, Kyzygan-Tengere was the patron of the Tonul, Abyosh-Tengere of the Yuty, and Tumat-Tengere of the Tumat. 

The underworld, or “the land of evil” ( tier-alys ), was the least known. The information collected in the 20 th century showed that it had nine strata located underground. To refer to its inhabitants, Teleuts used “generic” terms such as körmös, edü, aina, saldy-nemezi, kara-neme, sokor-neme, kyryk-nekezi , etc., and also proper names. 

Teleuts’ traditional religious beliefs claimed that spirits would come to a prospective shaman when he or she turns 15-18 and then would “force” them ( tös pasyp jam ) to accept the shamanic gift. Accepting the gift was accompanied by a “shamanic disease” that lasted or a year or more. The spirits re-created the shaman, boiled them in a cauldron looking for an “extra bone” (if they could not find it, the prospective shaman would die). There were cases when, on the contrary, a shaman would come into full power only after the “extra bone” left their body ( kam Kanakay Chelukhoev, died in 1914). The shaman’s relatives played an important role in the course of the shaman’s disease. They either used magic means to protect the shaman from advancing spirits, or would invite one or two experienced shamans or experts in shamanic rituals that would bring the neophyte out of that state and teach the basics of handling the world of spirits. 

In the 19 th -20 th centuries, shamans did not have any special ritual clothes with the exception of the astyuchke hat used by female shamans. Their principal ritual objects were their drum ( tüür or chaluu ) and a stick ( orbu ). Beginner shamans conducted their rituals without a drum, and some shamans never had a drum during their entire life. 

They made the sticks out of meadowsweet upholstered with kamus (pelt from a wild she-goat’s legs). It was decorated with tuu ribbons tied in honor of the most powerful spirits and/or shamans’ patrons. An oval-shaped drum had the perimeter of about 180 centimeters. Based on its non-anthropomorphic handle ( mars ), it was categorized as the same type as the drums of Shors, some Kumandins, Chelkans, certain groups of the Khakas. Different shamans have very similar drawings on the outer side of the drum’s leather membrane. Some details of the pictures on shamanic drums represent shamanic views of the structure of the Universe. 

A shaman could have anywhere between three and twelve drums. After a shaman died, their drum was “killed,” meaning its leather was punctured or cut. After it, others would take it outside and trample upon it, and then hang it in the forest on a birch tree where it would rot away. There were reports that after a shaman died, their spine or some other bone had to be broken. Failure to follow this custom would result in trouble, including health problems among the shaman’s closest relatives. Funeral rites for a shaman were the same as for other people, so shamans were buried in a regular cemetery. 

Shamanic rituals performed in honor of the most powerful spirits and deities ( pozogo , the spirit of the threshold, Talai-Kaan , the master spirit of the sea, Adam, etc.) followed the same procedure:

1. Ritual killing of a sacrificial animal or preparing other types of sacrifices, the shaman would call their helping spirits,
2. The shaman’s journey, wherein the shaman was accompanied by helping spirits and the shaman’s assistant ( paytal-pashchy ) leading the double of the sacrificial animal; overcoming obstacles and achieving the goal

3. The shaman flies geese home and dismisses the helping spirits.

Each stage of the ritual included several mandatory mini-rites, mandatory texts called alkysh that could sometimes be rigidly regimented depending on the season or the purpose of the sacrifice. Principal differences manifested at the second stage of the ritual, during the shaman’s journey along different parts of the virtual universe. 

Simultaneously with performing grand rituals for the needs of the entire clan or community, with mandatory sacrifice of livestock, shamans handled an entire range of problems: found lost kut , or “energy doubles” thereby healing the sick, communicated with the dead ( üzüt ) and looked into the future. 

In the Teleut society, shamans coexisted with many specialists in rituals including chymyrchy / chymyrchyl (exorcists); alkyshchy (experts in well-wishing); alaschy (experts in cleansing rituals that used fire); jölögöchi, chobytchy (different types of fortune-tellers / soothsayers); kösmökchi/kösmölchil (clairvoyants); jadachy (sorcerers who controlled weather through magic); arbyshchy (warlocks), and others. More influential shamans had different types of knowledge and usually could perform different ritual functions of the experts listed above. Shamans held chymyrchy , or experts in exorcism, to be on the lowest rung of the shamanic “Table of Ranks,” and Teleut folklore tells of the bad blood between shamans and arbyshchy , or warlocks. Relations with the church were complicated, but not necessarily antagonistic. Not all shamans were the social leaders in their clan or community. In case of failed rituals or refusal to help, people could physically attack the shaman (this is what, according to legend, did the pashtyk , or administrative leader, Choloy to the shaman from his clan tumat ). Teleuts still tell many tales of the everyday life and shamanic practices of their famous ancestors. 

Many elements of Teleuts’ shamanic cosmology and paraphernalia have close parallels in the culture of nearby peoples such as Shors, Kumandins, and the Khakas, although certain typologically similar elements can be found in other Siberian and Central Asian cultures. 

Even now, Teleuts preserve certain shamanic beliefs, as well as worship of family and clan guardians, as well as the emegender and somdor patrons.

A large stratum of Teleuts’ religious beliefs is connected with Orthodox Christianity, which influenced their worldview, family rites, and social life. The Altai spiritual mission played an important part in introducing Christianity among Teleuts. Teleuts practicing shamanism were baptized in the 18 th -19 th centuries. In the 19 th century, with Teleuts’ active help, Christianity took hold in the Altai area. The Nativity monastery in the city of Kuznetsk, St. Elijah’s Church, and St. Pantaleon’s church in the Chelukhoevo ulus were actively involved in proselytizing. By 1889, only 703 persons (386 men and 317 women) among the Bachat Teleuts had not converted to Christianity. 

Teleuts soon started displaying icons in their houses. They also started to wear crosses, use them on graves, attend church liturgies, and celebrate holidays such as Christmas ( Кölödö ), Shrovetide ( Chalgayak ), Easter ( Kurtos ), Epiphany ( Myltyk ), Annunciation ( Kolkolu payram , or Tutmashtu ), the days of churches’ patron saints. Teleut children went to schools opened by the Russian Orthodox mission. 

The division of Teleuts into the Orthodox and shamanists largely remained purely external. “Shamanists attend Orthodox churches, kiss the cross, and celebrate church holidays. At Easter, they kiss each other according to the Russian custom,” said Andrey Anokhin in a lecture he gave in Tomsk in 1914. In case of an illness, Orthodox Teleuts turned to shamans for help, worshipped family and community patrons.

The early 1990s saw an upsurge in the movement for Orthodox revival that translated into some Teleuts’ increased interest in Christianity. St. Pantaleon’s church in Chelukhoevo that had been destroyed in the early Soviet years, was rebuilt through the efforts of Teleuts.

In the last few decades, some Teleuts in the Belovsky district of the Kemerovo region converted to Protestantism: the Pentecostal “New Way” church operates in the city of Belovo since 1998 and the Baptist Church of Evangelical Baptists has been operating in Belovo since February 2003); some Teleuts became Jehovah’s Witnesses (they operated in Belovo since 2003 and until the sect was proscribed in 2017, and in fact until early 2021). 

At the turn of the 19 th -20 th centuries, Burkhanism gained a foothold among a small group of Teleuts from the Altai Mountains, and some of its elements still survive in Teleuts’ ideas of the arrival of the messiah (Shuna-Kaan). 

The subject of the messiah Shuna-Kaan is highly relevant for the spiritual life of today’s Bachat Teleuts. In the 1980s, Teleuts expected Shuna to return by 2000. There were beliefs in a person who is the living incarnation of Shuna living among Teleuts. 

Holidays

Since the late 19 th century, Christian missionaries’ influence resulted in Orthodox Christian holidays becoming entrenched in the everyday life of Teleut villages. Many Teleuts celebrate these holidays to this day. Christian influence also resulted in some Teleut rituals being timed to coincide with church holidays. For instance, Nadezhda Dyrenkova noted in the 1920s that previously, the “ tabyr [games] … were timed to coincide with the spring sacrifice and were celebrated around the Trinity day when the trees would become green and the first thunder, the voice of Kuday, would be heard. Later, with the onset of Russian influence, tabyr was shifted to coincide with Easter.” She noted that the same happened to winter holidays. “They also assemble for Christmas, but only the young men of the ulus. They do not hold games, but they ride horses around the ulus with a bag on their shoulders, sing ürey (Christmas songs) and collect bread, black pudding, pieces of meat. … Before, this Christmas holiday was celebrated in late December (the month of Kuranay) when the young moon appeared in the sky and it was compared to the New Year.” 

Tabyr is no longer part of Teleuts’ rituals, the tabyr song is only sung by folklore performing groups, while ürey Christmas songs could be heard at Christmas as late as in the 1980s.