Tatjana A. Pang
Russian Academy of Sciences
New Evidence About Shamanic Practices Among The Sibe-Manchu People In Hsinchiang
35th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, 1992
This paper is an attempt to compare two manuscripts in Sibe language (錫伯文) concerning Sibe Shamanic practices in the second half of the 19th century.
The first manuscript, “Saman jarin 薩滿歌” was printed in Urumqi in 1990, while the second one (titled “Saman kuwaran-i bithe 薩滿院書) is kept in the Archives of St. Petersburg’s Oriental Institute, and for the first time has been prepared by for publication by the author in 1992.
Both manuscripts contain some prayers and invocations to Shamanic and clanspirits, receited on different occasions, and a descirption of a Shaman’s travel to the transcendental world.
Both manuscripts could be considered to be the versions of the similar prayers read during the same ceremonies, but bearing the differences of clan’s Shamanic Panteon and rituals. This enables us to make more detailed investigation of the Sibe-Manchu Shamanism, as well as trace some characteristic features of the Sibe language of the last century.