People of Buryat origin in Mongolia from the 17th to the 19th century. Buryats looking for independence and peace in 17th-century Mongolia had few options. Russian Cossack troops were engaged in combat with the northern Mongol rulers. At the same time as the rest of the country was fighting to repel the Manchu Qing invasion, Russia annexed Transbaikalia, the ancient Mongol homeland. In 1691, the Qing dynasty took control of Mongolia, and it remained a subordinate state until 1911. Migrants and residents alike were able to cross the porous border between Russia and Mongolia.
In order to keep their tax-gathering authority over the surrounding Buryats, the Mongol khans would sometimes fight against Russian incursions. In response, the Buryats would sometimes join forces with the Russians, strengthening their loyalty to the Russian tsar.
Due to fierce resistance, the Qing conquest of Mongolia (1622–1556) took more than a century.
The Mongol khanates of Khalkha, Inner Mongolia, and Zungaria all played a role. Over time, the Manchus were able to gain control of the whole Mongol empire by capitalizing on the khanate at a time via internal strife and infighting. After the Manchu Qing invasion, the Khalkha and Buryat shamans who lived on the Mongolian border continued their combat traditions by singing army songs, riding horses, and wielding daggers in addition to bows and arrows. In contrast to the Russian spirits, who like baked potatoes with sour cream, sweets (konfetka), and tobacco (makhorka), the Chinese side requests offerings of Beijing wine, dried dates, and candied fruit.
The majority of Mongolian shamanic spirits are hostile and resentful toward those who practice Buddhism. It is said that many of the resurrected spirits were themselves suppressed by Buddhism long before socialism came into power, meaning that they went unrecognized for many years. Despite Buddhist practices and cordial connections with local lamas, contemporary Buryats maintain that Buddhism was just as detrimental to Mongolia’s strength as the Manchu invasion.
Scholars and the general public agree that the Manchus encouraged the Mongols to adopt Tibetan Buddhism so that they would maintain their own distinct identity from the Chinese and avoid banding together in resistance to their shared oppressor. They go on to say that the promotion of Buddhism was an attempt to convert the aggressive Mongols into peaceful lamas. As they vied to consolidate the warring tribes under their control and earn rewards from Tibet, some Mongol khans also encouraged conversion.
The majority of Mongols adhered to folk religions, shamanism, and occasionally would conduct rites of Red Hat Buddhism, also called Nyingmapa, a tantric branch of Buddhism, before the sixteenth century. The ownership of shamanic ritual artifacts and the conduct of blood sacrifices were forbidden by several Mongol khans in an effort to introduce Buddhism (Heissig 1980:36). Buddhist adherents would set fire to ceremonial items, including shamanic ongghots (spirit figures) and other accoutrements. In Buddhism, matching deities supplanted the shamanic gods.
After the tribes of Inner Mongolia and Mongolia were exposed to Buddhism in 1730, it was not until 1730 that the religion reached the Buryats, the most northern Mongols. “Destroyed through fire all Ongghot (spirit) figures, instruments and costumes of shamans and shamanesses” were among the shamans persecuted by the monastic assembly in 1819 and 1820 inside the Khori Buryat area.
With the exception of Hoimorin Högshin, none of the modern Buryats I’m acquainted with in Bayan-Uul produce ongghot figures. The shamans’ departed souls are upset that Buddhist missionaries burnt their shamanic artifacts and the shamans themselves. Accidental fires are believed by Buryats to be the result of the vengeance of spirits who were angered when holy things were burnt after their conversion to Buddhism.
Among the Khalkhas, Buddhism largely superseded shamanism. On the one hand, the Buryats have embraced Buddhism, while on the other, they have refined and improved their shamanism. There are two types of spirits in Buryat shamanism: “Black” spirits, who are guardians and fighters, and “white” spirits, who are healer shamans. While preserving the black branch’s Buddhist practices, the Buryats assimilated them into their white branch. Incorporating Buddhist practices into shamanism strengthened it in many ways.
The original destiny of many Buryat males who became Buddhist lamas was to become white shamans, both within and outside of Buddhism. Unlike other Buddhist lamas, they became spirits of white origin after death rather than being reborn. The following generation of shamans bolstered their spiritual armament with the teachings of Buddhism once they returned to their descendants as origin spirits. It is also thought that certain Buryat lamas secretly engaged in shamanism, which granted them greater power than non-Buryat lamas.
Basically, the Buryat shamans and lamas were more powerful than non-Buryat people because they were able to hide their true identities (the lamas were also shamans, and the shamans gained certain shamanic abilities). Buddhism had the opposite effect of what it intended—it bolstered the Buryats’ shamanism—rather than the other way around.
There is healthy competition between modern-day shamans and Buddhists, but the two traditions really work to elevate one another. Even while shamans and lamas may have the same divine ability or knowledge, their identities are nonetheless quite different. Because most people practice more than one religion, they often have rituals and offerings that are due to many spiritual beings, necessitating the assistance of both sorts of intercessors.
