Spirits of Mongol Lands

I was recently on a mining practice course with fellow students from the Mining Engineering School of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. There were more than one-hundred students travelling in four large tourist buses - with one organising teacher to each bus. We were divided into teams of four to five people. The journey was planned for six days. First, we were to see the coal mines in Baganuur and Shivee Ovoo, then on to an open pit gold mine called Shoroon ord, and lastly, to the Khushuut Mine in Bor Undur. We were told that throughout the trip we would not visit any settlements and therefore had to pack a week’s worth of food supplies, camping equipment and gear.

And so we started off our trip from the Sky Department Store at 9 am, stuffed inside a bus with all of our luggage and supplies. Little did I know that among the hundred or so students, three of them were “boo” (shamans/ spiritual mediums) and one of them was an “udgan” (a female boo). Though women with this supernatural ability are plentiful in Mongolia, it was strange because the mining class only had seven girls out of one hundred and forty students in total and that one of these seven girls happened to possess an extraordinary ability.

The first day was quite ordinary and went as planned. We arrived at the Baganuur’s Coal Mine at around 2 pm and were introduced to the mining process and establishments. Afterward we camped on the bank of the Kherlen River. As it was chilly and damp from raining the night before, and because one tent malfunctioned (meaning several had to share a tent), this meant that we would have a cold night ahead. As expected it was cold and the tent shook constantly while at some point in the night droplets of water started trickling down from one corner of the tent. 

At 6 am on the morning of the second day we hastily packed our tents and luggage back into the bus and visited two of the scheduled mines. The bus journey itself felt much more tiresome due to the fact that we didn’t get much sleep. We were always travelling on dirt roads and the constant bumps and dust made it impossible to rest. 

It was already dark when we found our next camping spot. This time the buses were parked so as to give us shelter from the wind. Twenty eight tents were set up in the dark. The routine from the previous day was implemented and we all went to sleep around midnight.

It was around 2 am that I was awakened by the terrifying scream of a girl. My heart leaped and it felt as though my stomach was slammed against the cold damp floor of the tent. The scream sliced through the calm night like a hot knife through butter. Then I heard a woman’s gloating laughter, then panting. I did not know what to make of it, all sorts of speculations ran through my mind. I put on my coat and went outside with my teammates to inspect what was going on. 

One of the girls was acting strangely (her name will not be mentioned for privacy reasons). From what I know of her, she has an easy-going and friendly personality. It was eerie to see her shriek with terror and suddenly gloat with laughter and then mumble frantically. It was as if she had two personalities fighting each other. Most had been awakened by the shrieks and screaming and were coming out of their tents to see what was going on. They gathered around her and the teacher came out of her tent. She asked the girl what was wrong. The girl turned around with fury, then she relaxed and told her in a frightened voice, pointing to the backside of the bus “I didn’t care at first but now it’s insulting me!” She started laughing again with maliciousness and fell down panting frantically. Nobody knew what to do. Then one of the boys went to help her. He sat her upright and told us to light a fire. He was a boo, but I didn’t know until then. I went into my tent to get the portable gas stove and heard another scream and whispered conversations. It was all dark; everyone had their flashlight pointing at the girl. I light a fire and the girl tried to swipe at it. The shaman boy stopped her, while another boy came to help him, and they both sat her down try to talk to her but she keeps resisting until suddenly she collapsed. The second boy - also a shaman – told everyone to be quiet, to turn their lights off and to not to go wondering alone. He then informed us that she was attacked by the spirit of that particular land. The shaman boys stated that they were not able to call on their spirits for help because they didn’t have the necessary attire. They asked for alcohol to perform a spirit uplifting ritual. Surprisingly (or rather unsurprisingly) the teacher had brought alcohol. The shamans spurted the vodka all around the place and recited incantations. 

This made me feel a bit calmer and I wasn’t so agitated anymore. I think everyone felt this way. Whether this was due to the ritual or just us recovering from the sudden shock – I have no answer. Or it could have been both. We all felt relieved because someone knew what to do. If the shaman boys hadn’t been there we would have been too awestruck and scared to do anything. What if the girl had needed mental hospitalization? Slowly, one by one, everyone went back into their tents to get some rest. The shaman boys, two of the teachers, and the friends of the girl guarded her all night. She seemed sound asleep. The shamans knew what they were doing it seemed.

The next morning I asked, or rather we all interrogated the shaman boys, about what happened. They told us not to tell the girl what happened or to ask her about it. She didn’t remember the last night’s incident and was given the explanation by her friends that she had food poisoning and she took a pill and fell asleep. The shamans told us it was better if she didn’t know. They further relayed that she was also a shaman, or udgan, and that she had left her amulet. Apparently all boos have this and it prevents other spirits from entering their body. They explained that the spirit entered her body to torment her because we have offended the land and abused its resources. 

Sure enough, I then remembered a conversation earlier on the bus where couple of the boys had been saying that this was a stupid place to camp. And many other recalled similar incidents where they had said negative things about that place. He told us not to say anything that might suggest anything negative about where we were. This resulted in absolute silence. Truth be told, many left trash outside their tents. This was all cleaned in the morning and we left hastily to the see the next mine in Bor Undur. During the bus journey we went over last night’s incident with relief. 

The shamans warned the teacher that this spirit would come for her again if we were to spend another night in the wild. Therefore, after we finished studying the underground Khushuut mine, we spent the next night at the sports hall of the Bor Undur’s Som’s Centre. We headed home the following morning.

Many Mongols believe that each river, lake, hill and mountain has a life, spirit and a name of its own. The boos or shamans are said to be able to mediate between the spirit world, among other supernatural abilities.
Luckily I know a generous amount about shamans and their abilities because my own grandmother on my father’s side is an udgan. She discovered her powers at a very late age, yet she is revered among the shaman community as one of the gifted and powerful. 

Shamans have variety of supernatural powers. Their primary ability is to mediate between the spirit world and the “material world.” They regularly summon spirits of their ancestors for advice and favors. The spirits have powers such as knowing many things about the material world, the ability to heal, cast jinxes or hexes and fulfil wishes. For example when a shaman calls on a spirit, they are in a trance. The spirits talk through them and you will be able to tell that the spirit is talking because the shaman’s dialect, vocabulary and voice changes. Sometimes they even speak in different languages.

I’ve seen my grandmother perform many rituals, such as instant healing, where a gravely ill boy was brought to her by his parents. She performed her ritual where she blew onto the temple of the sick child and the boy stood up started talking and laughing just like a healthy child. Whether this is the result of the ritual, whether the boy somehow got well at that exact time, or if it was just the result of the placebo effect – nobody can be sure. It is important to note that the boy was very young at around three or four years of age, so I don’t think he was aware of the fact that he was being healed. 

During her trances, she offers detailed information about people’s past, present and future. 

Many religions have a paradoxical belief where they must believe for the effects to show. Because of this, the spiritual healer or faith healer can just blame one for not believing and obstructing the process of healing when he fails. Shamanism seems to not require such belief, although my grandmother urges everyone to believe. 

From all this, a conclusion can be made that shamans do have some ability to manipulate nature. Whether this is supernatural or not depends on how you define supernatural. So far, no one claiming to possess supernatural abilities has been able to prove themselves satisfactorily in fair tests. There has been the TV show, “Zun Bilgiin tulaan,” where people claiming to possess supernatural abilities complete various tasks using their psychic or supernatural abilities, but this cannot be seen as viable evidence because the experiments are not conducted under a controlled and scientifically supervised environment. Remember that it is a TV show designed to entertain. The magician and mentalist, Derren Brown from Great Britain, has many shows where he debunks many claims of supernatural activity. And he himself is able to do most of the things psychics claim to be able to do such as mind reading and predicting choices using cold reading, misdirection, showmanship and hypnosis. I think this phenomenon needs to be studied thoroughly using scientific methods and people experienced in these matter such as Derren Brown.