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THE CULT OF THE Lorps OF EARTH AND WATERS
The spirit of Sutää is not the only female one mentioned by the Dsakhchins. Ba¬
yarmagnai, the shepherd (cf. above), told us a story about the appearance of a female
spirit in his homeland.
“The land of the Dsakhchin banner [has] a maiden protector spirit (Sibdik). In early
times once the water disappeared, and there was draught. It was dry and without
water. Then a man arrived on a black fat horse, carrying a big black package [...]
— Well, your land has got a maiden lord-spirit. — [he said]. He made all Lamas lie
prone and make a kowtow in front of the maiden lord-spirit. That night the water
started to flow.
To the salt of the Dawst “Salty” lake no women are allowed to go because it has
a female lord-spirit. If a woman goes to that Dawst lake, the salt will disappear, too
and [the lake] becomes a [...]. If a man goes there, the salt appears. The Dawst obo
at the Dawst lake is the main obo worshipped by the Dsakhchins. It is offered once,
when the green grows. It is offered again when the banner moves to the summer camp.
The northern and the southern Dsakhchins gather together and worship it after going
to the summer camp. The Takalt “Offering” obo was also offered. The Takalt obo was
destroyed and a fence was built from its [material]”. (Tape record in August 1991)
Some Remarks on the Syncretic Cult of genii loci
among the Dsakhchins
Although the local spirits of important places among the Dsakhchins seem to be of
pre-Buddhist origin, they became considerably Buddhicised in the monks’ interpreta¬
tion. The spirit of mountain Sutää has clearly Buddhist features. Jigmedjame described
her as a Buddhist goddess (e. g. Marici ?) with a vase (kalasa) as an attribute in her
hand (with elixir), riding on an animal; he mentioned a pig as her mount. The other
important spirit of a mountain Baatar Khairkhan is a male entity, but his morphology
remained unknown for us. Jigmedjame did not give a description of him. However,
following the analogies how a mountain spirit called batar “hero, warrior” looks like,
he might be — as a male personification of a mountain — a warrior-like figure or a male
ancestor.'’ The third human-like spirit of the surrounding landscape, the genius loci of
the famous Three Bluish Caves (Gurwan Senker) — which became worldwide known
due to its inscriptions (some researcher date them back to Palaeolithic times) — is an
old woman whose cult is probably connected to the caves. The Lama called her samgan
“old woman”. In epic tales about the Altai the owner spirit of the Mountain range is
an old woman as well. The caves symbolise the female principle and the identification
of the cave with a female spirit refers to the cult of fertility (the cave symbolises the
'7 Cf. above, Hangalov’s data on local spirits.
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