An exhibition of artifacts has resurfaced that sheds light on the shamanistic culture of the Buryat people who live on Lake Baikal’s shores.

Below is an article originally published by ITAR-TASS and reproduced in Russia-IC:

A shamanism exhibition has been open today in the Buryatia History Museum in Ulan-Ude. It is based on a unique collection gathered by the well-known ethnographer and folklorist Sergei Baldayev in the 1920-50s.

Shamanistic masks, totem pictures, ancient amulets, and shamanic dresses many of those exhibits are being displayed for the first time.

Shamanism was the only belief of the Buryat people until the 17th -18th centuries, when Buddhism and then Orthodox Christianity started penetrating into the Central Asia. The oldest religion based on direct veneration of nature and the Universe did not need any temples and has always had its own adherents. The people did not abandon worshipping powers of nature and spirits of the dead ancestors even in the epoch of Soviet militant atheism.