Böö

Also Known As: Mongolian бөө, “shaman”; bö’e in the thirteenth-century Secret History of the Mongols; a woman shaman is an udgan, also udagan or iduqan; Persian writers used the Turkic word qam
Region/Culture: Central Asia
Mythos: Mongolian Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Heroes and Mortals
Mythical Attributes: A böö is called by the spirits, rides a drum as others ride a horse, and travels in trance to parts of the world that ordinary people cannot reach.
Role in Mythos: The böö is the go-between of the Mongol world, the person who speaks with Heaven, with the lords of land and water, and with the dead on behalf of the living.
Relation to Humans: A böö is a human being, man or woman, who heals the sick, finds the cause of misfortune and divines what the spirits want. Khans kept them close and feared them, and one khan had the greatest of them killed.

The drum comes first. A round frame a little over half a metre across, a skin stretched tight, a beater trailing ribbons, and a sound that carries through felt walls into the dark outside. Then the rest of it, as the figure by the fire begins to move: a clatter of iron and brass, the dry whisper of cloth strips, a fringe swinging in front of a face nobody is meant to see just now.

The Mongols call this person a böö. A woman who does the same work is an udgan. The oldest Mongol book, the Secret History of the Mongols, written in the thirteenth century, uses the older form of the word, bö’e, and uses it as if no reader would need it explained. Persian officials who served the Mongol khans borrowed a Turkic word and called them qam. All of these words mean a person who can go where other people cannot, and come back.

Nobody applies for the job. The spirits choose, and often the one doing the choosing is the spirit of a dead shaman who wants a successor. The person picked tends to find out the hard way, through sickness or fits in early adulthood that no ordinary cure touches. What follows is a long training. The new böö learns the names and tempers of the spirits, learns the family’s own line of ancestors, and learns how to call helpers with the drum. In the accounts gathered from Mongolia and southern Siberia the initiation is described as a death: the body is taken apart, fitted with new organs and put back together.

The equipment matters as much as the person. A shaman’s whole family sews the costume, and the guardian spirit must approve it. If the spirit is not satisfied, they sew it again. Then it is brought to life by a rite of its own, and after that only the böö may touch it. One such outfit sits in the Náprstek Museum in Prague. It belonged to a woman named Bariada from Khövsgöl province in the north of Mongolia, and it reached the museum in 1954. Her cloak carries one hundred and forty-three snakes made of cloth, most of them down the back, in blue, red, white and black. Her two hats are topped with owl feathers, and a dark fringe hangs over the place where her eyes would be. With them came a drum, a beater, a case for a mouth harp and a bear’s paw hung with charms.

The drum is not an instrument in the usual sense. It is a mount. Its skin is often horsehide, and the handle inside can be carved as the shaman’s own ancestor spirit, the ongon, so that rider, horse and guide all sit in one hand. When the beat steadies and the böö’s voice changes, the horse is said to be running.

At the court of the khans this was a public office. Old Üsün of the Ba’arin was raised by Chinggis Khan to the rank of beki, and the terms were set down in verse: he would wear a white dress, ride a white gelding, sit on a high seat and be asked for his advice every year and every month. Travellers from Europe, the friars Carpini and Rubruck among them, reported that visitors and their gifts were walked between two fires before they could come near the khan. When the khan Ögödei fell sick and lost his speech on campaign in north China, the shamans read the entrails of slaughtered animals and announced that the lords of the Chinese land and rivers were angry and would accept only one of the khan’s own family in his place. His brother Tolui offered himself.

The Mongols did not think of this as witchcraft. Witchcraft was a crime, and the shamans were the ones who sniffed it out, which gave them a good deal of power over who lived.

One of them reached too far. Kököchü, called Teb Tenggeri, was the middle son of seven. He told Chinggis Khan that Heaven had foretold two possible rulers, the khan and his own brother Qasar, and that the khan had better strike first. He gathered followers from the khan’s own people and made the khan’s youngest brother, Otchigin, kneel behind him. Chinggis let Otchigin settle it. There was a scuffle inside the tent, the shaman’s hat fell by the hearth, and outside three strong men were waiting. They broke his back and threw him down at the end of a line of carts. Otchigin came back in and said the man had refused to wrestle and was lying down pretending he could not get up. A grey tent was set over the body, the smoke-hole covered, the door blocked and a guard posted. On the third night, at dusk, the smoke-hole opened and the body went out through it. Chinggis explained that Heaven had stopped loving the man and had taken his life and his body together. It was a tidy explanation for a khan to give.

A böö’s power is the power to cross over. They find a soul that has strayed, name the spirit that is causing an illness, bargain with the owners of mountains and rivers, and say what Heaven wants. In the thirteenth century that last gift could make or unmake a ruler.

The limits are just as real. A böö serves the spirits and does not command them. The call cannot be refused without getting sicker, and every journey out carries the risk of not returning. The costume is buried with its owner, and only the iron pendants are kept back for whoever comes next. Rulers were the other danger. A shaman could be broken by three men beside a cart. From the late seventeenth century Buddhism became the leading religion of Mongolia and the böö were pushed to the edges or took on Buddhist ways, and under the socialist government of the twentieth century every kind of shamanism was repressed and drums were confiscated. After 1990 they came back.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a böö?

A böö is a Mongolian shaman, a man or woman who acts as a go-between for people and the spirit world. The word appears as bö’e in the Secret History of the Mongols, written in the thirteenth century. A böö heals, divines and speaks with Heaven, the spirits of the land and the dead.

What is the difference between a böö and an udgan?

Böö is the Mongolian word for a shaman, and udgan is the word for a woman shaman. They do the same work. The shaman Bariada, whose costume is kept in the Náprstek Museum in Prague, was a woman from Khövsgöl province in northern Mongolia.

How does someone become a böö?

A person becomes a böö by being chosen by the spirits, often by the spirit of a dead shaman. The call usually shows itself as an illness or fits that ordinary cures do not help. The new böö is then trained and initiated, and the initiation is described as a death and rebirth in which the body is taken apart and remade.

What does a Mongolian shaman wear and carry?

A böö wears a cloak hung with cloth snakes and metal pendants, and a hat with owl feathers and a fringe that hides the face. A böö also carries polished metal mirrors and a round drum with a beater. The drum is treated as the shaman’s mount, often a horse, and its handle can represent the shaman’s ancestor spirit.

Who was Teb Tenggeri?

Teb Tenggeri, also called Kököchü, was a figure at the court of Chinggis Khan who claimed to speak for Heaven. According to the Secret History of the Mongols he tried to turn the khan against his brother Qasar and humiliated the khan’s youngest brother, Otchigin. Three strong men broke his back, and his body vanished through the smoke-hole of a guarded tent on the third night.