Shamans and mummy

The court in Altai did not allow the burial of the ancient mummy, which local religious leaders consider sacred

The Gorno-Altai City Court defended the lawsuit of the local religious figure Akai Kina , who demanded to reburiate the ancient mummy found by archaeologists on the UKOK plateau. According to the plaintiff, the extraction of the remains of a woman who lived two and a half thousand years ago led to natural disasters and social disasters. Akai Kina believes that the so -called " Princess Ukoka " has sacred force, that her burial closed the "umbilical cord of the earth", and now all the evil from the bowels escaped out. He is going to appeal to the Supreme Court of the Altai Republic. In the scientific community, the assertion that a woman from the Scythian burial is the foreman of all the Altai, is called far -fetched.

The Soviet government made a lot of efforts in order to eradicate shamanism in Altai. As a result, the traditional beliefs of the indigenous peoples of this region are preserved only at the lower level. District residents secretly performed simple rites, turning in special cases to the so -called "knowledgeable people", that is, to those who were visited by visions and who, as it was believed, could hear spirits. At the same time, the belief system that has developed over the centuries was lost - in different parts of the Altai Mountains, rituals and their interpretations became different. This is the reason that in recent times, new folk mythology began to take shape.

The female burial was immediately recognized as an important scientific discovery excavated on the UKOK plateau in 1993 by the Novosibirsk archaeologist Natalya Potlia Zamlomak , since in the lens of ancient ice, not only the mummy with exquisite “animal style” tattoos, but also other organic materials, the entire burial complex were preserved. Clothing, objects made of multi -colored felt, even a piece of sacrificial meat. They wrote a lot about the find, and the journalists for the red word dubbed a woman belonging to the long -called “ Pazyryk culture ”, “Princess of Ukok” and “Princess of Altai”. That is what Akai Kine called it at the hearing, although among the co-religionists he calls the mummy of Ak-Kadyn, and in Russian-"white lady". Philologist by education, businessman Akai Kina (aka Sergey Kynyev) is not at all embarrassed by the statement of scientists that a woman from burial belonged to the Caucasian race. Meanwhile, the Altai ethnic groups formed the Turkic and Mongolian tribes. The ancestor, and the point, - assures the plaintiff, who has his own ideas about ethnogenesis:

- Scientists claim that we are not related to Princess Ukokskaya. But the people who inhabit the territory of the Altai Republic are indigenous, native. It is the keeper of this territory for at least 2300 years. For some reason, scientists from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences take into account the archaeological part, and the ethnographic part, that we, modern Altai, are the successors of this princess and, in general, Pazyryk culture, never mention anywhere. Why, who are sitting opposite me, representatives of the telegitis, your rights are infringed - in the case of the departure of their religious, worldview, domestic traditions, traditions of your ancestors?!

Knowledgeable people warned that if the princess’s body is excavated, there will be disasters on Altai

The court again rejected our petition. This infringes on the rights of the keepers of this territory, the keepers of the mounds. The indigenous residents of the Altai Republic have a high measure of responsibility for their land. This is not only for their people responsibility, but responsibility for those living peoples. According to our legends, the cataclysms that occur were omened. Knowledgeable people warned that if the princess’s body is excavated, the cataclysms in Altai will happen. They said that you can’t do this! If you do, an earthquake will happen, there will be suicide, there will be a flood, there will be a hail, there will be diseases, there will be very big problems. The people will simply begin to die out, ”says Akai Kina.

The court in Altai did not allow the burial of the ancient mummy, which local religious leaders consider sacred

It is noteworthy that long before the discovery of the Princess Ukok, and after this event, archaeologists found Pazyryk mummies in Altai, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. All with tattoos. However, they wrote less about these findings in the press, and Akai Kina, along with like -minded people, does not pretend to be. The fact is that it is precisely this mummy, which is now stored in the Gorno-Altai National Museum, which has been studied most in detail. The followers of the "white faith", which Akai Kine adheres to, is interpreted in a specific way. For example, when the age was determined at which the Princess of Altai died, and she was no more than 30 years old, the rumor immediately began to spread that she deliberately passed away young. Therefore, a local resident of Arzhan Rykova calls on to treat the archaeological find not as a mummy:

- Come on, we will not say that this is just a dead body. This is precisely the princess. In her youth, she gave her life to save the entire Altai people. Therefore, we read it so hard and think that it needs to be buried quietly, peacefully, without excitement, ”says Arzhan Rykova.

Scientific data is much more prosaic. Tomography showed that a woman buried on a bite died of cancer, and not from the fact that she decided to sacrifice herself.

The words that the funeral must be made "quietly and peacefully" uttered for a reason. In the territory of Gorny Altai, they are now adjacent, and not without conflicts, representatives of many religions. The Orthodox Church establishes crosses on mountain passes. Shamanists and burhanists who consider these places are sacred, the crosses are dumped. In the same territory where the mummy was found, the majority professes Islam. All these circumstances must be borne in mind to understand the statement of the editor -in -chief of the small newspaper Amadu Altai Larisa Enchinova :

- The Princess of Ukok must be buried, and neither the Orthodox, nor the Buddhists, nor Islam should intervene in this, because only the Altai people should do these rituals. If other believers do this rite, then this will turn into a punishment for them. We are told that the princess of not Altai origin, but our people know the meaning of what is drawn on her body, to what kind she belongs to. We were informed about this "knowledgeable people." But scientists from Germany and Russia study, but cannot interpret these drawings. They only make assumptions, ”says Larisa Enchinova.

Mountain Altai is a poor region with a high level of unemployment and other social ailments. As for natural disasters, these are the climatic and geographical conditions here. Flows and earthquakes, including destructive ones, occurred here long before the start of archaeological excavations. The local authorities do not cope with the consequences of disasters. The requirement to buried the mummy becomes louder than once every four years, which always coincides with some election campaign or a crisis situation.

The deputy director of the Moscow Museum of the East Tigran Mkrtychev , who is well familiar with the find of Natalia Palmak, also draws attention to this - soon after the excavations the entire funeral complex and the mummy itself showed in its museum:

No one will remember that the people who are now trying to use the mummy as a kind of political trump card ditched part of the cultural property of the Russian Federation

- The justification of their current problems, of course, is easiest to find in the fact that here archaeologists have excavated some of our property. This is a win -win position, because if this “princess” is buried (she was not, of course, a princess), and all these problems will remain unresolved, then no one will remember that people who are now trying to use the mummy as a kind of political trump card ditch part of the cultural property of the Russian Federation. In this story, I perceive the requirements to bury it as a political bargain. The mummy is on museum. Huge money was spent to study and preserve it. A group of people requiring these remains to be placed again in the ground will actually cross out the work of scientists and restorers. In addition, they close the possibility of further studying this object. I regard this as an attempt to violate the legislation of the Russian Federation on the museum fund, ”says Tigran MKRTICHEV.