A journey to Siberia by train in search of Shamans, Old Believers and
following - albeit in relative comfort - in the steps of the Decembrists,
was an alluring prospect.
The way of life on the Trans-Siberian Railway is seductive: "You wake up
in the morning. Your watch says it is eight o'clock; but you are travelling
east, and you know that it is really nine... Your berth is comfortable.
There is no need to get up, and no incentive either. You have nothing to
look forward to, nothing to avoid. No assets, no liabilities ... But on the
Trans-Siberian Railway there are neither ups nor downs. You are a prisoner,
narrowly confined" (Peter Fleming, One's Company).
We disembarked at Irkutsk where we stayed at the functional Academical Hotel
used by visiting academics. Our first encounter with the Decembrists was in
Maria Volkonsky's house, now a museum: "... a large two-story house of
fine seasoned timber, with attractive hand-painted decorations around the
windows and the front door. The rooms were large and well proportioned, with
high ceilings and tall porcelain stoves built into the walls; light poured
in ..." (Christine Sutherland, The Princess of Siberia).
An impromptu concert at the nearby Trubetskoy House consisting of music that
would have been listened to by the Decembrists rooted us firmly in the early
nineteenth century.
Visiting the Ministry of Extreme Situations on the shores of Lake Baikal
brought us temporarily back into the 21st century. This organisation trains
men (and one woman) to deal with any kind of disaster including earthquakes,
fires and mountaineering and diving accidents. All have to be proficient in
every kind of rescue before specialising, and they welcome people from all
over the world as trainees.
On the way to our ferry for Olkhon Island, at the border with Buryatiya, we
performed a Buryat ceremony scattering milk north, south, east and west. "[The
Buryat]... Possessors of a written language, firearms, metals,
tribute-paying Ket and Nenets vassals, vast livestock herds and powerful
clan leaders, they were the first formidable nationality, after the Tatars,
the Russians encountered on their march across Siberia" (Anna Reid, The
Shaman's Coat).
Olkhon Island, in the middle of Lake Baikal, is 72kms long and 15kms at its
widest point. We stayed at Solnechnaya (Sunny) (www.web-olkon.com) in
three-bedded wooden cabins that looked down to the lake over sand dunes and
pine trees. I knew I had to swim. I'd told everyone about the joys of
swimming in Lake Baikal and drinking the water as you swum (I had been to
the northern part and had an encounter with a bear in 1990) and so I felt
duty bound to try again. I did - twice - and it was bone-numbingly cold.
Meeting the local shaman, Valentino, and sitting in the sun on a mountain
overlooking Shaman's Rock was a far warmer option. Born with two thumbs on
his right hand, Valentino had worked as a builder and on the BAM Railway
before becoming a shaman aged 30. Dressed in yellowy-green satin robes and
covered with talismans he told us about his life and beliefs (he considers
Genghis Khan the greatest shaman who has ever lived). With a Black Bull on
one shoulder and a Blue Wolf on the other and with a White Eagle behind his
head, he heals by making people aware of their own potential.
In his book Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination
Ronald Hutton cites another Buryat shaman whose method of healing "was
to move his hands over a person's body from head to foot, cleansing it of
evil spirits". All the rocks at the very beautiful northern tip of the
island have legends attached to them and the wild flowers where we picnicked
on fresh-fish soup were glorious.
Founded in 1666 Ulan-Ude, on the eastern side of the lake, is the capital of
present-day Buryatiya but the giant head of Lenin in the main square belies
its Buddhist connections. There are Buddhist monasteries, temples and
museums full of interesting artefacts - one of the more astonishing being an
extremely life-like wax model of the Dalai Lama.
South of Ulan-Ude is Khyakta on the Mongolian border: "Trade at Kyakhta
was devoted to luxury. Furs and ginseng from Siberia, carpets and precious
gems from central Asia and Persia, wines from France, German china, English
wool, and goods from Japan and America were exchanged for Chinese silks,
velvets, silver, porcelain, ivory and, above all, tons and tons of tea"
(Stephanie Williams, Olga's Story). Today it is a run-down place
with a wonderfully old-fashioned museum. However not as run-down as
Petrovsky-Zabaikalsky, the third and last place where the Decembrists were
imprisoned. The dilapidated Hotel Siberia stood on a hill above the town,
rather worryingly referred to by our guides as a 'criminal town'.
The Semeisky Old Believers (info@semeyskie.ru) gave us a wonderful welcome in
Bolshoy Kunaley: "Religious rituals were at the heart of the Russian
faith and national consciousness. They were also the main cause of a schism
in the Orthodox community that split the Russian nation into two … (the most
contentious reform altered the manner of making the sign of the cross from
two to three fingers)" (Orlando Figes, Natasha's Dance).
Lunch with them was possibly the best meal of the entire trip: cucumber,
salted tomatoes, potatoes with sour cream, beetroot in sugar, spinach pie,
carrots, waffles - everything homegrown in the short three-month growing
season. Learning archery, listening to a Russian throat singer and dinner in
a yurt were just some of the other things we did - all made possible by our
wonderful Russian guides.
Need to know
Sarah Anderson was guided by Alyona Vorobeva and Pavel Lebedev from the
International Centre of Culture, Economics and Tourism Baikal in Irkutsk (www.baikal-icc.ru)
and Yelena Polyanskaya and Natasha Borisova from Baikal Piligrim in Ulan Ude
(www.baikal-p.com; email:
Baikal-p@yandex.ru), who will do their utmost to cater to individual and
specialist needs.
The trip was organized from England by Russian Journeys; Frances
Howard-Gordon, Russian Journeys, PO Box 2568, Glastonbury BA6 8XR, Somerset;
email: frances@gothicimage.co.uk
