Historical dictionary of shamanism

TUVA

Tuva: translation

Tuva lies north ofMongolia, east ofCentral Asia, and south of SouthernSiberia, and the Tuvans are pastoralists of mixed Turkic-Mongolian descent with genealogical ties going back to Chinggis (Genghis) Khan. The area was under the control during the 17th century of Oriot (Western Mongol) Khans, who becameBuddhistand established Lamaist monasteries, and local shamanism faced opposition from the new religious order, as it did in Mongolia andBuryatia. With the defeat of the Oriots, the area passed intoChinesecontrol and was then annexed by the Russians at the beginning of the 20th century. During the Communist era, shamanic traditions were persecuted across the Soviet Union, including in Tuva.
Despite restrictions on scholarship on shamans, however, Soviet scholar Sevyan Vainshtein published extensively on Tuvan shamanism.More recently, the Tuvinian historian Nikolai Abaev has argued that religion in Tuva is not shamanism in the “strict sense of the term,” since theircosmologyincludes an idea of “god” (burhan) and not justspirits.
Benedikte Kristensen (as also discussed byCaroline HumphreyandPiers Vitebsky) agrees that “shamanism” gives a misleading impression of a single unified system and of the shaman as a “singularritualpractitioner,” while Tuvinian traditions termed “shamanism” are consistently flexible and fluid and include several religious specialists in addition to shamans. Kristensen retains the termshamanismbecause the Duha Tuvinians use a similar concept—böögiin sjasjin, meaning “shamanic religion or faith.” But, Tuvinians sometimes made a distinction between böögiin sjasjin as “faith in shamans” and as other engagements with spirits, and some Tuvinians informed Kristensen that they did not believe in “shamanism” because they did not trust shamans today and there were no powerful (xuchtei) shamans left—although this did not alter their belief in spirits. Drawing on Humphrey, Kristensen usesshamanismto mean “the entire conglomeration of ideas about beings in the world which includes the shaman” and not in the Duha Tuvinians’ strict understanding of the term (“faith in living shamans”).
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tuva, among other nowindependent nations of Central Asia, has revived traditions that Communism sought to eradicate.Mongush Kenin-Lopsanhas played a key role in this revival. Shamanism has reemerged with new vigor as part of a Tuvan nationalist agenda: lending an atmosphere of authenticity, shamans in the city hold clinics that operate much like a Western physician’s surgery, with a shamanic consultation requiring the shaman to wear a white coat and thepatientto have a general medical exam before thehealingséance. This change in tradition might indicate why some Tuvinians do “not trust shamans today.” While aspects of Tuvan shamanism derive from traditional practices (e.g.,drumming, chanting, engaging with spirits), Westerncoreshamanicelements have been adopted to fill in where traditions have been lost, and the U.S.-basedFoundation for Shamanic Studieshas been offering its services in the area. This situation raises issues of neocolonialism, on the one hand, and processes of creative fusion, on the other.

  1. tuva—[rpblkvtuv tuv]Тува...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  2. tuva—тува...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
  3. tuva—сущ. геогр. Republic of Tuva Тува республика в составе РФ расположена в горах Южной Сибири столица Кызыл...Англо-русский словарь общей лексики
  4. tuva—Тува Repblica Socialista Sovitica Autnoma de Tuva...Большой испанско-русский словарь
  5. tuva—Тува Итальянорусский словарь....Большой итальяно-русский и русско-итальянский словарь
  6. tuva—[tuvtuv] n геогр.Republic of Tuva Республика ТуваTuva Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ист. Тувинская АССР...Новый большой англо-русский словарь
  7. tuva—Tuva [tuvtuv] n геогр.i Тува Republic of Республика Тува Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ист. iТувинская АССР...Новый большой англо-русский словарь II
  8. tuva—tuvtuv n геогр. Тува Republic of Республика Тува Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ист. emТувинская АССР...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна
  9. tuva—Tuvan tasavaltaТуваu Респуuблика Тува...Финско-русский словарь
  10. tuva—tuva.strong кочка...Шведско-русский словарь
  11. tuva—Тувинский...Эстонско-русский словарь