Fu* steep........, Shamanism in Bargusin Valley

I got the question from Gerd who is asking if the places we go are also possible for backpackers. Around Ust Bargusin it is a really nice place for backpackers too. You can go to Moskau and from there to Ulan Ude and then take a bus to here. From there you can hitch hike to the national park and the Holy Cape. In German they say “Heilige Nase” (Holy Nose), which is actually wrong, Andrei told me. Andrei is Evas Husband who is also working for the National park. Until now we actually did not meet any Tourist. But Siberia, especially between Vladivostok and Ulan Ude is not really a place where you can individually travel without car. Around the Baikal now is still not the season, but Eva told me there are more backpackers in the season. For now still the West part is visited most even so the East part is nicer (That is my opinion for now, I still did not go to Olchon!). It is still more difficult to reach but definitely possible.

 

Gerd also asked how about to join our trip? Of course that would be nice. We have only one problem and we regret this already, we took out both of our back seats and put Diesel tanks, something like a shelf with boxes, and a lot of Japanese food. That means if somebody wants to join, which we would really like, she/he has to rent a car or driver or something, or he has to sit on the roof (:). For now the plan is to be in Mongolia around July, August Kazakhstan East, but from here on I am not quite sure about the time. I am not sure if we just Transit Kazakhstan first because we come back there after Uzbekistan or if we already travelling around there. I definitely want to go to the Pamir Highway before November! In between there is still Kirgistan we want to go. That is all I know for now.

 

2nd to 3rd of June:

 

Ok now to the hike; this is possible for everybody who comes to Ust Bargusin as backpacker. There are also other hiking possibilities, like some hot springs and so on. You can easily spend here 1 or 2 weeks, including beach, hiking and ... nice people. We decided for the mountain or better plateau since it promised a nice view with the Baikal in all directions. Eva told us: "take enough water with you because it is hot and very steep". Well we thought Japanese mountains are also really steep compared to European Alps and it will be ok. We took 6 litres of water with us and thought it will be fine. At the starting point of the hike N 53.59683°, E 108.85053° there is a sign written in English and Russian which Eva made. It says without backpack around 3 to 5 hours and down 2 to 3 hours (if I remember correctly). She told me with the backpack she needed the first time 9 hours to go up. First you are walking through a forest which looked like in a fairytale. And now (June) the forest was full with flowers. Almost suddenly it gets really steep; there is also an attention sign 50% steep descent. After some time we recognised what Eva meant. There is almost no wind and it gets really hot, I was sweating like a pig and we always had to drink. Mentally Kotomi had some difficulties since she did not now where the end of this steep part is. Actually I also did not want to think about going down here again. I also tried to avoid speaking to much to Kotomi since I was afraid she wants to kill me, almost kidding (:). Ok this steep part was around 1000 m height difference (around 3 hours) and then you come out of the forest. There you have an amazing view over the Baikal and the natural sand bridge that has a white beach at both sides and connects the peninsula with the main land. You can almost see the top, it is not so steep, and everybody is happy thinking it is not so far anymore. Well it is not steep but you always have to find the way climbing on the rocks or going through small but dense pines. Sometimes you can relax a little bit but then you have to go over rocks again. Finally we need around 4 more hours to the top. Since Kotomi did not drink enough she had quite a headache and went to bed soon. In total it is a height difference of about 1500 m, which is not so much but the steep descent is really tough especially with the heavy backpack. But it is nice to sleep up there to enjoy this silence and the view. As I always say; for the nice things in life you always have to suffer a little bit. It teaches us patience and that we are small compared to everything around.  I made a fire, cooked tea for Kotomi, and throw some potatoes in the fire. During sunset I was walking on the plateau to a small hill (1873 m) 30 m higher than our camp. From here I could enjoy the view in all directions being able to see also the 3 small Uschkani islands. And as I told you before here (N 53.63774°, E 108.80911°) I got the SMS from my friend Rudy, who also like the mountains. What a coincidence.

 

Going down next day was even harder and we also need almost 6 hours. Especially the steep part is not funny. I wished to have the paraglide with me. Anyway we had to walk and also down we needed a lot of water. But after that we just went to the sand beach made our camp and a fire and jumped in the water of the Baikal.

 

One thing: the view in June is always a little bit dusty. Eva told me in July it would be better and clearer. So if you want to go here it is better in July. I enjoyed also this time and we had still snow at the top which is also pretty nice.

 

 

5th to 7th of June:

 

After the hike we were going to the Bargusin valley. Anyway we had to go to Bargusin because we were running out of money. Eva told us that this is the only close place which has a Bankomat (Cash dispenser). It is true but we came too late for the Bank, it was already closed. In the Magasin they had one too, but it is only working at the opening hours of the bank. Since it was Friday we had to stay around Bargusin until Monday.

 

Eva told us it is better to go along the east side of the Bargusin valley where you have a nice view in the valley. We decided to use the biggest road in our map. But almost all bridges are broken so we had to cross the river with the car. Some we could not cross because it was to sandy and muddy. Through the street already grass and flowers were crowing and left and right the meadows were full with white, purple, and yellow flowers. We went in the mountains to the east and suddenly a nice rock formation appeared N 53.64433°, E 110.01958°. Here we stayed the night.

 

Next morning we were driving through the Bargusin Valley along the small villages in the east side of the valley. Most of the villages here are Buriat and not Russian villages. It was a little bit cloudy but most of the time we could see through the wide valley the high snow caped mountains at the other side. One mountain I really liked and wished again to go up the there with my backcountry skis. Eva showed me later pictures from Andrei (her husband) when he was crossing these area in the winter with skis. They went from the Bargusin valley until the Baikal. Their work is to count one time the year the different kind of animal foot prints they can find on their way. It looked really nice; I wish I could join some day.

 

At N 53.70007°, E 110.06493° you have a nice view over the valley. In the west the snow caped mountains and in the foreground a stone which is a holy shaman point for the Buriat people. The stone is framed with a fence that is almost covered with blue and yellow bands. Andrei explained me later the meaning of these bands. The bands will always move in the wind, it is like the Tibetan prayer wheels, as long as they are moving your wish our pray never stops. And Eva told me the Buriat story about this place:

 

When the Buriats came first time with there cows in this valley and wanted to leave it in autumn, before the cold winter approaches, one bull did not want to go out of the valley. They forced him several times to leave the valley but he always went back. Finally he became this stone. The "holy spirit", who is living now at this place, is the protector from all living creatures in the valley.

 

The basic difference between the Shamanism and the Buddhism are the places. In the Buddhism you often have a temple. In case of the Shamanism there is a holy place, mostly mountain, or natural point, where some kind of "holy spirit" is living. The Shaman can connect to this spirit. One of such places we found here N 54.09127°, E 110.11263°  (Eva can you please check in Google earth if this is the mountain you were looking for. Is this the mountain where you get holy for one year if you climb it? If it is the mountain please tell me the name!).  Along the road we saw a lot of cars, these blue bands in the trees, a small white Buddhist Stupa, and we heard some sounds. We were wondering why so many people gather around here. We stopped; just curious what is going on. We were walking through the trees with the bands and reached an open place in the middle of the trees, where you could sometimes see a mountain through a hole in the black clouds. The people, almost all Buriats, were sitting in a half circle, looking in the direction of the mountain. In the same direction maybe 5 or more Shamans were playing a drum. They wear the same wicks as we saw it in the Buddhist temple in Ingolstwing. Somehow it reminds at an Indian ceremony (at least in my imagination). It was a big half circle maybe 200 people, Kotomi guessed, I thought it were 100, but I am not that good at guessing.  The shamans playing the drum and repeating some words or something like that. After some time the Shamans turned around 90 degree and looking in this other direction, while all people in the half circle followed this movement. Each move around 90 degree was followed by rising up some gifts for the "holy spirit" and rotating it. The gifts were: all kind of food, cookies, bread, sweets or very often you could see them holding an open bottle of Vodka. Everybody was wearing a cap, some just take an old plastic bag, some just put a leather handbag on the head. When I was talking with Eva later she explained me that they have to cover the head in respect to the "holy spirit".  (It is  funny for the same reason we should take of the cap in a Christian church) The ceremony includes not only all four directions, it also includes the direction of the mountain, the direction of the sky and the earth. During the ceremony it was getting darker because of the rain clouds that were concentrating around the mountain. In the end the Shamans were reading/singing a list of hand written wishes (we guessed). It was funny the one Shaman had to stop sometimes since he could not read what the people wrote. After the ceremony was finished the people went home really fast and it started to rain. All those things together, let me feel very mystic in this moment. Later the mountains were also sometimes in the clouds and it suddenly start to rain. Still it was quite impressive and who knows maybe there is really some “Holy Spirit” living at/in that mountain.

 

After the ceremony a policemen, I asked him the day before for the direction in Bargusin, came to us. First I did not recognised him but Kotomi did. Soon 4 or 5 policemen were around our car and wanted to know what we are doing, where we come from, and where we are going. They did not ask as policemen’s they were just interested. All of them looked like Buriat and joined the ceremony before. They explained that the ceremony was only Shamanism and not Buddhist. Eva told me that it is often complicated to know which is Shamanism or Buddhism. The people mix both and do not think about it. They just do it as their parents have done. However, the policemen told us that water of the spring at this place is very healthy. I asked is it hot? They said "no, but if you drive always straight and do not follow the asphalt then you will reach after 50 or 80 km or xx km some hot springs, nu just drive straight .... and you will see". Ok and that was our plan for the next day, since we had to stay in the valley at least until Monday when the Bank is open again and we can get money to buy a Diesel to go back to Ust Bargusin.

 

PS.: I am always slow at writing and behind Kotomi but sometimes there is no time for writing, sounds strange but ist like that (:)