Photograph: Shaman near sacred tree - cedar

Selkup

Tomsk Guberniya, Narym Krai

1888

17,6 x 23,9

Photo Collections of Russian Museum of Ethnography

РЭМ 3954-27

Each local group of Khanty had their own sacred places. In the picture - a sacred place of the Vasyugan-Vakh Khnts, located near the village. Kalganakh: Kulon-igol-yakh (“people of the fish river”). There was a legend about these places that once there were two large clans of Ostyaks on Vasyugan - Kulon-igol-yakh and On-kul-yah, who fought with each other until the first clan won. A sacred place was named after him, where various sacrifices were made: pieces of cloth, squirrel skins, money. In such places, various cults were held with the participation of a shaman.