Spirits from the Edge of the World: Classical Shamanism in Ulchi Society

Spirits from the Edge of the World is a compilation of oral shamanic history gathered from 1994 to the present. The Ulchi are Manchu-Tungus speaking peoples who gave the word “shaman” to the world. These people have inhabited the regions of the Amur River since the Neolithic epoch. Their oral histories recount their earliest beginnings in the midst of the Pleistocene landscapes of southeastern Siberia.This book reveals the essential and comprehensive teachings of Classical shamanism. Wonder tales of enchanted animals, legends of the first ancestral shaman, creation stories, ways of nature, and the intimate relationship between humans and spirits are explored and discussed from in-depth conversations with the elders and last remaining shamans of the Ulchi people.