Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Created: | 2014-10-12 18:42 |
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Institution: | Department of Archaeology and Anthropology |
Editors' group: | (not set) |
Description: | Based on oral transmission rather than written sources and texts, the institution of folk healers or medlgch is eclectic, syncretic, and open to new ideas and healing rituals. This can even be seen in the naming of medlgch. One and the same healer can be addressed differently by different patients. For example, Valentina is a Kalmyk woman known for being a medlgch. Like many others in her position, she is also known by other names, such as syakuste 'the one who is protected by Buddhist gods', emch 'doctor', otch ‘bone-setter’, and eeldech or belgch 'the one who foretells the future', because she has a guardian deity and can, among other abilities, cure illnesses, set bones, and see into the future. In contrast to the term medlgch, the terms emch, otch, syakuste, belgch, and eeldech do not, as a rule, denote separate categories, but are used more widely as adjective-nouns. So people who come to see Valentina to ask for divination may describe her as eeldech or belgch; those who revere her curing abilities may characterize her as emch; those who ask for bone-setting procedures call her otch, and those who appeal to her supernatural powers may call her syakuste. As a medlgch, 'the one who knows', Valentina happens to know and fulfil all these roles. She prefers to describe herself either as syakuste 'the one who is protected by Buddhist gods', or emch 'doctor', although she does not mind being referred to by others as medlgch. It has to be emphasized, however, that not all medlgch healers, even at the height of their careers, are equally powerful, having varying degrees of experience, skills, and expertise, which is reflected in their naming.
With regard to Buddhist doctors, being educated in proper monasteries in India, Mongolia, and Buryatia, they are specialists in Tibetan medicine and are usually attached to temples, the most famous being the Central Temple in Elista. |
Media items
This collection contains 35 media items.
Media items
About Bone-setting, Nimya Erdni-Goryaev
66 views
Born in 1932 in Yashkul’, Nimya is a Torghut man of the Ik Tsookhr clan. He is a bone-setter and receives patients daily who are usually local people, although some come from as...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sat 25 Apr 2015
Ais Sandzhiev, About a Healer Called Bogrun
39 views
Ais talks about his aunt Bogrun who was a healer well-known not only in the Tsagan Nur region but across Kalmykia. People outside of Kalmykia also came to see her. She was also...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sat 9 May 2015
Anatoliy Dzhavinov, About Gucha Khartsyzov
11 views
Anatoliy talks about his uncle Gucha Khartsyzov who was a bone-setter. In Anatoliy’s family there were many healers and Gucha was one of them.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Tue 21 Aug 2018
Andrei Boldyrev, An Interview
28 views
Andrei was born in 1936. In 1941 his family was sent to Omskaya oblast', Siberia, where his mother worked in the fields. His father was away serving in the Red Army. Later he...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Fri 10 Mar 2017
Bulgun Mankirova, Sanal Badmaev, About Folk Healers
14 views
In this interview Bulgun and Sanal talk about folk healers, rituals and stories about spirits or ghosts.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 17 Aug 2017
Danara Dordzhieva, About Folk Healers and Fortune-Tellers
18 views
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 22 Mar 2018
Danara Dordzhieva, About Fortune-Telling, Astrology and Accepting Gods
18 views
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 22 Mar 2018
Danil and Sergei Orusovs, About Our Father
3 views
Sergei and Danil reminisce about how their father cured sick people. One day their older sister had a swelling on her head. Their father boiled a cow’s horn in water. Then he cut...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 11 Jul 2019
Dzhidzha Araeva, Fortune-Telling With a Stick
10 views
Dzhidzha says that her father used a three-sided stick for divination. He made cuts on each side of a stick, then peeled off every second cut. The number of remaining cuts was...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Mon 14 May 2018
Ekaterina Boldyreva, About Folk Healers and Monks
88 views
Ekaterina says that the Kalmyks have their traditional ways of doing massage. Traditionally, it was medlegchis (folk healers) who practiced it. According to Ekaterina, in every...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Mon 16 Jan 2017
Elena Ledzhinova, An Interview
53 views
Elena is a traditional healer. In this interview, she talks about her healing methods and her grandmother.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Tue 5 Dec 2017
Galina Badnyaeva, Fortune-Telling with a Rosary, Ankle Bones, and a Stick
29 views
In the video Galina shows her rosary that she inherited from her great grandmother. Galina uses the rosary in divination. It has 108 beads made from the sandalwood tree.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sat 23 May 2015
Galina Badnyaeva, Healing With a Luugin Sum and Bio-Energy
30 views
A luugin sum (lit. dragon’s arrow, which is a small piece of a meteorite) is used to treat headaches or swelling on the breast. This healing ritual can be performed three times on...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sat 23 May 2015
Galina Samtonova, Klavdia Manunova, About Traditional Healing
14 views
Klavdia cures sick children, fixes dislocations and treats head traumas. With the help of bio-energy emanating from her hands she determines the position of dislocations in the...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Wed 21 Oct 2015
Garya Naminov, About Traditional Healers
25 views
Garya says that his grandfather was a healer. Although Garya does not know exactly how his grandfather cured sick people, he remembers that his grandfather read prayers and...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Tue 16 Jun 2015
Irina Lidzhieva, About Traditional Healing
25 views
Irina cures sick children by massaging them or performing a special ritual of pouring hot lead into a cup with water. When children are sick they have the following symptoms: they...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sun 21 Jun 2015
Ivan Ulyumdzhiev, About Folk Healers
14 views
Ivan talks about two female folk healers, Bashkhanova and Nastaeva, who were both from Uldyuchin. Both women carried rosaries and cured sick people with the help of special...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 19 Dec 2019
Ivan Ulyumdzhiev, About Monks
13 views
Ivan says that in the past monks used various methods in their healing practices, including reading prayers, using cleansed water and giving pills made from herbs. Many monks were...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 19 Dec 2019
Kanur Byurchiev, About Maani Bagshi
25 views
Kanur is from the Baga-Chonos clan. His father was the famous Kalmyk monk and healer Maani bagshi (his secular name was Kheeche Baburkievich Baburkiev). At the age of six, Maani...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sun 21 Jun 2015
Khongor Dzhavinov, About Bone-Setter Shuurga Khartsyzov
8 views
Khongor talks about a bone-setter named Shuurga Khartsyzov who lived in the same village as him: Gakhan Avgnr.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Tue 21 Aug 2018