What is it about?
The review discusses the successes and tribulations of women shamans during the Soviet era and in the ensuing years since Mongolia regained its independence.
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Why is it important?
The book is significant because scholarly attention rarely focuses on the spiritual life of women. It is especially interesting because it documents the diverse nature of Mongolian religious life today, the tensions that constrained and almost destroyed indigenous Mongolian ritual life, and the determination of Mongolian families to make peace with their ancestors disrupted during the disruptions and oppression of the Soviet era. The book is also important as a brilliant anthropological study written from a Mongolia perspective.
Perspectives
My focus has been on women in Buddhist circles in Mongolia, but my studies have shown that Mongolians often blend Buddhist beliefs and practices with an indigenous shamanic worldview and rituals. This book confirms the close interactions between the traditions and their persistence throughout times of oppression and scarcity, as well as the gendered social dynamics that put women shamans at a disadvantage.
Karma Lekshe Tsomo
University of San Diego
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Memory, and Gender in Contemporary Mongolia. By Manduhai Buyandelger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. 314 pp. $90.00 (cloth); $32.50 (paper); $7.00 to $30.00 (e-book)., The Journal of Asian Studies, August 2015, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0021911815000789.
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