20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Ceremony of bathing the Buddha statuein a Manchu shamanic shrineTATIANA panThe Institute of Oriental Manuscripts – Sankt PetersburgWhen studding the culture and religion of people who live side byside with other ethnic groups, we may expect the existence of interculturalrelations. This is the case with the Manchu people who originally professedshamanism. Having historical contacts with Mongolian Lamaism, ChineseConfucianism and Taoism, the Manchu shamanic beliefs have beeninfluenced by these far-Eastern religions, and most significantly, after theestablishment of the Qing dynasty in China, which ruled from 1644 till 1912.The contacts with the Mongolian variant of Buddhism started longbefore the Manchus entered China. It influenced on popular ritualsin which Buddha and the bodhisattvas entered the Manchu spiritualpantheon, and were mentioned in the prayers. Most clearly, it is seen inthe vision of Manchu Underworld where a special place was occupied byIlmun-khan – the King of the Buddhist hell. 1 A detailed description ofIlmun-khan’s kingdom is found in the “Tale of the Nishan shamaness”,a manuscript that was first discovered by A.V. Grebenschikov during hisfield expeditions in Manchuria in the beginning of the 20 th c. The text andits versions could be attributed as a “popular” Manchu shamanism whichexisted in the North-East China. 2 The use of this term is justified by the factthat after the conquest of China in 1644 the Manchu shamanic ceremonieswere carried out in Peking at the court of the Manchu emperors as wellas in the houses of Manchu banner men. The imperial ceremonies wereheld in special shamanic shrines: the Tangse shrine and the Kun-ning-gongpalace inside the Gu-gong palace complex.1Pan, Tatiana A. 2006: 209-214.2Nishan’ samani bidhe [The Legend of the Shamaness Nishan], 1971; Yahontov,K.S. 1992, Kniga shamanke Nisan’.