Spirits in the Dark

(In this photo Purvee ties Gambat’s boot. Photo by Haydock.)

Gambat has a long face and eyes that seem to see right through you. He’s taller than most Tsaatan men. Besides being a shaman, people look up to him as the village leader, even though  community decisions are usually made by all the older men together.

Tulga has brought tourists to watch Gambat’s rituals before, and I wanted to make sure we would see an authentic ritual for healing. So I came to him with a real problem that I need help with. I invited Pacey and Morley to have something in mind, too. 

Shamans are healers, but not just of physical afflictions. Luckily we three are healthy, but everyone has issues in his or her life that need to be resolved. And so, both Morley and I asked Gambat to help us with particular personal problems. With Tulga for our interpreter, we filled him in on the background as the day went by. Tulga has known Gambat for many years and also knew the old shaman who trained him.

We gathered at Gabat’s teepee at nightfall, because that’s when the spirits are close. His wife, Purvee, and his eldest son purified the place with juniper smoke, and as Gambat put on his shaman costume they purified it, too. Soon the whole teepee smelled of burning juniper, and we saw everything through a cloud of juniper smoke. It reminds me of the way the Native Americans use sage in the west.

Gambat’s costume is gorgeous, made of sky blue canvas with appliquéd patterns and dangling strips of cloth, bells and rattles, so it makes noise whenever he moves. His headdress is topped with tall feathers of the black eagle. He wore elaborate boots, too, but I didn’t get a good look at them. The most striking thing was the fringe hanging at the front of the headdress, which hid his face. It made him look powerful and mysterious in the semi-darkness of the teepee. I think the purpose of the fringe is to help him withdraw from the everyday world and turn his vision to a world the rest of us can’t see.

Gambat’s drum is big, almost a yard across. It’s open on one side.  He holds the open side close to his head with one hand and beats the drum with the other, so he hears the rhythm all around him.  He started with a soft beat, growing stronger, and began chanting. 

I didn’t know what to expect, but he seemed to leave us and become totally absorbed in another reality. He chanted and drummed for about three hours, stopping only briefly for sips of tea and to puff on a long home made pipe offered by his wife and son. Meanwhile, my legs and back began to ache from sitting with my knees drawn up and nothing to lean back against. For a stretch Gambat called me to kneel beside him, facing the altar at the back of the teepee. He chanted in Tuvan, so Tulga couldn’t tell us more than a little of what he was saying. 

After chanting and drumming for three hours, Gambat began to sway and stumble, but he didn’t stop his chanting. His son jumped up and spotted for him, keeping him from falling onto the stove. Finally, he collapsed to the floor. They tried to give him tea, but he struck the tea bowl to the floor. His wife and son hurried to remove his costume, and then his son and Tulga quickly pulled him outside for fresh air. We could hear him still mumbling his chant, but at last he stopped.

Purvee gave us all a cup of tea, and Gambat came back inside. He sat a long time with his tea, and then he had a specific message for each of us, with instructions for the future and words of encouragement. He said he had seen five spirits in his trance, and if we come back he would do a specific ritual for them. 

We all got to bed about 2 a.m., and in the morning Gambat wanted to know if we had had any dreams. No, we didn’t have any we could remember. He said that was a good sign, because a dream would mean there was something remaining that needs to be dealt with.

So we said goodbye to Gambat and Purvee and the Tsaatan village and headed off on our horses back to the valley. We’re still talking about Gambat’s ritual and learning more about it from Tulga. What really happened during those hours in the dark teepee? It’ll take time to tell.