The Mongolian Black Shamanist conception concerning the Sunny and Dark World was directly related to the rejection of the idea of rebirth. It is fundamental to Shamanist belief that humans and animals alike are born, have a period in the Sunny World and then when they die, the soul remains forever in Darkness. According to the Shamanist conception, S.A.Tockarev and G.Sukhbaatar who concurred with him were mistaken in their assertions that burials with all the owner’s possessions are related to their re-use in the next life or afterlife.
Jigjid Zayran’s disciple, Ms. B.Dulam, whose guide was Jambarenchin Lama of Ived Lamasery, told me:
According to my tutors-astrologers, there are two kinds of souls: the Bad and the Good. The Good souls are reborn as men. In regard to the shamans, there is the Bone’s soul, which after death becomes the Bone’s Ongon. However, the Bad souls of ordinary men remain in the bones of the dead body. When the body has decomposed, the sould goes to hell where its virtues or sins are jungled by the king of Hell.
Animals have Bone’s souls as well. A long time ago, a shaman, instead of the customary doeskin, covered his Drum frame by the skin of a dead horse. As a result, when that shaman was possessed by his Ongon, it said, “My own native land of Tsanchig strip forest, my own house of withered bones, my own body of a fawn horse…”
This means that the “Bone Spirit” of that dead horse had remained in its pelvic socket and with its skin, the soul entered the shaman’s drum. Ms.Dulam’s comments indicate the influence of Buddhist ideas of reincarnation on her own views concerning the Soul and Spirit. Consequently, she not only accepted ideas of incarnation rejected by Black Shamanism, but she also considered that “A bad soul of the bone transfers into an Ongon, may mean that becoming an Ongon or shaman spirit is a bad deed, bu the reincarnation a good one…” This may be considered an insult to her professed belief and evident worship of Black Shamanism. However, the misunderstanding was unintentional, rather it shows the evolution of Mongolian Shamanism under the influence of Buddhism, an influence that is still powerful.
