The exhibition of the Vladimir Arseniev Museum of Far East History presents a shaman’s skirt. The Udege people called the shaman’s skirt “seve babikhini”, it was cut from a single cloth of white material and often tied with a cord on the right side. On the sides of the skirt there were slits — “sagani”, the length of which reached 40 centimeters.
Clothing was decorated not only for aesthetic purposes. Patterns and images also had a magical meaning. Older women were engaged in this work. A shaman skirt often showed both zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images. Besides, there were also celestial luminaries, trees and animals sitting on them.
The designs reflected the Udeges’ ideas about the surrounding world, man’s influence on nature and dependence on it. It was believed that with the help of drawings a shaman could influence the surrounding reality, considerably strengthen his abilities and acquire new qualities necessary for successful struggle with evil spirits. Figures of snakes, dragons, frogs, lizards, symbolize spirits, helping the shaman. All figures are colorfully painted in a distinctive manner, characteristic only of Udege artists. The depiction of animals testifies to the good observation skills of the Udege people, who are able to convey in a drawing the typical features of each individual animal.
An interesting character is a
one-armed and one-legged hunchbacked “boho” dwarf holding a tambourine in his
hand. It should be noted that he is not smaller in height than the other
figures. Sometimes the shaman is depicted in a headdress in the form of a bird
or with a characteristic braid and a combed hairstyle. The shaman is always
depicted in profile, which is a distinctive feature of his portrayal. According
to the beliefs of the Udege people, this dwarf lives in the swamp, and thanks
to his intrigues people can get lost in the forest and not find their way home.
Being one-legged, he used, in their opinion, only one ski, the trace of which
could be seen near shoals on the sand.
The most prominent fantastic animals are dragons, two-headed snakes and
birds with the head of a man. Dragons are always very colorfully drawn as
singles and in pairs. Their bodies are covered with scales of dark blue, red,
blue and yellow colors. The heads of the animals are particularly remarkable.
The dragon was considered the strongest among the spirits of the shaman’s
assistants and was seen as the personification of thunder (agdi).
