Ewenki Saman Dance
01 · Historical Records
The history of the Ewenki shaman dance can be traced back to the nature worship and totem worship of the Ewenki in the era of their original clans: the surviving sacred garments and ritual implements of the Orogoia shamans are still stitched with animal bones and fangs, and the drumhead and drumstick of the zhua gu drum used as a dance implement are covered with animal hide; these traces show that the shaman dance was originally formed as a means of communicating with the spirits in hunting production. In the procedures of blessing, summoning the god, the god entering the body and sending the god off, the shaman acts as the envoy between the many spirits and humankind, dancing amid prayer words, spells, chanting and drumming. As the Ewenki settlement process accelerated, the shaman’s sacrificial activities fell sharply, and the shaman dance gradually changed from a witchcraft ritual into a performance for festivals and public display.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Ewenki shaman dance is a sacrificial dance performed by shamans (that is, ritual specialists) in activities such as praying to the gods, sacrifice, driving away evil and curing illness; it is also a form of witchcraft activity for praying that the gods protect the people, and it is performed separately by male and by female shamans. The performance procedure of the shaman dance generally includes blessing, summoning the god, the god entering the body and sending the god off. When performing, the shaman wears a deer-antler hat or a bear-head hat, and most of the movements imitate the images and postures of animals. By means of dance the Ewenki shaman acts as the envoy between the many spirits and humankind, dancing amid prayer words, spells, chanting and drumming. While dancing, the shaman strikes a skin drum (that is, the zhua gu drum), swings the waist with small amplitude, and the steps are mainly walking steps, turns and leaps, striking the drum and chanting prayer words or spells as he goes. When the dance reaches its climax the drumming becomes rapid and the movements impassioned, seeming to reach a state in which the spirits have entered the body. When the shaman judges that he has received the revelation of the god, he performs various fighting movements accompanied by vigorous shouts, prancing with hands and feet and striking the poses of driving away evil spirits. On the surviving sacred garments and ritual implements of the Orogoia shamans and on the costumes of the shaman dance, one can still see stitched animal bones and fangs, and the animal hide covering the drumhead and drumstick of the zhua gu (the ritual implement drum used as a dance prop); the traces of the nature worship and totem worship of the Ewenki in the era of their original clans are still faintly discernible.
The ritual sequence
The dance follows a sequence of blessing, summoning, possession and sending off, the shaman acting as messenger between the spirits and the people.
Antler and bear-head caps
The shaman wears an antler or bear-head cap and imitates animals, while bones and teeth sewn on the robe and the hide-covered drum preserve totemistic traces.
Dancing to the frame drum
The shaman strikes the hide frame drum, swings the waist slightly and moves in walking, turning and jumping steps while chanting prayers or spells.
Slashes against evil spirits
Once the shaman believes a revelation has come, he or she performs slashing movements with loud cries, driving off evil spirits in the most intense passage of the dance.
Gu Xiuhua and the shaman culture classes
Gu Xiuhua, born in 1962, studied under the Olguya shaman Wa Lie and runs shaman culture classes with teaching materials she helped write.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The transmission of the Ewenki shaman dance is centred on the Ewenki community of Orogoia in Genhe City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and shares the same origin with the shaman culture of the other Ewenki settlements in Inner Mongolia. The Orogoia Ewenki in former times hunted in the forests on the right bank of the Argun River, and shamans travelled from one hunting camp to another to pray for the people, cure illness and drive away evil for the clan; after settling, the shaman costumes, ritual implements and dance sequences were preserved collectively and shown to the public through festivals such as the Orogoia Ewenki Sebin Festival and through “intangible cultural heritage enters the campus” activities. Male and female shamans have different lines of transmission, the female shamans using more soft waist movements, together with travelling steps and the body technique of turning while beating the drum.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Performing the shaman dance is a folk custom of the Ewenki imbued with mystery, and is of extremely high reference value for the study of their history and culture. Gu Xiuhua (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Female, of Ewenki ethnicity, born in December 1962, native of Genhe City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Under the influence of her elders she became a disciple of the Orogoia Ewenki shaman Walie and studied the Ewenki shaman dance under her. Through many years of hard study and effort she inherited the inner meaning of the shaman culture’s prayers and mastered the movements and essentials of the shaman dance. She actively carries out transmission activities, has run training classes for Orogoia Ewenki shaman culture, has compiled teaching materials, and has carried out “intangible cultural heritage enters the campus” activities. Through ethnic festival activities such as the Orogoia Ewenki Sebin Festival she performs the shaman dance before broad sections of the public, so that more people come to understand, to know and to carry on the culture of the Orogoia Ewenki shaman dance. Representative inheritor of the Ewenki shaman dance, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth national batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Guxiuhua 05-2290
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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