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Tiger bells in North East Asia
Siberia
Countries/regions/groups: Manjagir, Ewenki, Amur, Tuva, Buryati
Most bells are of or based on the A type, in sizes varying from about 2 to 4 cm. Alternative bells are found on the Buryat whip.
Group: Ewenk (or Tungus); East Siberia, Stanovoi Mountains
Four tiger bells, on the back of a shaman costume. In the collection of the Musée de l'Homme, Paris (France). In the description that came with the photographs, the bells are described as: Grelot, tête de tigre en laiton, accroché au dos du costume chamanique. Dimension en coupe longitudinale: 3,7 cm. (Religion / magique) Toungouse, USSR - Siberie Orientale - Monts Stanovoi. (transl.Crotal bell, tiger's head, made of brass, tied on the back of a shamanist's costume. Dimension in diameter: 3,7 cm. (Religion, magic). Tungus, USSR - Oriental Siberia, Stanovoi mountains.).No year of collection is mentioned.
Four tiger bells, together with ordinary bells, and other metal objects
The costume
One of the tiger bells; photographs: Courtesy Musée de l'Homme, Paris
with the help from drs. Ingrid Groenen
Group: Nanaj (Amur river)
Sixteen tiger bells on a shaman tree; a drawing made by a shaman named Inka, in Materialy po izobrazitel'nomu iskusstvu narodov sibiri by S.V. Ivanov (Materials on the fine arts of the Siberian people, in the 19th and early 20th century; page 247 - 248). Description:The bark of the tree consists of crawling animals, the roots are formed by giant snakes; the leaves are formed by toli (bronze mirrors); the flowers are formed by jingle bells soeroeotsja or kongokto; the tree's crown has many metal horns. The horns, toli and kongokto were (..) an intriguing part of every ritual shaman costume.
Toli are worn by the shamans on the chest. They believed the toli could protect the shaman from good and bad acts by humans; that they gave access to the truth and at the same time protect the shaman's body against enemy arrows.The meaning of the kongokto is not entirely clear. One shaman explained that the bell that was tied to the head dress of a shaman houses the ajami: the protector spirit, the soul, and the shaman's teacher.
Such objects as copper toli and bells are surely from Nanaj. They came into the area from North East China.
The original shape of the bells [in the drawing by the shaman Inka] is interesting. The division of the bells with a vertical line between two circles surrounded by arcs, are no coincidence and not made up by the shaman. They represent in a simple way the bells from Mancuria and China. On these bells we find representations of eyes, nose and a big mouth, composed of two combined halves of one bell. On illustration nr 118 (see below) two bells are shown for comparison: left a drawing from Nanaj; right: an original bell from the museum in Amur. Copper bells of this type decorated the head dresses of the shamans from Mancuria. (Translation: courtesy Mrs. Veldhuys, Deventer, Neth.; bold by author)
It is not sure if the drawing represents a real shaman tree or a mythical object.
Brochure of the Vienna Ethnological Museum, Austria: a photograph of two shamans with costumes more or less similar to the Solon costume from Inner Mongolia (with more than 60 tiger bells).
Two shamans.
Note the toli's (round mirrors) and the rows of bells.
Almost certainly all these bells are tiger bells. Photograph: courtesy
Vienna Ethnological Museum
Group: Ewenk
Twelve tiger bells, on a shaman's costume. In the collection of the St. Petersburg Museum of Ethnology; exhibited in the Tropen Museum, Amsterdam during the exhibition 'From shaman to cyber space', 1998.
The costume
Detail of the costume. Photographs courtesy Tropen Museum, Amsterdam
Group: Nanaj
Thirteen tiger bells, on the girdle of a shaman's costume. In the collection of the St. Petersburg Museum of Ethnology; exhibited in the Tropen Museum, Amsterdam during the exhibition 'From shaman to cyber space', 1998.
Courtesy: Tropen Museum, Amsterdam
An Ewenk shaman
Note the toli and the rows of bells;
almost certainly all these bells are tiger bells
Photograph: source unknown
Groups: Tuvene
A report by Arnoud van Haaft in March 2008:'In the exhibition in the National museum in Kyzyl, capital of Tuva, we have seen such bells on shaman costumes; unfortunately no photographs.'
Country/region: Southern Siberia, Buryatia, Northern Mongolia
Bells are of an alternative type based on the A type, and possibly recently made.
On the website of 3 Worlds - The Shamanism Website: a ritual whip, from the area Southern Siberia / Buryatia / Northern Mongolia. (http://www.3worlds.co.uk/Pages/Gallery-5-Ritual.html) The whip is for sale. Here is the complete description:
SIBERIAN SHAMAN'S RITUAL BLESSING WHIP (Bardag) ( (item No: Bardag 01)
Origin: Northern Mongolia (or Southern Siberia, Buryatiya)
Age: 45 - 25 years
Length: 600 mm approx
Price: 198 English PoundsA very rare object, this shaman's ritual blessing whip or bardag was used both to bless people and objects, and for the purification of people and objects.
It is not a particulaly old example, but is a genuine used item, complete with its ritual metal work of tiger bells and old iron cones. The old iron cones are far older than the bardag, and probably came of a very old shaman's costume or other ritual objects. It is also decorated with coloured woolen threads in the traditional way, which are tied to the wooden handle.Whips like these are held by shamans while they sing to their spirits, and then when the spirits have taken them over and they are in trance, they touch those gathered for the ceremony with the bardag to bless and purify them.
The shaman holds the antler part, which is traditionally the antler of a three year old stag. The shaman's hand would be put through the blue silk ribbon attached to the antler like a horse rider would put their hand through the strap of a ridding crop.Some examples of bardag have small models of the tools of the blacksmith tied to them (hammers, anvils etc) as well as weapons such as small iron bows and arrows, the spirit of these the shaman would use while in trance if they needed to battle hostile spirits, or escape from them. Sometimes even model boats are attached to bardags, should the shaman need to make a hasty escape by water while in the spirit worlds.
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Left: close up of two of the tiger bells ; Right: a Buryat shaman from Southern Siberia relaxing inside a yurt. He wears his ritual costume including a metal shaman's mirror around his neck, and a bardag resting on the floor, it's strap going around his right wrist.
Photographs: courtesy 3Worlds - The Shamanism Website
A closer look at the design of the bells shows us that they are clearly tiger bells. The square hoop is there and the face is present. However the lines around the eyes (that in other bells form the line around the eyes and the nose) are reduced to curved lines around the eyes that start from the 'mouth'. This is not seen in other tiger bells and makes these bells alternatives. The shaman with the whip on the photograph is a Buryat. However it is not clear if the bells on his whip are tiger bells. Until now there are no reports of 'classical' tiger bells with the Buryat. The impression is that these tiger bells are recently made (last century).
In M. A. Czaplicka's Shamanism in Siberia, excerpts from Aboriginal Siberia (1914), the chapter Accessories of the shaman, we find several quotes from various authors on the use and meaning of brass bells in the costume and paraphernalia. The term tiger bell is not used and not always a distinction is made between jingle bells and clapper bells (e.g. church bells) but in some cases we can infer that the bells mentioned are tiger bells. To read the quotes, go to Quotes from Shamanism in Siberia.
Group: Manjagir
Shaman's coat, in the Russian Ethnographic Museum, St. Petersburg
detail from the front, with at least 25 tiger bells
The same shaman's coat, detail from the back, with at least two tiger bells.
Pictures are details from photographs published in Art of Siberia by
Valentina Gorbachova and Marina Federova (2008),
courtesy Parkstone Press Int. New York USA
The Manjagir are a sub-group of the Ewenk, a large Tungusic speaking ethnic group in East Siberia. For examples of complete costumes such as these, see above and in N.E. China.
All text and photographs are copyrighted,
for information, please contact
F. de Jager