The Mansi. Spiritual Culture (Mythologies, Traditional Beliefs, Holidays and Rituals)

Mansi religious and mythological worldview sees the universe as consisting of the Sky (Torum), Earth (Syan’-Torum), and the Underworld (Yoli-ma). The lord of the Upper world, Torum-oika or Numi-Torum, is the head of the pantheon. His name means “the sky,” “the universe,” “the weather,” “the supreme deity.” Numi-Torum is believed to have ordered the world: in obedience to his will, a loon produced a lump of silt from the bottom of the ocean, it span and grew to be the size of the earth. The sky has many layers. Each of the sky’s iron layers is inhabited by spirits of the Upper world including the Old Man Moon (Etpos-oika), the Woman Sun (Khotl-ekva), the Old Man Wind, the Old Man Thunder (Syakhyl-Torum). Kul-Otyr, the brother and enemy of Torum-oika, was also involved in creating the world, namely its lower (dark) part; he rules over kulis, spirits of diseases.

The heavenly Mother Goddess and Torum-Oika’s wife Kaltashch-ekva is the primal mother of everything living on earth, and it is no accident that her name means “she who wakes, gives birth, creates.” She creates a person’s soul by rocking seven times the seven heavenly cradles on the golden roof of her home. She foretells a newborn’s fate when the child is taken out into the sun for the first time. Her staff is hung with threads of people’s fates with knots tied in those threads. She is worshipped as the patron of pregnant women, women in childbirth, and newborns, and the mythical ancestor of the Mos phratry. Kaltashch-ekva is traditionally pictured as an elderly gray-haired woman wearing a sable coat and silk kerchiefs. She can transform into a swan, a hare, or a frog, and the birch is her sacred tree. In the past, the Mansi and the Khanty kept the image of Kaltashch-ekva represented as a bird made of metal at their main shrine close to Kaltysyany yurts, and every family had a small image of the goddess. At major ceremonies, “seven souls” (seven animals) were to be sacrificed to the ancestor goddess Kaltashch-ekva. 

Similar to Kaltashch-ekva is Mother Fire (Nay-syan), a living being in the shape of a woman dressed in a red sakh (winter clothes) and a kerchief; Mother Fire dwells in every hearth (fire). She guards the house from evil spirits, protects its residents from diseases, and helps maintain prosperity. People were prohibited from playing with fire, scolding it, cutting it with a knife or stabbing it. Like home spirits, the mistress of the hearth was regularly offered bloodless sacrifices, or edible gifts.  Mir-Susne-Khum, a ubiquitous deity with many aspects, the youngest son of the supreme deity Torum-Oika and the goddess Kaltashch-ekva, is the central figure in the Mansi pantheon. Ugrian mythology depicts him as the creator of everything living on earth, and sometimes he creates the earth itself and human beings, too. Upon his father’s order, he procures the Moon and the Sun from the underworld.

Mir-Susne-Khum’s ceaseless wanderings sustain the circulation of life on earth, and so he is called “the man who rotates the earth,” or “the man who inspects the earth, the man who inspects waters.” Mansi folklore frequently depicts him as a person standing up against his father and protecting people: he teaches them to hunt and fish, to use fire and cauldron. Children’s fairy tales most call him Granny’s Grandson (Imi-Khily). Rites dedicated to Mir-Susne-Khum are filled with the color red: this is the color of robes, kerchiefs, bunches of pieces of fabric, sacrificial covers yalpyn-ulama, fox hides. In addition to robes, kerchiefs, and fox hides, the ritual attributes of the mythological hero Mir-Susne-Khum include a seven-gusset cap made of cloth, shoes or boots, a belt, and a snuffbox with tobacco. In their boxes with house spirits or in their holy granaries, the Mansi keep four silver plates and sacrificial coverlets with pictures of a horse rider for Mir-Susne-Khum’s seven-winged horse. Swan and rooster skins, stuffed cranes are put up in attics. 

The Mansi believe that every river (or its stretch) has a master- (or mistress-) spirit worshipped by the entire population of the respective territory. The name of the deity includes the name of the river and the words oika (for male spirits) or ekva (for female spirits). As a rule, they are sons and daughters of the supreme deity Torum. Tagt-Kotl-Oika (“Hero in the shape of an iron hawk, silver hark”) is the principal patron spirit of the Severnaya Sosva river. He lives in the upper reaches of the Yalpyng-Ya river (a tributary of the Severnaya Sosva). Legends have it that once upon a time, he had been a warrior and protected the land around the Sosva from enemies. Tagt-Kotl-Oika’s heroic deeds include defeating a menkv, a giant who boasted he would destroy the master of the river and his children. However, his children were, like him, great warriors, it took seven people to lift their bows. The father told his sons to let the enemy come close and then shoot him in the chest, in the place where the clavicles meet. The shot tore the menkv into pieces, and the Sosva’s current spread them around. Since then, the nearby places have such names as “the Lake of the Disintegrated Stomach,” “the River Stretch of His Femur,” “Two Rivers of His Belt’s Ends,” “The Greater Part of His Boot,” “The Smaller Part of His Boot,” “the Island of His Tinderbox,” “the Island of His Sheath.” 

At the Severnaya Sosva, Nyor-Oika (the Old Man Mountain) was deemed to be equally powerful. He was worshipped as the patron of reindeer herds and giver of reindeer. He drives white oxen and wears clothes made of white reindeer pelts. He carries no weapons, but enemies become petrified or flee from his stare alone. The legends have it that Nyor-Oika lives at the head of the Severnaya Sosva in a stone chum or in a crystal house (the top of Yalpyng-Nyor mountain), and no one can find its entrance. The wolf-dog Sali-Urne-Oika (the Long Tail) guards his dwelling. 

The Old Man of the Sacred Town (Yalp-us-oika) is one of the principal members of the Mansi pantheon; he is also called the Sharp-Clawed Old Man (Konsyn(g)-Oika) or the Hero of the Horse Town (Luv-us-oika). Different groups of Ob Ugrians consider him to be either a son of Torum, or a son, brother, or grandson of Kaltashch. Most frequently, Yalp-Us-Oika was depicted as a warrior in a breastplate carrying a sabre and a bow, or a man with a box on his back; his animal shapes included a bear and a mouse. His entourage consisted of tribute collectors, female servants playing mouth organs, and forest menkvs. Vezhakorskaya Mountain on the Lower Ob is his principal shrine and place of worship; in ancient times, it was the site of the occasional Bear Games and “assemblies” of the Por phratry. People living along the Pelym, the Lozva, and the Lyapin have various forms of bear warrior.

In addition to a large Supreme pantheon, the Mansi had many familial and local patron spirits that, like people, are connected by familial ties. A given family’s oldest male is in charge of familial spirits. After the death of the “master” (holder), the relics are transferred to his younger brother or eldest son. 

The Mansi’s religion and worship accords every member of the pantheon, every patron spirit of a place or a family a special holy site that served as the place for regular sacrifices and feasts. The shrine could be close to a village or far away from it. No economic activity can be conducted at these places of worship. Images of gods are made of wood, metal, stone, and fabric. They keep their idols in special sacred granaries, as well as sleds, attics, or chests. 

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Christianity had a greater influence on the Mansi than on other Siberian peoples. Scholars believe it to be reason for the weakening of Ugrian shamanism, for the pagan pantheon being augmented with figures such as Mikol-Oika (St. Nicholas), and for the three main deities, Numi-Torum, Mir-Susne-Khum, and Kaltashch-ekva, being connected with the Orthodox figures of the Father, the Son, and the Mother of God. Calendar rites timed to coincide with Orthodox holidays or Soviet holidays also retain some of their pagan foundations: Urne-Ekva khotl (the day of the Raven Woman) is celebrated on the day of Annunciation, offerings to water spirits at the erection of a fence are made on St. Peter or on the Soviet Fisherman Day; offerings to forest spirits are made at the start of winter hunting on the day of the Intercession of the Theotokos. The time between the winter solstice and spring equinox saw the most fascinating ritual, Bear Games, a multi-day (or, rather, multi-night) representation of scenes from mythology and everyday life in dances, sideshows, masks, and puppets. 

Today, Ob Ugrians’ mythological motifs, symbols, and ornaments are widely used in brands, architecture, and cultural infrastructure of Yugra cities and villages, which increases the region’s value status and tourist appeal. In September 2010, Khanty-Mansiysk saw the opening of a monumental sculpture called “Mythological Time” (by Galina M. Visel and Volodya A. Sargsyan) located in the Dzerzhinky St. pedestrian zone. It features seven statues of bronze and stone based on Mansi and Khanty myths: “Cosmic Split of the Universe,” “Emergence (Creation) of the Earth,” “Heavenly Goddess (Mother Kaltashch),” “He Who Inspects the World (Mir-Susne-Khum),” “Forest Spirit,” “Water Spirit,” and “Raven Holiday.” Each sculpture looks like a sacred tree growing from the ground; its branches contain images of gods and their entourage, and its trunks are decorated with deity-related ornaments. 

The Mansi’s folklore is incredibly rich: it features songs (eryg), epics (tarnyng eryg), sacred legends (yalpyng moyt), dramatic scenes (tulyglap), stories and fairy tales (moyt), children’s fairy tales (nyavram, moyt), stories (potyr), lauding songs (ulilap), riddles (amys), etc. 

The Mansi have preserved a varity of musical instruments, for example, the sangkvyltap (a plucked string boat-shaped instrument), the tarygsyp-yiv (a bird-shaped angular harp decorated with the head of a bird or animal), the nerne-yiv (a long-necked bowl-shaped lute played with a bow), and the tumran (a mouth instrument in the shape of a bone plate with a vibrating lamella). The sangkvyltap (which means “to ring”) and the tarygsyp-yiv (“crane’s neck-tree”) were used to sing heroic and sacred legends and invocations addressed to deities of various ranks. Another ritual (“shamanic”) instrument is the kuyp/koyp (a round or slightly oval-shaped drum with a single membrane and rather narrow wooden frame and resonator pins that a reindeer or moose pelt is stretched on). A wooden or bone stick with a pelt-upholstered head was an independent divination attribute.