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A distinctive feature of a Siberianshaman’s ritual costume is the facemask they often wear, with itsfringe, or ‘eye curtain’ that hangsdown over the face. These facemasks are common across all ofSiberia in one form or another, andthey are an important part of mostshamans’ costumes.

In the West, in shamanicworkshops and classes over recentdecades a tradition has evolved ofwearing bandanas, which serve thepurpose of shielding the eyes fromthe distraction of intruding light. Ihave no doubt that for many peoplethese bandanas have developed intoa part of their ‘ritual kit.’ Yetbandanas may lack the depth of ritual

significance of a thetraditional

shaman’sface

mask.

Face masks vary greatly acrossMongolia and Siberia. Some havethick curtains of plaited cordshanging down, some have strips ofleather, and some - like Evenkshaman’s ch'ikta masks - have onlysymbolic cords which do notobstruct the vision at all. In thecase of the ch'ikta, only sevensmall strings of beads are used.

Mongolian masks, which aregenerally called orgoi, oftenresemble Native American plainsIndian feather headdresses, butwith a crown of large vulturefeathers rather than the eaglefeathers used by the NativeAmericans. Other Siberian tribalgroups also use feathers, oftenthose of the loon, or other waterbirds such as geese.

Mongolian orgoi masks also havefaces embroidered onto themrepresenting the spirit eyes andmouth of the shaman. These havetwo main purposes: they provide eyesfor the shaman whilst in the spiritworlds; also they are there to scareaway unwelcome hostile spirits.

Buryat shamans from NorthernMongolia and over the border intoRussia, have a face mask that alsohas eyes. This mask is called amaykhabsha, and it is worn by bothwhite and black shamans. Thecolour of a black shaman’smaykhabsha is black, whereas thatof a white shaman is blue, becauseof the white shaman’s associationwith the upperworld.

Buryat maykhabsha do not havefeathers on them, instead theyhave either three or five long multicoloured streamers that hang downfrom the back. These streamersare generally fixed to the actualcap by means of fancy buttons.They are made up of five colours ofbrocade, which represent the fiveelemental colours of TibetanBuddhism; yellow - earth; red -fire; blue - water; green - air; and

white - space.These streamers are

decorated with bells and smallpearls, and are a fairly recentdevelopment, in use for only thelast 100-150 years or so,coming into the country duringa period of Buddhist revival.

The cap of a maykhabshahas a top circle, generally ofbrocade, which is there to

protect the shaman’s crown

chakra during spirit flight.Sometimes they also have a secondcircle of brocade inside. Normally, acoloured tassel hangs from the verytop, and sometimes a blue khadagscarf is also fixed here.

Michael Harner, in his article inthis issue of Sacred Hoop, shareshis theory that the movement ofthe fringes help shamans go into a

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Shaman’s Face Masks of SiberiaNicholas Breeze Wood

HidingSpiritEyethe

Right above:Buryat shamanclearly showingthe fringe on hismaykhabsha cap

Right below:Evenk (Tungus)female shamanwearing a simpleleather fringe.Photo earlyC20th

Below: Buryatshaman with hismaykhabsha cappulled back toshow his face

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deeper state of trance. This may indeed bethe case, as a thick fringe which stops a lotof light, certainly puts the wearer in analtered state. However, Buryat and mostother Siberian shamans say that the fringeof a maykhabsha is there to protect thepeople around the shaman, for when aspirit takes the shaman over, people mustnot look at the shaman’s eyes or face, or itwill scare them or harm them, because ofthe power of the spirit.

Some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners ofthe chöd ceremony also wear a fringed facemask called a tomra. Chöd is an ancient ritewhich is a mix of shamanic and Buddhistpractice, in which the practitioner offerstheir body for the spirits to eat as an act ofcompassion. But in Tibetan understanding,the purpose of the mask is reversed, as it isthere to protect the spirits from the powerof the eyes of the chödpa (personperforming chöd), as the chödpa will befilled with the compassion of the Buddhaswhich will disturb the feeding spirits.

The most elaborate form of shamanichead gear are the metal horns or antlersthat some shamans wear. These are mostlyto be found amidst the Buryat and Evenkpeople, although shamans from some othertribal groups wear them as well. Thesehorns, known by the Buryat people asorgay, often denote the number ofinitiations a shaman has gone through - themore experienced the shaman, the greaternumber of prongs on the horns - although

this is not always the case. Normally theseantlers do not have a fringe of their own,but are worn over a fringed cap or otherheaddress; sometimes however, as in theEvenk examples in this article, they havetheir own set of fringes.

MAKING YOUR OWN MASKMaking your own fringed mask can be anexcellent way to deepen your shamanicpractice. Not only will it give you a bit ofritual ‘kit’ that will be a positive support toyour practice - by reminding you every timeyou put it on that you are preparing to doshamanic work - but it will also enable you todevelop your own cosmological symbolism,which is important in developing a deeperway of working with the spirit world.

I advise you to journey to your spirits aboutthis, to talk to them about the design and thecolours you should use, and any objects thatshould be sewn or tied onto your mask. Thisis not about ‘dressing up’, as making it with adeep connection to your spirits is essential if itis to be powerful and honest. If you want todress up buy a pirate hat!

In the very simplest form of fringed maskthe fringes hang from a strip of material,which can be tied around the head, so thatthe fringes dangle over the eyes, There isan example of just such an old Mongolianmask at the top of the page.

This was the first type of mask I made,over twenty years ago now, and I still haveit and use it. I started with a strip of blackwool cloth, to which I stitched a simple, cut,buckskin leather fringe, which I painted red.On either end of the wool cloth strip Iattached cloth ties to fix behind my head;then I finished it by stitching some redTibetan silk brocade over the top of thebuckskin fringe to hide it, allowing just thefringes to dangle out below. I also addedsome antique glass beads, conch shellsand an old, tiny Mongolian shaman’s mirror.

This mask was not at all difficult tomake, and only took me a few hours. Iconsider it ‘informal wear’ in the spiritworld, and as it is small and easily portablein a pocket I often take it with me when Igo to shamanic gatherings etc.

For more formal wear I’m lucky enoughto own a Buryat shaman’s full maykhabsha,complete with five brocade tails. Thesecoloured tails are not always worn, as theysignify that a shaman has come to a deepknowledge of the nature of the elements inthe Mongolian equivalent of the medicinewheel teachings. After 30 years of workingwith the medicine wheel teachings I learnedfrom native American teachers, I respectfully

NorthernMongolianshaman’scostumeand mask

left: a fairly simple Mongolian shaman’songoi fringed mask. The mask showselements of Tibetan Buddhist influencein the use of shaped fabric tails ratherthan cords or leather tassles

Tibetan Buddhistchödpa performing

a chöd ceremonywearinga tomra

Mongolian shamanwearing vulturefeathered orgoi

Tuvanshamanwearing avery minimalmask madeof beads



trust I am qualified enoughwhen I wear it.

This maykhabsha came tome some years ago from acontact in Ulaanbaatar inMongolia. When it arrived ithad a strong, rancid smell ofthe butter used in Mongolianeveryday rural life, and I hadto hang it up for some time infresh air before I could standto wear it.

The cap part of mymaykhabsha was too smallfor me, and so I made a

larger one, and attached thebrocade tails to it.

I’m not very experienced inworking with fabric, I likeleather more as it stays whereyou put it and does what itstold. Fabric has far too mucha mind of its own for myliking! Because of this I hadto keep it simple, and so had

to really thinkhard about howto do it.Eventually I hitupon the idea ofusing a ready-formed, simplecotton baseballcap. I chose onethat was notadjustable as I

didn’t want it to have a plastic adjusterand a gap in the back.

Of course l needed to cut off the front,flat, sunshade part of the baseball capbefore I could started to make the mask.

The fringe itself was the next problem,but I discovered a ready-made fringingmaterial designed for shawls, available incraftshops - or in my case ‘by the yard’ oneBay. This fringing is made up of littlethread fringes, fixed to a woven strip.Each strand was too lightweight to be afringe on the finished maykhabsha, as theone on the original - too small for me -cap, had quite thick fringes. So I plaitedeach group of three thin strands togetherto make a thicker fringe.

Learning to plait is easy when you getthe hang of it - but I am not going toexplain how to do it in this article. Thereare many websites and videos onlinewhich will tell you how to do it. Get togrips with this skill - I use it all the time inshamanic craftwork.

Plaiting each group of three thinstrands to make one thicker fringe, overthe metre length of the ready-made shawlfringe, took me about five or six hoursover all, done over a period of a few days.So if you can’t plait when you start youwill have plenty of practice as you go onwith your maykhabsha making.

I then folded it in half, (I found that onemetre of the shawl fringing was about theright length) and then in half again, tomake the total fringe width a quarter of ametre. This made the fringe four layersthick, which gave about the samethickness of fringe as the originalmaykhabsha cap had.

I wanted to line the inside, to hide theinner of the original baseball cap, so Iturned the cap inside out, copied theshapes of the sections that made it up,and cut some thin cotton material, which Istitched onto the cap. Once this was doneI turned the cap right side out again, and

now it had a fairly neat innerlining.

I long ago realisedthat, whereas I try to

make my shamanic ‘kit’out of natural materialssuch as cotton and silk,Mongolian shamans don’thave such fussiness, and

use all sorts of man-made materials in their

costumes andobjects. This was

born out whenI examinedthe

HOOP ISSUE ??? 201?www.sacredhoop.org0

Above: plaiting the fringe: holdingit under foot makes it easier to hold

Left: the raw fringe before plaiting

Below: the completed plaited fringe and the unworked cap

Left: author’s maykhabsha capAbove: the cap interior showing

the small circle of Chinesebrocade stitched to the top ofthe inside

Right: Evenk (Tungus)shaman’s fringed

mask, made of strips ofbuckskin stitchedonto a cap



maykhabsha’soriginal cap, asit too appeared to be made out of abaseball type piece of headgear.I stitched the fringe inside the frontof the baseball cap, and thenfolded a length of red brocade overthe bottom edge of the cap to actas a finishing decoration.

The final task was to cut a circleof brocade for the top, hem it, andthen stitch it on, over the cap - likean extra skull cap. I also cut asmaller, similar brocade circle forthe inside of the cap. Out from thetop brocade circle, I attached someblack cords to make a topknottassel, as is traditional.

When the whole thing wascompleted (see picture on oppositepage), I stitched and embroideredsome eyes on the front of themaykhabsha, and added five fancybuttons on the back to attach thefive brocade tails to. These buttonsshould always be the best you canget, and I hunted online to getsome with the knot of eternitysymbol, a design used in bothTibetan Buddhism and Mongolianshamanism.

I use my maykhabsha for ‘big’shamanic work, as it is formalwear. I also sing to its spirit on a

regular basis - as I do for all mypieces of shamanic ‘kit’; honouringritual costumes, drums and otheritems by making offerings andperforming thanksgiving songs is avery traditional part of shamanism.

Having special pieces of clothingto wear for shamanic work eachtime is a very good way to getdeeper into your practice. Suchclothing reminds us that we arestepping away from everyday reality,and the traditional shamanic view isthat they help us by giving power,act as armour and are powerfulhelper spirits in their own right.

You do not need to be adressmaker or tailor to make asimple flat strip mask, or evenconvert a ready-made baseball cap.If you fancy making your ownmaykhabsha, get a cap larger thanyour size, as when you put an innerlining in it and attach the fringes, itwill make it smaller, and after allyour hard work you don’t want tofind it doesn’t fit you. If you areskilled enough to make thestreamers for the back, go for it, butif you are not, just the cap will makean excellent shamanic face mask.

If you mess up in your craftworkso what - it won’t have cost youmuch money and it’s all goodlearning - you will do it better nexttime. The only real shame is if youdon’t have the bottle to try it at all -all traditional shamans are artistsand craftpeople... so what are youwaiting for... practice makes perfect!

Nicholas Breeze Wood is a shamanicpractitioner and Tibetan Buddhist, and theeditor of Sacred Hoop Magazine. He hasmade a life-long study of sacred objectsand runs an online gallery specialising inthe ritual objects of Tibet and Central Asia.His latest book ‘Sacred Drums of Siberia,’is now available (see advert in this issue)[email protected]

Evenk (Tungus) ironantler helmet withface fringe. C19th

Evenk (Tungus)iron antlerhelmet withsimple glassbead fringes.C19th

Right: the brocadetails of the author’smaykhabsha with‘knot of eternity’buttons fixing itto the back ofthe cap

Left: author’s ‘informal’mask, with a red buckskinfringe stitchedto black woolcloth, coveredwith brocadeand stitchedwith cowrieshells, oldshaman’s mirrorand antiqueglass beads

Mongolianvulture

featheredorgoi mask

