Siberia

All bells are of or based on the A type, in sizes varying from about 2 to 4 cm.

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: Ewenk (or Tungus); East Siberia, Stanovoi Mountains

Four larger tiger bells, on a shaman costume. Collection Musée de l'Homme, Paris (France).

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 of drs. Ingrid Groenen

Group: Nanaj
Thirteen tiger bells, on the belt 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

Group: Nanaj (Amur river)
Sixteen tiger bells on a shamanistic tree; a drawing made by a shaman, in a publication on material culture of Siberian groups (no details available). Description:

"...such objects as copper toli (mirrors) and bells are surely from Nanaj. They came into the area from North East China..."

"...the original shape of the bells [on the drawing of the shaman] is interesting, the division with a vertical line, surrounded by arcs, are no coincidence and not made up by the shaman. They represent in a simple way the bells from Mantsjoeria and China. On these bells we find representations of eyes, nose and a big mouth, composed of two combined halves of one bell..."

"...Copper bells of this type decorated the headdresses of the shamans of Mantsjoeria...One of these bells is in the collection of the Amur museum."

Brochure of the Vienna Ethnological Museum, Austria: a photograph of two shamans with costumes more or less similar to the Solon costume from Outer Mongolia (with more than 60 tiger bells).

Two shamans

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.'

Arnoud van Haaft will visit Mongolia this summer (2008) and will look for tiger bells and report his findings.

Country/region: Southern Siberia, Buryatia, Northern Mongolia

Bells are of a 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 Pounds

A 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.

Left: the bardag ; right: detail with four of the tiger bells

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 3World - 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. 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 tiger bells with the Buryat. The impression is that these tiger bells are recently made (last century), probably by a (local?) blacksmith who did not exactly know the old design.

Group: Yakut
In a publication on shamanism by M. A. Czaplicka, Shamanism in Siberia, excerpts from Aboriginal Siberia (1914), we find a quote from Sieroszewski who gives us an account of the meaning of the (shaman's) coat ornamentation, which he heard from an old Yakut shaman. Number 5 in his list of essential items are:

'Hobo, copper bells without tongues, suspended below the collar; like a crow's egg in size and shape and having on the tipper part a drawing of a fish head (bold by author). They are tied to the leather straps or to the metal loops.

Because of the size and the shape (a crow's egg) this could be a tiger bell type B.

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Tiger bells in North East Asia

Siberia

Countries/regions/groups: Ewenki, Amur, Tuva, Buryati, Yakut