The ethnographic museum, located in the Bunisyak camp at the Lake Lama, shows the household items, culture and art of Taimyr inhabitants. This is a private collection of Oleg Krashevsky, an entrepreneur, ecologist, scientist, hunter, ethnographer and traveler, known both in the country and abroad.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the museum exhibits can be viewed remotely: Oleg Krashevsky publishes the stories of some objects on Instagram. One of the publications is dedicated to the shamanic tambourine of the famous Duhade, the last great Nganasan shaman.
The museum, located on the Putorana plateau, at the Bunisyak tourist camp, exhibits the tambourine’s central part. According to Oleg Krashevsky, a wooden shell covered with skin went with its owner into the grave after the shaman’s death, and the central part, the heart of the tambourine, was traditionally given to the new shaman. Demnime, the son of Duhade, and then his grandson Delsyumyaku were conjuring with this tambourine for many years.
Duhade used the tambourine to visit only the Upper world, and two boats were depicted on it, for the Upper and Middle worlds. Demnime made changes: the image of the third boat allowed him to walk in all three worlds: the Upper, Middle and Lower – the world of people.
The tambourine, together with the shaman’s costume, got to Oleg after the Delsyumyaku’s death more than 20 years ago.
The shaman’s relatives named Krashevsky the successor and a white shaman, gave him all the shaman’s attributes: “After the tambourine and the costume came to me, I wanted it to be complete – to make a shell, and cover it with leather,” says the unique exhibit owner. “But I’m not experienced at it, that’s why I asked Leonid Kosterkin, the son of another Nganasan shaman Tubyaku Kosterkin, to help me. He learned how to make real tambourines from his father. This is a rather complicated process … “
Earlier, Leonid made a copy of the central part of his father’s tambourine for the Krashevsky’s collection. This tambourine was used for performing spiritual rites over a woman giving birth to a child: “Ritual drawings depicting the spirits of the Upper world — Ngou — full-fledged red figures,” the collector describes the tambourine. “The spirits of the Underworld – Barus – are black and flawed, with one arm and one leg.”
Now this is all part of a large collection of sacred objects, exhibited in the unique museum on the unique plateau. There is also a large shamanic crown of the Kosterkin family, which was considered ancient three centuries ago.
Oleg Krashevsky hopes that by July the situation with the coronavirus pandemic will be resolved and tourists will come to his camp. The collector also plans to expose his collection in the exhibition halls of the Moscow Oriental Museum.
Text: Valentina Vachaeva
