The Tozhu. Spiritual Culture: Mythologies, Traditional Beliefs, Holidays, and Rituals

Researchers recorded that at the beginning of the 20th century, the Tozhu Tuvans still retained animistic beliefs and associated taboos and rituals. Fire was considered a spirit that could harm if angered, so it should not be scolded. Furthermore, one cannot spit in it or jump over it. One cannot set a brand on fire from the hearth and take it out of the chum. There are other restrictions as well. For example, one must not touch the threshold of the home, or the small poles located to the right and left of the front door, as the evil aza spirits reside there.

The Tozhu believed in the great significance of the amulets that protected people from evil spirits. A moose fang was considered a powerful charm that could be used to make a child get rid of the teeth-grinding habit.

A special shogurer ritual was directly related to the “bear festival” widespread among many minorities. Having killed and skinned a bear, the Tozhu would cut off its head and the tips of its paws. Then they made a fire and fried morsels of bear fat on sticks. Following that, the skinned bear head was placed in a cauldron which was filled with water and boiled. When the head was cooked, the hunters sat around the fire. The oldest of the hunters would take the head out, cut off a piece of meat, and pass it on until all the meat was eaten. This ritual was associated with the idea of ​​the revival of the beast.

The Tozhu performed various rituals associated with hunting, fishing, and family cults. These included collective and personal offerings to the master-spirit of the place. For instance, after a successful hunt, the participants, before drinking tea, engaged in the chayyglaar ritual: they would pour a little tea into a bowl and sprinkled it in the four directions, saying “sheyek”. The otka kaar ritual consisted of the hunters throwing a piece of meat into the fire asking the genius loci for luck.

A similar spirit-feeding ritual was carried out at the herding camp and at home by the hearth. The cedars or spruce trees with tangled branches, growing on a hill, were considered the abode of the master-spirit of the taiga. These trees were called shamanic, kham-yyash. Each clan had their own shamanic tree. Everyone passing by showed respect to the master-spirit of the taiga and tied cloth ribbons to the tree.

The Tozhu considered some mountains with treeless flat tops to be sacred. The Odugen mountain range in the upper reaches of the Kham-Sary and Azas rivers was especially famous for the mountains of this kind. The Tozhu respected their revered places by building the ova huts made of poles and branches, in which they placed sacrificial offerings to the master-spirit of the mountains, and images of animals carved from wood and birch bark. Collective prayers were held near the ova.

The Tozha are shamanists, although their official religion, like that of all Tuvans, is Lamaism. The Lamaist monastery khure was located on the left side of the Biy-Khem, opposite the outlet of the Tora-Khem. It was a low wooden building with several large courtyards, surrounded on three sides by small log huts in which the lamas lived in winter. In summer they lived in birch bark chums. The number of lamas was about 70.

The folk poetry of the Tozhu people is diverse in content and genre. The toon fairy tales occupied a large place in the spiritual culture of the Tozhu. Storytellers enjoyed great honor and respect and were believed to live for a very long time. Fairy tales could only be told in the evening hours and at night. They were stories glorifying the strength, dexterity, and intelligence of the hero. Fairy tales often featured various dark forces, and evil spirits opposing the world of heroes. Erlik Lovun Khan, the master of the underworld, where the spirits of the dead dwelled, was usually the antagonist. The hero was often assisted by animals. 

For example, the fairy tale about Oskus-ool describes the hero punishing, with the help of wild taiga animals and dogs, the evil spirit Chylbyga and banishing him to the moon. In the fairy tale “The boy whom Chylbyga was chasing,” the hero was assisted by a moose, a fox, and an owl.

The image of the Golden Princess (Tsarevna) was one of the foremost among the positive heroic images of fairy tales.  She was a heroine distinguished by extraordinary intelligence and devotion to her betrothed, whom she saves in his difficult struggle with dark forces with advice and magical actions. In the fairy tale “Olbergi,” the Golden Princess gives the hero wise advice in his fight against Karaty Khan and saves Olbergi several times from certain death.

Tales about animals are varied. The fairy tale titled “The Bat” (“Chaskyzhik”) describes the characters arguing about who should collect taxes from the bat: the fox, who levies taxes on land animals, or the hawk who taxes birds. However, a bat cannot be called a bird, since it spends its time moving on the ground and looks like an animal. Nor can it be considered a land animal, since it has wings and flies.

The oral folk art of the Tozhu also includes legends and myths. Very interesting is the well-known legend about the origin of reindeer herding. “Once upon a time, in the forests of the Ulug-Dag, the Aal people migrated, leaving behind an old man from the dargan clan and an old woman from the soyan clan in the area of Ivi-Shilig. Those elderly people could not hunt and it was difficult for them to get food. But they saved themselves by taming wild reindeer. The old man and the old woman learned to ride reindeer and milk them”.

The songs yr reflect and describe personal feelings, moods, and the general worldview.  They also occupy a large place in Tozhu folklore. The yr sing of life of reindeer herders and cattle breeders, its hardships and joys. Songs in the form of quatrains are especially common.