Oboo

In the 14th century, the Mongolian people were converted from the practice of Shamanistic rites to Lamaist Buddhism. They embraced the new faith, however without abandoning their archaic cult. The "oboo", as the sacred mounds of oferings are called, testify to this religious synergy. During the 19th century, Mongolia emerged as one of the Buddhism's premost spiritual centres. The powerful clergy had all but supplanted the Shamans. In 1937, the communist regime strove to replace all forms of religion with Marxism. During the summer of 1992, a mass grave was discovered, it held the remains of 5 000 lames. In today's infant democracy freedom of workship is allowed, at last and the Lamaist clergy means to recover its lost privileges. However, no more than five Shamanes remain to transmit their age-old heritage. For the first time, the ancient rythms of the Shaman ceremony have been filmed showing us raw fragments of the supernatural : the sacred trance-state leading to the source of divinity.