The latest addition to my website is Gün G. Ayurzana‘s Бөөгийн домог [Legend of the Shaman]. This Mongolian novel is, as the title tells us, is about shamanism. Tengiz has had an unhappy love affair. He goes to Lake Baikal where he meets Khagdai. a practising shaman. Khagdai has had a hard life, sent to an asylum in the Soviet purge of shamanism but he is now a practising shaman. He has never had an apprentice but now Tengiz becomes his apprentice we and he learn about the history, practice, mysteries and myths and legends of shamanism. Healing is part of it but communing with the omgods (spirits of the dead) and the fluid boundary between life and death and the real world and dream world are also key. Tengiz gradually learns the secrets and rituals and he too becomes a shaman. It is a fascinating story and an excellent introduction to a religious practice most of us know nothing about.