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Serge (post)

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Serge at Gesera Camp (Стоянка Гэсэра) near the Selenga river

A serge (Buryat: сэргэ; lit.'tethering post') is a hitching post, property marker, and ritual pole used among the Buryats and Yakuts.[1]

Property marker

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The serge is placed to indicate that the place in question has an owner. For example, a serge stands as a pole at the entrance to a yurt or at the gate of a house to indicate that as long as the serge is there, the family will live there. Traditionally, a serge cannot be destroyed, but can only decay.

Religious use

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The serge is connected to the horse cult, as both the hosts and the guests tied their horses to it. It is also a symbol of the world tree that unites the three worlds: Three horizontal grooves are cut on the pole, the upper one intended to bind the horses of the heavenly inhabitants of the upper world, the middle one intended for the horses of men, and the lower one for the horses of the underworld.

Three serges made from birch trees (generally dug up by the roots) were used at the initiation of the shaman. One has ribbons tied to it, the colors of the ribbons indicating whether the shaman is to be a black or yellow shaman, or serve both good and evil. Another has a bell attached to it and a horse, as a sacrifice. A third is to be climbed by the new shaman.[2] For black shamans, this rite is called shanar; for yellow shamans, shandroo (or altan serge, "golden hitch").[3]

At the cemeteries of the shamans very high serges were placed for the unification of gods and spirits. Serges in the form of stone obelisks were also placed on these cemeteries (deer stones). The most famous of these stones is the Altan Serge ("golden pole") located in the Tamchinsky datsan, in the Buryat village Gusinoye Ozero.

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See also

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  • Ceremonial pole – Stake or post used in ritual practice
  • Horse culture – Tribal group or community whose day-to-day life revolves around the herding and breeding of horses
  • Inuksuk – Inuit built stone landmark or cairn in Inuit cultures
  • Khatag – Traditional ceremonial scarf in Tibetan Buddhism, often tied to landmarks
  • Totem pole – Monumental carvings by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest
  • House mark – Property marker

References

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  1. ^ Гончаров, Alexey Goncharov // Алексей. "Памятник Якутии". www.unmonument.ru.
  2. ^ Mikhailovskii, V. M.; Wardrop, Oliver (1895). "Shamanism in Siberia and European Russia, Being the Second Part of 'Shamanstvo'". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 24: 62–100. doi:10.2307/2842483. JSTOR 2842483.
  3. ^ Relic, Ratka (2020). The Esoteric Symbolism of Shamanic Trance and Altered States Phenomena. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 54. ISBN 9781527553910.