Sakha (Yakut) old lady shaman (udagan) demonstrating an ancient shaman ritual

Yakutsk, Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia; February 15, 2020; As with other Siberian peoples, Yakut shamans (oiun if male, udagan if female) combine medical and spiritual practice. The Yakuts are the northernmost of Turkic peoples. They secretly preserved their own religious system, shamanism, which was modified superficially as the result of contact with Russian Orthodoxy. Family shamanism is connected with the domestic hearth, whose welfare is under its care.