Dopshun-Ool Kara-Ool
Shaman - Tuva, Siberia
Kara-Ool - as he is known simply in Tuva - is one of the strongest, most effective shamans in the country.
I first met him in the summer of 2000 when I spent several weeks studying shamanic music at the Dungur shamans' centre.
In musical terms, his drumming and his algysh shaman's song is impressive and intense. But I was also able to observe closely how he works, how he pulls negative energy from the bodies of sick patients and discharges it outside.
In the capital, Kyzyl, he has now established his own shaman centre - Adyg-Eeren - or Bear Spirit, where he treats clients. He also heals people in the countryside regions.
He became a shaman after a baptism of fire in 1961. He arrived back at the yurta (tent) where he lived with his shaman grandmother, and his lama grandfather. It had been burned to the ground by the KGB and over
the charred skeletal remains of his grandparents he vowed to become a shaman like his grandmother. A few weeks later Kara-Ool's uncle, who spoke out against the atrocity at the funeral, was shot dead through the head near Hiarakan (Bear Mountain) - the holiest shamanic site in Tuva.
Now he wants to make his Bear Spirit association of shamans a centre of excellence, carrying on the simple and pure traditions of Tuvan shamanism.
Kara-Ool also wants to travel to the west, principally to heal, but he is also willing to give lectures and demonstrate some of the techniques he employs. He is also willing to perform open-air rituals, but he emphasises he will only do so if the purpose is serious and genuine. His intention is to give people outside Siberia an opportunity to experience at first hand the authentic form of Tuvan shamanism which has existed unbroken for thousands of years. He does not want to go down the road of showbiz-shamanism.
As a senior shaman, Kara-Ool is expected to handle a wide range of clients' problems.
He says: "A big shaman has to handle all human problems."
But in particular, Kara-Ool is known as a respected healer, tackling the widest range of conditions, including cancer.
He can be contacted at tuva-kara47@mail.ru
Or you can write to him at Adyg-Eeren (Bear Spirit) Centre, 255 Shevchenko Yl,
Kyzyl, Republic of
Tuva
667000, Siberia, Russia.
You can write in English and he will have it translated.
Kara-Ool making ribbons, preparing for a kamlanie open-air ritual at the spring of the shamans' tears on the Yeneisi river, near Kyzyl.