Description
In a new and engaging study, Halemba explores the religion and world outlook of the Telengits of Altai. The book provides an account of the Altai, its peoples, clans and political structures, focusing particularly on at the Telengits, at the same time as also taking into account the different elements of religious belief exhibited among these native peoples.
Paradoxically, as the demand for national recognition grows among such people, and with it the need for more formal state structures, built across the nation, religion too begins to grow to be formalized, and loses its natural, all-pervasive character. With the Telengits, whose natural religion includes elements of Buddhism, this takes the type of a debate as to whether the state religion in their polity is to be Buddhism or, contrary to the character of shamanism, a formal, structured, fixed shamanism. It is a comprehensive anthropological account of the up to date religious life of the Telengits, holding essential implications for wider debates in sociology and politics.