First Shaman
Buryat · demigod · mythic age · Recorded classification
Culture-hero / first-shaman tier (classed as demigod: a mortal man elevated to founding shaman). Name often anglicized 'Morgon-Kara'; the Buryat behind it is Mergen ('wise/marksman') Khara ('black'). The episode is a widely cited type-scene of Siberian soul-retrieval.
Domains
- shamanhood
Powers
- rides his drum up into the spirit world
- brings the dead back to life by retrieving their souls
- transforms into a wasp to steal back a hidden soul
Sources
- Morgon-Kara is the first Buryat shaman, who could revive the dead, rode his drum into the spirit world, and recovered a soul the high god had bottled up by turning into a wasp.: Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, 1964 (Buryat first-shaman legend) (secondary)