Scarves and Prayers

I mentioned earlier that Mongolians use scarves in their religious beliefs. Specifically, they wrap scarves around sacred objects. In the picture to the right you can see them wrapped around a pole placed in a pile of rock. This is an ovoo.

It’s a common practice in the shamanic traditions of Mongolia to place piles of rock – sometimes with a stick or pole, but not always – in places where a deity is believed to live. For instance, there are several around Lake Khovsgol, as the lake itself is considered holy. The one in the picture to the right is one of the more prominent as it is at the top of a finger of land that goes well into the lake.

The scarves are placed here as a kind of offering. Each one is equivalent to a prayer. When The Girl saw this picture, she thought someone had made a doll. I don’t know if the shape is incidental, but I do know more than one person was involved.

The objects in the rocks are not trash. They are also offerings. Often the offerings come in the form of money, almost like a wishing well. There was a wide variety of other items, including more of the scarves, toys, an animal skull in one place, etc.

The scarves come in five colors. each representing an aspect. Blue is the one most commonly used. It represents the power one gets from a blue sky. White is for purity, and green for the earth. Sadly, my pencil didn’t move fast enough to catch what yellow and red are for, but I think it was something like health and progress. They didn’t show up that much anyway.

The same vibrant colors show up in tin roofs, clothing, and their flag, but I’ll talk more about that later.

I decided I’d better get my hands on one of these scarves so I could describe it reasonably well. The first place I found them was a Buddhist monastery (the third we visited). They wanted 50,000 tugruk for one (about $36 in US). I didn’t have that on me, so I gave it a pass. I saw some hanging in the Black Market, but the guides were so busy showing us around I didn’t feel right pressing the matter. Many days later I finally saw them again in the Gobi desert. They wanted 4,000 tugruk, which I happily paid, only to find another shop a few feet further up the hill offering them for 1,000 tugruk each. I got all five colors.

The pole is called a whispering pole. It was part of the Gandan Monastery. Devotes go around it (clockwise, of course) and whisper their prayers. Some will thump a kind of square drum attached at about shoulder level as they go past. In the course of about fifteen minutes I watched half a dozen people do this, including a group of three that went at the same time. They treated the pole as if it were a dear friend listening to their whispered confidences.