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aza uktug khamnar - the devil-shamans
According to Lokpsan, aza can be translated as "Devil, evil Spirit of Satan, Daemon - in my opinion, ashura and azazel (an angel) has the same root. An aza appears to mislead and sometimes even to kill. They are merciless spirits and great shamans are requires to defeat one in a shaman's fight. A man becomes a devil-shaman if he survives an encounter with an aza. Azas can be male or female. Male azas live in old cemeteries, remote glens, crossroads and so on. Lopsan listed some of the shapes, azas can take: a human, floating over the ground, a dog with three heads, an eagle-owl with two beaks, a gryphon without head and the tail of a cow or an unicorn, littered with stars and a human head and tusks of a wild boar. Female azas live in caves, sometimes cooking tea. Devil-shamans prefer to shamanize and travel during the night. Lopsan interviewed a devil-shaman from the Many-Churek-basin:
Conversation with Oorzhak Oktek-Ool, village Tchaplag Sorug-Axy, Süt-Khöl-region, recorded at 21st. August 1990:
In our village lived famous devil-shamans. One of them was the shaman Oorzhak Ulug-Orten-Kham who ate man. The 'black' man (the inhabitants of the Underworld) feared him, and also the officials. According to the legends horses stumbled and died immediately when they passed by the jurt of the shaman Ulug-Orten-Kham. The shaman Ondar Bitche-Orten-Kham healed sick peoples. He seldom was at home because he was always somewhere else, being invited. In his last years of life Ondar Bavuu-Kham went to Mogu-Buren, where he is buried, too. When he honoured the fire, the members of this family had a really lucky and well-going year. The infants in this jurt did not suffer from cramps anymore. The livestock and pets of this family remained healthy and the owner of the jurt always had a good hunt. It is said that all shamans are descendants from the devil-clan.
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