Study of Khorchin Shamanic Attire and Implement

Abstract

Drawing on extensive fieldwork and a critical review of textual sources, this article offers a systematic typological and symbolic analysis of the ritual functions, attire, and implements of the four categories of shamans in Khorchin, Inner Mongolia-khondon, Shamanic, laichin, and gürdem. The study demonstrates that Khorchin shamanic material culture fuses nomadic traditions, Buddhist influences, and memories of classical Mongolian shamanism. Core garments-through colour, movement, and sound-construct a mediating space for dialogue between humans and spirits, while the ritual instruments together form a comprehensive technology of healing and exorcism. By unpacking the materials, structures, and symbolic meanings of each group’s costume and tools, the article shows that these material forms are crucial to understanding both the composite nature of Khorchin rites and their contemporary persistence. It also reveals “yellow‐oriented” and “new” shamanic types that emerge from the intersection of Buddhist vocabulary and traditional shamanic belief, highlighting the dynamic evolution of Mongolian religious culture. Tracing the cultural suturing of Gelug Buddhist language with steppe magic since the seventeenth century, the study illustrates how material culture and visual communication strategies converge to create new modes of self-representation. Finally, it proposes a three-part analytical lens-ritual–material–memory-that offers fresh theoretical and methodological insights for examining Mongolian folk religion under combined forces of globalisation and localisation, and for revitalising intangible heritage in pastoral regions.