A ''serge'' ( bua, сэргэ; ) is a hitching post, property marker, and

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

pole used among the

Buryats The Buryats ( bua, Буряад, Buryaad; mn, Буриад, Buriad) are a Mongolic peoples, Mongolic ethnic group native to southeastern Siberia who speak the Buryat language. They are one of the two largest indigenous groups in Siberia, the oth ...

and

Yakuts The Yakuts, or the Sakha ( sah, саха, ; , ), are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taymyr and Evenk Districts ...

Property marker

The is placed to indicate that the place in question has an owner. For example, a stands as a pole at the entrance to a

yurt A yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger ( Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered and insulated with skins or felt and traditionally used as a dwelling by several distinct nomadic groups in the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. ...

or at the gate of a house to indicate that as long as the is there, the family will live there. Traditionally, a cannot be destroyed, but can only decay.

Religious use

The is connected to the horse cult, as both the hosts and the guests tied their horses to it. It is also a symbol of the

world tree The world tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European religions, Siberian religions, and Native American religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereb ...

that unites the three worlds: Three horizontal grooves are cut on the pole, the upper one intended to bind the horses of the heavenly inhabitants of the upper world, the middle one intended for the horses of men, and the lower one for the horses of the underworld. Three s made from

birch tree A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

s (generally dug up by the roots) were used at the initiation of the

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

. One has ribbons tied to it, the colors of the ribbons indicating whether the shaman is to be a

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

shaman, or serve both good and evil. Another has a bell attached to it and a horse, as a sacrifice. A third is to be climbed by the new shaman. For black shamans, this rite is called ; for yellow shamans, (or , "golden hitch"). At the cemeteries of the shamans very high s were placed for the unification of gods and spirits. s in the form of stone obelisks were also placed on these cemeteries (

deer stone Deer stones (also known as reindeer stones) are ancient megaliths carved with symbols found largely in Siberia and Mongolia. The name comes from their carved depictions of flying deer. There are many theories to the reasons behind their existenc ...

s). The most famous of these stones is the ("golden pole") located in the

Tamchinsky datsan The Tamchinsky datsan ( bua, Тамчын дасан, ''Tamchyn Dasan''), also called the Tamchinskii datsan or Gusinoozyorsk Datsan, is a Buddhist monastery founded in the mid-18th century in the village of Gusinoye Ozero, located on the south-w ...

, in the Buryat village Gusinoye Ozero.

Gallery

References

{{Sister bar, auto=yes, wikt=сэргэ Buryat culture Yakut culture Wooden sculptures Types of monuments and memorials

Property marker

Religious use

Gallery

See also

References