Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Worship of nature or animist sites in Asia, Europe and in the Nordic & Russian areas

Photos and text about Buddhist (Animist?) worship place in Gandhara: The Gandharan Civilization


Tashinlhunpo Mahayana Buddhist Pilgrims in Tibet

Tashinlhunpo Pilgrims
Originally uploaded by reurinkjan




Jens Andreas Friis wrote that the Laplander people in the Nordic areas worhipped pictures of deities and snakes (reptiles): En sommer i Finnmarken, Russisk Lapland og Nord Karelen (1880). The text is in Danish language.

Sami people's worship of the thundergod in Porsanger, first part of 1700s by Knud Leem.
Knud Leem was from 1725 the second christian missioner in Porsanger, Finnmark (Norway), before him was Rasmus Rachlew from 1718 - 1722: Knud Leems Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper: deres tungemaal, levemaade og forrige avgudsdyrkelse By Knud Leem, Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Erik Johan Jessen, 1767.

Sami people of the Nordic areas, worship of Gods in nature. From Picarts work about the religons of the world, 1600 - 1700s.

”Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde” by Bernard Picart, 1724-25.

Take a closer look at the illustrations in the book by Bernard Picart Ceremonies et Coutumes. Volume 4 Image Index


Sami people worship seita. Picart, 1600 - 1700s.


Laplander people worshipping in front of a prayer banner. Picture by Olaus Magnus 1555.


India:



Prayer flags, gompas and the ever present mountains. Flickr photo by Laughing Buddha, 2005

Metal poles and gompa in Sikkim, India. Pelling monastery. Photo by Carol Mitchell, 2005

Chorten and prayer flags Druk Path Trek, Bhutan. Flickr Photo by jmhullot, 2008

The Stupa also known as Chorten, is a Buddhist monument which represents Buddhas body. Lamayuru, Ladakh, Leh, India. Photo by rutu.r, 2009



The prayer room
Originally uploaded by tashimaiya in Tibet
.

Ancient Rome, Pompeii before 79 CE. Offering of a boar, a ram, a bull that are to be killed, and then part of the flesh will be burned on the altar to please the Gods. Picture from Buried Cities, Part 1, Pompeii by J. Hall (1922). The Nordic Laplanders did the same type of offerings as can be seen from the Sami "runebomme" that are religious drums with sacred symbols.

A rare painted depiction of Roman men wearing togae participating in a religious ceremony (probably the Compitalia) where they are offering animals. Fresco on a building outside Pompeii, Italy.
Pay attention to the Asian appearance of these ancient Greeks. Ancient 6th c. BC representation of an animal sacrifice scene in Corinth.The plaque represents a procession to an altar to sacrifice a lamb to the sound of the flute and the lyre. Dedication to Thanksgiving (Charity) is shown with the names of Euthydika, Eukolis, Etheloncha and on the side, the name of the painter whose still not as origin, Corinthian. Around 540-530 BC. AD National Archaeological Museum of Athens, No. 16,464." Photo downloaded by PD-ART.




Fire alter worship. Indo-Parthian stone palette. Ancient Orient Museum. Photo by World imaging 2006.



In the footsteps of Alexander the Great: A video from Kalash where you can see how they worship nature Gods with offering blood:

BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (The Kalash) 23.


You can see the rest of the series at Youtube: In the footsteps of Alexander The Great.

The ancient people of the Nordic and western Russian areas offered deer blood to their Gods, they where the ancient Laplanders and Goths of Northwestern Europe. The Goths likely came to the Nordic during Iron Age a few hundred years before the common era.

History about the ancient history in the Nordic is rewritten and redefined by the later Protestant Christian colonizers starting after the reformation in the 1520's. However there are are a few old texts about the practicing of pre-Christian religion of the Laplanders. John Scheffer and Olaus Magnus have documented some of it, and you can find more information and literature sources in the following post of Saamiblog.

John Scheffer (1674), page 144 Chapter X: Sami men run a sharp knife through the heart of a reindeer buck and gather the blood from the heart. The image of Thor is placed on an altar and is offered to by drawing crosses with the blood on the chest of the deity. Some of the fat is also offered, and the horns of the sacrificed deer, the skull and its feet are placed behind the deity. The rest of the animal is placed in a coffer and is used in the household. The Sami offered to Thor in the autumn.

Laplander people on the Nordic areas.

Laplander people is slaughtering an offering deer.
Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde In English: “The ceremonies and religious customs of the various nations” , (1725) av Bernard Picart. The source of the next picture is the same.

Laplander men is offering blood to the Thunder God Thor or Thora Galles in the 1600's.

1 comment:

  1. Hello

    Thank you very much for this very interesting post! I didn't know about the religion(?) based on animism in the Nordic area. So intriguing!!

    ReplyDelete