Obian Shamanism

Obian Shamanism is the traditional faith of the Ob-Ugric peoples, the Khanty and the Mansi, who lived along the Ob and its tributaries in western Siberia, the land the Russians called Yugra. Torum was the sky god; in a song of the Khanty, he sent his son to rule the earth, but the son forgot his father's advice, lost his immortality, turned into a beast and was killed by hunters.

The bear was the centre of the ritual year. After a successful bear hunt the people held a celebration lasting five or six days, with songs, dances and plays.

In the fifteenth century the Khanty princedoms were partly included in the Siberian Khanate. At the end of the sixteenth century Russia, led by the Cossack Yermak, set out to conquer the region.