The paper deals with the new field materials on the soul replacement ceremony, having both
mythological and practical value. The research goal is to reveal the function and structure of the
soul replacement ceremony in shamanic ritual practices by defining the role of myth in shaman’s
ceremonial actions and establishing the transformation of ritual actions on soul replacement and
adaptation of this ceremony to the Buddhist environment. Of great interest is the comparative
analysis of archival and published ceremonial material on soul replacement with new data record-
ed from the Shenekhen Buryats of China. Also, of importance is the contextual description of
ceremonial and ritual materials relying on modern achievements of a structural and semiotic
method. Belief in the magic abilities of human soul transformation caused numerous ceremonies
of soul replacement to appear. The authors consider three types of shamanic ceremonies of the
replacement of the sick person’s soul with the souls of a healthy person, animal, or things.
In the ceremony of human soul exchange, the mystical mythological components of the shamanic
ceremony are significant. The conclusion is made that all three types of exchange practiced
in shamanic tradition have similar semantic and structural elements. In Buddhist practice, the
main idea and structure of the shamanic ceremony are used, with the subject of a replacement
being changed. Shamanic ceremonies of soul exchange of two persons are found to preserve
the archaic tradition. The subsequent transformations of ceremonial actions on replacement of the
person by animals and objects are defined. The research results allow revealing mythological and
pragmatic aspects of shamanic ceremonial actions. The preserved mythological components
of a Buddhist practice ceremony adopted from the centuries-old tradition of shamanic ceremonial
actions are also considered. In general, it should be stressed that ceremonies on the protection
of human life, having ancient roots, are still in demand in the folk environment.
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