A Winter with a Shaman
in Kazakhstan
2011 - 2012
Bifatima Dualtova 2012
Bifatima Dualetova is better known as Apa, which means “grandmother” in the Kazakh language. She is considered the "last dervish" of Kazakhstan, being a direct descendant of an influential Sufy lineage.
The vibrant history of the region has created a unique mixture of Islam with the animistic beliefs of the regional nomadic cultures.
Apa's healing methods corresponded with both; the ancient pagan beliefs and Islamic teachings.
She started to have prophetic visions at the age of eleven, and eventually was guided by spirits to the 'sacred hill' in Ungurtas - a small village on the border with Kyrgyzstan. According to the healer, it is the center of the earth’s energy. Here she started to heal people with the blood of sacrificial sheep and goats.
People come to her not only from Kazakhstan but from all over ex-Soviet Union.
Some seeking to be cured of diseases, others wanting to get rid of bad habits or just for a piece of advice. Some visitors come for a few days; others, seeing Apa as a guru, are staying for years.
Some seeking to be cured of diseases, others wanting to get rid of bad habits or just for a piece of advice. Some visitors come for a few days; others, seeing Apa as a guru, are staying for years.
During the day, the whole community works around a farm. Appa would charge every physical task with a metaphysical meaning without explaining you much. The same voices that have brought her to the foot of the sacred hill and told her to dig an underground mosque, are helping her to organize a community, hosting thousands of visitors every year.
Morning at shaman's house.
Residents of the commune
Prayer
Birth
Birth
Rebirth
Rebirth
Rebirth
Cleaning
Tea after the ritual.
The head is getting cleaned from hair before it gets cooked.
Bifatima with visitors.
Everyone's head get shaved by a shaman once a month.
Tea time at the house.
Meat drying
Jumagali, a brother of Bifatima.
A flock of sheep
Evening prayer on the Sacred Hill
I met Bifatima Dualetova in September 2011 while traveling across Central Asia in my van.
While I was staying with local people in Almaty, they told me about the shaman woman living on the border with Kyrgyzstan. At that time I could only visit her very briefly as I was rushing south, hoping to reach warmer places by winter.
While I was staying with local people in Almaty, they told me about the shaman woman living on the border with Kyrgyzstan. At that time I could only visit her very briefly as I was rushing south, hoping to reach warmer places by winter.
However, warm places were not destined for me that year. The van was breaking constantly and the weather was getting wetter and colder way faster than I expected.
In a matter of a couple of months, the temperature started to fall below 30 degrees Celsius. There aren't too many gas stations on roads anyways, and in the climate like this, the ones that I was lucky to encounter, usually had a diesel frozen. The same would happen with the fuel in the tank of my van if I turn off the engine for more than an hour..
A couple of times, some truck drivers literally saved me from freezing to death.
Traveling in such conditions was becoming a merely self-destructive experience, so being unable to continue the trip, I decided to change my plans. I went to back to Kazakhstan, to visit Bifatima once more.
I ended up staying with her for more than two months, from January to March 2012, documenting her rituals and practices, herding sheep, and working on my van.
Self-portrait 2011
