Boris Khungeyev: My ancestors were shamans, on both my mother’s and father’s side. At 55, I began to perform the rites. Not everyone is able to do it. Only those with udha, or genealogy, can perform them.
Shamans believe that after death a person’s soul moves to the ancestral tree, from where, in the shape of a white-headed eagle, it reaches the “supreme world,” which is home to the deities Tengri and the Sky Father.