Amma, 89, Ulchi Tribe, Bulava, Siberia
Phil Borges

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Amma had just completed an Ulchi ritual, called a kasa, for a neighbor who had died. She stayed up with the body for three days and nights while guiding the soul of the deceased to the "other world", called Buni Village. She told me the kasa is very dangerous as the journey to Buni Village could cost her her life. Amma became a shaman rather late in life. She told me that she resisted the calling for many years because a shaman's life is so hard. She said, "it's not like a profession that you learn-it's a calling one receives from the nature spirits”.