In the infinity of unrealized senses: thoughts on Tofalar clay

Bannikov Konstantin, Kuznetsova Elena

Long before Carl Jung elaborated the theory of unconscious, Tafalarian shamans helped their “patients” to restore the integrity of perception of the world using kostyrma, small clay figurines that symbolized the patient “dark”, “complexes”. The figurines were not man-made, they were moulded by the spirit of Lake Kastarma. Next morning after the visit to shaman, the patient found them on the coast among thousands of other similar stones, natural Imatra-like concretions. Since that moment the figure had become his talisman and guardian. Surprisingly, but there is no common scientific explanation of the formation of kostyrma.

Chudinov (1931) described one of the places in the Sayan mountainous taiga where kostyrma (high-calcite argillites) were found: “Around the lake there rose a morainal ridge. Some figures of kostyrma were lying about the clay and shingle outcrop… They were showing white on the bottom among other stones; some were growing on the stones… Some figures of animals, human beings, a lot of bows, watches, buttons, etc. could be discerned”.

Novosibirsk researchers visited the valley of the Kastarma River and the coast of Kastarma Lake recently…

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