The Khitan - Nomad Rulers of China

Here is an introduction to a people who ruled China from 907 to 1125 CE - a people who were nominal Buddhists but followed the old ways of shamanism, which was an equal opportunity belief system, for there were both female and male shamans, although in the east, more female than male shamans. (Image, right: In 2003, archaeologists found a woman buried in a Liao-era tomb with a headdress similar to those worn by modern shamans. (Inner Mongolia Archaeological Research Institute)).

Some Mongol people still follow the same ways today, and the shamans are mostly female. Dr. Jeannine David-Kimball wrote about them in her acclaimed book "Warrior Women." I noted with particular interest the mention of annual sacrifice of a white sheep, a white horse, and a white goose.

From the online version of Archaeology Magazine

Dynasty of Nomads
Volume 60 Number 6, November/December 2007
by Jake Hooker
Rediscovering the forgotten Liao Empire

The Liao Empire was once considered a minor state on the fringes of Chinese civilization. Chinese-language sources depicted the Khitan as barbarians; Western scholars, who hadn't seen much material evidence other than Liao pagodas, regarded the dynasty as esoteric. But discoveries in Inner Mongolia over the past three decades have prompted scholars to reconsider these views, and Liao society is now recognized as a sophisticated blend of Khitan and Chinese traditions.

Before recent archaeological work, Liao history could only be reconstructed from Chinese-language sources. The Liao dynastic history describes the outlines of Liao culture in terms that Chinese historians could fathom--the economy, the government bureaucracy, the size and force of the cavalry, the number of vassal states. Other Chinese chronicles gave sketches of life and customs in Liao society, but they did not anticipate the profound impact that Liao innovations would have on China.

Scholars agree Liao rulers adapted Chinese customs and traditions over time. They governed the sedentary Chinese population with a civil bureaucracy modeled on the earlier Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907): they wore Chinese dress on ceremonial occasions, built Chinese-style temples and pagodas that surpassed those built by Chinese empires, and adopted the dragon as a sacred emblem. Yet the Liao also followed the traditions of their nomadic culture. They continued to practice shamanism, and on the day of the winter solstice, they slaughtered a white sheep, a white horse, and a white goose. The Liao worshiped the mountains, the sun, and the moon, as well as the Buddha.

Chinese literati, living in some of the world's most cosmopolitan cities, did not understand these native customs, and sometimes their observations were insulting. One Chinese writer witnessed the preparation of the second Liao emperor Deguang's corpse after he died in battle, in A.D. 946. The intestines were removed and the body was filled with salt and fragrant herbs, then the arms and feet were wrapped in copper wire. The Chinese writer called the preserved remains "imperial dried meat."