Abstract: Questions of the origin of the shamanic costume constantly remain in the focus of attention of researchers who have studied the phenomenon of shamanism of the Buryats and Mongols. Since material artifacts are the most stable object that has preserved semantic content in a symbolic form. At various times, M. N. Khangalov, Ts. Zh. Zhamtsarano, B. E. Petri, S. V. Ivanov, E. D. Prokofiev, T. M. Mikhailov, G. R. Galdanova, M. Eliade and many others addressed this problem. However, the final understanding of the process of emergence, formation and development of the Buryat shaman costume has not been achieved. At the moment, there are several opinions of venerable scientists on this issue, which not only differ, but often directly contradict each other.   The author has made an attempt to understand this topic. The works of the predecessors, as well as the manuscripts of M. N. Khangalov on shamanism from the State Archive of the Irkutsk region are studied. Along with religious aspects, socio-cultural, economic conditions of the formation of Buryat shamanism were studied, the mutual influence of Turkic-Mongolian, Tibetan archaic cults was taken into account. Methods of historical analysis are used. In the process of work, it became clear that it is impossible to put a final point on this issue because of the very large number of layers of various cultural, religious, ritual and everyday traditions that the shamanic cult of the Buryats and its main attribute - the shaman's costume have absorbed. However, the author obtained new results in the semantics of individual attributes and the shamanic costume as a whole. Two main hypotheses of the genesis of the shaman costume are given: a) transformation of the armor of Mongolian warriors, b) evolution of animalistic imitation vestments. The author's position is stated on each of these theories. The semantic meaning of the "skeletal style" in the design of the shamanic ritual cloak is given.

Abstract: The object of this research is the Buryat shamanism – a complex system of religious views, norms, rituals and traditions of Buryat people. The scientific records demonstrate that the features of animalism, zoolatry and totemism are characteristic to the traditional religion of Buryats. The subject of this research is the animalistic elements in the costumes of Buryat shamans. The volume of accumulated knowledge is extensive and diverse, mainly contains the descriptions, classification by the grounds of origin, symbolism, use in rituals; but at the same time, the origin of the subject of research as a whole has been poorly studied. Using the analysis of genesis of animalistic elements in shaman costumes, the article makes an attempt to determine the background of animalism and zoolatry in the religious views of Buryats, leaning on retrospective of evolution of the Buryat ethnos, origin of the traditional beliefs of Buryats, and the processes on cross-cultural diffusion with other ethnic groups that influenced the formation of Buryat shamanism.

Abstract: Shamanism is the traditional religion of Buryats; it is the foundation of cultural space of the Buryat people. One of the peculiarities of Buryat shamanism is its dualistic character, existence of the two parallel confessions – “white” and “black”. For the majority of world religions is not common the emergence, development, and existence of two traditions in form of the two different branches, thus the study of genesis of such phenomenon in the Buryat shamanism represents great interest. The article makes an attempt to determine the factors that affected the division of main religion of the Buryats into the indicated coexisting branches. The religious theories originate and integrate into the cultural space in the course of the socio-historical evolution of the ethnos; therefore, these processes should be considered in retrospective of the history of particular nation. The method of this research is defined by the analysis of the historical path of development of the diverse ethnic groups that are a part of the Buryat people, as well as determination of discrepancies and similarities in their religious views. The author formulates a hypothesis of genesis of the dualistic nature of shamanism of the Buryats as a reflection of the cultural-historical evolution of the polyethnic Buryat nation. A suggestion is put forward that the identification of the two types of shamanism could reflect the views Bulagad ethnos that characterized their variant of religion as “white” in contrast to the views of Ekhired and Khori ethnic groups marked as “black” shamanism. Subsequently the aforementioned point of view was recognized as generally accepted.