Buga is the supreme being of the Evenki — the Tungusic reindeer-herders and hunters of the Siberian taiga. He is at once the high god of the sky and the very universe itself, for his name means “sky,” “world,” “universe,” and “place” all at once: the all-encompassing divine cosmos, the creator and master of the world, the source of life and the order of the three-tiered Evenki universe. The supreme power of one of the great hunting cultures of the boreal forest, Buga is the divine ground of the Evenki cosmos.
The God Who Is the Universe
Buga is among the most striking of supreme beings, for he is not merely a god dwelling in the world but, in a real sense, the world and the universe themselves made divine. The Evenki word buga (also boa, boga) names the sky, the cosmos, the inhabited world, and the divine power that pervades and rules it — so that to speak of Buga is to speak at once of the high god and of the living universe over which he presides. He is the supreme master of the world, the creator and orderer, the giver and sustainer of life, the power that governs the taiga, the weather, the seasons, and the fortunes of the hunt. He is a high god both transcendent and immanent — the cosmos as a divine whole.
The Three-World Cosmos and the Shaman
Buga presides over the classic Siberian three-tiered cosmos of Evenki belief: the upper world of the sky and the gods, the middle world of the living (the taiga and its people, animals, and spirits), and the lower world of the dead and the underworld powers, the three joined by the great cosmic tree or the world-river that runs through all. Through this layered universe travels the shaman — that very word comes from the Tungusic šaman, the Evenki and their kin being the people from whom the term “shamanism” itself derives. The Evenki shaman, beating the drum and journeying in trance, ascends through the worlds toward the sky-realm of Buga or descends toward the lower world, mediating between humankind and the divine cosmos, healing, guiding the dead, and securing the success of the hunt. Buga is the supreme power over this whole shamanic universe.
The Master of the Taiga and the Hunt
As the master of the world and the giver of life, Buga governs the great concern of Evenki life: the hunt and the herds. The animals of the taiga, the success of the chase, the fertility of the reindeer, and the survival of the people through the harsh Siberian seasons all lie within his power and his order. Alongside him in Evenki belief stand the master-spirits of the animals, the forest, and the elements, and the great cosmic dramas of the sky — above all the eternal hunt of the cosmic elk Kheglen, whose pursuit across the heavens turns the stars. Buga is the supreme frame within which these powers and stories unfold: the universe-god who holds the taiga, the sky, and the hunt within his all-embracing being.
Legacy
Buga endures as the supreme being of the Evenki — the high god who is at once the sky, the world, and the universe, the creator and master of the three-tiered cosmos, the giver of life and the lord of the taiga and the hunt. In him the Tungusic hunters and reindeer-herders of Siberia — the very people from whose tongue the word “shaman” descends — honoured the divine cosmos as a living whole. As the god who is the universe and the supreme frame of the great cosmic hunt, Buga remains the divine ground of one of the great hunting cultures of the boreal forest.