Diseases and treatment methods in Central Asian Turkish Shamanism

In Central Asian Shamanism, the root cause of illness is often associated with the negative influence of supernatural forces or spirits. According to the Shamanist Turkic communities of Central Asia, people lose their health as a result of the anger of spirits or supernatural beings. At this point, spiritual figures called shamans/kam/baksı stepped in. They wore special clothing called manyaks and used materials such as drums, mirrors, and bird feathers to organize various ceremonies or rituals to restore people to health. One of the most important duties of these spiritual figures, who communicated with the spirit world during various rituals, was to understand the source of illness and restore people to health. When rituals or communication with spirits proved ineffective or insufficient in treating patients, herbalists, called herbalists, prepared various ointments, foods, or beverages using medicinal herbs obtained from nature to help people regain their health. The herbalists' intimate knowledge of nature and their knowledge of medicinal plants that can cure various ailments are undoubtedly the product of years of tradition and trial and error. The first section of the thesis explains Central Asian Shamanism, the ritual of becoming a shaman, the duties of a shaman, the shaman/kam/baksi trinity, and the materials they use. The second section classifies and details the diseases found in Central Asian Shamanism. The third section explains the treatment methods employed in Central Asian Shamanism. The fourth and final section of the study describes the materials used by Central Asian Shamanist tribes in their treatment and the medicine recipes they created.