Religion-Making at the Sakha Yhyakh

ABSTRACT For centuries, various actors, including scholars, categorized diverse yhyakh of Sakha people as religious and shamanic rituals. This study challenges some of the established academic articulations of yhyakh and explores numerous contemporary yhyakh based on fieldwork conducted at and around the Tuymaada Yhyakh and Olonkho Yhyakh in 2016–19. Departing from the perspective of critical study of religion, I apply the theoretical model of religion-making to reflect on the processes of translations of yhyakhs toward the domain of religion. The aim is to present the discussion informed by and grounded on many local and diverse understandings of yhyakh. As a result, the study contributes to the de-exotification of yhyakh and reveals their complexity based on the plurality of synchronizing and contradicting narratives at and around yhyakh.