Folk medicine has always been important in Mongolia and Siberia. Herbalist healers and their traditions vary from tribe to tribe and region to region. Despite these small differences, healers were always an important part of society.

Here, I will discuss folk healers in two traditions that have withstood the test of time and are still being practiced among the indigenous Mongolian peoples.

The first tradition of healer is called an otoshi.

The word otoshi comes from otachi (doctor) and okin (daughter/ girl). Unlike the bone-setters and midwives, the otoshi do not inherit their calling from family lines but from the will of the spirits.

Otoshis are almost always female, but males are also known to have been called. These healers specialize in fertility and child health issues but also tend to other physical ailments.

Otoshis wear a skirt made out of animal hide and a distinctive coloured hat. Instead of a drum, they would often use a colourful fan with silk strips. Some also carry prayer beads.

These healers are guided by the spirits of the wind and the trees. Because of this, they are not buried in the earth but given a “wind burial” by placing them in a tree.

Otoshis have always been strong feminists. They were hated by the Buddhists who believed that feminist views challenged the social order. Because of this, Buddhists destroyed them in great numbers throughout Central Asia. The Buddhists then took over the people’s needs for herbal remedies.

The Otoshi tradition is preserved only by the Dagur Mongols today.

Among the northern Mongolian peoples, the term for a folk healer is Aradai-emshe. This basically traslates to a medicine person who heals with herbs. The northern tribes do not have as strict gender roles as the sothern tribes because the Chinese influence is much weaker up north. Male healers are just as common as female. These people are very spiritual and have great knowledge of plants and remedies.