The shamanic drum is one of the most mythologized objects of the Turkic-Mongolian cult. Only in the first half of the 20th century, the ethnographer and composer Andrey Anokhin (1869–1931) suggested using the drum as an orchestral instrument.

A drum has many functions in shamanism. For instance, the leather stretched on top of the shell was considered to be a sacral double of the corresponding animal (most often a foal or a deer). During the ritual of bringing the drum to life, this “horse” carried the shaman to meet the master of the sacred mountain; later the shaman traveled on the drum to the Upper (Heavenly) World to communicate with good spirits. If the ritual required descending to the evil spirits in the Underworld, the drum was transformed into a boat for traveling across the underground waters.

Sometimes, the shaman had to fight against evil forces. After studying Andrey Anokhin’s manuscript about Teleut drums, the historian and ethnologist Dmitry Funk concluded that “the drum symbolized a bow, the metal bar <‘arms of the patron shaman’> — the bowstring, and the mallet or pendants — the arrows” (Dmitry Funk, “An Unknown Description of the Teleut Shamanic Drum from the Archives of Andrey Anokhin”). The drum could also act as a shield.

The ritual drawings on the leather membrane were drawn with red and white mineral paints. The paints were made of stones that were found in mountain streams, crushed, and ground into powder.

A wide strip in the middle of the drum’s “face” symbolized a border between the Upper World and the Underworld. The Upper World half was decorated with images of heavenly bodies, rainbows, a riding animal whose skin was used for the instrument, and a birch which served as a material for the handle. The Altai people considered birch to be a sacred tree because it was believed never to have been broken by lightning.

In addition, the membrane was covered with various scenes depicting the shaman’s journeys to the “subtle worlds”. Among the images of people, spirits, and animals, there was also a generalized portrait of the shaman.

A shaman could not have more than one drum at a time; the exception was the ritual of discovering a new drum. In total, a shaman could discover up to nine drums: when the last instrument became unusable, its owner left the world of the living. During the shaman’s funeral, the instrument was deliberately damaged, and its fragments were hung on a tree near the grave.