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21st Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
Cloth prison

You enter a pyramid made of cloth and tree trunks full of kids singing some folk-Siberian songs. It's dark, the smell of herbs and wood strikes your nostrils. You look around and spot a strange building of blankets and pillows with a big black hole in the center. Some kids whisper that there is a shaman's son inside, hiding from haunting spirits. You are not sure if they are just pranking you, or saying the truth. Everyone went silent when strange noises occurred from the hole. Then the boy's head appeared and started making faces. You get scared for a second, but then you hear laughter from all around. It's not an evil force, It's Mitya, the so-called "Son of a shaman".

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 07.2022
Date Uploaded: 10.2023
Photo Location: ethnographic village Khanty-Muzhi, Russia
Camera: NIKON D5100
Copyright: © Daniil Mogilnikov