Abkhaz neopaganism

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Overarching organisations European Congress of Ethnic Religions Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes Uralic Communion

Abkhaz Neopaganism, or the Abkhaz native religion, is the contemporary re-emergence of the ethnic religion of the Abkhaz people in Abkhazia, a revitalisation which started in the 1980s. The most important holy sites of the religion are the Seven Shrines of Abkhazia, each one having its own priestly clan, where rituals and prayers began to be solemnly restored from the 1990s onwards.

According to the 2003 census, 8% of the population of Abkhazia adheres to Abkhaz Paganism. On 3 August 2012 the Council of Priests of Abkhazia was formally constituted in Sukhumi. The possibility of making the Abkhaz native religion one of the state religions was discussed in the following months.

History

The traditional Abkhaz religion was actually never completely wiped out; circles of priests, whose activity was kept secret, passed on traditional knowledge and rites in the times when Christianity and Islam became dominant in the region, and later in Soviet times of anti-religion.

Since the 1980s, and later in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Abkhaz native religion was resurrected by the joint efforts of priests who began to resurface, rural people reactivating local rituals, and urban intellectuals supporting Paganism as an integral part for a reawakening of the Abkhaz ethnic and cultural identity.

A turning point for the revival of the Abkhaz native religion came with the Georgian–Abkhazian conflict. With tensions growing, more and more Abkhazians began associating Orthodox Christianity with the Georgians, and choose to reject it turning to the native gods. The eventual victory of Abkhazia in the 1992–93 war with Georgia catalysed the Neopagan revival. Many Abkhaz believe that their national god Dydrypsh awarded them the victory.

Since then the Abkhaz native religion has been protected by Abkhaz authorities. Government officials took part in a bull sacrifice in October 1993 celebrated to thank the Lord Dydrypsh for the victory over the Georgians, and since then they regularly take part in worship rituals.

See also

• Council of Priests of Abkhazia
• Seven Shrines of Abkhazia

Caucasian religions

• Adyghe Habzism

Indo-European religions

• Etseg Din
• Rodnovery

Uralic religions

• Estonian Neopaganism
• Finnish Neopaganism
• Mari Neopaganism
• Mordvin Neopaganism
• Vattisen Yaly
• Udmurt Vos

Bibliography

• Filatov, S; Shchipkov, A (1996), "Поволжские народы в поисках национальной веры (Povolzhskie narody v poiskakh natsional'noi very) [Volga region peoples in search of national faith]", in Filatov, SB, Религия и права человека: На пути к свободе совести (Religiia i prava cheloveka: Na puti k svobode sovesti) [Religion and Human Rights: Towards Freedom of Conscience] (in Russian), Moscow: Nauka, pp. 256–84 .
• Krylov, AB (1998a), "Абхазское святилище Дыдрыпш: прошлое, настоящее и устная традиция (Abkhazskoe sviatilishche Dydrypsh: proshloe, nastoiashchee i ustnaia traditsiia)" [Abkhaz sanctuary Dydrypsh: Past, Present and oral tradition], Этнограрусское обозрение (Etnogra cheskoe obozrenie) [Ethnography review] (in Russian) 6: 16–28 .
• ——— (1998b), "Дыдрыпш-ныха: святилище Абхазов (Dydrypsh-nykha: sviatilishche abkhazov)" [Dydrypsh-nykha: sanctuary Abkhazes], Азия и Африка сегодня (Aziia i Afrika segodnia) [Asia & Africa today] (in Russian) 6: 55–58  & 7, 1998 b: 54–56.
• ——— (1999), "Абхазия: возрождение святилища (Abkhazia: vozrozhdenie sviatilishcha)" [Abkhazia: the revival of the Sanctuary], Азия и Африка сегодня (Aziia i Afrika segodnia) [Asia & Africa today] (in Russian) 4: 70–72 .
• Schnirelmann, Victor (2002), ""Christians! Go home": A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia" (PDF), Journal of Contemporary Religion (CA: WLU) 17 (2) .

External links

• Abkhazia versus Georgia: Implications for US Policy toward Russia, Russia: other points of view, Mar 2010 .
• Abkhazia: Breakaway Church Confronts Its Own Breakaway Bid, Eurasia net 

Further reading

• George Hewitt (2013), The Abkhazians, Routledge .