The Hu, Throat Singing, Shamans, and Connections

​I value the Lakota phrase Mitakuye Oyasin, “all are relations”. If we are to care for our home, then this attitude is essential. The rivers, forests, deserts, tundra, oceans, and lakes and all the creatures are our relatives, we are all connected.  I was acutely aware of this while attending a concert of The Hu.
 
The Hu are a Mongolian folk metal band formed in 2016. They use traditional instruments and themes derived from Mongolian history and culture and combine it with heavy metal music. The instruments they use include the Morin Khuur a horsehead fiddle that contains the spirit of the horse, the Tovshuur, a lute played like a guitar or fiddle, and the Jaw Harp. They also sing using a method of vocalization known as throat singing. This is a guttural singing that contains a minimum of two notes at the same time. Throat singing is most closely associated with the Russian Republic of Tuva and the countries of Mongolia and China. However, the method of vocalizing is recognized in Buddhists chants in India and Tibet, the Inuit in Alaska, the Xhosa of the Bantu in South Africa, and possibly in Viking rowing songs. The Sami peoples of Sapmi (Northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Kola peninsula of Russia) joik (or yoik) which serves a similar function in chanting but is not guttural.
 
These forms of singing are also connected in that they have shamanistic roots. When I spoke to members of The Hu they recognized these roots as foundational to their music. Shamanism is a religion that connects individuals and communities with the spirit world and to ancestors. It is animistic and believes in the spirits of living organisms and minerals as well as the sacredness of places. This is important to a group that sings about a land that feeds them, gives them life, and nurtures them.
 
The Hu has had an incredible professional rise to fame since their founding. They became the first Mongolian band to make the  Billboard charts and had a #1 hit with the single Wolf Totem. On 17 May 2019 they met the Mongolian president and were honored for sharing Mongolian culture with the world. Their first album was titled Gereg a term used for diplomatic passports during the reign of Genghis Khan. In 2020 they hosted a COVID-19 relief concert on YouTube. Since then, they have completed a European tour and are currently on a world tour.
 
I had VIP tickets so I could meet with the band prior to the concert. They demonstrated the use of  traditional Mongolian instruments, provided some history, and talked about their music. I asked them if since Mongolia was so impacted by climate change, if they were writing any songs about their rage toward a world that is not doing enough to stop climate change. Their answer surprised me. Many of their songs use battle cries and focus on competition. Still, they said they saw their world tour as diplomatic, that the world was hurting, and we all needed to work together. Therefore, there was no place for rage, just cooperation. This was consistent with Pax Mongolica, the period of stability brought to vast areas of the world during the Mongolian Empire.
 
Looking at the impact of climate change on Mongolia puts this emphasis on cooperation in context. Mongolia is a vast, sparsely populated country. It is also one of the countries most impacted by climate change. The result is that rising temperatures have negatively impacted on animal husbandry. 77% of the land has been degraded due to a combination of climate change and over grazing. The country is experiencing climate refugees as nomadic farmers and herders are migrating to the city. There is also an increase in natural disasters and extreme weather. Mongolia has a unique weather phenomenon, dzud. A dzud occurs when there is a summer drought and then winter snow makes the depleted pastures inaccessible to herd animals. Dzud previously occurred approximately once a decade. They are now occurring about 50% of the time during the same 10-year period. The result is food shortages and people leaving agriculture. All of this means I understood why The Hu were focusing on nature and cooperation.
 
The example The Hu gave for a focus on cooperation and healing was their song and video Mother Nature. The song’s refrain is Fear Not. It is a song that highlights the processes of nature but acknowledges present anxiety. Dear Mother, are you worried? Fear Not. This is a song of Nature caring for itself and for others. It is a song with a message, Granting loving heart to common sense, it is a great destiny. It is a video of vivid, breath-taking beauty. The Hu does not take nature for granted and they share this message.
 
When I first heard the chanting, I found myself reflecting on the music of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. I thought of the joik chanting of the Sami. I watched a program through Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum on joiking. In 2022 I completed a program of study through Coursera and Yale School of Divinity, Religions and Ecology. This is a five-course program that focuses on the world religions but also on Indigenous religions from around the world. This connection of being connected to land, place, the interconnectedness of all beings, Shamanism, and the learned wisdom of living in harmony with the land reminded me of The Hu, of Mongolian cultural history, the Sami, and indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.
 
I have been a fan of throat singing for years. I heard Tibetan Buddhist monks chanting at the Indiana Buddhist Temple. I heard throat singing at a concert at Jesus People USA in Chicago. The singers were from Kyrgyzstan.  The style was different, as were the instruments and clothing and still, it reminded me of the Tuvans.
 
I had followed The Hu for years on the internet. Thanks to a heads-up by a friend, Maraiah Russell, I was now able to talk with them and best of all, watch them perform. In a room packed from wall to wall the room throbbed, the people swayed and held two fingers out, they danced, they chanted with The Hu. And The Hu, they rocked.
 
I know I will be writing about the Sami people, about Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and ecology, and I will attempt to learn to joik. But for now, I am just so happy to bang my head and let the deep, guttural songs of The Hu flow through me. And as for all the work we have ahead of us to correct the damage we have done to our home I will remember, Fear Not.

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