Khitai
Ancient Traditions in Khitai Khitan Religious Beliefs
The Khitan pantheon is as mysterious to Westerners as the whole of that distant nation. Shaven-headed priests are said to have temples deep in the Khitan jungles; entirely religious communities are common. The Khitans hold to many strange beliefs and bizarre superstitions. One example is the legend that Death must answer any question put to her by a man with courage enough to grasp and hold her.
Basic Cosmology The Khitans believe the universe has three basic divisions: the heavens, the earth and the underworld. Each division retains connections to the other. By extension, all interconnected things retain those connections, thus a person is connected to a father and a mother, who are, in turn, connected to their parents in a chain spanning throughout all of history. Thus, a person is connected to all of his ancestors. Heaven and the underworld are not reward and punishment arenas. Heaven is where the cosmos is controlled by the Source of All Things and his attendant gods, nature spirits and ancestral souls (known as hun). The underworld (sometimes called the underworld of yellow springs) is just a place where other souls (known as po) live much as they did in life.
Duality in Soul The Khitans believe a person has two souls. The first is known as the hun. This soul materialises at birth and moves into heaven after death, becoming a spirit linked to his descendants. The second soul, known as the po, materialises with conception and, at death, descends into the underworld as a ghost linked to its physical corpse and/or tomb.
Ancestor Veneration The primary form of Khitan worship revolves around the veneration of ancestral spirits. As stated earlier, a Khitan believes in a continuing connection with parents, who are connected to their parents, who are connected to their parents and so on, all in an everlasting chain reaching through the dimmest mists of history to the family of the Yellow Emperor.
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Pathenians and some Hyrkanians believe the Emperor in Yellow to be Erlik, the first man. Gifts, usually in the form of wine and food, are offered to the ancestors to show respect and to make the lives of the ancestors easier. Food, wine and precious objects offered to the ancestors feed and aid the ancestor spirits. Slaves sacrificed to the ancestors grant the ancestor spirit a slave in the afterworld. These offerings may be made in temples devoted to ancestors of a village, or they may be made in shrines within the home, where a list of dead relatives is kept in an altar. Not providing the gifts on a regular basis can bring about natural or personal disasters. Khitans believe their ancestors continue to have a keen interest in the affairs of humanity – especially in the affairs of their descendants. Thus, Khitans are expected to inform their ancestors of any major decisions and seek their guidance.
Cultural Justification Khitai’s religion, like most religions, serves to justify and maintain the existing culture, emphasising aspects of the culture that are deemed important. In Khitai’s case, the veneration of ancestors cultivates the value of kinship. This ancient practice teaches filial piety, family loyalty and lineage continuity. Through ancestor veneration, a family is bound together through generations almost without number. The veneration of ancestors also fulfils another basic human need: the need to believe in an afterlife. Ancestor veneration reinforces the belief that the souls go on after death, so death is nothing to be feared, for the souls will be taken care of by descendants. History is also important to Khitans. After all, they fight, live and die for causes and they do not want those struggles to be forgotten, so they, in turn, make sure they remember their ancestors and their deeds so their own will be remembered by future generations.
Spirit & Demon Worship The sorcerers of Khitai summon to the earth their dark gods so they can be worshipped in person. In many of the stories, cities founded by easterners have dark gods living in nameless pits. Salome, in A Witch Shall Be Born, was
