{"id":"MONG-JADA-001","label":"Mongol/Tuvan jada rain-stone bullroarer","people_or_site":"Tuvin (Soyot) rite with Mongol jada-zada parallels","country_current":"Russia","historic_region":"Tuva / Soyot and Mongol-Inner Asian jada-zada complex","macroregion":"Siberia / South Siberia","local_name":"jada / zada / jada tasch","source_term":"rain-stone swung like a bull-roarer","source_language":"English; German/Russian source chain via Radloff","object_description":"","function_summary":"Weather-magic rite for rain or rain-stopping: a rain-stone fastened to a string or staff is swung like a bullroarer.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"emsheimer_carroll1986_mongols","source_type":"comparative_secondary","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59607/pg59607.txt","page_or_plate":"Radloff, Aus Sibirien (Leipzig 1884), vol. 2, p. 179 ('ii. 179 sq.', per Frazer 1911 fn. 1065). Frazer 1911, The Magic Art vol. 1, p. 306, fn. 1065. Emsheimer & Carroll 1986, note 3 (cited p. 14, not reconfirmed this session). Birtalan 2001, pp. 122-124.","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Tuva/Soyot regional anchor because Radloff's reported rite is Soyot/Tuvin while Emsheimer frames it in the Mongol/Altaian jada-zada weather-magic complex.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Across the Mongol and Turkic steppe a rainmaker called a jadaci commands the weather with the jada (Buriat and Kalmyk zada; Tuvan chat tash) — a \"rain-stone\" that is usually a bezoar pried from the gut of a cow or goat, or from the stomach of a bird, and sometimes a fragment of meteorite. Most often he drops it into water or holds it in his mouth and chants until cloud and storm answer; in folktale and chronicle the stone unleashes not just rain but killing weather, as when Biligtu, son of Uqayatu Khan, raised a storm with a rainstone that flung the Chinese army's soldiers and horses against the walls. In Wilhelm Radloff's old report of a Soyot (Tuvan) rite the stone takes flight: his guide, wishing to stop the rain, tied a rock-crystal by a short string to a stick, held it over the fire and swung it about in every direction while he chanted — a whirled rain-stone that has since been likened to a bullroarer.","pull_quote":"Jada is mainly understood to be a certain stone, mostly the bezoar, found in the intestines of ruminants such as cows or goats but sometimes also in the stomach of birds. A meteorite fragment can also be used. The methods employed are those of analogous magic: most often a specialist, called jadaci in Mongolian, puts the stone into water (or his mouth) to cause rain.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Birtalan 2001:124","term_gloss":"jada / zada / yada (Turkic-Mongol): the rain-stone of Inner Asian weather magic, wielded by a specialist (Mongol jadaci, Turkic yadaci) to call or stop rain, hail and storm. Tuvan: chat tash. The swung-on-a-cord variant is marginal; the standard method is the stone dropped in water or held in the mouth.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"An Inner Asian weather-stone term tied to Early Turkic jada and Persian yada.","literal_gloss":"rain-stone","semantic_cluster":"weather_magic; stone","etymology_confidence":"medium","sources":[{"citation":"W. Radloff, Aus Sibirien: Lose Blätter aus meinem Tagebuche (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1884), vol. 2, p. 179, via Frazer 1911 and Emsheimer & Carroll 1986"},{"citation":"James George Frazer, The Magic Art, vol. 1 (1911), p. 306, fn. 1065","url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59607/pg59607.txt","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260715115838/https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59607/pg59607.txt"},{"citation":"Ernst Emsheimer and Robert Carroll, “Earliest Reports about the Music of the Mongols,” Asian Music 18(1) (1986), pp. 1-19, note 3","url":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/834155","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013015258/https://www.jstor.org/stable/834155"},{"citation":"Agnes Birtalan, jada-zada studies, Shaman 9(2) (2001), pp. 122-124"}],"source_citations":"W. Radloff, Aus Sibirien: Lose Blätter aus meinem Tagebuche (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1884), vol. 2, p. 179, via Frazer 1911 and Emsheimer & Carroll 1986; James George Frazer, The Magic Art, vol. 1 (1911), p. 306, fn. 1065; Ernst Emsheimer and Robert Carroll, “Earliest Reports about the Music of the Mongols,” Asian Music 18(1) (1986), pp. 1-19, note 3; Agnes Birtalan, jada-zada studies, Shaman 9(2) (2001), pp. 122-124","source_display":"W. Radloff, Aus Sibirien: Lose Blätter aus meinem Tagebuche (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1884), vol. 2, p. 179, via Frazer 1911 and Emsheimer & Carroll 1986; James George Frazer, The Magic Art, vol. 1 (1911), p. 306, fn. 1065; Ernst Emsheimer and Robert Carroll, “Earliest Reports about the Music of the Mongols,” Asian Music 18(1) (1986), pp. 1-19, note 3; Agnes…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"Weather-magic rite for rain or rain-stopping: a rain-stone fastened to a string or staff is swung like a bullroarer.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tuvin rite","display_name":"Mongol/Tuvan jada rain-stone bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/soldatova2019_mansi_windboard_photo4.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/soldatova2019_mansi_windboard_photo4_thumb.jpg","alt":"Pale, gently tapered Mansi wind-calling plank, with a cord looped through one end.","credit":"G. E. Soldatova, Традиционная культура 20:4 (2019), photo 4 (field photo K. A. Sagalaev, 1987)","license":"In copyright — open-access journal figure, rehosted low-res for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://trad-culture.ru/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Mansi wind-calling flying board.","pool_id":"siberia-mansi"},"slug":"mong-jada-001-tuvin-soyot-rite-with-mongol-jada-zada-parallels"}