The second half of the 19th century was marked by large-scale fieldwork in the Amur River basin prompted by major geopolitical changes in the Far East. Russian expeditions aimed to study geography, zoology, and geology of the region, as well as ethnic groups living there, their culture and religion. Materials from the first Russian ethnographers and photographers of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries provide a high degree of completeness and accuracy for the configuration of sacred sites and cult centers of the Amur population. These sites reflected the multi-ethnic composition and the heterogeneity of religious landscape. The structure of religious landscape combined shamanism and animism among the Tungus with Chinese folk religions, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, which became widespread among the Manchus and were originally associated with Chinese settlers. The religious affiliation, structure and functions of religious sites indicate the significant influence of Chinese culture, which was syncretically merged with the local Tungus-Manchu beliefs and practices. The aim of this article is to reconstruct the religious landscape of the Upper and Middle Amur regions in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, specifically the religious sites of the Tungus, Manchus, and Chinese. The results of this study provide a broader historical picture of the religious geography of Russia and its borderlands.
Key words: Russia, China, Far Eastern frontier, Amur region, religious landscape, geography of religion, sacred sites, Tungus, Manchus, Chinese
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662-2026-1-35-52
About the author
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Andrey P. Zabiyako – DSc (Philosophy), Full Professor, Head of the Department of Religious Studies and History, Amur State University; |