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Paper short abstract:

The study is focused on environmental policies for Lake Baikal in Siberia. I discuss how the shakiness of policies has led to the creation of a sense of "transforming home" and irresponsibility among the Buryats, culminating in the collapse of their collective memory of the sanctity of the lake.

Paper long abstract:

This study examines the reaction of the Buryat indigenous society on Olkhon Island to the recent environmental problems in Sacred Lake Baikal. This sacred lake has been fundamental in shamanic thought and the main economic source for this Mongolian ethnic group over several centuries in Siberia. However, despite its key role in the Buryats' daily life and importance as a cultural and environmental heritage, UNESCO has reported that the lake's ecosystem is under significant stress, and the national news is discussing the debilitating effects of environmental phenomena on the lake. Surprisingly, despite a high volume of scientific research on this problem, there has been no serious concentration on its cultural-religious effects on local people's lives.They are followers of shamanism which is a nature-based religion and the foundation of the Buryats' identity and their society's internalized order. By focusing on this absence, I provide anthropological insight into organizational "not seeing," which is linked to a long history of environmental policies, from Stalin's idea of "the conquest of nature" to Putine's "national security." Then, by investigating public media programs and reports on Russian national TV and in local newspapers, I demonstrate the collapse of the Buryats' collective memory of the sanctity of this natural landscape. Finally, I conclude the shaky environmental policies have resulted in a sense of "transforming home" among Olkhon's Buryats, leaving them with a semantic change in their religious life, and diminishing the sense of responsibility in the Buryat society towards the lake.