Allaraa Doydu- Sakha LocationLocation · Realm

The Three Worlds

Sakha cosmology, as preserved in the olonkho epic tradition and ethnographic records of Seroshevsky and others, divides existence into three vertically stacked realms connected by the great World Tree, Aal Luuk Mas. The Upper World (Üöhee Doydu) houses the benevolent Ayyy deities who watch over humanity. The Middle World (Orto Doydu) is the domain of humans, animals, and the ichchi spirits that inhabit natural features. Below them both lies Allaraa Doydu, the Lower World, situated beneath the roots of Aal Luuk Mas. This tripartite structure forms the fundamental architecture of Sakha spiritual geography, and every shamanic ritual, heroic quest, and protective ceremony operates within its logic.

The Lower World is not simply a place of the dead. It is an active, hostile realm whose inhabitants ceaselessly seek to extend their influence upward into the world of the living. The tension between the three worlds drives much of the narrative action in both ritual practice and epic poetry.

Geography of the Lower World

Olonkho descriptions portray Allaraa Doydu as a realm of unrelenting darkness, devoid of sun or stars. Black rivers flow through landscapes of iron and stone. The terrain is described in the epics as barren and cold, a distortion of the Middle World's living landscape. In some olonkho texts, the Lower World mirrors the geography of the upper realms but in corrupted form: where the Middle World has forests and meadows, the Lower World has dead trees and poisonous bogs.

The realm is organized into multiple layers or regions, with different olonkho traditions counting varying numbers. Some accounts describe nine descending levels, each darker and more dangerous than the last, with the deepest layers reserved for the most powerful Abaahy lords. Iron houses and structures feature prominently in descriptions of Abaahy dwellings, contrasting with the wooden and natural constructions of the Middle World.

Arsan Duolai and the Lords Below

The Lower World is ruled by Arsan Duolai, the chief of the Abaahy spirits. In the olonkho tradition, he presides over the dark realm from his iron throne, commanding legions of malevolent beings. His authority extends over illness, misfortune, and death as they affect the Middle World. He dispatches Abaahy to steal human souls, cause sickness in livestock, and sow discord among the living.

Arsan Duolai is attended by a hierarchy of subordinate lords, each governing a portion of the Lower World or a specific domain of harm. His children and warriors appear as antagonists in the olonkho epics, where they raid the Middle World to abduct women, steal cattle, or challenge human heroes. The social structure of the Lower World thus mirrors the clan-based organization of Sakha society, with Arsan Duolai as a dark sovereign ruling his domain through kinship networks and delegated authority.

The Abaahy

The Abaahy are the characteristic inhabitants of Allaraa Doydu. Unlike the ichchi spirits of the Middle World, which can be benign or neutral, the Abaahy are consistently malevolent. They cause disease, madness, and death among humans and are responsible for misfortune of all kinds. In Sakha understanding, most serious illness results from an Abaahy spirit stealing or damaging the patient's kut (soul components).

Abaahy are described in the olonkho as physically monstrous: iron-toothed, single-armed or multi-limbed, with bodies of darkness. They travel to the Middle World through openings in the earth, particularly through lakes, swamps, and the roots of certain trees. Their raids are most dangerous during liminal times — dusk, the winter solstice, periods of transition — when the boundary between worlds thins.

The Shamanic Descent

One of the shaman's most perilous duties is the journey to Allaraa Doydu to retrieve a stolen soul. When illness strikes and divination reveals that an Abaahy has taken the patient's soul to the Lower World, the shaman must descend through the roots of the World Tree to negotiate or fight for its return.

Seroshevsky and later Alekseev record the stages of this journey as narrated during the séance. The shaman drums, enters trance, and describes aloud the passage downward through increasingly dark regions. He encounters obstacles — rivers to cross, guardians to appease or outwit, Abaahy warriors to defeat. If he reaches the soul in time and can wrest it from its captors, he carries it back to the Middle World and restores it to the patient's body. Failure means the patient's death.

The descent is understood as genuinely dangerous for the shaman as well. A shaman who ventures too deep or encounters an Abaahy lord beyond his power risks losing his own soul in the Lower World, resulting in his death or permanent madness.

Heroes in the Lower World

The olonkho epics regularly send their heroes into Allaraa Doydu. In the epic of Nyurgun Bootur the Swift, the titular hero descends to the Lower World to rescue captives taken by Abaahy warriors. These epic descents follow a pattern: the hero receives word that an Abaahy raider has abducted a woman or devastated a clan, rides to the boundary between worlds, and descends to confront the enemy in his own territory.

The battles in the Lower World are cosmic in scale. Heroes and Abaahy warriors clash for days, transforming into animals, wielding supernatural weapons, and shaking the foundations of the earth. The hero's victory in the Lower World restores order to the Middle World above, driving the Abaahy back behind their boundaries. These epic confrontations encode the same cosmological tension expressed in shamanic ritual: the Lower World's aggression must be continually checked by the courage and power of those who dare enter it.

Boundaries and Passages

The boundary between the Middle and Lower Worlds is permeable but guarded. Aal Luuk Mas, the World Tree, serves as the primary axis connecting all three realms, with its roots penetrating into Allaraa Doydu. Certain natural features in the landscape are understood as points where the Lower World presses close to the surface: deep lakes, bogs, crevasses in the earth, and places where the ground is unstable.

In the olonkho, specific landmarks mark the transition between worlds. Heroes descending to Allaraa Doydu often cross a black river or pass through a narrow opening in the earth. The journey is described as moving both downward and inward, away from light and warmth. The return journey reverses this trajectory, with the hero climbing back toward the light of the Middle World.

Ritual Protection

Because the Lower World poses a constant threat, Sakha ritual practice includes numerous protective measures. The shaman serves as the primary guardian against Abaahy incursions, conducting ceremonies to strengthen the boundary between worlds and drive back intruding spirits. Protective rituals involve drumming, chanting, and the use of specific ritual objects to seal openings through which Abaahy might enter.

The annual Yhyakh ceremony, while primarily a celebration of the Upper World's Ayyy deities and the return of summer, also functions to reinforce the cosmic order that keeps the Lower World in its place. By honoring the Ayyy and strengthening the bonds between humans and benevolent powers, the ceremony shores up the Middle World's defenses against the darkness below. The spatial arrangement of Yhyakh rituals, oriented toward the east and the sun, deliberately turns away from the Lower World's direction, affirming the community's alignment with light and life.