Acknowledgements
For supporting my research on the songs of the QorÄin Mongol shamans, I am most grateful to the Gerda Henkel Foundation in Düsseldorf, and to the Foundation of Friends of the North-Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and the Arts in Düsseldorf.
Private resources helped to bring the present book to its final form.
A debt of gratitude is owed to Mr. Mansang, an Emeritus Professor of Mongolian Literature at the Inner Mongolia Normal University in Kökeqota, for collecting the songs of the QorÄin Mongol shamans published in this book, and for putting this valuable material at our disposal for exploration.
My special thanks go to Mr. Nima of JÌarud in Inner Mongolia, living in Beijing, for sharing his knowledge of the QorÄin Mongols shamanic practices with me on different occasions.
Many thanks are also due to my Mongolian friend Äoγǰu of Darqan Banner in Inner Mongolia, living in Songyuan in Jilin province, for his competent and helpful support during my field trips in Inner Mongolia, in Jilin and Liaoning provinces from 2009 to 2018. Mr. Äoγǰu is a bard (quγurÄi) and a collector of oral materials.