Story By: Anna Guran, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN

This is the moment a group of shamans beat drums in a ritual ceremony before sacrificing a ram in a bid to put out the Siberian wildfires – days after Leonardo DiCaprio stood in solidarity with those affected by the flames.

A group of 40 shamans beat their drums in the ceremony where the ram was killed on Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal in the Siberia region of eastern Russia.

Video footage shot by eyewitnesses shows the shamans beating their drums as they try to reach a state of consciousness in which they believe they can contact spirits.

Pictures Credit: CEN

Local media reports they also slaughtered a ram in the ceremony which was held in a desperate attempt to extinguish hundreds of wildfires sweeping through Russia.

Nima Borokshonov, the chairman of the shaman’s organisation, Hong Shubun, said the shamans also hoped to end the flooding currently affecting Siberia.

Bair Tsyrendorzhiev, chairman of the board of theTengeri inter-regional organisation of shamans, said 40 shamans gathered on the island for the ceremony.

He said that as well as preventing natural disasters, it was also designed to make people happy.

The ceremony consisted of the preparation of the sacrifice and the offering of gifts — including milk, vodka, tea, and sweets — to the spirits.

Around 470 wildfires are currently burning across Russia, while parts of Siberia, including the Buryatia and the Irkutsk regions, are suffering from floods.

Shamanism, a practice in which practitioners reach altered states of consciousness to make contact with the spirit world, is widely practised in Siberia.

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