In the mid-2000s, Russia's government began to merge Siberian indigenous territories (autonomous okrugs) into larger administrative regions. Among the Buryats living to the west of Lake Baikal, the state promoted a policy of "National Cultural Autonomy" that sought to separate cultural identity from land and mobilized public performances of Buryat culture to show support for this separation of nationality from territorial sovereignty. However, resurgent local rituals reinforced Buryats' enduring ties to the land.

In Facing the Fire, Taking the Stage, Joseph J. Long provides new insights into the ways in which shamanist ritual and Buryat national culture have shaped one another over time. Both have created spaces for Buryats to negotiate, renegotiate, and make public different kinds of belonging. Based primarily on anthropological fieldwork undertaken in Western Buryat communities, this book provides firsthand accounts and original photographs of everyday ritual practices, clan ceremonies, and dance and folklore performances.

Facing the Fire, Taking the Stage explores the relationship between shamanist rituals and formal performing arts, showing how post-Soviet public culture and performances are shaped by one another to create new symbols of national identity.