The shard of Olkhon Island juts north-eastward from the boomerang curve of Lake Baikal's Western sroreline. It is the omphalos of local Buryat Shamanism. Colourful ribbons and of flutter from the ubiquitous Shaman Poles, and from trees and shrubs near sacred locations in the everpresent cool winds. A scatter of coins litter the rocks nearly, offerings to the oikony noyod, the "thirteen lords of Olkhon". It is a dry and sandy place, with pine forests and rolling grassy steppes, populated by yaks, sheep and cattle. At the lakeside, precipitous cliffs plunge into the impossibly clear and blue waters of the lake.