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How did the Buryat of Siberia imagine the social organization of the spirit world?

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Animism Edward Burnett Tylor, detail of a chalk drawing by George Bonavia, 1860; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The Buryat people of Siberia envisioned the spirit world as a direct reflection of their own society, organizing it into a hierarchical structure of noble, commoner, and slave ranks.1

This social order extended to the afterlife: upon death, an individual was believed to pass into this spirit realm, where they assumed a rank appropriate to their status in life and acquired new power over others. An individual's conduct during their lifetime determined their spiritual fate, with great individuals becoming gods and evil individuals becoming devils.1

Beyond this social stratification, the Buryat also categorized their gods into a dualistic system of 99 deities: 55 benevolent "white" gods of the west and 44 wicked "black" gods of the east, the latter being led by the ruler of the Underworld, Erlen khan.2