The description of the ancient pagan cult of Shaitan among the Ostyaks (Khanty) was first compiled by the historian and geographer, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Gerhard Friedrich Müller. Müller mentions the bloody cult of Shaitan in his writings about the way of life of the Lower Ob Khanty. He points out that the largest and most revered idol of Shaitan was installed by the Khanty in the area of the Shaitan yurts in about 1670, and then was taken to the Konda River, to the Nagarchev yurts, and stood there for several more years. The idol was brought to the Ob River by pagans from Perm after the Permians adopted Christianity and refused to honor the wooden god. The idol standing on the Shaitan yurts was, according to Müller, “the noblest”, and even the Surgut and Obdorsky Khanty came to bow to it.

The Khanty called the god “Master Lunkh”, and the Russians called it “Masterkovy” — after the name of the shaman called Master, who kept the image of Shaitan on his land. Shaitan “lived” in a special barn, upholstered on the inside with red cloth. On either side of it stood two female figures made of bundles of birch twigs. Obviously, these were the “wives” of the god, who were dressed in beautiful women’s clothes. Infertile Khanty women stuffed rag dolls into their clothes as gifts — to ask for children. On the walls of the barn hung a lot of skins of sables and foxes, which served as offerings. The Cossacks said that the shamans did not wait for the Khanty to bring gifts to Shaitan — they themselves came to their “wards”, collecting contributions from them to please the idol. Some time after the skins hung on the walls of the barn, the shamans sold them, and kept the money for themselves. However, the Khanty gifted their deity not only the skins or money — they gave horses, deer and even girls to the shamans. The shaman disposed of the gift at his own discretion, sometimes he could even endow a slave with a dowry and marry her off. In addition to the barn shaitans, the Khanty had a lot of “bolvans” (conventional idols) carved out of wood, which they worshiped.

The exhibit found on the territory of the town of Labytnangi is a cult idol which represents the deity of the Khanty people. The stylized human torso is made of a single piece of wood. The navel is symbolically depicted on the body, and the nose, mouth, eyes, and eyebrows are depicted on the metal face mask. Fragments of fabric are fixed on the sculpture.