Shamanism, Buddhism and epic hero-ism: Which supports the identity of the post-Soviet Buryats?

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 51-67

  Hamayon, Roberte N ^a  

^a PSL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY   (France)

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EID: 0346364524     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: None     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634939808401023     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. Caroline Humphrey (oral communication) notes that the majority of contemporary lamas continue to live a familial life and do not adopt the conduct or costume of a lama except within the limited context of the temple.
2. The name of this reserve is Krai Gesera and its Buryat name, written in Mongol writing on its signpost, is Geser-un oron nutag.
3. The present Buryat attitude to Chinggis Khan is a continuation of that upheld by the Soviet regime, at least after the repression of the pan-Mongolian movement definitively annihilated by the purges of the 1930s.
4. In its archaic form the essential object of the shamanic function was to obtain 'luck in hunting' for the hunters of the community. This idea is developed in Hamayon, 1990.
5. Such expressions are frequently found in the periodicals of the period such as the Antireligioznik, and Voinstvuyushchii Bezbozhnik. See for example the commentary of M. L. Beffa and L. Delaby on the militant anti-religious activities conducted in the 1930s among the Evenk by I. M. Suslov (Études Mongols et sibériennes, No 24).
6. This is an effect of one of the characteristics of shamanism, which treats the supernatural entities with which a soul can be in contact as being similar to it in nature and homologous in status. In the traditions of the Buryats and other peoples of Siberia in general these supernatural entities are either spirits which animate animals (as the soul of a man animates his body) or they are the souls of the dead.
7. See for example Hamayon, 1992.
8. See for example Rupen, 1964.
9. See Balzer, 1993.
10. This incompatibility is described, among other places, in Hamayon, 1990.
11. This is the conclusion expressly arrived at in the studies presented in Lamaizm v Buryatii (1983).
12. It should be noted that a certain number of Buryats are attracted these days by other expansive religious currents, such as the Seventh Day Adventists, the Baptists, and the Baha'i; and the other peoples of Buryatia have a great religious and cultural diversity, also in full flood: the Russian Cossacks, the Orthodox Old Believers, German Protestants, Jews, Evenk shamanists, Korean Buddhists, and so forth (Zhukovskaya, 1995).
13. See Rupen (1964) and Stoddard (1985).
14. In summer 1995, communication from Karl Reichl, Bonn.
15. Communication from Inge Denaeghel.
16. It is significant that the recent edition (1995) of the Manshuud text, with a new translation by A. B. Soktoeva, has a new title in Russian: Abai Geser the Strong (Abai Geser Moguchyi), though the Buryat title is Abai Geser the Son (Abai Geser Xübüün). The epithet 'son' is illuminating. In this variant Geser was sent to earth to take revenge on an enemy of his father. His actions are inscribed in a logic of vengeance internal to the society, and are not suited to the role of resistance chief called for today.
17. Notably the Buddhist deity Iham rin, one of the worst of the mangad, and the prophet Daniel, evoked in the name Dan'il Sara Mangadxai, but also Hitler, identified as lobsogoldoi (Sharxunaev, 1969, p 55).
18. Information from Inge Denaeghel.
19. The Cossacks and the Old Believers, who feel themselves to be as autochthonous as the Buryats, were angered that the founding of the city of Ulan-Ude was celebrated by holding these 'games'. They demanded that the Republic should henceforth be renamed as the Republic of Baikal, or Trans-Baikal.
20. Abai Geser Xübüün, ül;asger / Abai Geser Moguchii, buryatskii geroicheskii epos (1995) Izd. Vostochnaya Literatura, Ross. Akad. Nauk (Epos Narodov Evrazii), 526 pp, Moscow.
21. Aubin, Françoise. 'Bouriates'. Encyclopaedia Universalis.
22. Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam (1993) 'Shamanism and the politics of culture: an anthropological view of the 1992 international conference on shamanism, Yakutsk', Shaman, Vol 1, No 2, pp 71-96.
23. Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam (1995) 'Introduction (Demography and the politics of identity in the Russian Federation)', Anthropology & Archaeology of Eurasia, a Journal of Translations, Vol 34, No 1, pp 4-10.
24. Bormanshinov, Arash (1981) 'The present state of research in Jangggar epic studies, a selected bibliography', Fragen der mongolischen Heldendichtung, hrsgb von Walther Heissig, O. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, Vol 1, pp 273-298, 299-339.
25. Buryatiya (1995) No 120 (1035), Friday 30 June.
26. Buryatiya molodaya / Buryaadai zaluushuul (1995) Vol 5, No 15, June.
27. Chagdurov, S. S., ed. (1991) Geseriada. Prochloye i nastoyashcheye, Min. Kul't. Buryatskoi ASSR, 127 pp.
28. Damdinsüren, C. (1957) Istoricheskiye korni geseriady, Moscow.
29. Hamayon, Roberte (1990) La Chasse à l'ame, Société d'ethnologie, Nanterre.
30. Hamayon, Roberte (1992) 'Le jeu de la vie et de la mort, enjeu du chamanisme sibérien', Diogene 158, pp 63-77.
31. Humphrey, Caroline (1992) 'The moral authority of the past in post-socialist Mongolia', Religion, State and Society, Vol 30, Nos 3, 4, pp 375-389.
32. Kolarz, V. (1955) Les colonies Russes d'Extreme-Orient, Fasquelle, Paris.
33. Krai Gesera. Sbornik statei i materialov, sostav. B. S. Dugarov (1995) Naran, Ulan-Ude, 42 pp.
34. Lamaizm v Buryatii (1983) Nauka (BION), Novosibirsk.
35. Pallas, P. S. (1995) Khram Gesera. Poseshcheniye Kyakhty. Puteshestviye po Buryatii cherez Selenginsk i Udinskii ostrog v 1772 godu, Naran, Ulan-Ude, 31 pp.
36. Reichl, Karl (1992) Turkic Epic Oral Poetry. Traditions, forms, poetic structure, Garland Publ. Inc, New York and London, 395 pp.
37. Prirodno-etnograficheskii zapovednik 'Krai Gesera' (1995) Naran, Ulan-Ude, 4 pp.
38. Rupen, R. A. (1964) Mongols of the 20th Century, Mouton, Bloomington Indiana University, 2 vols (uralic and Altaic Series 37).
39. Serkhunaev, R. A. (1969) Skazitel' Peokhon Petrov. Ocherk zhizni i tvorchesva, Vost.-Sib. Knizhnoye Izd., Irkutsk, 93 pp.
40. Skrynnikova, T. D. (1992) (in press) Dva varianta kartiny mira v traditsionnoi kul'ture buryat.
41. Soyol Kul'tura (1992) No 8. Ulan-Ude.
42. Stein, R. A. (1959) Recherches sur l'épopée et le barde au Tibet. PUF (Bibl. de l'Institut des hautes études chinoises, XII), 646 pp, Paris.
43. Stoddard, H. (1985) Le Mendiant de l'Amdo, Société d'ethnographie, Paris.
44. Tolon (1993) No 24 (178), Aga, 12 June.
45. Ulgershen Maison Alsyev, sost. V. S. Gungarov and B. S. Dugarov (1994) Naran, 3 pp, Ulan-Ude.
46. Zhukovskaya, N. L. (1992) 'Buddhism and problems of national and cultural resurrection of the Buryat nation', Central Asian Survey, Vol 11, No 2, pp 27-41.
47. Zhukovskaya, N. L. (1995) 'Religion and ethnicity in Eastern Russia, Republic of Buryatia: a panorama of the 1990s', Central Asian Survey, Vol 14, No 1, pp 25-42.