Historical and Cultural Origins of Cosmological
Representations of the Balagan Buryats of the Bulagat Tribe
(Late 19th – Early 20th Century)

N. B. Dashieva

List of issues > «Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series». 2022. Vol 40

Historical and Cultural Origins of Cosmological Representations of the Balagan Buryats of the Bulagat Tribe (Late 19th – Early 20th Century)

Full text (russian)

Author(s)

N. B. Dashieva

Abstract

Cosmological representations associated with cosmogonic plots belong to the little-studied problems of the traditional culture of the Buryats. The purpose of this article is to identify the historical and cultural origins of cosmological representations of the Balagan Buryats of the Bulagat tribe, personified in the images of celestial deities with the common name “Kings of Waters” (Bur. Ukhan-khat). The relevance of the study is because the images of these deities in the plots of cosmogonic myths and shamanic iconography of the Balagan Bulagats differ from the traditions of all other Buryats groups of the Baikal region. The methods of comparative analysis of the specifics of their cult in the local traditions of the Buryats used in the study, historical and comparative analysis of their leading elements in the language, mythology, folklore, cosmography, and calendar of the Indo-European and historical Indo-Iranian peoples of Eurasia presented their images as a personification of cosmological classifiers. Thus, the images of anthropomorphic figures with three rays on their heads in the iconography of the Kings of the Waters at the Balagan Bulagats go back to the images of Indo-European and Indo-Iranian thunder gods with the functions of defenders of light and servants of their cult, who performed their rituals through singing and dancing. The Buryats' ideas about the origin of the shaman from the eagle and his ability to “travel” in different worlds go back to their images. The views of the Balagan Bulagats about a three-part vertical picture of the world have commonality with Hindu cosmography with the idea of the Polar Star as the top of the sky and the beginning of the process of creation of time in the evening, spatially correlated with the direction “northwest”. The name of the head of the heavenly gods with the functions of the creators of the “Kings of waters” reveals a lexical and semantic commonality with the Scythian term ‘Ud’, reflecting the concept of the soul as a substance bestowed by heaven, which, after the death of a person, separates from the form-body and ascends to heaven again. The study revealed the historical and cultural origins of the cosmological representations of the Balagan Buryats of the Bulagat tribe in the motifs of Indo-European mythology and related worldviews of the peoples of the Scythian cultural circle

About the Authors

Dashieva Nadezhda Bazarzhapovna, Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor, Head of the Research Laboratory of History and Theory of Culture, East Siberian State Institute of Culture; 1, Tereshkova st., Ulan-Ude, 670031, Russian Federation, e-mail: dashieva-n@yandex.ru

For citation

Dashieva N. B. Historical and Cultural Origins of Cosmological Representations of the Balagan Buryats of the Bulagat Tribe (Late 19th – Early 20th Century). Bulletin of the Irkutsk State University. Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series. 2022, Vol. 40, pp. 57–66. https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2022.40.57 (in Russ.)

Keywords

cosmological representations, cosmogonic myths, cosmography, Indo-European mythology, Scythian cultural circle.

UDC

39(=512.31)ʹʹ19/20ʹʹ

DOI

https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2022.40.57

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