What is the Buryat heroic epic? Buryat epic "geser" material on the topic
Municipal Autonomous educational institution
"Secondary school No. 49"
Buryat heroic epic"Geser"
Completed:
Gumpylova Ayuna Vladimirovna,
class teacher of 7th grade
Ulan-Ude
2016
Content
Relevance
The logic of myth
The exploits of Geser
Excursion “Yurt Uligershina” Museum of the History of Buryatia named after M.N. Khangalova
Bair Gomboev - uligershin
Bibliography
Application
The script of the film “Folklore of Buryatia. Geser"
Geser (speech script)
Relevance
Heroic epic "Geser" is a unique monument of the spiritual culture of the Buryat people. Not only the Buryats, but also many other peoples of Central Asia consider this epic theirs. The epic is widespread among the Tibetans, Mongols, Tuvinians, Altaians, Kalmyks, and North Tibetan Uyghurs.
Geser has become a symbol of the Central Asian community of different cultures and traditions. The epic tale of Geser remains in living folk memory to this day. If the Iliad and Odyssey, written down thousands of years ago, have ceased to be performed by storytellers and passed on from mouth to mouth, then “Geser” has come down to us in the literary and folklore tradition.
In Buryat folklore, as in the folklore of other peoples of the world, there are such genres as fairy tales, legends and traditions. But the heroic epic occupies a special place. The heroic tales of the Buryats are calleduligers.
This is the highest achievement of oral folk art of the Buryat people. The Uligers are an integral part of the epic heritage of the peoples of Siberia. Uligers are somewhat akin to Russian epics.
Uligers were performed only before some important events: a big hunt, a long journey, in the name of healing the sick. It was believed that the performance of heroic poems contributed to the sight of the blind. There were also prohibitions on performing uligers: they could not be performed during the day, in the presence of strangers, for the sake of idle curiosity.
In the Buryat heroic epic, as in Russian epics, the main characters were heroes who defend their land by going on a journey. They combine fiction with elements of the real life of the Buryat people: their main occupations (cattle breeding, hunting), way of life, and traditions.
These wonderful works of oral folk art clearly express the features national character, Buryat traditions, they are sung best qualities: fidelity to duty, love for native land, fearlessness and courage in the fight. In images epic heroes the heroic ideals of the people are embodied - the ideals of courage and valor, nobility and self-sacrifice, love for their native land. These qualities have been cultivated throughout historical development and the centuries-old struggle that the people had to wage, defending their clan, their tribe from enemies.
The heroic epic of the Buryats was created by the people. Its creators and performers were people from the common people.
Application
Text of the film “Folklore of Buryatia. Geser"
FolkloreBuryat - oral folk art, began to take shape in pre-Chinggis Khan times, it was a form of knowledge of life, artistic perception of the world around us. Buryat folklore consists of myths,uligers, shamanic invocations, legends, cult hymns, fairy tales, proverbs, sayings, riddles. Myths about the origin of the Universe and lifeon the ground.
The Uligers are the pinnacle of the Buryat folk poetry, are epic tales of times gone by.
The volume of uligers ranged from 5 to more than 20 thousand poems, in which mythology was closely intertwined with history. Uligers were performed by singers - uligershins, who could recite them by heart, playing along with themselves on the khuur - an ancient plucked musical instrument. Uligershins - storytellers not only performed the legends known to them, but also supplemented them, introduced something new, depicting the exploits of god-like heroes, heroic scenes of battles.
The central epic monument of the Buryats is the epic "Geser", which in terms of volume, epicness and historical significance stands on a par with such monuments popular thought Kalmyk folk epic"Dzhangar", Kyrgyz "Manas" and others. There are many versions of the epic; it is widely known in Mongolia and China. The most archaic and primordial are the Western Buryat versions of Geser; in Mongolia and Transbaikalia the epic was subject to the not always successful influence of Buddhism.
Currently, the manuscript collection of the Buryat Research Institute contains about two hundred records of the national epic, collected in various parts of Buryatia.
And now you will see our excursion to the Khangalov Museum “Yurt Uligershina”.
Geser (Speech script)
This happened in ancient times. The eastern and western celestial khans, Altai-Ulaan and Khan-Khurmas, quarreled. Khurmas killed his opponent, threw him to the ground, and from this great evil spread across the earth...
The gods came to their senses and sent Khurmas’s son, Buhe-Beligte, to earth to correct his father’s mistake. He was helped by a wise ancestor, grandmother Manzan-Gourmet, who knew all the secrets of earth and sky.
On Earth, in a wretched yurt, Buhe-Beligte was reborn into an earthly man, baby Nyurgay. From the first days he began to defeat evil spirits.
Before you could blink an eye, the boy grew up. He got himself three wives: the beautiful Tumen Zhargalan, Urmai Goohon, whose beauty is from the radiance of the stars, and the daughter of the sea khan Alma Mergen. Then Nyurgai took the form of a bator and began to be called Geser.
Parts of Atai Ulaan, cut by a sword and scattered on the ground, turned into demons. Atay's head became the devil Arkhan Shudrar, who wanted to swallow the sun and the moon. Geser defeated him in a difficult fight.
From Atai’s neck arose the supreme devil GalNurman, burning all living things. He was stronger than Geser. ZasaMergen, the hero's brother, helped him by throwing a sacred diamond stone that could not miss.
AtaiUlaan's right hand turned into a huge monster, Orgoli, similar to a mountain range. It became the master of the taiga, devouring rocks, trees, and people. It also swallowed Geser, but he cut the monster’s soul from the inside.
The left hand of the celestial became Sharem-Minaat, a child-eating devil with a cast-iron whip. He wanted to tear the whole earth into pieces. His and Geser's strengths were equal. Only the wooly Manzan-Gourmet stick defeated the evil monster.
Then Geser went to the demon Abarga-Sesen, who emerged from Atai’s body. Geser turned himself into two boys playing and wounded the demon in the eye.
But the death of the devil is hidden safely. Geser this time turned into the three-headed son of Abarga and went to Enkhoboy, one of the sisters who emerged from the legs of Atai. She guarded the death of the demon.
It was not easy for Geser. He finally took out the treasured chest, and it turned out to contain thirteen fairy-tale birds and the same number of magical wasps. Only by destroying them could he cope with Abarga.
Atai-Ulaan’s backside turned into black LoirLobsogoldoy. By cunning he planned to destroy the hero: he became a good old man and when Geser was praying, he bewitched him into a donkey. The Enkhoboy sisters helped Lobsogoldoy.
The devil donkey and the beautiful Urmai Goohon took the devil to the barren country of Khonin Khoto. They suffered twenty bodies in captivity at Lobsogoldoy, guarded by an impenetrable thicket, a fiery ditch, a poisoned sea and winged batators.
Geser was defeated by witchcraft, and only Alma Mergen was able to save him with the help of her magic spells. Lobsogoldoy's treachery was punished, he himself was buried under the rocks, and the Enkhoboy sisters were drowned.
The earth was cleared of demons generated by AtaiUlaan's body. But his three sons, also thrown to the ground, went to war against Geser to take away Urmai Goohon. Their scout was the fierce bird Deeben.
All the forces of light were needed so that Geser could defeat his enemies, save his people, and return peace to the earth. Great times are back! Let your eyes and hands forget about red-hot arrows and bows.
Ministry of Education of the Irkutsk Region
MBOU Alar Secondary School named after P.P. Batorova
International festival- contest
"Ecological folklore of the peoples of the world"
“The Buryat epic “Geser” is a hymn to Man, a hymn to the Earth - in the name of saving Life on it”
Prepared by: Maraktaeva Svetlana Nikolaevna -
teacher of Buryat language and literature
With. Alar
2012
Ethnoecological aspects in the study of the Buryat epic “Geser”.
One of the contradictions of the modern era is the ever-deepening contradiction between society and nature. In this regard, the purposeful work of the school to form the initial concepts of environmental culture among the younger generation becomes extremely important.
In this case, environmental education should represent a holistic system covering all aspects human activity. It should have as its goal the formation of a person’s worldview, based on his unity with nature and the direction of his culture and the whole practical activities not for the exploitation of nature and not even for preserving it in its original form, but for its development, capable of promoting the development of society.
It is necessary to reveal the contradiction between society and nature, to find ways to resolve this conflict.
Invaluable assistance in the process of environmental education can be provided by turning to folklore as an inexhaustible source of wisdom of the people in their relations with nature. One of the folklore genres is uliger.
The heroic epic "Geser" is a unique monument of the spiritual culture of the Buryat people. It is compared to a huge river that overflowed all over Central Asia and the Far East.
Uligers allegorically and figuratively depict objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality. The beauty of uligers, fairy tales, myths, legends for children of any age is that they allow you to lift the veil of mystery over this or that object or phenomenon.
Most of the uligers have an environmental orientation, although at first glance it is not always noticeable.
“...He was born, they say, in ancient times, when the first tree was blossoming, when the mighty wapiti calved, he was born, they say, when the thick tree was still a bush, when the eldest of their khans was still lying in the cradle, they say he was born. When the wide Angara River was still flowing like a stream, When the abarga, a huge fish, was still a baby, he was born, they say..."
The fate of the great epic is tragic and triumphant. Thanks to the storytellers who possessed the enchanting power of folk poetry and passed it on from generation to generation, Geser is still with us today.
The entire narrative is permeated with an epic understanding of life: the confrontation of the ancient collective with the outside world takes place in a titanic struggle with hostile forces, and this struggle from the very beginning lies entirely on the shoulders of the uliger mergen (bator). The fulfillment of this destiny is always associated with the hero’s departure outside his native land, with his long trip and long stay on a foreign side. He faces obstacles, one more difficult than the other, the enemy replaces the enemy, delaying the achievement of the goal. In descriptions of all kinds of road tests, combat between the hero and hostile forces, and pictures of nature, he appears in all its grandeur and pristine, harsh beauty. ancient world, in the vastness of which epic events unfold: feats are accomplished, enemy strongholds are crushed, malicious enemies and mythical monsters are destroyed. The epic world of the Uligers is full of bright colors of trumpet sounds: near the high mountains, in the wide Tamshinskaya steppe, the paths of the epic heroes and their eternal enemies - the Mangadhans - cross. The struggle between them is titanic in nature. Fellow tribesmen are drawn into the orbit of this powerful confrontation, miraculous forces and heavenly deities are called upon to help. The world of uliger images is rich and diverse: in the epic action, in addition to the main characters, many characters are involved: some of them form the entourage of the epic hero, others are the camp of the Mangadhai and other opponents opposing him. In this colorful, uliger world, animals take their place and play an active role. These characters are also divided into groups of friendly and hostile heroes.
In uligers of the “Alamzhi Mergen” type, the totemistic and animistic ideas of the ancients are reflected in various forms of figurative embodiment of fetishism. The personification of nature, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic characters, the depiction of people in uligers represent stages of the gradual development of the innermost meaning of various things and phenomena. Everything that exists - living beings, objects and natural phenomena - is endowed in the uliger with feeling and reason, and acts in real life conditions. Here we are dealing with the transfer of human properties to the creatures around him - an attempt to explain the unknown with the help of the known.
The uligers feature the image of an animated mountain, which becomes the refuge of a deceased hero and stores his body until a certain time. The image of a “living mountain” is present in archaic stories where a sister saves her brother by obtaining his betrothed – the resurrector. This image is undoubtedly based on life experience ancient bearers of the epic. The mountain in uligers is also shown as a difficult obstacle on the hero’s path. Human experience and cognitive abilities developed in the process of long-term work, in the course of mastering the surrounding nature, comprehending its laws, the world of things and phenomena. A miraculous stone, a healing tree, living water, according to his concepts, have miraculous properties - with their help, in certain circumstances, you can revive the dead and heal the sick. For example, a stone can bring good luck, help those who are suffering, and bestow happiness.
The uliger glorifies water with its universal properties. It is spoken of as living water - “eternal black water” (munhyn hara uhan), - resurrecting the dead, sick,strengthening power. Such water bubbles up at the top of a high mountain, and a tree and medicinal herbs grow nearby.
The epic also reflected the Buryat’s reverence for fire. The beginnings of the Uligers talk about how the hero builds a house, heats the stove, and the smoke from the chimney rises to the skies. The element of fire is embodied in the image of Gal-Dulme - khan. Images of forests, rivers, lakes, mountains appear in uligers at the stage of “split” of the image, in the person of their owners – zoomorphic and anthropomorphic creatures.
The sky and celestial phenomena occupied a large place in the ideas of people of the distant past. Ancient man inspired the sun, moon, stars, snow, rain, thunder, lightning. The sky was thought of as a certain higher being, predetermining the course of life and the nature of events on earth, at the same time spiritual and material. Like Geser, other heroes of the Uligers seem to receive heavenly origin. Drawing pictures of life in heaven, the uligershins recreate earthly orders that are consistent with the life, morals, and customs of people. Images of the hero's zoomorphic friends and his wonderful assistant appear mainly in stories about heroic matchmaking. Friends are ants, turtles, dogs, birds. The heroine's assistant in "Alamzhi Mergen" was the burbot fish, whose anthropomorphic double is Dalai Bayan Khan. Rescued or tamed animals are superior to the hero in some qualities, but still play a subordinate role in relation to him. The hero's zoomorphic opponents include the enemies of the animals he saved: a bear, a wolf, a motley bird.
The unity of nature and man is expressed in legends about the owners (ezhins) of rivers, mountains, forests, rivers, and localities. They appear as strong and powerful people: Gray Baikal, the beautiful Angara, the mighty Irkut, etc. On earth, Geser is born a second time and lives in the sunny country of the Larks, which in all its characteristic features resembles the Siberian region. Taiga, where cedars and larches grow, where arshans are found - healing springs. Where roe deer, wapiti, deer, and moose live. Describes the hills and steppes where they grazeflocks of sheep, herds of cows,herds of horses, Baikal and the Lena River are mentioned.
In the fight against rivals, Geser does not use heroic armor and weapons sent down “from above,” but his natural ingenuity and earthly tools. Geser's strength during battles with the Mangadhai lies not in his powerful physical abilities, but in his inextricable connection with the Earth and the people living on it. In the most difficult moments, his earthly wife, earthly children and earthly brothers-in-arms come to Geser’s aid. They save him by washing him not with divine eternal living water from the top of the world mountain, but with the water of earthly springs, healing springs, fumigating him with taiga heather (juniper).
Picturesque scenes of nature, taiga, inaccessible rocks, steppes, stormy rivers, Lake Baikal, the Baikal mountains covered with coniferous and deciduous trees are realistically described.
Thus, the Buryat epic “Geser” is essentially a hymn to Man, a hymn to the Earth - in the name of saving Life on it.
“... He was born and rose on a healing, nourishing land, with countless lambs. He settled as a master on a healing, healing land, with countless kids. He was born the owner of a blooming, beautiful land, blown from the lunar side. He was born the owner of a green, flowering land, sunny side, fanned...” (from the epic “Alamzhi Mergen”).
“Geser” - this is a hymn of love for one’s land. “ Do not allow the enemy to approach your native land, do not wait him, but go out to meet him, there he will be defeated ” - this is one of the most important motives of this epic tale.
The Buryat people have always respected the environment and have always strived to do everything in accordance with nature. Based exactly Buryat traditions, in this case, using the example of the epic, I teach children careful attitude to nature. Everyone should follow these simple principles of behavior in nature:
1. In sacred places where rituals of worship to the owners of these places are performed, you cannot kill wild animals, you cannot cut down a tree. The spirits of our ancestors live here. In our village this is Mount Sorgothoi, special places of rituals are Ubgete (each clan has its own place).
2. Our ancestors considered it a great sin (yehe seer) to cut down a tree unnecessarily, throw garbage into the water, dig the ground unnecessarily (ask the owner of this place for permission, that is, the spirits). The basic rule that must be followed by everyone: “Do not take from nature more than what is required.”
Using the example of the traditions of the Buryat and Russian peoples, I lead children to the conclusion that this folk wisdom can and should be followed in our time.
“To someone who has been deaf to nature since childhood, who in childhood did not pick up a chick that had fallen from the nest, who did not discover the beauty of the first spring grass, then it will be difficult to reach him with a sense of beauty, a sense of poetry, and maybe even simple humanity.” - V.A. Sukhomlinsky.
List of basic and additional literature
Batorov P.P. Digest of articles. Irkutsk, 2006
Vasilyeva M.S. Buryat and Russian environmental traditions. Ulan-Ude, 2002
Hymn to man, hymn to the earth “Abai Geser”, S. Chagdurov, Ulan-Ude, 1995.
Zimin Zh.A. History of the Alar region. Irkutsk, 1996
Zimin Zh.A. Local history. Ust-Orda, 1992
Kozin S.A. Secret story Mongols. Ulan-Ude, 1990
Magtaal, ureel, solo. Ulan-Ude, 1993
Scientific publication – Buryat heroic epic “Alamzhi Mergen”, Novosibirsk, “Science”, 1991.
Prelovsky A, “Great Geser” (version of uligershin by Pyokhon Petrov), Moscow, 1999.
Sharakshinova N.O. Heroic-epic poetry of the Buryats, Irkutsk, 1987.
Sherkhunaev R.A. Alar is my destiny. Irkutsk, 2001.
Sherkhunaev R.A. Manshut Imegeev, singer of “Geser”, Irkutsk, 1993.
“Khangalovsky readings” - Interregional Scientific and Production Committee, Ust-Ordynsky village, 2008.
Khangalov M.N. Collected works.Ulan-Ude, 2004.
Website geo.ru
Website “Network of creative teachers of the Buryat language “Nidal”.
Website "Network of creative teachers of the Buryat language" - "Khuramsha"
Illustrations for the heroic epic "Geser"
Let us recall that the UN cultural organization (UNESCO) has been assigning this status to various cultural sites since 2003 as part of its “Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage” program. The list of such status “intangible” cultural objects is compiled by analogy with long ago famous List UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which emphasizes material objects. Such as Lake Baikal, for example.
Russia is currently represented by only two objects on the UNESCO list of “intangible cultural heritage”. This is “the cultural space and oral creativity of the Semey - Old Believers of Transbaikalia” and the Yakut heroic epic “Olonkho”. If Geser is included in the list, then two of the three Russian facilities will represent Buryatia.
However, this event in the cultural life of the republic and the country gives rise to a number of questions: will this Russian initiative find a response in the UN? What exactly is the Buryat heroic epic “Geser”? To what extent is this epic actually Russian (Buryat), and not Mongolian or Chinese (Tibetan)? and what exactly should be recognized as “intangible” cultural heritage of humanity” – one “main” text from more than ten quite voluminous (from 2 to 50 thousand verses each) Buryat Uligers about Abai Geser recorded by scientists or the entire cultural space of the Geseriad? That is, this is the performing art of the Uligershins (singing, acting, playing the musical instruments etc.), and customs, rituals associated with the performance of uligers, and spiritual and material knowledge about nature and the Universe, transmitted in the epic from time immemorial? Or each of the elements of this complex separately?
Answering these questions is quite difficult. Firstly, the legacy of the Geseriada has not been fully studied and, in fact, is unknown to the general reader either in Buryatia, or in Russia, or in the world. Secondly, it in itself is so rich and diverse that each of the ten most famous Western Buryat uligers about Geser can stand on a par with the Iliad, “The Knight in Tiger Skin,” “David of Sasun,” “Dzhangar” or “Olonkho” . And thirdly, there are also political disputes surrounding the epic of Geser, which touch upon problems in relations between Russia and China in a geopolitical sense and no less acute problems associated with the loyalty or disloyalty of the Buryats to the central government within Russia, the USSR.
Shot while trying to escape
A little about the history of the controversy surrounding the epic “Geser”. Now it’s hard to imagine, but just 60 years ago, classroom and museum studies of Buryat folklore and literature were, in terms of danger, akin to the activities of a spy or extremist organization. There have been many broken lives in this area, scientific and political careers, and in some cases, the study of the epic ended in prison, exile, exile and even physical death researcher.
In this sense, the story of journalist Maxim Shulukshin, who became the main victim of the political struggle around the epic about Geser, is indicative. In 1948, Shulukshin was declared a “bourgeois nationalist” and imprisoned for 10 years for “anti-Soviet activities” in the Dzhidalager in Zakamensk.
The leading Marxist literary critic in Buryatia, Mikhail Khamaganov, who in the 40-60s played the role of the main political gendarme from philology, in the first book of the almanac “Baikal” (the printed organ of the Union of Writers of the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) gave such a “party characterization” to his other colleagues in literary workshop.
“One of the weapons in the arsenal of bourgeois nationalists was the feudal-khan epic Geser, characterized by its reactionary, cosmopolitan content,” wrote Mikhail Khamaganov in 1949. – Bourgeois nationalists, dealing with Geser, strictly distributed among themselves the functions, the so-called “sphere of activity.” The nationalist Shulukshin wrote lascivious articles, popularizing the cosmopolitan content of Geser. The latter also touched Sanzhiev (Buyanto Sanzhiev, executive editor of the newspaper “Buryad-Mongoloi Unen”, 1946 - secretary of the Buryat-Mongolian regional committee of the CPSU (b), professor-historian - S.B.), notorious for his ideological perversions nationalistic character in the field of history. Balburov (African Balburov, writer, in the 60-70s the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Baikal” - S.B.) openly admired the bloody, predatory campaigns of Genghis Khan, Belgaev (Gombo Belgaev, 1938 - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council B.-M. ASSR, 1941 - Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the B.-M. ASSR, 1946 - Director of the Buryat-Mongolian Research Institute of Culture and Economics - S.B.) and Zugeev (N.D. Zugeev, scientific secretary of Giyali - S.B.) took upon themselves mainly organizational issues related to the popularization of Geser.
At a time when such execution articles were published in the newly formed magazine of Buryat party writers, real shots were fired at “cosmopolitans” and “nationalists” in Dzhidalag. In 1949, Maxim Shulukshchin was shot by a convoy “while trying to escape.”
Why did Soviet propaganda suddenly suddenly change from plus to minus and the epic hero Geser, with whom Buryat Soviet poets compared the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army during World War II, suddenly became “an instrument of the ideology of Pan-Americanism and American imperialism”?
Pan-Mongolism and “self-reliance”
So, at the end of the thirties in Buryat-Mongolia, pan-Mongolism was declared enemy number one, which suddenly turned from a “progressive anti-imperialist (anti-British, anti-Entente) current” into a “bourgeois-nationalist movement in the service of the Japanese imperialists.” During these same years, the then Buryat political and cultural elite, both pre-revolutionary and party, was systematically purged. But with all this, the epic “Geser” was completely integrated into the context of socialist ideology.
By the mid-30s, the doctrine of the formation of a “world republic of Soviets”, based on the theory of “permanent revolution” of Leon Trotsky, finally gave way to another “Marxist” (in fact, Stalinist) theory of “building socialism in one single country” with the support on your own. Thus, the more specific doctrine of the formation of the vast Buryat-Mongol SSR within the USSR (with the annexation of the MPR and Inner Mongolia of China) ceased to be dominant in foreign policy Soviet Union in relation to China and Mongolia.
At the same time, the grandiose Lenin-Stalin experiment to create new national cultures and identities (including “Buryats”, “Buryat-Mongols” as something completely separate from the Mongols) in Buryatia was accompanied by the creation of the modern Buryat literary language, a new writing system for the Buryats based on the Latin rather than the vertical Mongolian alphabet. The lexical basis of the new artificially created language was not the Tsongol dialect, almost identical to the Khalkhas, but the Khorin dialect, which was more distant from it.
At first, the Buryat heroic epic “Geser” was perfectly integrated into this concept, whose “brand” had to be created and “promoted” international level as a unique asset of the new Buryat socialist nation. Fortunately, pre-revolutionary Buryat scientists Tsyben Zhamtsarano and Matvey Khangalov, as well as Soviet folklorists Sergei Baldaev and Ilya Madason, managed to scientifically record invaluable cultural material: a large number of different uligers about Geser. Fortunately, they still existed at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries in the oral tradition of the Irkutsk Buryats, free from Buddhist influence. It was these scientists who managed to record and bring to us the last breath of the departing religious and cultural tradition oral transmission of ancient knowledge about the earthly and heavenly (sacred) world.
Let us recall that all the known written (in the Mongolian script) East Buryat (Khorin) Uligers and the Mongolian version of the epic published in Beijing in 1715 existed in a greatly abbreviated form, in isolation from the original records of works about Geser and were clearly subject to ideological Buddhist indoctrination. In addition, they, unlike the voluminous poetic Western Buryat Uligers, had a small volume and were written in prose.
At the end of the 1930s, the international “pan-Mongolian and pro-Japanese spy organization” “associated” with Marshal Tukhachevsky himself was defeated, the leaders of which were allegedly the former Mongolian Prime Minister Genden, the first secretary of the Buryat-Mongolian regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Mikhei Erbanov and the USSR plenipotentiary representative in MPR, authorized representative of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in Mongolia Ruben Tairov. After which, in Buryat-Mongolia, the construction of a new Buryat culture “national in form and socialist in content” was continued. As different as possible from the general Mongolian culture.
The horses flew snoring towards the sunset.
Fire and the Word have been worshiped for generations.
Gesariad keeps silence
About the secrets of your origin.
But descendants remember the riders wisely,
Where does the ancient light of goodness come from:
Great voice of the nomadic morning,
Immortal lips uligershina.
Geser is not only central character Buryat heroic epic, but also the most popular character in Buryat folklore. His image brings together the best human traits and qualities. The creators of the epic saw in Geser a hero with an exalted soul and good thoughts; Geser goes towards fate, filled with faith in the justice of his destiny. He does not change his decisions and always achieves his goal. Geser is faithful in friendship, but adamant in the fight against
enemies. According to the norms of customary law of the clan society, Geser buries the defeated enemy according to ancient custom with military honors. At the same time, the hero says: “I should not boast that I suppressed the mighty enemy,” since he understands that the struggle is not yet over. Since the defeated opponent retains a circle of his loved ones, they can try to take revenge on the winner.
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Sampilov Ts.S. Sketches for the epic Geser | Sampilov Ts.S. Sketches for the epic Geser | Jamsaran (Tib. Jamstrin). Mon- Golia XIX |
Geser (Goviin lha). Mongolia XIX | Geser. Mongolia, mid-19th century. | |
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Tibetan cursive manuscript of the Gesariad | Pages of the Tibetan manuscript of the Gesariad | To the 275th anniversary of the publication of the Mongolian version of the Geseriad. Booklet | Distribution map of the Buryat Geser | ||
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Sakharovskaya A.N. Abay Geser | B.M. S. Zydrabyn. Illustration for the first branch of the Geser epic | E. Purevzhav. Geser Khan is on his way | Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser's victory over Gal-Nurman Khan | Shonkhorov Ch. B The birth of GESER on earth | Shonkhorov Ch.B.Last fight |
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Dorzhiev B. Songs about native land. 2005 | Shonkhorov Ch.B. Lobsogoldoy turned Geser into a donkey | Shonkhorov Ch.B.Last fight | Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser on the hunt | Shonkhorov Ch.B. Meeting of the Three Tengeri | |
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Shonkhorov Ch.B. War between Western and Eastern Tengris | Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser's fight with Mangadhai | Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser's fight against the Gani-Buhe gazarai | Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser rises to seventh heaven | Shonkhorov Ch.B. Illustration for the epic Geser | Sakharovskaya A.N. etc. Geser descends to the ground (batik) |
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Morinhur | Geser. Mongolia, early XIX V | I. Garmaev as Geser. 1995 |
The bearers and keepers of ancient epic traditions were their experts - the Uligershins. They enjoyed great honor and respect from the people. A proverb speaks about the love of the Buryats for storytellers: “Uligershin is supposed to sit on a pillow-olbok, and a singer is supposed to sit on a hill-dobun” or “Uligershin is treated to foam and cockroach, the storyteller is seated on a carpet and a pillow.”
At the time of the productivity of the epic tradition, the Uligers probably knew, if not all, then many. Even now, through a survey of people of the older generation, the names of many storytellers who performed uligers back in the 20s and 30s have been revealed. But not every uliger expert could become a good uliger. They were the best in skill and knowledge, possessing the appropriate talent. The narrator had to have an impeccable memory in order to convey huge epics consisting of thousands of verses without omissions or distortions, as required by tradition. Uliger could not be shortened or remade in his own way. His performance was assessed by listeners who knew the content of the uligers well. The singer had to have a sonorous, beautiful voice, an ear for music, a good command of words, and most importantly, be able to be inspired, for he “is a kind of inspired poet.” The narrator seemed to transform into a hero, selflessly surrendering to singing; with his voice, special intonations, gestures or playing the khur, he conveyed the features of the events taking place in the epic. This state of inspiration came to the uligershin only in front of listeners, “in a certain stimulating environment,” as Ts. Zhamtsarano writes.
Thus, a good uligershin was an actor, musician and poet all rolled into one. Such demands were conditioned by life itself and came from syncretism ancient art. And therefore it is not surprising that “a good rhapsode’s listeners cry in strong tragic places and express the liveliest joy when the truth suddenly triumphs.
Buryat storytellers were not professionals. Often, ordinary workers, people from poor backgrounds, became interested in the art of uliger storytelling; many of them worked as laborers in their youth.
Storytellers perceived texts from childhood, mainly in the family circle. Most of them had parents or grandparents as storytellers. In addition to family, the source of the repertoire could be folklore experts from their own or neighboring ulus. Thus, P. Petrov heard Uligershin in his childhood folklore works from his father, as well as from the storyteller from the neighboring village Tabaran Dorzhiev. Since there was no professional performance, there were no “schools” to become students of a storyteller. Over time, the storyteller’s repertoire, adopted through the family line, expanded and replenished. Most often this happened in places where people from different areas gathered.
According to epic scholars, the poetics of the Gesariad are highly organized, the verbal text is richly saturated with metaphors, hyperboles, antitheses and other artistic and visual means. The storytellers themselves had a good sense of rhythm and meter and used techniques for speeding up and slowing down the rhythm.
They skillfully varied various consonances, alliteration, internal and end rhymes. Storytellers often used such a technique as parallelism - psychological and syntactic. The epithet was distinguished by its freshness and novelty, although the stability of favorite definitions could be traced, as is typical for every epic: black and yellow colors are usually worn negative character, at the same time, the yellow color of certain objects - the hilt of a sword, the brush of a headdress - is perceived as positive. Positive colors are always white, red, silver.
Performing an uliger was not considered an easy task and was not only for entertainment purposes. Usually it was timed to coincide with some social event. Ts. Zhamtsarano noted: “Uligers are sung (sung) to achieve various benefits, for example, for the healing of the sick, for the sight of the blind, for success in trades, hunting, raids, while fishing, etc.; uliger contributes to success in campaigns.”
The production and ritual significance of the performance of the epic remained for a long time. The performance of uliger in the past was included as an integral element in the economic and everyday complex of the ancient collective. Thus, the specific purpose of the uliger is reflected in the ritual of hunting preparations of taiga hunters who were about to enter the world of forest animals. “Upon arrival at the hunting site, the Buryats performed certain rituals aimed at appeasing the spirits of animals and forests, on which one or another outcome of the hunt depended. Then, in the evening, before going to bed, the singer spread out his white felt in the hut (not stained with horse sweat), they placed lighted juniper branches on it, a cup of wine or milk, stuck an arrow into it and all night, until the first glimmer of dawn, they chanted protractedly their epic: without this ceremony, the hunt, according to the Buryats, could not be successful.”
This is how those uligershins (M. Imegenov, E. Shalbykov, L. Bardakhanov) with whom Ts. Zhamtsarano met and worked for a long time in the uluses of the Kudinskaya Valley of the Irkutsk province at the beginning of the 20th century understood the meaning of their storytelling work. He noted that to perform the uliger, a suitable audience is required, which means listeners who know the content of epic poems and understand the intricacies of the art of storytelling. However, the aesthetic side of the performance of the epic became more tangible and gradually began to dominate in the performing process. In the old days, at a time of active epic creativity, uligers were performed at a certain time or in a certain setting. Thus, the storyteller P. Petrov did not perform uligers in the summer (more precisely, after the winter cold) and during the daytime. Usually the uliger was performed in autumn and winter evenings in the circle of odnoulusniks. Listeners perceived uligers as memories of the historical past of the people. The perception of the uliger was marked by depth and seriousness, its impact was “cleansing” and had an impact on the spiritual mentality of the listeners. At the same time, one should take into account the enormous artistic impression made from the execution of the uliger.
“The Buryat epic “Geser” is a hymn to Man, a hymn to the Earth - in the name of saving Life on it”
(Ethnoecological aspects in the study of the Buryat epic “Geser”)
One of the contradictions of the modern era is the ever-deepening contradiction between society and nature. In this regard, the purposeful work of the school to form the initial concepts of environmental culture among the younger generation becomes extremely important.
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Municipal educational establishment Alarsky district
MBOU Alarskaya secondary school
Maraktaeva Svetlana Nikolaevna
“The Buryat epic “Geser” is a hymn to Man, a hymn to the Earth - in the name of saving Life on it”
(Ethnoecological aspects in the study of the Buryat epic “Geser”)
One of the contradictions of the modern era is the ever-deepening contradiction between society and nature. In this regard, the purposeful work of the school to form the initial concepts of environmental culture among the younger generation becomes extremely important.
In this case, environmental education should represent an integral system covering all aspects of human activity. It should have as its goal the formation of a person’s worldview, based on his unity with nature and the direction of his culture and all practical activities not on the exploitation of nature or even on preserving it in its original form, but on its development, capable of promoting the development of society.
It is necessary to reveal the contradiction between society and nature, to find ways to resolve this conflict.
Invaluable assistance in the process of environmental education can be provided by turning to folklore as an inexhaustible source of wisdom of the people in their relations with nature. One of the folklore genres is uliger.
The heroic epic "Geser" is a unique monument of the spiritual culture of the Buryat people. It is compared to a huge river that overflowed throughout Central Asia and the Far East.
Uligers allegorically and figuratively depict objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality. The beauty of uligers, fairy tales, myths, legends for children of any age is that they allow you to lift the veil of mystery over this or that object or phenomenon.
Most of the uligers have an environmental orientation, although at first glance it is not always noticeable.
“...He was born, they say, in ancient times, when the first tree was blossoming, when the mighty wapiti calved, he was born, they say, when the thick tree was still a bush, when the eldest of their khans was still lying in the cradle, they say he was born. When the wide Angara River was still flowing like a stream, When the abarga, a huge fish, was still a baby, he was born, they say..."
The fate of the great epic is tragic and triumphant. Thanks to the storytellers who possessed the enchanting power of folk poetry and passed it on from generation to generation, Geser is still with us today.
The entire narrative is permeated with an epic understanding of life: the confrontation of the ancient collective with the outside world takes place in a titanic struggle with hostile forces, and this struggle from the very beginning lies entirely on the shoulders of the uliger mergen (bator). The fulfillment of this destiny is always associated with the hero’s departure outside his native land, with his long trip and long stay on a foreign side. He faces obstacles, one more difficult than the other, the enemy replaces the enemy, delaying the achievement of the goal. In the descriptions of all kinds of road trials, the hero's combat with hostile forces, and pictures of nature, the ancient world appears in all its grandeur and pristine, harsh beauty, in the vastness of which epic events unfold: feats are accomplished, enemy strongholds are crushed, evil enemies and mythical monsters are destroyed. The epic world of the Uligers is full of bright colors of trumpet sounds: near the high mountains, in the wide Tamshinskaya steppe, the paths of the epic heroes and their eternal enemies - the Mangadhans - cross. The struggle between them is titanic in nature. Fellow tribesmen are drawn into the orbit of this powerful confrontation, miraculous forces and heavenly deities are called upon to help. The world of uliger images is rich and diverse: in the epic action, in addition to the main characters, many characters are involved: some of them form the entourage of the epic hero, others are the camp of the Mangadhai and other opponents opposing him. In this colorful, uliger world, animals take their place and play an active role. These characters are also divided into groups of friendly and hostile heroes.
In uligers of the “Alamzhi Mergen” type, the totemistic and animistic ideas of the ancients are reflected in various forms of figurative embodiment of fetishism. The personification of nature, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic characters, the depiction of people in uligers represent stages of the gradual development of the innermost meaning of various things and phenomena. Everything that exists - living beings, objects and natural phenomena - is endowed in the uliger with feeling and reason, and acts in real life conditions. Here we are dealing with the transfer of human properties to the creatures around him - an attempt to explain the unknown with the help of the known.
The uligers feature the image of an animated mountain, which becomes the refuge of a deceased hero and stores his body until a certain time. The image of a “living mountain” is present in archaic stories where a sister saves her brother by obtaining his betrothed – the resurrector. This image is undoubtedly based on the life experience of the ancient bearers of the epic. The mountain in uligers is also shown as a difficult obstacle on the hero’s path. Human experience and cognitive abilities developed in the process of long-term work, in the course of mastering the surrounding nature, comprehending its laws, the world of things and phenomena. A miraculous stone, a healing tree, living water, according to his concepts, have miraculous properties - with their help, in certain circumstances, you can revive the dead and heal the sick. For example, a stone can bring good luck, help those who are suffering, and bestow happiness.
The uliger glorifies water with its universal properties. It is spoken of as living water - “eternal black water” (munkhyn hara uhan), - resurrecting the dead, the sick, strengthening strength. Such water bubbles up at the top of a high mountain, and a tree and medicinal herbs grow nearby.
The epic also reflected the Buryat’s reverence for fire. The beginnings of the Uligers talk about how the hero builds a house, heats the stove, and the smoke from the chimney rises to the skies. The element of fire is embodied in the image of Gal-Dulme - khan. Images of forests, rivers, lakes, mountains appear in uligers at the stage of “split” of the image, in the person of their owners – zoomorphic and anthropomorphic creatures.
The sky and celestial phenomena occupied a large place in the ideas of people of the distant past. Ancient man spiritualized the sun, moon, stars, snow, rain, thunder, lightning. The sky was thought of as a certain higher being, predetermining the course of life and the nature of events on earth, at the same time spiritual and material. Like Geser, other heroes of the Uligers seem to receive heavenly origin. Drawing pictures of life in heaven, the uligershins recreate earthly orders that are consistent with the life, morals, and customs of people. Images of the hero's zoomorphic friends and his wonderful assistant appear mainly in stories about heroic matchmaking. Friends are ants, turtles, dogs, birds. The heroine's assistant in "Alamzhi Mergen" was the burbot fish, whose anthropomorphic double is Dalai Bayan Khan. Rescued or tamed animals are superior to the hero in some qualities, but still play a subordinate role in relation to him. The hero's zoomorphic opponents include the enemies of the animals he saved: a bear, a wolf, a motley bird.
The unity of nature and man is expressed in legends about the owners (ezhins) of rivers, mountains, forests, rivers, and localities. They appear as strong and powerful people: Gray Baikal, the beautiful Angara, the mighty Irkut, etc. On earth, Geser is born a second time and lives in the sunny country of the Larks, which in all its characteristic features resembles the Siberian region. Taiga, where cedars and larches grow, where arshans are found - healing springs. Where roe deer, wapiti, deer, and moose live. The hills and steppes are described, where flocks of sheep, herds of cows graze,herds of horses, Baikal and the Lena River are mentioned.
In the fight against rivals, Geser does not use heroic armor and weapons sent down “from above,” but his natural ingenuity and earthly tools. Geser's strength during battles with the Mangadhai lies not in his powerful physical abilities, but in his inextricable connection with the Earth and the people living on it. In the most difficult moments, his earthly wife, earthly children and earthly brothers-in-arms come to Geser’s aid. They save him by washing him not with divine eternal living water from the top of the world mountain, but with the water of earthly springs, healing springs, fumigating him with taiga heather (juniper).
Picturesque scenes of nature, taiga, inaccessible rocks, steppes, stormy rivers, Lake Baikal, the Baikal mountains covered with coniferous and deciduous trees are realistically described.
Thus, the Buryat epic “Geser” is essentially a hymn to Man, a hymn to the Earth - in the name of saving Life on it.
“... He was born and rose on a healing, nourishing land, with countless lambs. He settled as a master on a healing, healing land, with countless kids. He was born the owner of a blooming, beautiful land, blown from the lunar side. He was born the owner of a green, flowering land, sunny side, fanned...” (from the epic “Alamzhi Mergen”).
“Geser” - this is a hymn of love for one’s land. “ Do not allow the enemy to approach your native land, do not waithim, but go out to meet him, there he will be defeated” - this is one of the most important motives of this epic tale.
The Buryat people have always respected the environment and have always strived to do everything in accordance with nature. Based on Buryat traditions, in this case, using the example of the epic, I teach children to respect nature. Everyone should follow these simple principles of behavior in nature:
1. In sacred places where rituals of worship to the owners of these places are performed, you cannot kill wild animals, you cannot cut down a tree. The spirits of our ancestors live here. In our village this is Mount Sorgothoi, special places of rituals are Ubgete (each clan has its own place).
2. Our ancestors considered it a great sin (yehe seer) to cut down a tree unnecessarily, throw garbage into the water, dig the ground unnecessarily (ask the owner of this place for permission, that is, the spirits). The basic rule that must be followed by everyone: “Do not take from nature more than what is required.”
Using the example of the traditions of the Buryat and Russian peoples, I lead children to the conclusion that this folk wisdom can and should be followed in our time.
“To someone who has been deaf to nature since childhood, who in childhood did not pick up a chick that had fallen from the nest, who did not discover the beauty of the first spring grass, then it will be difficult to reach him with a sense of beauty, a sense of poetry, and maybe even simple humanity.” - V.A. Sukhomlinsky.
List of basic and additional literature
- Batorov P.P. Digest of articles. Irkutsk, 2006
- Vasilyeva M.S. Buryat and Russian environmental traditions. Ulan-Ude, 2002
- Hymn to man, hymn to the earth “Abai Geser”, S. Chagdurov, Ulan-Ude, 1995.
- Zimin Zh.A. History of the Alar region. Irkutsk, 1996
- Zimin Zh.A. Local history. Ust-Orda, 1992
- Kozin S.A. The hidden legend of the Mongols. Ulan-Ude, 1990
- Magtaal, ureel, solo. Ulan-Ude, 1993
- Scientific publication – Buryat heroic epic “Alamzhi Mergen”, Novosibirsk, “Science”, 1991.
- Prelovsky A, “Great Geser” (version of uligershin by Pyokhon Petrov), Moscow, 1999.