Translator Ye. Khundaeva

© Ye. Khundaeva, translation, 2017

ISBN 978-5-4485-5862-7

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

The book contains the text of the translation to the English language of the unique epical monument of the Buryat people “Abai Geser the Mighty” written down from one of the gifted Buryat epic-tellers Manshud Imegenov by an outstanding expert of the Buryat folklore Ts. Jamtsarano. Consideration is given to the general characteristics and contents, the epical heroes, the cults and rituals, the traditions and customs, the natural phenomena and some other issues. It is argued that the rudiments or the first lines that gave the beginning to the text of the present “Geser” epic appeared in the earlier times when there were no religions, there were only some cults and beliefs wholly based on the observations of the natural phenomena. The author of the epic “Geser” is the common folk known as the Buryats. The hints concerning the religions were incorporated in the text much later. The manuscripts and block-prints in the Old-Mongolian script are briefly discussed.

The book is intended for the experts in folklore, literature, cultural and religious studies, ethnography and all those interested in the spiritual culture of the Buryat people.

Preface

In 1906 one of variants of the Buryat epic “Geser” was recorded by Ts. Zh. Zhamtsarano from a well-known Buryat rhapsode Manshud Imegenov (Emegenov) in the Kukunut ulus (now the Ekhirit-Bulagat district, Irkutsk province). The epic shows how Geser was sent to the Earth by the Tengris – the celestial deities. He performs his heroic deeds for the people’s happiness and peace. The epic depicts the mythological level of consciousness. One of the best folklore traditions of the Buryat people, the heroic epic of the mighty hero-bator and liberator of the whole world from all evil is a wonderful creation of the gifted epic-tellers – uligershins who came from the common people and partook of the rich spiritual and world view heritage of their people and expressed it with help of the magic of word.

Many people have the fascinating tales narrating of the ideals of kindness and fairness.These are the following: the Uzbek “Alpamysh”, the Kyrgiz “Manas”, the Turkmen Gyor-ogly; the Kalmyck “Jangar”, the Anglo-Saxon “Beowulf”, the French knights’ novel ‘Tristan and Isolda’, the Karel and Finnish ‘Kalevala’, the Evenki Nimngakans, the Sakha-yakut ‘Nyurgun-bootur’, ‘Meldiu the Mighty, etc. All of them sing glory to life and beauty, kindness and fairness, common sense and wisdom of men, their struggle for the highest ideals, happiness, love and prosperity. The Buryat Geseriade is a unique creation of the Buryat people, it’s very big and surpasses in size the epics of many other peoples. It is sometimes called the Iliade of Central Asia. The Geseriade is spread on the vast territory from the tropical Ganges, a river in North India and Bangladesh flowing from the Himalayas into the cape of Bengal, to the cold Amur in North-East Asia; from the sunlit Yellow river in East China to the cool Lena in East Siberia.

Part 1. The buryat heroic epic “Geser”

One of the best folklore traditions of the Buryat people, the heroic epic of the mighty hero-bator and liberator of the whole world from all the evil Geser is a wonderful creation of the gifted epic-tellers or uligershins who came from the common people and partook of the rich spiritual heritage of their own people.

Many people have the fascinating tales narrating of the ideals of strength, kindness and fairness, devotion to one’s motherland and its defense. One can mention some of them: the Kalmyck “Djangar”, the Evenki nimngakans, the Sakha-yakut “Nyurgun-bootur”, the Kazakh “Кобланды батыр”, the Uzbek “Alpamysh”, the Kyrgiz “Manas”, the Turkmen “Gyor-ogly”, the Anglo-Saxon “Beowulf”, the Greek “Iliada”, the Karel and Finnish “Kalevala” and many others.

All of them sing glory to life and beauty, kindness and fairness, common sense and wisdom, the struggle of the people for the highest ideals, happiness and prosperity.

The Geseriade is a unique creation of the Buryat people, it’s very big and surpasses in size the epics of many other peoples. The Geseriade is spread on the vast territory from the tropical Ganges in North India and Bangladesh flowing from the Himalayas into the cape of Bengal, to the cold Amur in North-East Asia; from the sunlit Yellow river in East China to the cool Lena in East Siberia. The heroic epic of the Buryat people narrates of the noble deeds of Geser liberating the people from the evil, of his battles with the monsters preventing the people from living in peace and harmony. Not infrequently those monsters- mangadkhais personified the powerful, threatening forces of Nature that were beyond understanding of the common folk. They were quite unaware of their origin and the cause for their being merciless. Therefore those powerful forces were taken as, say, Gal-Nurman Khan who was the symbol of one of the prime elements – the Fire, the oppressive heat and drought or Loir Lobsogoldoi who was the personification of another prime element, the Water, the flood and overflow that badly damaged and injured the people, animals and plants. One could add here the monster Orgoli who was taken as Master of the thick forests and could deprive the hunters of their game or sometimes took up their lives. Then there was Shereem Minata khan with an iron whip and a pig iron thigh who possibly symbolized the starting point of the blacksmith shop, the first steps in mastering the art of forging. The sparks and flames coming from the glowing incandescent metal were perceived by the ancient forefathers of the Buryats as a threatening iron whip which might burn or dazzle. One might as well recall the epical devil Arkhan who wanted to swallow the Sun and the Moon and plunge the Earth into the darkness. This might be the symbolical representation of the Sun and the Moon eclipse in the perception of the ancient Buryats. Geser also fights with the alien tribes who threatened the peaceful life of his kinsmen. In the epic those are the Sharaldai Khans. The heroic and fair Geser-bator fights with those evil forces.

On the other hand, the Buryat epic sings glory to the same natural prime elements. Not only do those forces of nature harm the people but they do them a lot of good. Man could not get on without the fire, water, gifts of the thick forests including the wood, plants, game, etc. Man realized it far too well. He felt that the fire, water, woods, stone, metal and the like possessed the positive qualities too.They helped him survive. There was more favourable in them than negative. So he worshipped them, took them to be sacral. Hence there were many cults, that (здесь: культ) of the Sky, for example, though it sent down to the Earth the thunderstorm and lightening, heavy rain and floods, etc. There was the cult of the Sun and the Moon which is closely connected with the light, heat and fire. One cannot but mention the cult of the Water, lakes and rivers, as well as the cult of the Master of the taiga (the thick forest) that provided the people with the food and wood. There were many other cults. Since there were the sacral cults there certainly were the cult rituals, the sacral ceremonies which were to persuade the divinities in charge of the natural forces help the people survive and protect them from the evil spirits. Each hardship in life was thought to be directly connected with the unkind spirits whom it was needed to keep away with the help of the deities.

This double nature of the earthly and cosmic elements interfering with the life of the Man was the reason for the appearance of the numerous pantheons of the gods, sky-dwellers or divinities. They had special names and were in charge of the specific meteorological and other phenomena. Naran Gerel tengri (the deity of the Sunlight) was in charge of the sunny days, Oyor Sagan tengri (the white bottom sky) was in charge of the cloudless weather. The following divinities come the first among the rest of the Heavens according to their role and status: Yekhe Ekhe tengri (Great Mother the goddess, the eldest goddesses Manzan Gurme and Mayas Khara. One could also mention Esege Malan tengri (the bald-headed or cloudless Sky) whose supreme sacredness prevented him from being active and in reality he was too quiet and idle. Then there come Khormusta tengri, Atai Ulan tengri, Zayan Sagan tengri (The White Creator, who represent the older generation of the divinities.

The sense and cult perception of the world made the Buryat people depict the epical personages either as men with some extraordinary features (the anthropomorphous creatures) or the animals with the exaggerated grotesqueness (the zoomorphous creatures or just the mixed types bearing the features both of the human being and the animal (the mixmorphous creatures). One can understand why it was so. The powerful forces excited fear, so that the people gave those inexplicable phenomena like the lightning or the space and time some fantastic mysterious coloring.

As a consequence the Buryat tales give the exaggerated grotesque fantastic descriptions of the personages irrespective of their being either positive or negative. Some are horrible, ugly and fearful whereas the others are the ideals of beauty, strength and generosity. The former are quite fear-exciting with the many eyes, many heads, sharp claws and teeth covered with the snakes, blowing out the flame and sparks. The latter are well-built, strong and slender, handsome and attractive, kind and open-handed.

The Geseriade, a well-known epical work of the Buryat people, was in the focus of the scholars in Europe and Russia in the course of almost two hundred years. Most prominent are the two narrative traditions of the Buryat epic of Geser, they are the Ekhirit-Bulagat and the Unga variants. The former is considered to be an archaic one whereas the latter dates back to a later period. There are still the other variants of the same heroic epopee, e.g. the Khorinsk variant which has been studied least of all up to now. The interest in the epic which is the cultural heritage of the Buryats has increased. Many talented investigators made contribution to the study of this monumental creation of the Buryat nation. The various narrative traditions and the historical and ethnographical background were studied by Ts. Damdinsuren, A.I.Ulanov, N.O.Sharakshinova, M.P.Khomonov, S.Yu.Nekludov, S.Sh.Chagdurov, E. A. Ulanov, B.S.Dugarov, D.A.Burchina and many other investigators.