Esenova, Tamara

Kokshaeva, Nina

Omakaeva, Ellara

English

Journal.fi

Writing in the Altaic World Studia Orientalia 87, Helsinki 1999, pp. 195-200Kalmyk history and traditionsas reflected in Oirat manuscriptsEllara OmakaevaTamara Esenova & Nina KokshaevaThe Kalmyks, the Mongolic people living on the lower reaches of theriver Volga, have a rich traditional culture. Although closely linked withthe other Central Asian nomadic peoples, the Kalmyks have historical andethnocultural peculiarities which distinguish them from their easternrelatives. The Oirat ancestors of the Volga Kalmyks left Jungaria for theCaspian steppes in the early 17th century. Arriving in thei¡ new land, theychanged their environment in all respects: climate, way of life, linguisticsurroundings, and even religion.As is well known, ZayaPandita, the author of the Todo scnpt playeda crucial role in the introduction of Buddhism among the Volga Kalmyks.Sub.sequently, Buddhist temples and monasteries used to be the mostimportant centres of Kalmyk culture and education. In the 1930s, how-ever, the temples were destroyed, and monks arrested or even killed.Many ancient manuscripts were burnt during that time. Therefore, onlyvery small collections of Oirat sources are preserved today at learnedinstitutions like the Kalmyk Institute of Humanities and AppliedSciences and the Kalmyk National Museum in Elista.The present paper consists of two separate surveys, each of whichfocusses on an actual sample of Oirat manuscripts. The first section,written by Ellara Omakaeva, concentrates on manuscripts pertaining tothe ancient beliefs and rituals of the Kalmyks. The second section, byTamara Esenova and Nina Kokshaeva, presents an analysis of selectedletters written on behalf of two historical Kalmyk Khans. Both samplesillustrate the significance of manuscript materials for various types ofdiachronic and synchronic research.Sources on Kalmyk traditional beliefsThe ancient beliefs of the Kalmyks are closely connected with the worshipof fire, ancestors, and celestial bodies: the Sun, the Moon, stars and con-stellations. These beliefs are reflected by the rituals performed during theimportant events of human life: birth, marrige, and death. For instance,195196 Ellara Omakaevawhen a child is born, the Kalmyks traditionally perform various magicalceremonies. The most important ritual concerns the purification of thenew-born child, usually connected with the rite of name-giving. The ritualof purification must be performed within the first month after birth. Theparents go to the astrologer to ask him to define the destiny of the childand to fix the day for the ritual.While many such rituals are today falling into oblivion, manuscriptsoffer a source for the verification of field observations, and, possibly,even for the revival of the rituals. An example of an important manu-script connected with a specific ritual is Berin bolog <Chapter of thebride> (F. 15, op.3, ed.297, the archival numbers referto the collectionof the Kalmyk Institute of Humanities and Applied Sciences). Dealing withthe wedding ceremony, it gives prescriptions concerning the hour whenthe bride must leave her home, the man who must seat her on the horse,the colour of the horse, the prayers to be read, and so on.Funeral rites and ceremonies are described in the Ukugseni bolog<Chapter of the Dead> (F. 15, op.3, ed.293). This ritual text is knownamong Mongolists under the name Altan saba <Golden Vessel>. TheOirat manuscript, however, has a different name. When the funeral ritesfor the corpse have been concluded, the people return home and performa ceremony of purification. The purpose of this ceremony is to avoid mis-fortunes, which may have been emitted by the spirit of the deceased. Theverbal part of the ritual is the prayet text Amida-ece xagacan ulegsendalaha (F. 15, op. 3, ed. 301).Calendar rites and festivals are very important sources for the studyof the Kalmyk traditional culture. The Kalmyks have three types ofcalendar systems: the ancient seasonal calendar, the l2-year animal cycle,and the 60-year cycle. These calendar systems used to play an importantrole in the life of the Kalmyks. Relevant rituals include iilin yasalga andmengin yasalga. The former is performed periodically every 12thyear-at the age of 12,24,36, and so on. The latter, on the other hand, isperformed every 9th year-at the age of 9, 18, 27, and so on. Interestinginformation concerning the origin of the latter ritual is given by amanuscript titled Menggiyin gol (F. 15, op. 3, ed. 303):<<In India there lived a khan whose name was Nakbo. He had a daughter. He had alarge and magnificent palace, as well as wise officials. By birth he was of the year ofthe Tiger. rWhen he was twenty seven years old, the year of the Dragon arrived andeverything changed. His palace became small, his family decreased. In his dream heheard a voice: <Your misfortunes come from the fact that you fell under nine yearlyeyes and nine cow eyes [?]. To the east of you lives Gyanze, the ruler of the BlackChinese. Send your officials to him and ask him to bum up all your misfortunes andsufferings>. When the khan woke up, he did accordingly. >Kalmyk history and traditions in Oirat manuscripts r97The most common festivals of the Kalmyks are Zul, Cagan ^Sar, andUrus Sar. Zul <<Candle> is a lamp festival with a religious content,celebrated on the 25th day of the first winter month. It may also beregarded as a kind of Kalmyk New Year, during which every womanbecomes one year older. Cagan,Sar <White Month> marks the LunarNew Year and is the spring festival, closely connected with the worship ofOkon Tengri, an ancient goddess of Pre-Buddhist origin. The thirdfestival is Ur¡rs Sar, a festival of summer. It is also known as Urus Ova,because it is closely connected with the phenomenon of ova (obo)veneration, the Kalmyk variety of mountain cult. Another importantannual event is Ukur Sar, celebrated in November or December incommemoration of the death of Tsongkhapa.The number of calendar rites and festivals used to be larger, but manyof them are now almost forgotten. Two examples are offered by Usun-Arsan <<Water Consecration> in September, and Jilin Ezen <The Lord ofthe Year> in December, when eveÍy man becomes one year older. Thelatter festival is connected with the worship of the <White Old Man>r,Cagan Abu. According to the Oi¡at manuscript Gazar-usuni nomgodxandaruulan cidagci sudur (F. 15, op. 3, ed. 163), the White Old Man is theruler of all beings, the Holder of the Universe, who descends fromHeaven on the 2nd and the 16th of every lunar month.In the study of ancient beliefs and rituals, it is essential to give apragmatic interpretation of the relevant verbal component. The verbalcomponent of a ritual is a prayer. Kalmyk prayer texts can be divided intothree main types:(l) The first type involves causative texts, which are typically eitherblessings, yorol, with a positive meaning, or curses, xaral, with anegative intention. The purpose of this type of texts is to cause or createthe desired state of things.(2) The second type is formed by sacrificial texts, including suchgenres as offering texts, takil, invocations, dalalga, and insense ritualtexts, sang.(3) The third type comprises preventative texts, which are supposedto turn off or destroy the negative state of things, such as an illness. Thisthird type is exemplified by manuscripts such as Xara keleni bicig orXara keleni urbagci sudur (F. 8, op. 1, ed. 125), which is connected withthe ritual of <Cutting the Black Tongue>>. There are many variants of thisprayer text.The analysis of early prayer texts reveals a wide variety of formaldifferences. The semantic interpretation of a text is actualized only in thecontext of the verbal ritual, Unfortunately, synchronic freldwork onprayers is increasingly difficult in view of the rapid decline of traditional198 Ellara Omakaevaculture. It is also difficult to make the results of the research available forthe younger generations of Kalmyks, who lack a knowledge of the ancientwriting system and, in many cases, of the Kalmyk language itself. Never-theless, both fieldwork and manuscript analysis are going on, and it maybe hoped that the emerging understanding of the traditional beliefs andrituals will help to preserve the cultural heritage of the Kalmyks as asymbol of Kalmyk ethnic identity.Letters of the Kalmyk KhansThe name of Auka Khan is famous, but in the historical literature thereare different opinions about his role in Kalmyk history. According to oneopinion, expressed by Bichurin, Auka Khan was of use to Russia as amilitary leader but he harmed Russia with his recalcitrance and wish ofindependence. According to another Russian historian, Pal'mov, the gloryof Auka Khan personified the glory of the Kalmyks. When Auka Khandied, his glory died and so did the glory of the Kalmyk people. Howeverthis may have been, Auka Khan was a remarkable person in Kalmykhistory. The time of his government was a brilliant period in the politicalhistory of the Kalmyks under Russia.If Auka Khan is a well-known man, his son Chagdorzhab is not asfamous. He was the oldest of the eight sons of Auka Khan, and became afamous general as well as a skilful diplomat. Chagdorzhab greatly helpedhis father in the battlefield. Thus, he suppressed the Bashkir uprising inSeptember 1710, took the field against the Kuban Sultan in [711,conquered the Tatars of Kuban, and reconciled Sultan Bakhtu-girey withAuka Khan.In their capacity of famous military and political leaders of theKalmyks, both Auka Khan and Chagdorzhab had a wide correspondencewith the Russian administration. Some linguistic aspects of this cor-respondence have been studied previously by Pavlov and Ubushaev:(phonetics), as well as Luvsanbaldan (morphology, phonetics). Nobody,however, has analyzed the letters from the point of view of etiquette,although etiquette is one of the most important features of traditionalculture. Kalmyks, like all ethnic groups, use different expressional meansfor different situations of life, such as greeting, leaving, presentation, andgratitude. The verbal etiquette always includes some information aboutthe age, sex, and social status of the communicator. But etiquette, being avery contextualized part of the culture is easily transformed during socialchanges and under alien cultural influences.In order to study the traditional etiquette of the Kalmyks, we haveinvestigated altogether ten letters of Auka Khan and thirteen letters ofKalmyk history and traditions in Oirat manuscripts 199Chagdorzhab. Atl these letters are preserved in the National Archives ofthe Kalmyk Republic, and they are analysed here for the first time. Theletters are written on white paper by hand using the Todo script, and theydate probably from the years between 1702 and 1715. Some of the lettersare written very carefully, with spaces between words and phrases, andwith the ends of the words indicated clearly. Some others are, however,written dimly in a rather unclear handwriting. It may be concluded thatthere were several scribes and copyists. All letters were written by<<clerks>>, not by the khans themselves. This confirms the opinion thatAuka Khan was an illiterate man.All the letters are addressed to Mikhail Ilyich Chirikov, the mayor ofAstrakhan, who was in charge of Kalmyk affairs. It is, however, inter-esting to note that the letters contain almost no direct statementsconcerning government affairs. Instead, in some letters Chagdorzhab asksfor gun powder, lead, wine, vodka and tobacco. Vodka and wine were notmentioned directly, but the formulation was: <<Send me what I likeò or<That was something that I liked very much>>. Only in two letters doesChagdorzhab inform Chirikov about political matters, such as a forceddislocation and movements of the Kalmyks.Each letter typically consists of three parts: an introduction, a mainpart and a conclusion. Moreover, all letters have the same standard formfor the introductory and conclusive sections. [t is only in the main part ofthe letters that some formal differences can be found. All letters bear theseals of Auka Khan and Chagdorzhab. In this connection, Chagdorzhabused the seal of the Kalmyk Khans, given to him by Auka Khan. This wasa seal originally sent by the Dalai Lama to Auka Khan, who in 1714declared Chagdorzhab as his successor.The beginning phrase of all letters is; Auka Khan ende bidn mendu<<Auka Khan here, we are well>>, or: Chagdorzhab ende bidn mendu<Chagdorzhab here, we are well>>. After this, there comes a parallelphrase: Tende Aidarqani Bayar mendu beyize <<There Astrakhan Boyarin,I hope, is [also] well>>. Then follows the main part of the letter, which isthe section containing, or asking for, information. In one letter issued byChagdorzhab there is an interesting statement: <<If there are news, do nothide them, but tell them to us>>.Throughout the letters, the tone of writing conveys the impressionthat Auka Khan and Chagdorzhab considered the <Astrakhan Boyarin> tobe of a lower rank than themselves. No titles, neither of the KalmykKhans nor of Chirikov-with the exception of the term <<Boya¡i¡¡¡-¿¡smentioned: only the names are given. No self-humiliation, no servilitiesor self-elevations can be found. The conspicuous absence of long defi-nitions of status, such as those used, for instance, in the Arabian and200 Tamara Esenova & Nina KokshaevaMiddle Eastern letter writing traditions, may be regarded as typical of theKalmyk etiquette. This is a feature that survives up to the present day.The initial phrasing of modern letters has, however, been adapted tofollow Russian examples.The end phrase of all letters is invariably: Elechin aman-du uge bei<In the mouth of the servant there are words>. This implies that besidesthe written message there was an oral one. There is no doubt that this oralmessage was the main content of the communication, and the written letterwas only supposed to accompany it. There are many reasons why themessage had to be kept in oral form. Times were uncertain, and militaryconflicts were not uncommon.It may be recalled that oral letters were already favoured by theancient Mongols. For instance, Chinggis Khan and Dzamukha passed oralletters before battles. This tradition was obviously retained by the laterKalmyk Khans. It allowed them to keep their written messages very briefand laconic. The average length of the letters is just 30 to 40 words.Perhaps this way of communicating was suitable for the Kalmyk nationalcharacter, which even today is often considered to be somewhat reservedand unemotional.

Kalmyk History and Traditions as Reflected in Oirat Manuscripts

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Kalmyk History and Traditions as Reflected in Oirat Manuscripts

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