Specificity of the new field material in the corpus of the volume of non-fairytale prose of Buryats

Abstract

At present, the manuscript of the volume “The non-fairytale prose of the Buryats,” compiled for the series “Monuments of Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East,” presents the etiological, mythological, legendary, historical narratives that are the most characteristic of the Buryat ethnic tradition. Despite covering the most characteristic thematic plots and motives of the non-fairytale prose of Buryats, the text lacks mythological works and stories with a mythological basis. This lacuna can be somewhat filled by expeditionary records made in Inner Mongolia region of China from the ethno-territorial group of Buryats living in the Shenehen area. Thus, it is proposed to include the mythological stories about how the first people appeared, why the constellation of Ursa Major is called the Seven Elders, why Buryuats began to read the lamb scapula. Noteworthy are the records featuring a supreme deity of heavenly origin as the main character, the initiator of ordering the sequence of changing years and creating a twelve-year calendar cycle, each year corresponding to one of the animals. Al-so, it is worth including the “explanatory” stories, recorded among the Buryats of Inner Mongolia, based on the people’s ancient knowledge of the ethnological peculiarities of Buryat life. Thus, the forthcoming volume will include authentic textual sources based on ancient mythological views of people about the existing universe and world order, shamans and lamas having magic powers, foresight, and other non-standard superpowers, also based on explaining the specificity of ethnic elements of Buryat culture and everyday life.