Sacredness of the Landscape of Vokė River in the Geography of Tatar Life Stories

IF 0.1 Q4 HISTORY
Lina Leparskienė
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 The life stories of the Tatars from the village of Keturiasdešimt Totorių (Old Russian – Sorok Tatary, Eng. – Forty Tatars) and former Tatar settlement of Afindeviči (now part of Grigiškės town) provided pretext to explore the given territory as spiritual realm. The sacredness in the article is seen not only as a domain of religion, but also as a behaviour, a way of thinking about oneself, others and the surrounding environment. In 2020–2022 recorded life stories are analysed in the context of Christian literature from the 17th century, when Vokė River was inscribed in the sacred Catholic geography as a meaningful landmark of pilgrimage from Vilnius to Trakai. And it was one of the factors that negatively changed attitudes towards Muslim in this epoch of Counterreformation.
 Cultural space of the Vokė River in the article is presented from three different perspectives. The first one belongs to the paradigm of the Catholic worldview, re- flected in the 17th century literature of the authors related to Trakai: the anti-Muslim text written by Piotr Czyżewski entitled “The Real Tatar Alfurkan Divided into 40 Parts”, the religious cycle of epodes of Mathias Casimirus Sarbievius, entitled “The Four Miles of Virgin Mary or A Joyous Public Procession to the Temple of the Virgin Mary in Trakai” and the book by the dean of Trakai Symon Mankiewicz “The Trakai Parish Church, the Miracles of Our Lady Mother of God explained, by the Priest Symon Mankiewicz of the bishopric of Samogitia diocese newly exposed to the world”. Even though this literature reflects the attitude towards Muslims of only one side, it also testifies people’s behaviour where rules dictated by culture and religion were violated when danger to health or life arose. As follows from this literature, at that time the Muslim could pray at the image of Our Lady of Trakai, and a Christian seek to cure the disease with help of Tatar ‘sorcery’. Therefore, the second perspective explores Vokė as a space that has attracted people of various denominations in search for help to recover health and spiritual state of mind thanks to knowledge and mysterious power of Tatar healers, known as ‘faldjey’ (Pol. fałdżej). The portrait and activities of probably the last faldjey from those places was illuminated by his living granddaughters, whose childhood has passed listening for incredible stories of grandfather power over demons.
 In the third perspective, the Vokė River valley emerges as a place of Tatar pilgrimage. The most important religious centre here is the mosque of the village of the Forty Tatars, meanwhile the memory stories reveal the importance of existing and disappeared cemeteries. Operating cemeteries are still visited during Mus- lim holidays and Ramadan, and those that have disappeared are remembered via storytelling. While moving to those places both mentally and physically, local Tatars keep ties with their living and deceased compatriots, experiencing a sense of ‘tatarness’ and resilience of identity as well as reconciliation with history and neighbourhood they were ought to live.
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The cultural landscape of the Vokė River (the right confluent of Neris) in the article is approached as sacred space for local Lithuanian Tatars, who have settled near this river in the end of the 14th century. There are many Tatar origin place names along Vokė, indicating how densely the area was inhabited by this Muslim community. Some villages ceased to be inhabited quite a long time ago, although older people know the precise places of the old cemeteries and mosques that have vanished or were destroyed. In their life stories the landscape of Vokė emerged as a home of many generations, space of ancestral graves and Muslim faith, as well as a realm of peaceful neighbourhood with Christians and Jews. The life stories of the Tatars from the village of Keturiasdešimt Totorių (Old Russian – Sorok Tatary, Eng. – Forty Tatars) and former Tatar settlement of Afindeviči (now part of Grigiškės town) provided pretext to explore the given territory as spiritual realm. The sacredness in the article is seen not only as a domain of religion, but also as a behaviour, a way of thinking about oneself, others and the surrounding environment. In 2020–2022 recorded life stories are analysed in the context of Christian literature from the 17th century, when Vokė River was inscribed in the sacred Catholic geography as a meaningful landmark of pilgrimage from Vilnius to Trakai. And it was one of the factors that negatively changed attitudes towards Muslim in this epoch of Counterreformation. Cultural space of the Vokė River in the article is presented from three different perspectives. The first one belongs to the paradigm of the Catholic worldview, re- flected in the 17th century literature of the authors related to Trakai: the anti-Muslim text written by Piotr Czyżewski entitled “The Real Tatar Alfurkan Divided into 40 Parts”, the religious cycle of epodes of Mathias Casimirus Sarbievius, entitled “The Four Miles of Virgin Mary or A Joyous Public Procession to the Temple of the Virgin Mary in Trakai” and the book by the dean of Trakai Symon Mankiewicz “The Trakai Parish Church, the Miracles of Our Lady Mother of God explained, by the Priest Symon Mankiewicz of the bishopric of Samogitia diocese newly exposed to the world”. Even though this literature reflects the attitude towards Muslims of only one side, it also testifies people’s behaviour where rules dictated by culture and religion were violated when danger to health or life arose. As follows from this literature, at that time the Muslim could pray at the image of Our Lady of Trakai, and a Christian seek to cure the disease with help of Tatar ‘sorcery’. Therefore, the second perspective explores Vokė as a space that has attracted people of various denominations in search for help to recover health and spiritual state of mind thanks to knowledge and mysterious power of Tatar healers, known as ‘faldjey’ (Pol. fałdżej). The portrait and activities of probably the last faldjey from those places was illuminated by his living granddaughters, whose childhood has passed listening for incredible stories of grandfather power over demons. In the third perspective, the Vokė River valley emerges as a place of Tatar pilgrimage. The most important religious centre here is the mosque of the village of the Forty Tatars, meanwhile the memory stories reveal the importance of existing and disappeared cemeteries. Operating cemeteries are still visited during Mus- lim holidays and Ramadan, and those that have disappeared are remembered via storytelling. While moving to those places both mentally and physically, local Tatars keep ties with their living and deceased compatriots, experiencing a sense of ‘tatarness’ and resilience of identity as well as reconciliation with history and neighbourhood they were ought to live.
鞑靼人生活故事地理学中沃克伊河景观的神圣性
在这篇文章中,vokvili河(Neris河的右边汇合处)的文化景观被视为当地立陶宛鞑靼人的神圣空间,他们在14世纪末定居在这条河附近。vokkv沿线有许多鞑靼人起源的地名,表明该地区居住着穆斯林社区。有些村庄很久以前就没有人居住了,尽管老年人知道那些已经消失或被摧毁的旧墓地和清真寺的确切位置。在他们的生活故事中,沃科伊的风景成为了几代人的家园,祖先的坟墓和穆斯林信仰的空间,以及基督徒和犹太人的和平社区。来自Keturiasdešimt totorii村(古俄语- Sorok Tatary,英国)的鞑靼人的生活故事。- 40个鞑靼人)和前鞑靼人在afindevi的定居点(现在是Grigiškės镇的一部分)提供了借口来探索指定的领土作为精神领域。文章中的神圣性不仅被视为宗教的一个领域,而且被视为一种行为,一种思考自己、他人和周围环境的方式。在2020-2022年期间,将在17世纪的基督教文学背景下分析记录的生活故事,当时vokvili河被作为从维尔纽斯到特拉凯朝圣的有意义的地标写在神圣的天主教地理中。这也是在这个反宗教改革时期对穆斯林态度发生消极变化的因素之一。文章从三个不同的角度来呈现沃克河的文化空间。第一个属于天主教世界观的范式,反映在17世纪与特拉凯有关的作者的文学作品中:彼得·Czyżewski所写的反穆斯林文本《真正的鞑靼人的阿尔福尔坎分为40部分》,马蒂亚斯·卡西米鲁斯·萨比耶维乌斯的宗教周期,题为《圣母玛利亚的四英里路或前往特拉凯圣母玛利亚神庙的欢乐公众游行》,以及特拉凯院长西蒙·曼凯维奇的书《特拉凯教区教堂,圣母玛利亚的奇迹解释》,由萨莫吉希亚教区主教西蒙·曼凯维奇神父所作,新曝光于世。尽管这些文献只反映了一方对穆斯林的态度,但它也证明了当健康或生命受到威胁时,违反文化和宗教规定的人们的行为。从这些文献中可以看到,当时穆斯林可以在特拉凯圣母像前祈祷,而基督徒则在鞑靼人的“巫术”的帮助下寻求治愈疾病的方法。因此,第二种视角探索了vokkv作为一个空间,它吸引了各种教派的人们寻求帮助,以恢复健康和精神状态,这要归功于鞑靼治疗师的知识和神秘力量,被称为“faldjey”(波尔。fałdżej)。这些地方的最后一位法尔杰的画像和活动可能是由他在世的孙女们照亮的,他们的童年已经过去了,听着祖父用力量战胜恶魔的令人难以置信的故事。在第三个视角中,沃克尤河谷成为了鞑靼人朝圣的地方。这里最重要的宗教中心是四十鞑靼村的清真寺,同时,记忆故事揭示了现存和消失的墓地的重要性。在斋月和斋月期间,人们仍然会去参观那些正在运作的墓地,而那些已经消失的墓地则通过讲故事来纪念。在精神上和身体上移居到这些地方的同时,当地的鞑靼人与他们活着的和已故的同胞保持着联系,体验着一种“鞑靼人”的感觉和身份的弹性,以及与他们应该生活的历史和社区的和解。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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