Функциональное назначение некоторых обрядов бурят, посвященных всеобщему благополучию и лучшему перерождению

Abstract

Introduction. Nowadays lay Buddhist rites pertaining to everyday life and dealing with community, group, family, individual and household causes are viable, needed, and productive enough. Goals. The study aims at revealing most stable household / family rites of the Buryats and determining their essentials and features. Methods. Traditional classification and systematization methods have proved instrumental in identifying stable and changeable properties, local features of family / household rites across various Buddhist ethnic groups in Buryatia. The method of comparative historical analysis serves to define the actual processes of preserving and transforming life cycle rites. Those of observation, interview, and interrogation make it possible to characterize the present-day religious consciousness of lay Buddhists and reveal certain changes in traditional Buryat attitudes and customs that emerged due to historical processes to have yielded some formal peculiarities of basic rituals and rites. The paper pays special attention to the revived everyday rite of sangaril. Results. Field data show that cult practices have preserved only what is best remembered without books and experts, i.e. what is familiar since olden times, most common, and requires no high theological qualifications — if there is a significant loss of the bookish tradition, and in the absence of Buddhist ritual experts of Tibetan origin. So, those are everyday rites most closely connected with folk customs and dealing with economic and household needs of believers that prove most persistent. In other words, what is most closely connected with everyday life does survive and exist. Conclusions. Traditional family and everyday rites, such as oboo, sangaril, maani, funeral and Sagaalgan-related ones (New Year), collective worshipping of sahiusan-protectors for family well-being, are currently perceived as folk customs and viewed as integral elements of the original Buryat ethnic tradition. To date, those are religious ideas and beliefs of the public that serve a most characteristic phenomenon in religious life of Burya­tia’s Buddhists, rather than activities of the official clergy. Our observations also attest to that religious efforts of believers tend to increase.