E-mail: n.oynotkinova@gmail.com
Tel.: + 7 (383) 330-14-52;
8, Nikolaeva str., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
Full Professor, leading researcher, Institute of Philology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy
of Sciences
Eschalogical views of Altaians in the context of their religious convictions’ development are considered in the paper. Basing on the viewpoints accepted in historical scholarship, the author suggests that Eshacton myths connected with Christianity came to Altaians in the past as a result of their long-time cultural-historical contacts with various peoples preaching Nestorianism, Manichaeism and, later, Orthodoxy. As regards their contents, Altaian eschatological narratives are similar with Russian Eschaton stories and spiritual verses. Features, common between Altaian and Russian texts, are found in the expression of the Old Testament Christian dogmata. Special metaphorism also makes them closer: both of them contain similar allegories. The specificity of Altaian eschatological texts consists in the synthesis of concepts and ideas of the original Shamanism, Christianity and Buddhism, which was characteristic for ancient Manichaeism. Eschatological views could make use of both Christian bookishness and oral tradition being widely performed among newcomers. These items possess special genre mobility being actualized in the situations when serious issues were set to the public, on solving which future of the community dependeds. At the beginning of the 20th century it was evidenced by the tales performed by Burkhanists, which expected coming of Oirot-khan’s mission that will save his black-headed people and guide them to a new country.
Antonov D. I. (2013) Iz “narodnoy Biblii” sel Samoylovka i Zalesyanka [From Folk Bible of Samoylovka and Zalesyanka the villages]. Zhivaya starina [Alive Antiquity]. 2013. No. 4. Pp. 48–51. In Russian.
Akhmetova M. V. (2004) Eskhatologicheskie motivy sovremennoy mifologii v Rossii kontsa XX — nachala XXI vv. [Eschaton Motives in Contemporary Mythology of Russia in the End of the 20th — Beginning of the 21st Centuries]. PhD esis (Philology). Moscow. In Russian.
Bessonov I. A. (2012) Obraz chudovishchnykh ptits v eskhatologicheskikh rasskazakh [Image of Monstrous Birds in Eschaton Narratives]. Zhivaya starina [Alive Antiquity]. 2012. No. 1. Pp. 4–7. In Russian.
Bessonov I. A. (2014) Russkaya narodnaya eskhatologiya: istoriya i sovremennost’ [Russian Folk Eschatology: History and Nowadays]. Moscow. In Russian.
Gromov D.V. (2003) Fol’klornye texty o “raneshney” Biblii [Folklore Texts about the “Heretofore” Bible]. Zhivaya starina [Alive antiquity]. 2003. No. 1. Pp. 42–44. In Russian.
Klyashtornyy S. G. (1959) Istoriko-kul’turnoe znachenie Sudzhinskoy nadpisi [Historical and Cultural SigniÚcance of the Sudzhin Inscription]. Problemy vostokovedeniya [Problems of Oriental Studies]. 1959. No. 5. Pp. 162–169. In Russian.
Kyzlasov I. L. (2004) Manikheyskie monastyri na Gornom Altae [Manichean Monasteries in Mountain Altay]. Drevnosti Vostoka [Antiquities of the Orient]. Ed. by I. L. Kyzlasov. Moscow. Pp. 127–128. In Russian.
Kyzlasov I. L. (2004) Kul’turnye vzaimosvyazi tyurkov i irantsev v VI—XIII vv. (yazyk, pis’mennost’, religiya) [Cultural Interconnections of Turks and Iranians in the 6th — 13th Centuries (Language, Literacy, Religion)]. Etnogracheskoe obozrenie [Ethnographic Review]. 2004. No. 6. Pp. 3–13. In Russian.
Kyzlasov L. R. (1999) Otkrytie gosudarstvennoy religii drevnikh khakasov. Mani i manikheystvo [Discovery of the State Religion of the Ancient Khakasses. Mani and Manichaeism]. Trudy Khakasskoy arkheologicheskoy ekspeditsii [Proceedings of the Khakass Archeological Expedition]. Moscow; Abakan. 1999. Issue 6. Pp. 10–41. In Russian.
Kyzlasov L. R. (2000) Severnoe manikheystvo i ego rol’ v kul’turnoe razvitii narodov Sibiri i Tsentral’noy Azii [Northern Manichaeism and its Role in the Cultural Development of the Peoples of Siberia and Central Asia]. Drevnosti Altaya [Altay Antiquities]. 2000. No. 5. URL: http://e-lib. gasu.ru/da/archive/2000/05/10. html (retrieved 03.02.2016). In Russian.
Oinotkinova N. R. (author-comp.) (2010). Altaiskie poslovitsy i pogovorki [Altaian Proverbs 110 and Sayings]. Novosibirsk. In Russian and in Altaian.
Oinotkinova N. R., Shinzhin I. B., Yadanova K. V., Yamaeva E. E. (comp.) (2011) Neskazochnaya proza altaitsev [Non-Fairytale Oral Prose of Altaians]. Pamyatniki fol’klora narodov Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka [Folklore monuments of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East — Series]). Novosibirsk. Vol. 30. In Russian and in Altaian Language.
Radlov V.V. (coll.; ed.) (1866) Obraztsy narodnoy literatury tyurkskikh plemen, zhivushchikh v Yuzhnoy Sibiri i Dzhungarskoy stepi, sobrannye V.V. Radlovym [Folk Literature Samples of the Turkic Tribes Residing in Southern Siberia and the Dzungarian Steppe, collected by V.V. Radlov]. Ch. 1: Podnarechiya Altaya [Part 1. Sub-dialects of Altay]. St. Petersburg. In Russian and in Turkic Languages of the Indigenous Peoples.
Sherstova L. I. (2012) Gornyi Altay v XVI— XX vv.: djungarskoye etnokulturnoye nasledie [Upper Altay in the 16th — 20th Centuries: Dzungarian Ethno-cultural Heritage]. Istoriya i kul’tura srednevekovyh narodov stepnoy Evrazii [History and Culture of Medieval Peoples of the Steppe Eurasia. Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress of Medieval Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes]. Barnaul. 2012. Pp. 238–245. In Russian.
Sherstova L. I. (2013) Eskhatologiya rannego burkhanizma: iz opyta rekonstruktsii traditsionnogo etnicheskogo samosoznaniya [Eschatology of the Early Burkhanism: Probes on Reconstruction of Traditional Ethnic Self-consciousness]. Vestnik Tomskogo gos. Universiteta. Istoria [Herald of the Tomsk State University. History]. 2013. No. 3 (23). Pp. 181–185. In Russian.
Shinzhin I. B., Yamaeva E. E. (comp.) (1994) Altai-kep kuuchyndar [Altay Legends]. GornoAltaysk. In Altaian language.