E-mail: bch58@yandex.ru Тel.: +7 (3012) 43-35-51
6, Sakhyanova str., Ulan-Ude, 670047, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Leading Researcher, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
The research was carried out as part of the state project “Ethnocultural Identity in the Architectonics of Folklore and Literary Texts of the Peoples of the Baikal Region,” No. 121031000259–6.
This article examines the non-fictional prose, folk song culture, and small folkloric genres of a group of Buryats living in China in comparison with the folklore of Buryats in Russia. It examines the local features of the traditional folklore of Chinese Buryats as well as universal archetypes, common Buryat plots and motifs. Analysis of the ethnic culture of Chinese Buryats against the background of Buryat and Mongol traditions reveals a common stratum of mythology and folklore, typological parallels as well as continuity of the elements of the parent tradition. In conducting wedding and funeral ceremonies, the ritual practice of the Buryats of Inner Mongolia and of Russian Buryats show both common and individual features. Along with identifying the most stable components in Buryat epics, fairy tales, non-fairytale prose, song culture, and paremic genres, the article establishes the local uniqueness of these genres in the enclave tradition. Comparative analysis of Buryat folklore and culture in both the foreign and the home ethnic environment shows the commonality of the Buryat and Mongol artistic heritage. Evaluating Buddhism as a culture-forming component of the Buryats, the author concludes that Buddhist components exist in all traditional folklore genres, while in the oral prose of foreign Buryats there were found pre-Buddhist ideas and shamanistic components of religious consciousness associated with veneration of the cult of the sky, fire, water, and local spirits. The materials of the “living” traditions of the Buryats of China, studied as a subject of folklore and ethnography, make it possible to give a semantic and functional description of the verbal texts of oral prose.
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