as men with some extraordinary features (the anthropomorphous creatures) or the animals with the exaggerated grotesqueness (the zoomorphous creatures or just the mixed types bearing the features both of the human being and the animal (the mixmorphous creatures). One can understand why it was so. The powerful forces excited fear, so that the people gave those inexplicable phenomena like the lightning or the space and time some fantastic mysterious coloring.
As a consequence the Buryat tales give the exaggerated grotesque fantastic descriptions of the personages irrespective of their being either positive or negative. Some are horrible, ugly and fearful whereas the others are the ideals of beauty, strength and generosity. The former are quite fear-exciting with the many eyes, many heads, sharp claws and teeth covered with the snakes, blowing out the flame and sparks. The latter are well-built, strong and slender, handsome and attractive, kind and open-handed.
The Geseriade, a well-known epical work of the Buryat people, was in the focus of the scholars in Europe and Russia in the course of almost two hundred years. Most prominent are the two narrative traditions of the Buryat epic of Geser, they are the Ekhirit-Bulagat and the Unga variants. The former is considered to be an archaic one whereas the latter dates back to a later period. There are still the other variants of the same heroic epopee, e.g. the Khorinsk variant which has been studied least of all up to now. The interest in the epic which is the cultural heritage of the Buryats has increased. Many talented investigators made contribution to the study of this monumental creation of the Buryat nation. The various narrative traditions and the historical and ethnographical background were studied by Ts. Damdinsuren, A.I.Ulanov, N.O.Sharakshinova, M.P.Khomonov, S.Yu.Nekludov, S.Sh.Chagdurov, E. A. Ulanov, B.S.Dugarov, D.A.Burchina and many other investigators.
The Buryat heroic epic of Geser: the general characteristics
The heroic epic of the Buryat people “Geser” narrates of the noble deeds of Geser liberating the people from the evil, of his battles with the monsters that would not let people live in peace and harmony. Not infrequently those monsters-mangadkhais personified the powerful, threatening forces of Nature. They were quite unaware of their origin and the cause for their being quite merciless.
Therefore those powerful forces were taken as, say, Gal-Nurman Khan who was the symbol of one of the prime elements, i.e. the fire, the oppressive heat and drought, or Loir Lobsogoldoi who was the personification of another prime element, i.e. the water. The flood and the overflow badly damaged and injured the people, animals and plants. One could add here monster Orgoli who was taken as Master of the thick forests and could deprive the hunters of their game or sometimes took up their lives. Then there was Shereem Minata khan with an iron whip and pig iron thighs who possibly symbolized the starting point of the blacksmith shop, the first steps in mastering the art of forging. The sparks and flames coming from the glowing incandescent metal were perceived by thе ancient forefathers of the Buryats as a threatening iron whip which might burn or dazzle.
One might as well recall the epical devil Arkhan who wanted to swallow the Sun and the Moon and plunge the Earth into the darkness. This might be the symbolical representation of the Sun and the Moon eclipse in the perception of the ancient Buryats. Geser also fights with the alien tribes who threatened the peaceful life of his kinsmen. In the epic those are the Sharaldai Khans. With those evil forces fights the heroic and fair Geser-bator.
On the other hand, the Buryat epic sings glory to the same natural prime elements. Not only do those forces of nature harm the people but they do them a lot of good. Man could not do without the fire, water, gifts of the thick forests including wood, plants, game, etc. Man realized it too well. He felt that the fire, water, wood, stone and the like, possessed the positive qualities too. They helped him survive. So he worshipped them, took them to be sacral. Hence there are many cults, for example, that of the Sky, though it sent down to the Earth the thunderstorm and lightening, heavy rain and flood. There was also the cult of the Sun and the Moon which is closely connected with the cult of the light, heat and fire. One cannot but mention the cult of the water, lakes and rivers, as well as the cult of the Master of the taiga that provided the people with food and wood. There were many other cults.
Since there were the sacral cults there certainly were the cult rites, the sacral ceremonies which were to defend the man from the evil spirits. Each hardship in life was thought to be directly connected with the unkind spirits whom it was needed to keep away with the help of the deities. This double nature of the earthly and cosmic elements interfering with the life of the man was the reason for the emergence of the pantheons of the gods and divinities. They had the special names and were in charge of the specific meteorological and the other phenomena. One could mention Naran Gerel tengri (the deity of the Sunlight), who was in charge of the sunny days or Oyor Sagan tengri (the white bottom sky) who was in charge of the cloudless weather.
The following divinities come the first among the rest of the Heavens according to their role and status: Yekhe Ekhe tengri (Great Mother the goddess), the eldest goddesses Manzan Gurme and Mayas Khara, Esege Malan tengri [the bald-headed or cloudless Sky] whose supreme sacredness prevents him from being active and in reality he is too quiet and idle that careless Khormusta tengri. Then there comes Atai Ulan who represents the older generation of the divitities, Zayan Sagan tengri (The White Creator, etc.).
The sensory and cult perception of the world made the Buryat people depict the epical personages either as men with some extraordinary features, i.e. the anthropomorphic creatures or animals with the exaggerated grotesqueness, i.e. the zoomorphic creatures or just the mixed types bearing the features both of the human being and animal, i.e. the mixmorphic creatures. The powerful forces of Nature excited the fear and shock. The inexplicable phenomena like the lightning or the thunder obtained some fantastic mysterious coloring.
As a consequence the Buryat tales give the exaggerated grotesque fantastic descriptions of the personages irrespective of their being either positive or negative. Some are ugly, horrible and fearful whereas the others are the ideals of beauty, strength and generosity. The former are quite fear-exciting with the many eyes, many heads, sharp claws and teeth covered with the snakes, blowing out flame and sparks. The latter are well-built, strong and slender, handsome and attractive.
The study of the epic of Geser started with the publication of the texts including the texts of the shortened variants of the chapters, translations and scientific recordings of the epic. In the period to follow one can mention a more purpose-oriented, scholarly and systematic collection of the folklore pieces. With this in view quite a few folklore expeditions followed. S.Sh. Chagdurov made a contribution to its study by a number of his books. In the 80s of the last century the female personages, the epical genres, the various oral traditions were studied (S.S. Bardarkhanova, E.M. Kuzmina, D.D.Gomboin, S. Yu. Nekludov). The study of the Mongolian version of the “Geser” saga, particularly of over sixty manuscripts and xylographs of the written version of “Geser” in the Old Mongolian script was carried out (E. O. Khundaeva). In 1995 published in the academic edition “The epic of the Euroasian peoples” was “Abai Geser the Mighty” which was written down from the epic-teller Manshud Imegenov (Emegeev) by a well-known scholar Ts. Zh. Zhamsarano in 1906. In 1995 the book “The Geseriade of the western Buryats” was completed by D.A. Burchina, who gave a brief account of the various versions of the Buryat epic of Geser. In 1999 the two books by E.O. Khundaeva were published, one of them being “The Buryat epic of Geser: the symbols and traditions”, the other “The Buryat epic of Geser: the ties and the poetical style”. Both of them are devoted to the problems of the symbolic nature of the epopee, the cult rituals, the everyday customs and habbits, the language and style. In 2015 the book entitled “The Geseriade: the Buryat epic and the Mongolian written story” was published by E. Khundaeva and Ch. Erdyneeva.
In the Buryat and Mongolian epic of Geser there is a persisting idea of closeness, coherence, unification
