The heroic epic of the Buryat people narrates of the noble deeds of Geser liberating people from evil, of his battles with monsters that would not let people live in peace and harmony. Not infrequently those monsters - mangadkhais personified powerful, threatening forces of Nature that were beyond understanding of common folk. They were quite unaware of their origin and the cause of their being sometimes quite merciless. Therefore those powerful forces were taken as, say, Gal-Nurman Khan who was symbol of one of prime elements, i.e. Fire, oppressive heat and drought or Loir Lobsogoldoi who was personification of another prime element, i. e. water, flood and overflow that badly damaged and injured people, animals and plants.
One could add here monster Orgoli who was taken as Master of thick forests and could deprive hunters of their game or sometimes took up their lives. Then there was Shereem Minata khan with an iron whip and a pig iron thigh who possibly symbolized the starting point of the blacksmith shop, first steps in mastering the art of forging. The sparks and flames coming from the glowing incandescent metal were perceived by ancient forefathers of 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 darkness. This might be the symbolical representation of the Sun and the Moon eclipse in the perception of ancient Buryats. Geser also fights with alien tribes who threatened peaceful life of his relations and kinsmen. In the epic those are the Sharaldai Khans. With these evil forces fights the heroic and fair Geser-bator.
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| Grandmother Manzan Gurme |
On the other hand, the Buryat epic sings glory to the same natural prime elements. Not only do those forces of nature harm people but they also do them a lot of good. Man could not get on without fire, water, gifts of thick forests including wood, plants, game, etc. Man realized it too well. He felt that fire, water, forest, stone, metal and the like possessed positive qualities too. They helped him survive. There was more favourable for him in those things than negative. So he worshipped them, took them to be sacral. Hence there are many cults, that of the Sky, for example, though it sent down to the Earth thunderstorm and lightening, heavy rain and floods, etc. There was also the cult of the Sun and the Moon which is closely connected with light, heat and fire. One cannot but mention the cult of Water, lakes and rivers, as well as the cult of Master of the taiga (thick forest) that provided Man with food and wood. There were many other cults. Since there were sacral cults there certainly were cult rituals, sacral ceremonies which were to persuade divinities in charge of natural forces to help man prosper and protect him from evil spirits. Each hardship in life was thought to be directly connected with unkind spirits whom it was needed to keep away with help of deities. This double nature of earthly and cosmic elements interfering with the life of Man was the reason of appearance of a numerous pantheon of gods, sky-dwellers or divinities. They had special names and were in charge of specific meteorological and other phenomena. For example, Naran Gerel tengri (the deity of the Sunlight), who was in charge of sunny days or Oyor Sagan tengri (white bottom sky) who was in charge of cloudless weather. The following divinities come the first among the rest of the Heavens (Skies) 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, careless Khormusta tengri, Altai Ulan who represents the older generation of divitities, Zayan Sagan tengri (The White Creator), etc.
The sense and cult perception of the world made the Buryat people depict epical personages either as men with some extraodinary features (anthropomorphous creatures) or animals with exaggerated grotesqueness (zoomorphous creatures) or just mixed types bearing the features both of human being and animal (mixmorphous creatures). One can understand why it was so. The powerful forces excited fear and shock, so that people gave those inexplicable phenomena like lightning or space and time some fantastic mysterious colouring.
As a consequence Buryat tales give 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 ideals of beauty, strength and generosity. The former are quite fear-exciting with many eyes, many heads, sharp claws and teeth covered with snakes, blowing out flame and sparks. The latter are well-built, strong and slender, handsome and attractive.
The Geseriade, a well-known epical work of the Buryat people, was in the focus of scholars in Europe and Russia in the course of almost two hundred years. Most prominent are two narrative traditions of the Buryat epic of Geser, they are the Ekhirit-Bulagat and Unga variants. The former is considered to be an archaic one whereas the latter dates back to a later period. There are still other variants of the same heroic epopee, e.g. the Khorinsk and the Oka ones which have been studied least of all up to now. The interest in the epic which is the cultural heritage of the Buryats has recently markedly increased. Many talented investigators made contribution to the study of this monumental creation of the Buryat nation. 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, D. A. Burchina, E. O. Hundaeva, B. S. Dugarov, L. Ts. Sanjeeva and others.
