For several centuries, Buryats have lived side by side with Russians, being part of the multinational population of Russia. At the same time, they managed to preserve their identity, language and religion.

Why are the Buryats called “Buryats”?

Scientists are still arguing about why the Buryats are called “Buryats”. This ethnonym first appears in the “Secret History of the Mongols,” dating back to 1240. Then, for more than six centuries, the word “Buryat” was not mentioned, appearing again only in written sources of the late 19th century.

There are several versions of the origin of this word. One of the main ones traces the word “Buryat” to the Khakass “pyraat”, which goes back to the Turkic term “buri”, which translates as “wolf”. “Buri-ata” is correspondingly translated as “father wolf.”

This etymology is due to the fact that many Buryat clans consider the wolf to be a totem animal and their ancestor.

It is interesting that in the Khakass language the sound “b” is muffled and pronounced like “p”. The Cossacks called the people living to the west of the Khakass “pyraat”. Subsequently, this term was Russified and became close to the Russian “brother”. Thus, “Buryats”, “brotherly people”, “brotherly Mungals” began to be called the entire Mongol-speaking population inhabiting the Russian Empire.

Also interesting is the version of the origin of the ethnonym from the words “bu” (gray-haired) and “Oirat” (forest peoples). That is, the Buryats are peoples indigenous to this area (Baikal region and Transbaikalia).

Tribes and clans

The Buryats are an ethnic group formed from several Mongol-speaking ethnic groups living in the territory of Transbaikalia and the Baikal region, which did not then have a single self-name. The formation process took place over many centuries, starting with the Hunnic Empire, which included the Proto-Buryats as Western Huns.

The largest ethnic groups that formed the Buryat ethnos were the Western Khongodors, Bualgits and Ekhirits, and the Eastern ones - the Khorins.

In the 18th century, when the territory of Buryatia was already part of the Russian Empire (according to the treaties of 1689 and 1727 between Russia and the Qing dynasty), Khalkha-Mongol and Oirat clans also came to southern Transbaikalia. They became the third component of the modern Buryat ethnic group.
To this day, tribal and territorial divisions have been preserved among the Buryats. The main Buryat tribes are the Bulagats, Ekhirits, Khoris, Khongodors, Sartuls, Tsongols, Tabanguts. Each tribe is also divided into clans.
Based on their territory, the Buryats are divided into Nizhneuuzky, Khorinsky, Aginsky, Shenekhensky, Selenginsky and others, depending on the lands of residence of the clan.

Black and yellow faith

The Buryats are characterized by religious syncretism. Traditional is a set of beliefs, the so-called shamanism or Tengrianism, in the Buryat language called “hara shazhan” (black faith). From the end of the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelug school - “Shara Shazhan” (yellow faith) began to develop in Buryatia. He seriously assimilated pre-Buddhist beliefs, but with the advent of Buddhism, Buryat shamanism was not completely lost.

Until now, in some areas of Buryatia, shamanism remains the main religious trend.

The advent of Buddhism was marked by the development of writing, literacy, printing, folk crafts, and art. Tibetan medicine has also become widespread, the practice of which still exists in Buryatia today.

On the territory of Buryatia, in the Ivolginsky datsan, there is the body of one of the ascetics of Buddhism of the twentieth century, the head of the Buddhists of Siberia in 1911-1917, Khambo Lama Itigelov. In 1927, he sat in the lotus position, gathered his disciples and told them to read a prayer of good wishes for the deceased, after which, according to Buddhist beliefs, the lama went into a state of samadhi. He was buried in a cedar cube in the same lotus position, bequeathing before his departure to dig up the sarcophagus 30 years later. In 1955, the cube was lifted.

The body of Hambo Lama turned out to be incorrupt.

In the early 2000s, researchers conducted a study of the llama's body. The conclusion of Viktor Zvyagin, head of the personal identification department of the Russian Center for Forensic Medicine, became sensational: “With the permission of the highest Buddhist authorities of Buryatia, we were provided with approximately 2 mg of samples - these are hair, skin particles, sections of two nails. Infrared spectrophotometry showed that the protein fractions have intravital characteristics - for comparison, we took similar samples from our employees. An analysis of Itigelov’s skin, carried out in 2004, showed that the concentration of bromine in the llama’s body was 40 times higher than the norm.”

Cult of struggle

Buryats are one of the most fighting peoples in the world. National Buryat wrestling is a traditional sport. Since ancient times, competitions in this discipline have been held as part of surkharban - a national sports festival. In addition to wrestling, participants also compete in archery and horse riding. Buryatia also has strong freestyle wrestlers, sambo wrestlers, boxers, track and field athletes, and speed skaters.

Returning to wrestling, we must say about perhaps the most famous Buryat wrestler today - Anatoly Mikhakhanov, who is also called Orora Satoshi.

Mikhakhanov is a sumo wrestler. Orora Satoshi translates from Japanese as “northern lights” and is a shikonu, a professional wrestler's nickname.
The Buryat hero was born as a completely standard child, weighing 3.6 kg, but after that the genes of the legendary ancestor of the Zakshi family, who, according to legend, weighed 340 kg and rode two bulls, began to appear. In the first grade, Tolya already weighed 120 kg, at the age of 16 - under 200 kg with a height of 191 cm. Today the weight of the famous Buryat sumo wrestler is about 280 kilograms.

Hunting for the Nazis

During the Great Patriotic War, the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic sent more than 120 thousand people to defend the Motherland. The Buryats fought on the war fronts as part of three rifle and three tank divisions of the Transbaikal 16th Army. There were Buryats in the Brest Fortress, which was the first to resist the Nazis. This is even reflected in the song about the defenders of Brest:

Only stones will tell about these battles,
How the heroes stood to the death.
There are Russians, Buryats, Armenians and Kazakhs here
They gave their lives for their homeland.

During the war years, 37 natives of Buryatia were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 10 became full holders of the Order of Glory.

Buryat snipers became especially famous during the war. Which is not surprising - the ability to shoot accurately has always been vital for hunters. Hero of the Soviet Union Zhambyl Tulaev destroyed 262 fascists, and a sniper school was created under his leadership.

Another famous Buryat sniper, senior sergeant Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev, by January 1943, had destroyed 270 enemy soldiers and officers. In a report from the Sovinformburo in June 1942, it was reported about him: “A master of super-accurate fire, Comrade Dorzhiev, who destroyed 181 Nazis during the war, trained and educated a group of snipers, on June 12, snipers-students of Comrade Dorzhiev shot down a German plane.” Another hero, Buryat sniper Arseny Etobaev, destroyed 355 fascists and shot down two enemy planes during the war years.

Greetings, dear readers.

There are three Buddhist republics in our country - Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva. However, the Buryats and Kalmyks have relatives - the Mongols.

We know that the bulk of the Buryat population is concentrated in Russia. To this day, debates continue about how the Buryats differ from the Mongols and how similar they are to each other. Some say that these are the same people. Others tend to believe that there is a big difference between them.

Maybe both are true? Let's try to figure it out! And first, of course, let's go back to the origins.

Origins of the Mongol peoples

Previously, the territory of present-day Mongolia was forested and swampy, and meadows and steppes could be found on the plateaus. Studies of the remains of ancient people have shown that they lived here about 850 thousand years ago.

In the 4th century BC. e. The Huns appeared. They chose the steppes near the Gobi Desert. A few decades later they began to fight with the Chinese, and in 202 BC. e. created the first empire.

The Huns reigned supreme until 93 AD. e. Then Mongolian, Kyrgyz, Turkic, and Uyghur khanates began to appear.

The emergence of the Mongol Empire

The tribes repeatedly tried to unite into a common state. Finally they succeeded, although only partially. Education, in essence, represented a tribal union. It went down in history under the name Khamag Mongol.

Its first leader was Khaidu Khan. The tribes that were part of the state were distinguished by belligerence and often entered into fights with their neighbors, in particular with residents of the regions of the Jin Empire. In case of victory, they demanded tribute from them.

Yesugey baatar, the father of the future legendary ruler of Mongolia, Genghis Khan (Temuzhina), also took part in the battles. He fought until he fell at the hands of the Turks.

Temujin himself, at the very beginning of his path to power, enlisted the support of Wang Khan, the ruler of the Kereits in Central Mongolia. Over time, the army of supporters grew, which allowed the future Genghis Khan to take active action.

As a result, he became the head of the most significant tribes of Mongolia:

• Naimanov (in the west);
• Tatars (in the east);
• Kereitov (in the center).

This allowed him to receive the title of Supreme Khan, to whom all Mongols submitted. The corresponding decision was made at the kurultai - a congress of the Mongolian nobility. From that moment on, Temujin began to be called Genghis Khan.

The ruler stood at the helm of the state for more than two decades, conducted military campaigns and thereby expanded its borders. But soon the power began to slowly disintegrate due to the diversity of cultures of the conquered lands.

Now let's turn to the history of the Buryats.

Formation of the Buryat ethnic group and culture

Most researchers are inclined to think that the current Buryats come from different Mongol-speaking groups. Their original homeland is considered to be the northern part of the Khanate of Altan Khans, which existed from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 17th century.

Representatives of this people belonged to several tribal groups. The largest of them:

• bulagats;
• hongodor;
• Khorin people;
• ehirites.

Almost all of the listed groups were under the strong influence of the Khalkha-Mongol khans. The situation began to change after the Russians began to explore Eastern Siberia.

The number of settlers from the West constantly increased, which ultimately led to the annexation of the coastal Baikal territories to Russia. After joining the empire, groups and tribes began to get closer to each other.

This process seemed natural from the point of view that they all had common historical roots and spoke dialects similar to each other. As a result, not only a cultural but also an economic community was formed. In other words, an ethnic group that was finally formed by the end of the 19th century.

The Buryats were engaged in raising livestock, hunting animals and fishing. That is, traditional crafts. At the same time, sedentary representatives of this nation began to cultivate the land. These were mainly residents of the Irkutsk province and the western territories of Transbaikalia.

Joining the Russian Empire also affected the Buryat culture. From the beginning of the 19th century, schools began to appear, and over time a layer of local intelligentsia emerged.

Religious preferences

The Buryats are adherents of shamanism and what makes them similar to the Mongols. Shamanism is the earliest religious form, called “hara shazhan” (black faith). The word “black” here personifies the mystery, unknown and infinity of the Universe.

Then Buddhism, which came from Tibet, spread among the people. This is about . This was already “shara shazhan”, that is, yellow faith. The color yellow here is considered sacred and symbolizes the earth as the primary element. Also in Buddhism, yellow means jewel, higher intelligence and exit from.

The Gelug teachings partially absorbed the beliefs that existed before the advent. High-ranking officials of the Russian Empire did not object to this. On the contrary, they recognized Buddhism as one of the official religious movements in the state.

It is interesting that shamanism is more widespread in Buryatia than in the Mongolian People's Republic.

Now Mongolia continues to demonstrate its commitment to Tibetan Gelug Buddhism, slightly adjusting it to suit local characteristics. There are also Christians in the country, but their number is insignificant (a little more than two percent).

At the same time, many historians are inclined to believe that at present it is religion that acts as the main connecting link between the Buryats and the Mongols.

Separate nationality or not

In fact, this formulation of the question is not entirely correct. The Buryats can be considered as representatives of the Mongolian people, speaking their own dialect. At the same time, in Russia, for example, they are not identified with the Mongols. Here they are considered a nationality, which has certain similarities and differences from citizens of the Mongolian People's Republic.

On a note. In Mongolia, the Buryats are recognized as one of their own, classified among various ethnic groups. They do the same in China, indicating them in the official census as Mongols.

Where the name itself came from is still not clear. There are several versions on this matter. According to the main ones, the term can come from the following words:

• Storms (in Turkic - wolf).
• Bar – mighty or tiger.
• Storms are thickets.
• Burikha - to evade.
• Brother. Written evidence has reached our times that during the Middle Ages in Rus' the Buryats were called fraternal people.

However, none of these hypotheses has a solid scientific basis.

Difference in mentality

Buryats who have visited Mongolia admit that they are different from the local residents. On the one hand, they agree that they belong to the common Mongolian family and act as representatives of one people. On the other hand, they understand that they are, after all, different people.

Over the years of close communication with Russians, they became imbued with a different culture, partially forgot about their heritage and became noticeably Russified.

The Mongols themselves do not understand how this could happen. Sometimes they may act dismissively when interacting with visiting brothers. At the everyday level, this does not happen often, but it still happens.

Also in Mongolia, they wonder why the majority of residents of Buryatia have forgotten their native language and ignore traditional culture. They do not accept the “Russian manner” of communicating with children, when parents, for example, can make loud comments to them in public.

This is what they do in Russia and Buryatia. But in Mongolia - no. In this country it is not customary to shout at small citizens. Children are allowed almost everything there. For the simple reason that they are minors.

But as for the diet, it is almost identical. Representatives of the same people living on opposite sides of the border are mainly engaged in cattle breeding.

For this reason, as well as due to climatic conditions, their tables contain mainly meat and dairy products. Meat and milk are the basis of the cuisine. True, Buryats eat more fish than Mongols. But this is not surprising, because they extract it from Lake Baikal.

One can argue for a long time about how close the residents of Buryatia are to the citizens of Mongolia and whether they can consider themselves one nation. By the way, there is a very interesting opinion that by Mongols we mean those who live in the Mongolian People's Republic. There are Mongols from China, Russia and other countries. It’s just that in the Russian Federation they are called Buryats...

Conclusion

People in the Russian Federation. The number in the Russian Federation is 417,425 people. They speak the Buryat language of the Mongolian group of the Altai language family. According to anthropological characteristics, the Buryats belong to the Central Asian type of the Mongoloid race.

The self-name of the Buryats is “Buryayad”.

Buryats live in Southern Siberia in the lands adjacent to Lake Baikal and further east. Administratively, this is the territory of the Republic of Buryatia (the capital is Ulan-Ude) and two autonomous Buryat districts: Ust-Ordynsky in the Irkutsk region and Aginsky in the Chita region. Buryats also live in Moscow, St. Petersburg and many other large cities of Russia.

According to anthropological characteristics, the Buryats belong to the Central Asian type of the Mongoloid race.

The Buryats emerged as a single people by the middle of the 17th century. from tribes that lived in the lands around Lake Baikal more than a thousand years ago. In the second half of the 17th century. these territories became part of Russia. In the 17th century The Buryats comprised several tribal groups, the largest of which were the Bulagats, Ekhirits, Khorins and Khongodors. The Buryats later included a number of Mongols and assimilated Evenki clans. The rapprochement of the Buryat tribes with each other and their subsequent consolidation into a single nation was historically determined by the proximity of their culture and dialects, as well as the socio-political unification of the tribes after their entry into Russia. During the formation of the Buryat people, tribal differences were generally erased, although dialectal features remained.

They speak Buryat. The Buryat language belongs to the Mongolian group of the Altai language family. In addition to Buryat, the Mongolian language is also widespread among the Buryats. The Buryat language is divided into 15 dialects. The Buryat language is considered native by 86.6% of Russian Buryats.

The ancient religion of the Buryats is shamanism, supplanted in Transbaikalia by Lamaism. Most Western Buryats were formally considered Orthodox, but retained shamanism. Remnants of shamanism were also preserved among the Buryat Lamaists.

During the period of the first Russian settlers in the Baikal region, nomadic cattle breeding played a predominant role in the economy of the Buryat tribes. The Buryat cattle-breeding economy was based on year-round keeping of livestock on pasture for grazing. The Buryats raised sheep, cattle, goats, horses and camels (listed by importance in descending order). Families of herders moved with their herds. Additional types of economic activity were hunting, farming and fishing, which were more developed among the Western Buryats; There was a seal fishery on the coast of Lake Baikal. During the XVII-XIX centuries. Under the influence of the Russian population, changes occurred in the Buryat economy. Pure cattle breeding was preserved only among the Buryats in the southeast of Buryatia. In other regions of Transbaikalia, a complex pastoral-agricultural economy developed, in which only rich pastoralists continued to roam throughout the year, middle-income pastoralists and owners of small herds switched to partial or complete settlement and began to engage in farming. In the Cis-Baikal region, where farming as a subsidiary industry had been practiced before, an agricultural-pastoral complex developed. Here the population almost completely switched to sedentary farming, in which haymaking on specially fertilized and irrigated meadows - “utugs”, harvesting feed for the winter, and homesteading of livestock - was widely practiced. The Buryats sowed winter and spring rye, wheat, barley, buckwheat, oats, and hemp. Agriculture technology and farming tools were borrowed from Russian peasants.

The rapid development of capitalism in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. also affected the territory of Buryatia. The construction of the Siberian Railway and the development of industry in Southern Siberia gave impetus to the expansion of agriculture and an increase in its marketability. Machine-based agricultural equipment appears in the households of wealthy Buryats. Buryatia has become one of the producers of commercial grain.

With the exception of blacksmithing and jewelry, the Buryats did not know developed craft production. Their economic and household needs were almost completely satisfied by home crafts, for which wood and livestock products served as raw materials: leather, wool, hides, horsehair, etc. The Buryats retained remnants of the cult of “iron”: iron products were considered a talisman. Often blacksmiths were also shamans. They were treated with respect and superstitious fear. The blacksmith's profession was hereditary. Buryat blacksmiths and jewelers were highly skilled, and their products were widely distributed throughout Siberia and Central Asia.

The traditions of cattle breeding and nomadic life, despite the increasing role of agriculture, left a significant mark on the Buryat culture.

Buryat men's and women's clothing differed relatively little. The lower clothing consisted of a shirt and pants, the upper one was a long, loose robe with a wrap on the right side, which was belted with a wide cloth sash or belt. The robe was lined, the winter robe was lined with fur. The edges of the robes were trimmed with bright fabric or braid. Married women wore a sleeveless vest over their robes - uje, which had a slit in the front, which was also lined. The traditional headdress for men was a conical hat with an expanding band of fur, from which two ribbons descended down the back. Women wore a pointed hat with a fur trim and a red silk tassel running down from the top of the hat. Shoes were low boots with thick felt soles without heels, with toes turned up. Women's favorite jewelry were temple pendants, earrings, necklaces, and medallions. The clothes of wealthy Buryats were distinguished by high quality material and bright colors; they were sewn mainly from imported fabrics. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Traditional costume gradually began to give way to Russian urban and peasant clothing, this happened especially quickly in the western part of Buryatia.

Dishes made from milk and dairy products occupied a large place in the food of the Buryats. Not only sour milk was stored for future use, but also dried compressed curdled mass - khurut, which replaced bread for cattle breeders. The intoxicating drink tarasun (archi) was made from milk using a special distillation apparatus, which was necessarily included in sacrificial and ritual food. Meat consumption depended on the number of livestock owned by the family. In summer they preferred mutton, in winter they slaughtered cattle. The meat was boiled in lightly salted water and the broth was drunk. The traditional cuisine of the Buryats also included a number of flour dishes, but they began to bake bread only under the influence of the Russian population. Like the Mongols, the Buryats drank brick tea, into which they poured milk and added salt and lard.

The ancient form of the Buryat traditional dwelling was a typical nomadic yurt, the basis of which was made up of easily transportable lattice walls. When installing the yurt, the walls were placed in a circle and tied with hair cords. The dome of the yurt rested on inclined poles, the lower end of which rested on the walls, and the upper end was attached to a wooden hoop that served as a smoke hole. The frame was covered on top with felt tires, which were tied with ropes. The entrance to the yurt was always from the south. It was closed by a wooden door and a quilted felt mat. The floor in the yurt was usually earthen, sometimes it was lined with boards and felt. The hearth was always located in the center of the floor. As the herd transitioned to sedentism, the felt yurt fell out of use. In the Cis-Baikal region it disappeared by the middle of the 19th century. The yurt was replaced by polygonal (usually octagonal) wooden log buildings in plan. They had a sloping roof with a smoke hole in the center and were similar to felt yurts. They often coexisted with felt yurts and served as summer homes. With the spread of Russian-type log dwellings (huts) in Buryatia, polygonal yurts were preserved in some places as utility rooms (barns, summer kitchens, etc.).

Inside the traditional Buryat dwelling, like other pastoral peoples, there was a custom-defined placement of property and utensils. Behind the hearth, opposite the entrance, there was a home sanctuary, where the Buryat Lamaists had images of Buddhas - burkhanas and bowls with sacrificial food, and the Buryat shamanists had a box with human figurines and animal skins, which were revered as the embodiment of spirits - ongons. To the left of the hearth was the place of the owner, to the right was the place of the mistress. On the left, i.e. the male half housed hunting and men's crafts, and on the right - kitchen utensils. To the right of the entrance, along the walls, a stand for dishes was located in order, then a wooden bed, chests for household utensils and clothes. Near the bed there was a leaking cradle. To the left of the entrance lay saddles and harnesses, there were chests on which the rolled-up beds of family members, wineskins for fermenting milk, etc. were placed for the day. Above the fireplace, on a tripod tagan, stood a bowl in which meat was cooked, milk and tea were boiled. Even after the Buryats switched to Russian-style buildings and the appearance of urban furniture in their everyday life, the traditional arrangement of things inside the house remained almost unchanged for a long time.

At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The main form of the Buryat family was a small monogamous family. Polygyny, permitted by custom, was found mainly among wealthy cattle breeders. The marriage was strictly exogamous, and only paternal kinship was taken into account. Despite the weakening of consanguineous and tribal ties and their replacement by territorial production ties, tribal relations played a large role in the life of the Buryats, especially among the Buryats of the Cis-Baikal region. Members of the same clan had to provide assistance to relatives, participate in common sacrifices and meals, act in defense of a relative and bear responsibility if relatives committed an offense; vestiges of communal tribal ownership of land also remained. Each Buryat had to know his genealogy, some of them numbered up to twenty tribes. In general, the social system of Buryatia on the eve of the October Revolution was a complex interweaving of remnants of primitive communal and class relations. Both Western and Eastern Buryats had a class of feudal lords (taishi and noyons), which grew out of the tribal aristocracy. Development of commodity relations at the beginning of the 20th century. led to the emergence of a rural bourgeois class.

In the 80-90s. in Buryatia there is a rise in national self-awareness, a movement for the revival of national culture and language is unfolding. In 1991, at the all-Buryat congress, the All-Buryat Association for the Development of Culture (WARC) was formed, which became the center for organizing and coordinating all activities in the field of national culture. National cultural centers were created in the cities. Irkutsk, Chita. There are several dozen gymnasiums, lyceums, and colleges operating under a special program with in-depth study of subjects in national culture and language; universities and secondary specialized educational institutions are introducing extended courses on the history and culture of Buryatia.

Russian Civilization

The Buryats, or Buryaad, are the northernmost Mongolian people, the indigenous people of Siberia, whose closest relatives, according to the latest genetic research, are Koreans. The Buryats are distinguished by their ancient traditions, religion and culture.

Story

The people formed and settled in the area of ​​Lake Baikal, where ethnic Buryatia is located today. Previously, the territory was called Bargudzhin-Tokum. The ancestors of this people, the Kurykans and Bayyrkus, began to develop the lands on both sides of Lake Baikal, starting in the 6th century. The first occupied the Cis-Baikal region, the second settled the lands east of Lake Baikal. Gradually, starting from the 10th century, these ethnic communities began to interact more closely with each other and by the time of the creation of the Mongol Empire they formed a single ethnic group called the Barguts. At the end of the 13th century, due to internecine wars, the Barguts had to leave their lands and go to Western Mongolia; in the 15th century, they moved to Southern Mongolia and became part of the Yongshiebu tumen of the Mongols. The Bargu-Buryats returned to their homeland only in the 14th century, after part of the Eastern Mongols moved west to the lands of the Oirats. Later, the Khalkhas and Oirats began to attack them, as a result, some of the Bargu-Buryats came under the influence of the Khalkha khans, and some became part of the Oirats. During this period, the conquest of the Buryat lands by the Russian state began.

Buryats are divided into ethnic groups:

• sartuls
• Uzons
• Transbaikal Buryats (“black mungals” or “brotherly yasashs of the Turukaya herd”)
• shosholoki
• Korins and Baturins
• sharanuty
• tabanguts
• Sagenuts
• cramps
• ikinats
• Hongodors
• bulagaty
• gotols
• ashibagata
• ehirites
• Kurkuta
• Khatagins
• terte
• hello
• Sharaites
• Shurtos
• Atagans

All of them inhabited the territories of ethnic Buryatia in the 17th century. At the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, the Songol ethnic group moved to them from other regions of Inner Asia.

From the second half of the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century, there were ethno-territorial groups of Buryats, which were also divided depending on their place of residence.

Barguts (Buryats) of the Qing Empire:

• old barguts or chipchin
• new barguts

Transbaikal Buryats living in the Transbaikal region:

• Khorinsky
• Barguzinsky
• Aginsky
• Selenga

Irkutsk Buryats living in the Irkutsk region:

• Zakamensky
• Alar
• Oka
• Balagansky or Unginsky
• Kudinsky
• Ida
• Olkhonskie
• Verkholensky
• Nizhneudinsk
• Kudarinsky
• Tunkinsky

Where live

Today, Buryats inhabit the lands where their ancestors originally lived: the Republic of Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory of Russia, the Irkutsk Region and the Hulun Buir District, located in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia of the People's Republic of China. In the countries where the Buryats live, they are considered a separate independent nationality or one of the ethnic groups of the Mongols. On the territory of Mongolia, the Buryats and Barguts are divided into different ethnic groups.

Number

The total population of Buryats is about 690,000 people. Of these, approximately 164,000 live in the PRC, 48,000 in Mongolia and about 461,389 in the Russian Federation.

Name

To this day, the origin of the ethnonym “buryaad” is controversial and not fully understood. It was first mentioned in the “Secret History of the Mongols” in 1240, the second time this term was mentioned only at the end of the 19th century. There are several versions of the etymology of the ethnonym:

1. from the expression buru halyadg (looking to the side, outsider).
2. from the word bar (tiger);
3. from the word burikha (to evade);
4. from the word storm (thickets);
5. from the ethnonym Kurykan (Kurikan);
6. from the word bu (ancient and old) and the word oirot (forest peoples). In general, these two words are translated as indigenous (ancient) forest peoples.
7. from the word of Khakass origin pyraat, which goes back to the term buri (wolf) or buri-ata (father wolf). Many ancient Buryat peoples revered the wolf and considered this animal their ancestor. The sound “b” in the Khakass language is pronounced like “p”. Under this name, the Russian Cossacks learned about the ancestors of the Buryats, who lived east of the Khakass. Later, the word “pyraat” was transformed into the word “brother”. The Mongol-speaking population living in Russia began to be called brothers, bratskie mungals and fraternal people. Gradually the name was adopted by the Khori-Buryats, Bulagats, Khondogors and Ekhirits as the common self-name “Buryad”.

Religion

The religion of the Buryats was influenced by the Mongolian tribes and the period of Russian statehood. Initially, like many Mongolian tribes, the Buryats professed shamanism. This set of beliefs is also called pantheism and Tengrism, and the Mongols, in turn, called it khara shashyn, which translates as black faith.

At the end of the 16th century, Buddhism began to spread in Buryatia, and from the 18th century Christianity began to actively develop. Today, all three of these religions exist in the territory where the Buryats live.

Shamanism

The Buryats have always had a special relationship with nature, which was reflected in their ancient faith - shamanism. They revered the sky, considered it the supreme deity and called it the Eternal Blue Sky (Huhe Munhe Tengri). They considered nature and its forces - water, fire, air and sun - to be animate. Rituals were performed outdoors near certain objects. It was believed that in this way it was possible to achieve unity between man and the forces of air, water and fire. Ritual holidays in shamanism are called tailagans, they were held near Lake Baikal, in places that were especially revered. The Buryats influenced spirits through sacrifice and observance of special traditions and rules.

Shamans were a special caste, they combined several characteristics at once: storytellers, healers and psychologists manipulating consciousness. Only a person with shamanic roots could become a shaman. Their rituals were very impressive; sometimes a large number of people, up to several thousand, gathered to watch them. When Christianity and Buddhism began to spread in Buryatia, shamanism began to be oppressed. But this ancient faith lies deeply in the basis of the worldview of the Buryat people and cannot be completely destroyed. To this day, many traditions of shamanism have been preserved, and spiritual monuments and sacred places are an important part of the cultural heritage of the Buryats.

Buddhism

The Buryats living on the eastern bank began to profess Buddhism under the influence of the Mongols living nearby. In the 17th century, one of the forms of Buddhism appeared in Buryatia - Lamaism. The Buryats introduced into Lamaism the attributes of the ancient faith of shamanism: the spiritualization of nature and natural forces, the veneration of guardian spirits. Gradually, the culture of Mongolia and Tibet came to Buryatia. Representatives of this faith, called lamas, were brought to the territory of Transbaikalia, Buddhist monasteries and schools were opened, applied arts were developed and books were published. In 1741, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna signed a decree that recognized Lamaism as one of the official religions on the territory of the Russian Empire. A staff of 150 lamas was officially approved, who were exempt from paying taxes. Datsans became the center of development of Tibetan medicine, philosophy and literature in Buryatia. After the revolution of 1917, all this ceased to exist, the datsans were destroyed and closed, and the lamas were repressed. The revival of Buddhism began again only in the late 1990s, and today Buryatia is the center of Buddhism in Russia.

Christianity

In 1721, the Irkutsk diocese was created in Buryatia, from which the development of Christianity in the republic began. Among the Western Buryats, such holidays as Easter, Elijah's Day, and Christmas have become common. Christianity in Buryatia was greatly hampered by the population's adherence to shamanism and Buddhism. The Russian authorities decided to influence the worldview of the Buryats through Orthodoxy, the construction of monasteries began, the authorities also used such a method as getting rid of taxes subject to the adoption of the Orthodox faith. Marriages between Russians and Buryats began to be encouraged, and already at the beginning of the 20th century, of the total Buryat population, 10% were mestizos. All the efforts of the authorities were not in vain and at the end of the 20th century there were already 85,000 Orthodox Buryats, but with the beginning of the 1917 revolution, the Christian mission was liquidated. Church leaders, especially the most active ones, were exiled to camps or shot. After World War II, some Orthodox churches were revived, but the Orthodox Church was officially recognized in Buryatia only in 1994.

Language

As a result of the era of globalization, in 2002 the Buryat language was listed in the Red Book as endangered. Unlike other Mongolian languages, Buryat has a number of phonetic features and is divided into groups:

• Western Buryat
• Eastern Buryat
• Old Bargut
• Novobargutsky

and dialect groups:

• Alaro-Tunik, widespread to the west of Lake Baikal and is divided into several dialects: Unginsky, Alarsky, Zakamensky and Tunkino-Okinsky;
• Nizhneudinskaya, this dialect is widespread in the western territories of the Buryats;
• Khorinskaya, widespread east of Lake Baikal, is spoken by the majority of Buryats living in Mongolia and a group of Buryats in China. Divided into dialects: North Selenga, Aginsky, Tugnuisky and Khorinsky;
• Seleginskaya, widespread in the south of Buryatia and is divided into dialects: Sartul, Khamnigan and Songolian;
• The Ekhirit-Bulagat group predominates in the Ust-Ordynsky district and the territories of the Baikal region. Dialects: Barguzin, Bokhan, Ehit-Bulagat, Baikal-Kudarin and Olkhon.

The Buryats used the old Mongolian script until the mid-1930s. In 1905, Lama Agvan Dorzhiev developed a writing system called Vagindra. It is worth noting that the Buryats are the only indigenous people of Siberia who own literary monuments and founded their own historical written sources. They were called Buryat chronicles and were written mainly in the 19th century. Buddhist teachers and clergy left behind a rich spiritual heritage, their works, translations on Buddhist philosophy, tantric practices, history and Tibetan medicine. In many datsans of Buryatia there were printing houses in which books were printed using woodblock printing.

Housing

The traditional dwelling of the Buryats is the yurt, which many Mongolian peoples call ger. These people had portable yurts made of felt and yurts made of wood, which were built in one place.

Wooden dwellings were made of logs or logs, were 6- or 8-corner, without windows. There was a large hole in the roof designed for lighting and smoke escape. The roof of the dwelling was installed on 4 pillars, called tengi, and large pieces of coniferous bark were placed on the ceiling with the inside down. Smooth pieces of turf were placed on top.

The door to the yurt was always installed on the south side. Inside, the room was divided into two halves: the right was for men, the left for women. On the right side of the yurt, which belonged to a man, a bow, arrows, a saber, a gun, harness and a saddle hung on the wall. Kitchen utensils were located on the left side. There was a fireplace in the middle of the dwelling, and there were benches along the walls. On the left side were chests and a table for guests. Opposite the entrance there was a shelf with ongons and buhrans - Buddhist sculptures. In front of the dwelling, the Buryats installed a hitching post (serge), which was made in the form of a pillar with an ornament.

Portable yurts are lightweight and easy to assemble and disassemble due to their design. This was very important for the nomadic Buryats, who moved from place to place in search of pastures. In winter, a fire was lit in the hearth to heat the home; in summer it was used as a refrigerator. The lattice frame of the portable yurt was covered with felt, soaked for disinfection with a mixture of salt, tobacco or sour milk. The Buryats sat around the fireplace on quilted felt.

In the 19th century, wealthy Buryats began to build huts, which they borrowed from Russian settlers. But in such huts all the decoration of the elements of the Buryat national home was preserved.

Food

Products of animal and animal-plant origin have always occupied an important place in the Buryat cuisine. They prepared sour milk (kurunga) of a special leaven and dried compressed curd mass for future use. The Buryats drank green tea with milk, to which they added salt, lard or butter, and prepared an alcoholic drink from the distillation of kurunga.

In Buryat cuisine, a significant place is occupied by fish, herbs, spices, strawberries and bird cherry. A very popular dish of national cuisine is smoked Baikal omul. The symbol of Buryat cuisine is buuza, which Russians call poses.

Character

By nature, Buryats are distinguished by their secrecy; they are usually peace-loving and meek, but vindictive and angry if offended. They are compassionate towards relatives and never refuse help to the poor. Despite their outward rudeness, love, justice and honesty towards their neighbors are very developed among the Buryats.

Appearance

The skin color of the Buryat is brown-bronze, the face is flat and wide, the nose is flattened and small. The eyes are small, slanted, mostly black, the mouth is large, the beard is sparse, and the hair on the head is black. Medium or short height, strong build.

Cloth

Each Buryat clan has its own national clothing, which is very diverse, especially among women. The Transbaikal Buryats have a national dress called degel - a type of caftan made from dressed sheepskin. At the top of the chest there is a pubescent triangular notch. The sleeves are also pubescent, narrowing at the wrist. Various types of fur were used for trimming, sometimes very valuable. The caftan was tied at the waist with a belt. A knife and smoking accessories were hung on it: a pouch with tobacco, a flint and a hansa - a small copper pipe with a short chibouk. Three stripes of different colors were sewn into the chest part of the degel: yellow-red at the bottom, black in the middle, and various at the top: green, white, blue. The original version was yellow-red, black and white embroidery.

In bad weather, a sabu was worn on top of the degel; this is a type of overcoat with a large fur collar. In cold weather, especially if the Buryats went on the road, they wore a wide dakha robe, which was sewn with the wool outward from tanned skins.

In summer, degel was sometimes replaced with a caftan made of cloth of the same cut. Often in Transbaikalia in the summer they wore robes, which were made from paper by the poor Buryats and from silk by the rich.

Buryats wore long and narrow pants, made of rough leather, and a shirt made of blue fabric. In winter, high boots made from the skin of foals' legs were worn as footwear; in spring and autumn, boots with pointed toes, called shoe boots, were worn. In summer they wore shoes knitted from horsehair with leather soles.

As headdresses, women and men wore round hats with small brims and a red tassel at the top. The color and details of the dress have their own meaning and symbolism. The pointed top of the cap is a symbol of well-being and prosperity, the silver top of the denze with red coral on the top of the cap symbolizes the sun, which illuminates the entire Universe with its rays. The brushes represent the rays of the sun. The zalaa fluttering at the top of the cap means an invincible spirit and a happy destiny, the sompi knot symbolizes strength and strength. Buryats are very fond of the color blue; for them it is a symbol of the eternal and blue sky.

Women's clothing differed from men's clothing in embroidery and decorations. The female degel is surrounded by blue cloth, and at the top in the back area it is decorated with embroidery in the form of a square. Decorations made of copper and silver buttons and coins are sewn onto the degel. Women's robes consist of a short jacket sewn to a skirt.

As a hairstyle, girls wear braids, braid them in quantities from 10 to 20 and decorate them with a large number of coins. Women wear gold or silver coins and corals around their necks, and huge earrings in their ears, which are supported by a cord thrown over their heads. Polta pendants are worn behind the ears. They wear copper or silver bugaks on their hands - bracelets in the form of hoops.

Men belonging to the clergy cut their hair on the front of their heads and wore a braid at the back, into which horsehair was often woven for thickness.

Life

The Buryats were divided into nomadic and sedentary. The economy was based on cattle breeding; they usually kept 5 types of animals: rams, cows, camels, goats and horses. They were also engaged in traditional crafts - fishing and hunting.

The Buryats were engaged in processing animal wool, skins and tendons. The skins were used to make bedding, saddlery and clothing. Felt, materials for clothing, hats and shoes, and mattresses were made from wool. Tendons were used to make thread material, which was used in the manufacture of ropes and bows. The bones were used to make toys and jewelry, and were used to make arrows and bows.

The meat was used to prepare food, processed using waste-free technology, and made into delicacies and sausages. The spleen of animals was used by women when sewing clothes as an adhesive material. Various products were made from milk.

Culture

Buryat folklore consists of several directions:

• legends
• uligers
• shamanic invocations
• sayings
• fairy tales
• puzzles
• legends
• proverbs
• cult hymns

Musical creativity is represented by various genres, some of them:

• epic tales
• dance songs (the round dance yokhor is especially popular)
• lyrical ritual

Buryats sing various songs of a lyrical, everyday, ritual, table, round dance and dance nature. The Buryats call improvised songs duunuud. The modal basis belongs to the anhemitonic pentatonic scale.

Traditions

The only public holiday in the Republic of Buryatia, when the entire population officially rests, is the first day of the New Year according to the Lunar calendar - the White Month holiday called Sagaalgan.

Other holidays are also celebrated in Buryatia in accordance with religious and national traditions:

• Altargana
• Surkharban
• Yordyn games
• Ancient City Day
• Ulan-Ude Day
• Baikal Day
• Hunnic New Year
• Zura Khural

According to tradition, Buryats invite close neighbors to eat fresh food when they slaughter a ram, bull or horse. If a neighbor could not come, the owner sent him pieces of meat. Days of migration are also considered solemn. On this occasion, the Buryats prepared milk wine, slaughtered sheep and held festivities.

Children occupy an important place in the life of the Buryats. Having many children has always been revered. Parents who have many children enjoy great respect and respect. If there were no children in the family, this was considered a punishment from above; to remain without offspring means the end of the family line. If a Buryat died childless, they said that his fire had gone out. Families in which children often got sick and died turned to shamans and asked them to become godfathers.

From an early age, children were taught knowledge of customs, their native land, traditions of their grandfathers and fathers, and they tried to instill in them work skills. Boys were taught to shoot a bow and ride a horse, girls were taught to take care of babies, carry water, light a fire, wrinkle belts and sheepskin. From an early age, children became shepherds, learned to survive the cold, slept in the open air, went hunting and stayed with the herd for days.

The revival of national consciousness for the Buryats today is becoming one of the most pressing problems of ethnic Buryatia. The sustainability of this trend, first of all, can be ascertained in local public opinion. For example, you just need to trace the essence and nature of online discussions over the past few months. It is worth noting that social networks have long become a kind of “voice of the people” - a very lively, most dynamic and truly free carrier of information. Which is especially interesting from the point of view of the subtlety of such an issue as “nationalism”. And, it must be admitted, today, against the backdrop of socio-political vicissitudes at the Russian and even international level, the revival of national identity is assessed by Internet users as the last chance to preserve the Buryat people as a certain ethnically distinctive community. It is curious that calls are increasingly heard, at least in the cultural aspect, to “join” or “unite” with more complex ethnic formations, with which the Buryats have already developed historically and genetically at different times (Mongols, Turks, Turan... ). The desire to “take an example” from larger ethnic groups is quite understandable - the Buryats are in search of a “single face of the nation.” Perhaps, since the very name of the people “Buryats” became a custom a couple of centuries ago - and to this day... Peoples and nations, also formed over centuries, but have long since acquired their names, clearly seem more prosperous from the point of view of self-identification. Despite the fact that the Buryats, as a kind of union of tribes of a single linguistic community, could be proud of an equally ancient history... Self-awareness in the modern world is a process that is both natural and painful. Both at the individual level and at the community level. And, of course, it is no coincidence that today in the region a certain crisis has matured in the public consciousness regarding national self-determination. Opinions range from the pessimistic proclamation of the “death of language and nation” to the ideas of “reviving the values ​​of nomadic empires” and the implementation of the laws of Genghis Khan at the state level as a measure of extreme necessity. One way or another, at this stage, the most relevant (and most often sums up the majority of judgments) conclusion now appears: before uniting with someone, you must first save yourself... It is worth isolating precisely this valuable thought from everything. Because in the position of the question it contains significant potential for a long way. Or another idea of ​​approaching the issue of self-identification of a nation - based on the axiom “start with yourself.” .. What does it even mean - “the Buryats will survive as a people”? One seemingly simple question simultaneously contains several that require an integrated approach... Questions are a whole tangle in which all the threads are tangled. It’s not even clear now whether they are torn apart and which ones are connected to each other, what their colors are... The hostess collected everything there for many years, whatever came to hand... And now it seems unrealistic to unravel this magical ball of truly guiding threads... But we’re not used to retreating, are we? What does “I am a Buryat” even mean? So: “save yourself.” Shouldn't we start by defining who this is - “ourselves”? That is, let's try to pull this thread - self-identification. In this case, the Buryats as a nation. (We will consider the study of ways of “preservation” later - at the same time, we remember that their understanding will be revealed to us along the way with the awareness of “ourselves”... Now it’s primary. Then the “matter of technology” - everything will still change there, perhaps even in the most unexpected way... The one who walks will master the road). I propose an approach based on the belief that a nation is the same as an individual, but on a macro level. Let us remember Jung’s “collective unconscious”, and also how, say, mythology is formed. Myths have been guiding the consciousness of the masses since ancient times. Let's look at our beloved Internet... Without delving into scientific details, for now we simply admit that the laws governing the psyche of an individual and personality are absolutely fair for a group of people. Of course, they also work for such a group of individuals as a “nation”. (Moreover, precisely because of the specificity of such a phenomenon as a “nation” - here they manifest themselves, perhaps, even more clearly: in comparison with other larger entities, such as a “state”, “empire”, “world community”, or the same Turan, be it real - having a higher degree of “virtuality”... A nation is always “blood” in the human mind, in every sense...). In short, a nation is the same person. It all starts with one single thought. Then comes its manifestation and the joining of like-minded people. “Infection” of the masses. This is how all wars and migrations of peoples, states and religions begin. How it appears in someone’s head is another question... Having accepted the assumption of the identity of the individual and the nation in the context of psychology, we move on to self-identification. Self-determination, self-awareness. 5W, or "awakening technique" We recognize that the self-identification of a nation begins with the same thing with which it begins with a personality or individual. Here it seems to me most effective to use a very simple but effective technique from personality psychology. Accordingly, apply it to the “nation”. The 5W technique from “Western” psychology is actually exactly the same as the usual Buddhist practice of “dharma awareness.” But, of course, he proposes to use it purely rationally and systematically - while making it more accessible to the understanding of the “masses”... For example, the so-called “reality transurfing” offers 5W as the “basics” at the beginning of the path of personal development - to achieve it. .. anything! (The latter is already getting closer, by the way, to a certain shamanic magical understanding of the world and the practice of the Mongol-Tibetan “Dzogchen” - this is not what we’re talking about right now, just a side note). So, I hope it’s now clear why, following others, we’ll simply accept the name of this technique - 5W. To be short. The essence of self-awareness The technique of “self-awareness” is that you simply have to honestly answer yourself five simple (at first glance) questions - every day, several times... In English, all these questions begin with the letter W. And we do it right away — in Russian: 1. Who am I? 2. Where am I? 3. Who am I with? 4. What am I doing now? 5. Why am I doing this? It would seem that the answer to the first question alone allows you to identify yourself. But more often, unfortunately, a person’s mind is not so simple. That is why self-determination, awareness of oneself (and at the same time one’s path) is a complex of concepts about oneself. It is these 5 components that are the basis for solving the “difficult task” of self-identification. These closely related questions, when answered honestly, quickly “pump up” thinking. That’s why “transfers” also call this technique “awakening.” (It’s good that there is Buddhism, which teaches that everyone can “awaken” - that is, become a “Buddha”, for this Buddha-nature is present in each of us). Despite the apparent simplicity in life, for most people it is not easy to use this technique constantly. For this property of the mind is to constantly “sleep” in the inertia of everyday life. This is what various kinds of manipulators of mass consciousness have successfully used at all times... If every person asked these simple questions several times every day, such a concept (and phenomenon) as “cattle,” for example, would not exist in nature at all. And now everyone would live in their own “pure country”, om mani padme hum! But, fortunately, the mind also has another property - to form a habit by constantly repeating the same action. So a person has no other choice but to simply do, do, and do every day what ultimately needs to be mastered. Accordingly, the nation has no other choice. But you need to start with yourself. Only that... Offer your interpretation of the word “Buryat”! And this is where the fun begins! Because personally, for example, I can with great difficulty (?) answer just the first question... What can we say about the nation? Buryats - who are they? There are options? I personally have in my “piggy bank” several proposed “from the outside”: Buryat Mongols, Northern Mongols, “Baga Yastan” (allegedly contemptuous), Turkic Mongols, Turks, descendants of the Xiongnu, Asian Jews, Russians or even “Russian Buryats” , scattered tribes (there are also many options regarding “whose” these tribes are, not to mention the tired and yet real division into “Western” and “Eastern”), a nation/people formed and even received its name thanks only to “ entry" into the Russian Empire, nomads (former, however), descendants of Genghis Khan’s warriors, as well as simply warriors and cattle breeders (again, a reference to the past)... And these are only “censored” options... But that’s not the point that there are many options (and each carries its own special potential for development in one direction or another). The fact is that none of them can somehow be called completely satisfactory... But this is in my opinion! Interesting to see what others have to say. First of all, the Buryats themselves! The benefits of xenophobia. By the way, it turns out that it will not be possible to do without the participation of “others” in this matter. If only because in order to “define yourself” you need to “separate yourself” from these “others”. Contrast. Well, it’s just psychologically different - no way! To distinguish, you need to compare! And this is where things get really messy... Who are the “others” for us? Who do you compare yourself to? By what parameters? I can only declare: “I am a Buryat.” But what does this mean - I have no answer! And what kind of awareness can we talk about then... (“Who am I with?” - accordingly, the answer is also ambiguous, especially for a nation). Let's make a list: a certain set of characteristics characteristic specifically and only of the “Buryat”? Let us have a list against which everyone can check themselves... At least there is some clarity. You can't sleep anymore... wake up! So it turns out: national self-identification is a personal matter for everyone. Each of those who call themselves “Buryats” should be very strongly and personally interested in this. If only because children need to be raised. How will your children answer the question “who are the Buryats, and why are you the Buryats” when the time comes? But in Buddhism it is believed that to be born as a human being is as rare a stroke of luck as a turtle, in the middle of the endless ocean, swimming in the depths and sometimes emerging to the surface of the water for a breath of air - sticking his head out once again, suddenly putting the only rosary in the world on his neck, there - here, drifting on the surface of this ocean... And only a born human can have the happiness of becoming a Buddha, awakening and leaving samsara, full of suffering. Even the gods can't do this! And we, the rare lucky ones, are toiling around with bullshit here. Without even knowing it. And time is running out... So, an exercise for “awakening”. Repeat daily, every hour (well, at least every 2-3 hours). Answer yourself: 1. Who am I? 2. Where am I? 3. Who am I with? 4. What am I doing now? 5. Why am I doing this? Wake up! I ask you to post in the comments versions of the interpretation of the definition of “Buryat” - those that you have! Zhanna Idymova