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HUNTING RITUALS OF THE BURYATS IN SHAMANIC MANUSCRIPTS
Authors: S.B. Miyagasheva
Number of views: 551
The article is devoted to the study of the traditional ritualism of hunting of the Buryats reflected in the syncretic ritual practice. The process of developing an unified Buddhist-shamanic canonized ritual was carried out with the help of written recording of previously existed shamanic traditions. Such texts are called shamanic manuscripts and represent the cult system of Tibetan Buddhism, and show the development and transformation of its concepts in the regional forms. Shamanic manuscripts basically reflect the most popular and significant rites, for example, hunting rituals. Despite sufficient study of hunting traditions of the Mongolian peoples, the study of the semantics of rituals, reveal of archaic elements such as magical, mythological, animistic, and its comparison with rituals prescribed in Buddhism is of interest. For this purpose, the article analyzes and presents the characteristics of hunting rituals of the Buryats reflected in the ritual texts of the san-choga category, i.e. texts of offering and burning incense (bsangs cho ga). These include the prayers devoted to the hunting deity Manakhan, as well as ranks for cleaning guns and straps of horse saddles. The evolution of the image of the hunting deity Manakhan Khan is discussed. Common features and parallels with local deities are revealed. It is shown that hunting rituals recorded in the shamanic manuscripts of the Buryats contain different layers of archaic and syncretic elements.