Buriats

ALTERNATE NAMES: Buryats;Buriaad
LOCATION: Russia (mountains of Southeast Siberia)
POPULATION: 515,175 (445,175 in Russia, 2002), (70,000 in Mongolia)
LANGUAGE: Buriat, Russian
RELIGION: Tibetan Buddhism; native religious practices, Eastern Orthodox Christianity

INTRODUCTION

The Buriats (sometimes spelled Buryats) are an Asiatic people who inhabit the steppes and mountains surrounding the southern half of Lake Baikal in Southeast Siberia and speak a language belonging to the Mongol branch of the Altaic language family. The Buriats' name for themselves is Buriaad (or, less commonly, Buriaad-Mongol). The origins of the Buriats and the exact time at which they arose are unclear, but anthropological, linguistic, and archaeological evidence suggests that the ancestors of the modern Buriats may have been formed sometime during the Bronze Age (between 2500 and 1300 bc) along the shores of Lake Baikal and the Selenga River from Mongol tribes who mixed with native Siberian groups who spoke Turkic, Tungus, and perhaps Samoyedic languages. Russian soldiers and explorers first encountered the Buriats in the late 1620s and conquered them over the course of the 17th century. Most Buriats fought fiercely against the Russian invaders, and uprisings and attacks on Russian forts continued for decades, although some groups submitted voluntarily to the Russians in order to stop paying tribute to the Mongol khans and to escape the wars that were occurring in Mongolia at that time between Mongols and Manchus and between rival Mongolian leaders.

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

The Buriats in Russia numbered around 445,175 as of 2002. The main area of Buriat settlement is the Republic of Buriatia, which contains 249,500 Buriats and is part of the Russian Federation. Buriatia covers about 351,300 square kilometers (135,600 square miles) along Lake Baikal, making it 1.5 times larger than Great Britain. About 49,300 Buriats also live in the Ust'-Ordynsk Buriat Autonomous District to the west of Lake Baikal, and 42,400 more live in the Aga Buriat Autonomous District to the east. Altogether, 445,175 Buriats live inside the boundaries of the Russian Federation. Outside Russia, 70,000 Buriats live in Mongolia, and a few thousand live in northern China. Most of Buriat territory is mountainous taiga. Rolling steppes are to be found east and southeast of Lake Baikal, and in some places steppe valleys extend deep into the taiga. The highest parts of the Buriat Republic lie in the Eastern Sayan mountain range to the southwest of Lake Baikal. Buriatia's climate is harsh and continental. Because Buriatia is far from the moderating influence of the sea and high above sea level, temperatures are extreme and precipitation is sparse. Winters are long, dry, and very cold (the average January temperature ranges from -23ºc to -27ºc [-9ºf to -17ºf]). Summers are short, hot (the average July temperature is 20ºc [68ºf]), and relatively rainy. Most of the region's 300 mm (12 inches) of annual precipitation falls during the summer.

Wild animals found in forested areas of Buriatia include deer, reindeer, elk, boar, squirrel, bear, lynx, and wolverine. Hamsters and marmots also live in the steppe areas. There are numerous species of birds, including ducks, and fish in the Buriat lands. Freshwater seals can be found on the many islands that dot the shoreline of Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is the deepest continental body of water in the world, reaching a depth of 5,700 feet (1,737 meters). The lake contains about 20% of the world's freshwater reserves.

LANGUAGE

The Buriat language belongs to the Mongolian family and is divided into numerous dialects and subdialects. The Buriats did not have a written language until the early 17th century, when they began to write in Classical Mongolian, a literary language traditionally employed by most of the Mongol peoples. In this flowing vertical script, words are written from top to bottom in columns of text that read from left to right. After 1929, Buriat was written in the Latin alphabet, which was in turn replaced by the Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet in 1938. The Buriat literary language used today is based on the Khori dialect of the eastern Buriats and is written in the Cyrillic alphabet with extra letters for Buriat sounds that do not exist in Russian. Some common Buriat male names are Baatar ("hero") and Mergen ("wise"); common female names include Gerelmaa ("light") and Erzhena ("mother-of-pearl"). Because many Buriats practice the Tibetan form of Buddhism, names of Tibetan origin, such as Sodnom ("virtue"; male) and Geleg ("luck"; male) are also widely used. Some Buriats use Russian names such as Mikhail (male) and Tania (female).

FOLKLORE

The Buriats have a rich heritage of folklore that has accumulated over hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. The most remarkable genre of Buriat folklore is the uliger, or epic poem, which has been compared to the Iliad and Odyssey epics of the ancient Greeks. The Buriat epic poems all describe the struggles of mythical heroes such as Geser, Alamzhi-Mergen ("Alamzhi the Wise"), and Shono-Bator against various enemies and monsters. (The Buriats' favorite hero, Geser, is actually of Tibetan origin.) All Buriat uligers are very long, ranging from 2,000-3,000 to 25,000 lines in length. Some have developed several versions in different regions of Buriatia. The uligers have been most faithfully preserved in western Buriatia, perhaps because Buddhism is much less widespread there than among the Buriats east of Baikal, so the uligers have not had to compete with Buddhist tales. Because most Buriats were illiterate until the 20th century, the uligers were passed down orally from generation to generation, memorized and publicly recited by uligershens (bards). The Soviet persecution of Buriat national culture almost destroyed the uligershens. The Geser epic was banned for several years after World War II because Russian Communists misinterpreted several lines as anti-Russian, and new uligershens were no longer trained to replace the older ones who were dying out. In the past decade, Buriat cultural institutions have begun the slow, difficult work of preparing new uligershens.

RELIGION

The traditional religion of the Buriats was shamanism. Mountains, rivers, forests, and the sky were all considered to have their own spirits or gods that had to be respected. Animals, too, had their own spirits that had to be respected. For instance, it was forbidden to refer to certain animals directly by their usual Buriat names during the hunt lest they take offense at this impertinence. Thus, a shono (wolf) was called tengeriin nokhoi (heavenly dog). The Buriats also held fire to be sacred and sacrificed meat, milk, fat, liquor, and butter to it. A tribal priest, or shaman, was responsible for communicating with the gods. Like the Native American "medicine man," the shaman performed rituals at births, marriages, and burials and officiated at sacrifices, the most important of which was the horse sacrifice to the sky god Tengri. The shaman also prayed for and gave medicine to the sick and divined the future. There were both male shamans and female shamans, and the profession of shaman was hereditary.

Buriats east of Baikal adopted the Tibetan form of Buddhism in the 1600s. Most western Buriats remained shamanists, but some adopted Buddhism or Russian Orthodox Christianity. The Buddhism practiced by the Buriats has incorporated many shamanist beliefs and rituals. Buddhist datsans (monasteries) filled cultural and educational as well as religious needs, since they contained schools, libraries, and printing facilities. The Soviet government destroyed the monasteries and imprisoned or killed almost all of the Buriat lamas (Buddhist monks or priests) and shamans in the 1930s as part of its war against religion. Buriat religious practices had to go underground until the 1980s, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev abandoned the government's anti-religious policies. Now some of the previously destroyed datsans are being rebuilt, entirely new ones are being opened, datsan schools are again training lamas, and shamans can practice openly without fear of persecution.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS

The Tsagaalgan (New Year's Festival) is the most popular Buriat holiday and is celebrated by feasting and drinking that, in theory at least, can last through the entire first month of the year (the sagaan hara or "white month"). Since the Buriats formerly used the lunar calendar, the Buriat New Year falls on a different day each year in the Gregorian calendar. Buriats also celebrate the Western New Year's Eve and New Year's Day (31 December and 1 January). Buddhist Buriats also attended tsams, festivals held at the datsans that featured dramatic dances by lamas in elaborate masks and costumes depicting gods and demons. Shamanist Buriats also celebrated holidays called tailgans that began with animal sacrifices to local deities and ended with feasts, horse races, wrestling matches, and archery contests. There were three major tailgans— spring, summer, and fall—every year as well as many minor ones. Christian Buriats and those who lived in areas with large Russian populations also observed Christian holidays such as Easter and Christmas. Because all these holidays had religious aspects, they were banned by the Soviet regime, but in recent years Buriats have begun to observe them openly again. Of the Soviet-era secular holidays celebrated throughout Russia, the most popular among the Buriats are International Women's Day (8 March) and the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany (9 May).

RITES OF PASSAGE

Buriats have traditionally called upon shamans or lamas to bless the birth of a child. Because childlessness is considered a great misfortune by the Buriats, and infant mortality rates were high before the spread of Western medicine, superstitious parents temporarily gave newborns unappealing names or names inappropriate to their sex in order to make them less attractive to evil spirits that might otherwise harm them. For this reason, it is still common to refer to infants in uncomplimentary terms. A mother, for example, might say that her baby is muukhai ("ugly") even though she considers him beautiful.

The Buriats have no special rites of passage for childhood, puberty, or adulthood. Buddhist Buriats consider children to be without sin until they are about eight years old, but attaining this age is not marked by any special ritual. Buriats traditionally disposed of their dead by exposing them in the open air on the ground or on a raised platform. Weapons, saddles, and other everyday items were sometimes buried with their owners, and the deceased's horse was sometimes killed. Sha-mans were cremated and their ashes placed in tree trunks; groves that contained these trees were considered sacred, and it was forbidden to take wood from them. Cremation was also common in traditional Buriat society, especially among Buddhist Buriats. Buriats now bury their dead in cemeteries or cremate them.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

Upon receiving a guest in one's home for the first time, it is customary to present him or her with a khadag, a strip of silk approximately one yard long and a little less than one foot wide. The host places the khadag across his or her outstretched arms and transfers it to the arms of the guest. This practice, along with the word khadag, is of Tibetan origin. It is considered poor manners to hand someone an item with one's left hand when in polite company.

LIVING CONDITIONS

The nomadic eastern Buriats' traditional form of housing was the yurt, or ger, which was covered with felt cloth and held in place by a wooden frame. The doorway of the ger always faced south. The ger could be quickly taken apart and reassembled when the family moved from pasture to pasture. Because most western Buriats lived in mountainous areas unsuitable for nomadism, they used eight-sided permanent wooden "yurts." As a result of Russian influence, some also adopted log cabins and houses. At the present time, rural Buriats live in wooden houses in collective farms and villages, and urban Buriats live in Soviet-type apartment buildings or private wooden houses. Because of the persistent shortage of desirable housing during the Soviet period, it was not uncommon for Buriats in Ulan-Ude and other Buriat cities to live for years or even decades in crowded apartments with relatives or in dilapidated wooden houses that lacked indoor plumbing while waiting for suitable apartments of their own.

Like all Mongol peoples, Buriats have traditionally been excellent horsemen, and horses are still widely used for transportation in the countryside. Buriats living in cities, on the other hand, use public trolleys and buses and, to a much lesser extent, private automobiles.

Before the Soviet period, Western medicine was virtually unknown among the Buriats; instead, they were treated by shamans who knew herbal folk medicine and lamas trained in Tibetan medical practices at Buddhist monasteries. Western medicine has become widespread since the October Revolution of 1917 and is provided by the government at low cost. Many Buriats combine Western medical treatment with traditional methods of healing. Buriatia contains numerous mineral springs that are used for medicinal purposes, the most famous of which are located at Arshaan, southwest of Lake Baikal and are used by people from all over Buriatia, and indeed, from all parts of the former Soviet Union.

FAMILY LIFE

Traditional Buriat society was made up of esege zon (large tribes) organized on a territorial basis and otog (clans) that were based on kinship rather than territory. Wealthy clan members were obligated to help poorer clan members and widows and orphans who belonged to their clan. Clans, in turn, were divided into families. There were two types of traditional Buriat families: small nuclear families consisting of the male head of a household, his wife, several children, and sometimes his parents; and extended patriarchal families that combined the households of several brothers into a single settlement under the leadership of their father or the eldest brother. The nuclear family has always been the more common type, and the large patriarchal families have now faded into the past. Nevertheless, ties between members of related nuclear families are still strong, and it is not uncommon for parents, grandparents, and unmarried adult grandchildren to live under the same roof. Buriat couples usually have two or three children, and families tend to be larger in the countryside, where housing is in greater supply than in the cities.

Traditionally, most marriages were arranged by the parents of the prospective pair. The groom's family was required to pay a "bride-price" to the family of his prospective wife; if they could not afford to pay the bride-price in money, livestock, or other property, the groom was required to work it off at the home of his future in-laws before the marriage could take place. The difficulties caused by this practice sometimes led a prospective groom or his family to kidnap a bride from another clan rather than pay for her. Families who wished to gain financially by a marriage sometimes arranged it long before their children were old enough to marry. The minimum age of marriage was 15 or 16, but in practice women usually married between the ages of 17 and 21, and men between 18 and 25. (Men married later since they had to provide the bride-price.) Marriage between clan members who shared an ancestor within the preceding nine generations was forbidden. Polygamy was permitted, but only wealthy men could afford to have more than one wife. During a traditional wedding ceremony, the bride was brought on horseback to the groom's home, where she bowed to the gods of the groom's clan and sacrificed food and drink to them. Among Buddhist Buriats, lamas performed additional rituals to ensure the marriage's success. Buriats are now married in civil ceremonies. During the 20th century, marriages for love have replaced arranged marriages, although some parents still use unofficial "match-makers" to help their children find suitable mates.

CLOTHING

The traditional Buriat garment for both men and women is the degel, an ankle-length robe of felt, fur, or cloth that is fastened on one side with buttons or hooks. A lighter version of the degel worn in summer was called a terlig. Men also wore hats of cloth or fur and belts to which were attached knives in sheaths and elaborately decorated pouches for tobacco, snuff, and fire-making flints. Women wore trousers and shirts under their de-gels and sometimes an embroidered vest on the outside. Both sexes wore boots, or gutal, with thick soles and toes that curled slightly upward. (Men carried their pipes in the tops of their boots). Women, especially wealthy ones, wore elaborate silver earrings, rings, headdresses, and trinkets. Today almost all Buriats wear Western clothing (suits, dresses, etc.). Few Buriats even own traditional clothing, which cannot be purchased in stores, and those who do wear it only on holidays or other special occasions. The Buriats in the Aga Buriat Autonomous District represent a major exception to this tendency, however. Almost all Buriats their own and wear traditional clothing.

FOOD

Because Buriats have traditionally been a livestock-breeding people, it is not surprising that most of their national dishes feature meat and dairy products. A particularly esteemed delicacy is sheep's tail, which consists of very fatty meat; it is given to the most honored guest as a sign of esteem. Customary foods include boiled mutton, süsegei (a type of sour cream), eezgei (a dish similar to cottage cheese), blood sausages, butter, buuza (steamed dumplings filled with ground mutton or beef), and various types of yogurt. A recipe for buuza follows.

Buuza
(Buriat meat dumplings)

Filling
850 grams (1¾ pounds) lean mutton (Beef, pork, or horsemeat may be substituted)
220 grams (8 ounces) pork or mutton fat
3 onions
130 milliliters (4½ ounces) water
9 grams (1 tablespoon) flour
3 grams (1 teaspoon) salt

Dough
350 grams (2½ cups) flour
2 eggs
60 grams (2 ounces) water
dash of salt (optional)

Grind the meat in a meat grinder. Finely chop the fat and onions and mix them thoroughly with the meat, water, flour, and salt. Set aside.

Mix the dough ingredients together in a bowl. Roll the dough by hand into a tube about 2 centimeters (¾ inch) wide, then cut the tube into pieces (about 2 to 4 centimeters ¾ to 1½ inches) long. Use a rolling pin to shape the pieces into thin circles.

Place 50 grams (slightly less than ¼ cup) of the filling onto each of the dough circles. Pinch the edges of the circles together in tiny folds at the top of the meat, leaving a small hole in the center to let steam escape. Steam the dumplings over boiling water until the juice from inside is clear, 18 to 20 minutes. Serves 4 to 5.

(Translated and adapted from G. Tsydenzhapov and E. Badueva, Buriatskaia kukhnia (Buriat Cuisine), Ulan-Ude: Buriatskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1991, 50–51.)

Buriats are fond of tea, which they sometimes drink in the Tibetan style with milk, salt, and barley. The Russian influence on Soviet food production has made cabbage, potatoes, and other vegetables, as well as bread, sugar, and canned goods staples of the Buriat diet. The wooden and leather containers and utensils formerly used to prepare, store, and consume food have been replaced with metal, glass, and enamel ones purchased in stores. Food and drink are preferably given to guests or respected persons with both hands, or, if this would be impossible or awkward, with the right hand (preferably supported symbolically at the elbow by the left). When vodka or darasun (a liqueur made from fermented milk) is drunk, the first drops from a bottle are spilled into the fire (or, as is more common today, onto the electric or gas stove).

EDUCATION

Prior to the October Revolution, most Buriats were illiterate. Some Buriats attended local Russian elementary, and much more rarely, secondary schools. Most schools in the Buriat lands taught in Russian, not Buriat, because there were few Buriat teachers. Very few Russian teachers knew Buriat, and the Russian government opposed the use of Buriat and other non-Russian languages in the classroom. Russian Orthodox missionaries also established religiously oriented elementary schools, but these institutions were unpopular among the Buriats, who associated them with forced assimilation. Some Buddhist Buriats attended schools at the datsans, and there they learned Tibetan (the ritual language of Buriat Buddhism), Classical Mongolian, Buddhist theology and philosophy, and sometimes Tibetan medicine. Pre-revolutionary Buriats who did not attend school occasionally learned to read and write from relatives or tutors in Russian or Classical Mongolian.

The Soviet government made school attendance mandatory and universal. As a result, illiteracy has been practically eliminated among the Buriats. Most Buriats graduate from secondary school, and a sizeable proportion go on to attend colleges or trade schools. These advances have not come without a price, however. The Soviet regime attempted to use schooling as a tool of Russification (that is, replacing native cultures and languages with Russian), especially during the 1960s and 1970s. Teaching in the Buriat language was intentionally reduced, leading to a sharp decline in the number of young Buriats who knew their own language. Even those who spoke Buriat fluently could not read or write well in it. Since Gorbachev abandoned the policy of Russification in the 1990s, Buriat educators have increased the Buriat language's role in the classroom as both subject of study and means of instruction.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Many aspects of the Buriat cultural heritage were represented in the Buddhist monasteries (datsans). Datsans contained libraries of religious and secular literature in Classical Mongolian and Tibetan and even printed books in these languages. Artist-monks painted icons and carved statues of Buddhist deities and copied scriptures onto lacquered wooden pages using inks made of precious stones. The lavishly decorated monasteries were in themselves unique architectural monuments.

In addition to epic poems and other forms of oral folk literature, the Buriats possess historical chronicles written in Classical Mongol in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 20th century, Buriat writers have adopted Western literary modes such as the novel, short story, and play. The most famous modern Buriat author is Khotsa Namsaraev (1889–1959), whose works attack the real and alleged shortcomings of traditional Buriat ways of life and speak in glowing terms of the new Communist society. Although most Buriats find these propagandistic themes crude and distasteful, they still respect Namsaraev for his excellent literary style.

WORK

The Buriat economy traditionally centered around the breeding of cattle, sheep, horses, and goats. Some Buriats to the south and southwest of Lake Baikal also raised yaks. The Buriats in the steppe lands to the east and southeast of Baikal were nomads, moving their flocks to new pastures after they had exhausted an area's grass and water. Most nomadic Buriats moved twice a year, but rich Buriats who owned large herds changed residences up to a dozen times a year. Buriats west of Baikal also raised livestock, but because they usually lived in rugged mountain areas where movement was difficult, they were more sedentary. Western Buriats traditionally raised barley, wheat, and other grains. Buriats on both sides of Baikal engaged in hunting, particularly squirrels, sables, bears, elk, and deer, and those who lived near lakes or rivers also fished. When the Soviet government collectivized agriculture and animal husbandry in the 1930s, the Buriats lost their herds and were forced to settle in collective farms. Because the issue of private land ownership has not yet been settled in the former Soviet Union, most Buriats still live and work in the collective farms.

SPORTS

The most widespread sports among Buriats of all ages have traditionally been archery, horse riding, and wrestling, sports that are common among other Mongol-speaking peoples as well. Surkharbaan (archery festivals) are held every year at the town, district, and all-Buriat level, and include horse races and wrestling matches in addition to the archery contests. Buriats also enjoy Western spectator sports common throughout the former USSR such as soccer, basketball, and volleyball.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

The traditional forms of Buriat entertainment—watching horse races and archery contests and listening to bards recite epic poetry—have been supplemented by modern ones. In addition to the Russian-language news and entertainment programming of the national stations in Moscow that broadcast by satellite to the entire Russian Federation, there are several hours each day of Buriat-language radio and television programs from stations in the Buriat capital, Ulan-Ude. Since the early 1990s, Buriat-language television broadcasts have been videotaped and sent to television stations in the city of Irkutsk west of Baikal to be rebroadcast to Buriats who live outside their republic. Buriats enjoy watching Russian and Western films; young Buriats especially like American action-adventure films and East Asian martial-arts movies. A Buriat-language theater in Ulan-Ude stages plays by Buriat authors and translations of works by Russians and other non-Buriats. There is also an opera house in Ulan-Ude that performs Buriat, Russian, and Western compositions.

FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES

Because many Buriats were traditionally nomads, Buriat craftsmen have tended to focus on portable and relatively small items of everyday use such as saddles, tools, chests, clothing, storage trunks, and religious statues (shamanist ongons, or representations of deities, and Buddhist figures). The techniques they employ include carving, embroidery, stamping, and embossing. Although Buriats have long worked in leather, wood, bone, felt, iron, and stone, they are especially talented at crafting silver and even today produce very detailed and beautiful silver knives, pipes, buckles, buttons, rings, earrings, bracelets, and other jewelry.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Modern Buriats face many of the same social problems that confront people in other parts of the former Soviet Union. A collapsing economy, rampant crime and corruption, alcoholism, and environmental degradation are foremost among these. In addition, they must confront threats to their cultural integrity that stem from specific historical circumstances. Although the Bolsheviks initially encouraged the formation of a multicultural state in which all cultures and languages would enjoy equal rights, Stalin and his successors considered Russian language and culture superior to those of the USSR's other peoples and pursued a policy of Russification aimed at wiping out non-Russian cultures and languages with a mixture of persecution and neglect. The Buriat language was almost entirely removed from schools, and Buriat book and newspaper publishing declined in quality and quantity. Even worse, propaganda subtly but unceasingly fed Buriats (especially young ones) the message that "Buriat-ness" was equal to "backwardness" and that there was nothing in their cultural heritage of which they could be proud. Only in the last decade has the end of censorship and official Russification allowed Buriats to criticize these policies and to begin to slowly repair, primarily through education and the press, the damage done.

GENDER ISSUES

The social position of women was somewhat inferior to that of men in traditional Buriat society. For example, a woman had to observe many taboos in dealing with her husband's family: she was forbidden to address her mother- and father-in-law by their names, to sleep in the same dwelling with them, to walk in front of them, or to appear before them without covering her head with a cap. Buriat women now have legal rights equal to those of men, but sexist attitudes are still common. Although most Buriat women are employed outside the home, many husbands refuse to help them with household tasks. Historically, collectivization and the Second World War brought profound changes to traditional Buriat gender roles. The integration of the Buriats into the Soviet economic system, and into Soviet society shifted gender roles to some degree, but also provided Buriat women with increased educational opportunities.

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—revised by A. Frank