Publication details
Prophecies and predictions of the future in the oral tradition and oral history in the basin of Bulgan river
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | This contribution is based on a field-research of oral tradition and oral history mainly among Altai Urianhai ethnic subgroup in Western Mongolia (Bayan-Ölgii aimag, Bulgan sum, Hovd aimag, Mönhhairhan sum) and groups of Zahchin and Torguds living in their neighbourhood (Hovd aimag, Bulgan sum and a part of Üyenč sum). According to these oral sources, the perception of time and the chronology of the oral tradition speaking about the local past is marked by a strong prophetic or predictive thinking. The history (tüüh) in the understanding of the local nomads does not only refer to the past, but also to the present and to the future. Narrators of the local oral tradition express their belief, that the historical events experienced for example during the 20th century as well as the present and the future do not depend only on decisions and acts of individuals, but are as well caused by positive or negative deeds of ancestors, meritorious acts of wise lamas and local saints, geomantic characteristics (gazriin šinj) of the landscape inhabited by the community, course of events in the parallel world of local deities and spirits (Altain ezen, lus savdag), or merely a flow of time (cagiin erh), which is difficult to be understood, but can be known from the sacred scriptures (both canonical or apocryphal), which are trusted as infallible (huučnii nomd hudal baihgüi). While the oral tradition generally exerts to explain the relation of the community to its home region (nutag), the prophetic parts of the oral tradition admit that that the community may not eternally stay on the same place and that a time to migrate (implicitly to a better and luckier land) might come. Especially the oral tradition of Bulgan Torguds reflects the historical experience of migrations in the way that Bulgan was not a promised land for ever. On the other side, a prediction, that an ill fortune will meet anyone who leaves Altai, is frequently used to explain both group disasters and an individual bad luck. Cagaan Gegeen, who underwent a fast process of mythologization, is awaited to come as a saviour of Mongols from Kazakhs, or Buddhists from Muslims. A Buddhist chronology and eschatology with teachings about Shambhala, spreading over the whole Mongol area since the 19th century in a form of written prophecies, miraculous stone inscriptions and predictions attributed to Bogdgegeen, Dalai Lama or Banchen Bogdo, also naturalized among Oirads and influenced oral predictions of social upheavals – ideas further encouraged by the experience of political changes of the 20th century. In the contemporary philosophy of a Zahčin local, Böhsuuri, the eschatological expectations lead to a responsible self-appreciation of the environmentally sustainable and community oriented nomadic pastoralism. |
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