Geser, the hero of the epic. Buryat heroic epic class hour on the theme of Pan-Mongolism and self-reliance

Description of the presentation on individual slides:

1 slide

Description of the slide:

Geser Geser Ochirova Tatyana Nikolaevna, teacher of Russian language and literature, MHC MAOU secondary school No. 49, Ulan-Ude, Buryatia

2 slide

Description of the slide:

Geser The poem glorifies fidelity to duty, stigmatizes treason and betrayal. "Geser" is a hymn of love for one's land. “Do not allow the enemy to your native land, do not wait for him, but go out to meet him, there he will be defeated” - this is one of the most important motives of this epic tale.

3 slide

Description of the slide:

Geser (Geser, Geser Khan) - a character in Tibetan mythology (Gesar, Kesar) and the mythology of the Mongolian peoples, including the Buryats (Abay Geser khubүүn); The Tibetan prince Gosylo, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great could serve as a prototype of Geser, and the etymology of his Tibetan name Kesar, possibly goes back to Caesar / Caesar. He is the son of the supreme god Hormusta (Khurmasty) who was born on earth in order to defeat the monsters that appeared from the pieces of the body of Atai Ulan.

4 slide

Description of the slide:

In the center of the legend are the exploits of the hero Geser, a celestial who descended to earth and is reborn in a poor shepherd's hut, for only a "human child" born in a poor family can, according to the creators of the epic, understand the aspirations of the people, "female and male tears ..." And when the forces of evil are defeated, Geser refuses to return to heaven and remains a man forever.

5 slide

Description of the slide:

6 slide

Description of the slide:

The main character of the epic is the figure of Geser, the son of a heavenly deity sent into the world to fight the forces of evil. In the course of this struggle, Geser accomplished numerous feats. The plot of the epic is very entertaining and full of events. Now there are three main versions of "Geser": Buryat, Tibetan and Mongolian. The epic "Geser" reflects the people's dreams of an ideal kingdom and a just ruler. Sampilov Ts.S. Sketches for the epic Geser

7 slide

Description of the slide:

Geser is not only the central hero of the Buryat heroic epic, but also the most popular character in the Buryat folklore. In his image, the best human traits and qualities are brought together. The creators of the epic saw in Geser a hero with an exalted soul and good thoughts, Geser goes towards fate, full of faith in the justice of his destiny. He does not change his decisions and invariably achieves his goal. Geser is faithful in friendship, but adamant in the fight against enemies. According to the customary law of the tribal society, Geser buries the defeated enemy according to ancient custom with military honors. At the same time, the hero says: “I should not boast that I suppressed the mighty enemy,” since he understands that the struggle is not yet over. Since the circle of his loved ones remains behind the defeated opponent, they can try to take revenge on the winner.

8 slide

Description of the slide:

The heroic epic "Geser" has existed for at least a millennium. It is rightfully considered one of the most significant works of the world heroic epic, calling it the "Iliad of Central Asia". The territory of residence of the Buryat tribes was an integral part of the Mongolian world in ancient times, in the Middle Ages, and in modern times. The epic vividly embodied the ideal of a folk hero, a champion of truth and justice. Geser is the most popular character in the entire folklore of the Buryats, who named children after heroes, organized sports games in honor of glorious bathers, and worshiped reserved places. That is why Geser became the national hero of Buryatia.

9 slide

Description of the slide:

The Buryat "Geser" has preserved to this day the greatest originality and poetry. The storytellers, called gesershins, told the story to the Buryats gathered in the yurt only at night, one "branch" (part) per night, interrupting at the most interesting place. All this went on for 10 nights in a row. The Gesershins not only told stories, but there were elements of narration, recitation and, most of all, singing. The storytellers had a phenomenal memory, memorized thousands of poetic lines and thus brought to us an artistic treasure to this day. All Uligershins possessed genealogical information, shamanic traditions, were masters of all tunes, for example, Manshut Imegeev performed 10 thousand 590 lines for nine days.

10 slide

Description of the slide:

Buryat playwright N.G. Baldano, after 15 years of hard work, created the basis for the heroic epic of the Buryats to become the property of the peoples of Russia. In the poetic translations of the writers S. Lipkin and V. Soloukhin, it was repeatedly published in two volumes in Russian. The ballet "Son of the Earth" by Zh. Batuev, cycles of illustrations by A. Sakharovskaya, Ch. Shonkhorov, D. Purbuev, "Epic Poem" by composer B. Yampilov - this is an incomplete list of works created by artists and literature on the basis of "Geser".

11 slide

Description of the slide:

As a child, the boy shows miraculous abilities, destroys various demons, wins the equestrian competition for the possession of the beautiful Drugmo (Rogmo-goa, Urmai-goohon), the throne and treasures of Lin. Then he receives a wonderful horse from the sky, acquires his true majestic appearance and the name Geser (in the Mongolian versions - Geser-Khan, usually referred to as "the lord of 10 countries of the world, the eradicator of 10 evils in 10 countries of the world"). The most ancient core of the image of Geser is a cultural hero sent down by heaven, purifying the earth from monsters. In the oral Mongolian tradition (and in the Buryat version of the epic), Geser gained a reputation as a slayer of demons and monsters (mangus).

12 slide

Description of the slide:

13 slide

Description of the slide:

14 slide

Description of the slide:

Gesar Khan in the creative heritage of the Roerich family. The image of Gesar Khan, the legendary hero of the epics of the Asian peoples, occupies a special place not only in the artistic heritage, but also in the essays, books of Nikolai Konstantinovich, in the scientific works of Yuri Nikolaevich, in the works of Elena Ivanovna, in the work of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Roerichs. Castle of Geser Khan. 1929. Call. 1944

Recall that the cultural organization of the United Nations (UNESCO) since 2003 assigns this status to various cultural objects within the framework of its program "Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage". The list of such status "intangible" cultural objects is compiled by analogy with the long-known List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which focuses on tangible objects. On such, for example, as Lake Baikal.

In the list of "intangible cultural heritage" of UNESCO, Russia is currently represented by only two objects. These are the "cultural space and oral creativity of the Semey - Old Believers of Transbaikalia" and the Yakut heroic epic "Olonkho". If Geser is included in the list, then two of the three Russian facilities will represent Buryatia.

However, this event in the cultural life of the republic and the country gives rise to a number of questions: will this initiative of Russia find a response in the UN? What is the Buryat heroic epic "Geser" in general? To what extent is this epic actually Russian (Buryat), and not Mongolian or Chinese (Tibetan)? and what specifically should be recognized as the "intangible cultural heritage of mankind" - some one "main" text from more than ten quite voluminous (from 2 to 50 thousand verses each) Buryat uligers about Abai Geser recorded by scientists or the entire cultural space of the Geseriada? That is, this is the performing art of uligershins (singing, acting, playing musical instruments, etc.), and customs, rituals associated with the performance of uligers, and spiritual and material knowledge about nature and the universe, transmitted in the epic from the depths centuries? Or each of the elements of this complex separately?

It is rather difficult to answer these questions. Firstly, the legacy of the Gesariada has not been fully studied and, in fact, is unknown to the general reader either in Buryatia, or in Russia, or in the world. Secondly, it in itself is so rich and diverse that each of the ten most famous Western Buryat uligers about Geser can be on a par with the Iliad, "The Knight in the Panther's Skin", "David of Sasun", "Dzhangar" or "Olonkho" . And, thirdly, there are also political disputes around the epic about Geser, which affect problems in relations between Russia and China in the geopolitical sense and no less acute problems associated with the loyalty or disloyalty of the Buryats to the central government within Russia, the USSR.

Shot while trying to escape

A little about the history of disputes around the epic "Geser". Now it is hard to imagine, but some 60 years ago, classroom and museum studies of the folklore and literature of the Buryats were akin to the activities of a spy or extremist organization in terms of the degree of danger. In this area, there were many broken lives, scientific and political careers, and in some cases, the study of the epic ended in prison, exile, exile, and even the physical death of the researcher.

In this sense, the story of the journalist Maxim Shulukshin, who became the main victim of the political struggle around the epic about Geser, is indicative. In 1948, Shulukshin was declared a "bourgeois nationalist" and imprisoned for 10 years for "anti-Soviet activities" in Djidalager in Zakamensk.

The leading Marxist literary critic in Buryatia, Mikhail Khamaganov, who in the 1940s and 1960s served as the chief political gendarme from philology, in the first book of the almanac "Baikal" (published organ of the Union of Writers of the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR) gave such a "party characterization" to his other colleagues in literary workshop.

“One of the weapons in the arsenal of bourgeois nationalists was the feudal-khan epic Geser, which is distinguished by its reactionary, cosmopolitan content,” Mikhail Khamaganov wrote in 1949. - Bourgeois nationalists, dealing with "Geser", strictly distributed among themselves the functions, the so-called "sphere of activity". The nationalist Shulukshin wrote lascivious articles, popularizing the cosmopolitan content of Geser. The latter also touched Sanzhiev (Buyanto Sanzhiev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Buryaad-Mongoloi Unen, 1946 - secretary of the Buryat-Mongolian regional committee of the CPSU (b), professor-historian - S.B.), infamous for his ideological perversions nationalistic character in the field of history. Balburov (Afrikan Balburov, writer, in the 60-70s, chief editor of the Baikal magazine - S.B.) openly admired the bloody, predatory campaigns of Genghis Khan, Belgaev (Gombo Belgaev, 1938 - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council B.-M. ASSR, 1941 - Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars B.-M. ASSR, 1946 - Director of the Buryat-Mongolian Research Institute of Culture and Economics - S. B.) and Zugeev (N. D. Zugeev, scientific secretary of Giyali - S.B.) took upon themselves, mainly, organizational issues related to the popularization of "Geser".

At the time when such execution articles were published in the newly formed magazine of Buryat party writers, real shots were fired at "cosmopolitans" and "nationalists" in Jidalag. In 1949, Maxim Shulukschin was shot dead by a convoy "while trying to escape."

Why did Soviet propaganda suddenly change plus to minus and the epic hero Geser, with whom the Buryat Soviet poets compared soldiers and commanders of the Red Army during World War II, suddenly became “an instrument of the ideology of Pan-Americanism and American imperialism”?

Pan-Mongolism and "self-reliance"

So, at the end of the thirties in Buryat-Mongolia, pan-Mongolism was declared enemy number one, which suddenly turned from a "progressive anti-imperialist (anti-British, anti-Ententine) trend" into a "bourgeois-nationalist movement in the service of the Japanese imperialists." In the same years, the then Buryat political and cultural elite, both pre-revolutionary and party, were systematically purged. But with all this, the epic "Geser" was quite integrated into the context of socialist ideology.

By the mid-1930s, the doctrine of the formation of a "world republic of Soviets", based on the theory of "permanent revolution" by Leon Trotsky, finally gave way to another "Marxist" (actually Stalinist) theory of "building socialism in one single country" based on on their own strength. Thus, the more specific doctrine of the formation of the huge Buryat-Mongolian SSR within the USSR (with the annexation of the MPR and Inner Mongolia of China) ceased to be dominant in the foreign policy of the Soviet Union towards China and Mongolia.

At the same time, the grand Leninist-Stalinist experiment in creating new national cultures and identities (including “Buryats”, “Buryat-Mongols” as something completely separate from the Mongols) in Buryatia was accompanied by the creation of a modern Buryat literary language, a new writing system for the Buryats. based on the Latin rather than vertical Mongolian alphabet. The lexical basis of the new artificially created language was not the Tsongol dialect, almost identical to the Khalkhas, but the Khorin dialect, which was more distant from it.

At first, the Buryat heroic epic “Geser” was perfectly integrated into such a concept, whose “brand” had to be created and “promoted” at the international level as a unique property of the new Buryat socialist nation. Fortunately, even pre-revolutionary Buryat scientists Tsyben Zhamtsarano and Matvey Khangalov, as well as Soviet folklorists Sergei Baldaev and Ilya Madason, managed to scientifically fix invaluable cultural material: a large number of different uligers about Geser. Fortunately, they still existed in the late 19th - early 20th centuries in the oral tradition of the Irkutsk Buryats, free from Buddhist influence. It was these scientists who managed to record and convey to us the last breath of the outgoing religious and cultural tradition of oral transmission of ancient knowledge about the earthly and heavenly (sacred) world.

Recall that all known written (in Mongolian script) East Buryat (Khorin) uligers and the Mongolian version of the epic published in Beijing in 1715 existed in a greatly abridged form, in isolation from the original records of works about Geser and were clearly subject to ideological Buddhist processing. In addition, they, unlike the voluminous poetic Western Buryat uligers, had a small volume and were written in prose.

At the end of the 1930s, the international “Pan-Mongolian and pro-Japanese spy organization” “connected” with Marshal Tukhachevsky himself was defeated, the leaders of which were allegedly the former Mongolian Prime Minister Genden, the first secretary of the Buryat-Mongolian regional committee of the CPSU (b) Mikhei Yerbanov and the USSR plenipotentiary in MPR, authorized by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in Mongolia Ruben Tairov. After that, in Buryat-Mongolia, the construction of a “national in form and socialist in content” of a new Buryat culture was continued. As different as possible from the common Mongolian culture.

Snoring, the horses flew towards the sunset.
Generations worshiped Fire and the Word.
Silence keeps Gesariad
About the secrets of its origin.
But descendants remember horsemen wisely,
Where does the old light of goodness pour from:
The great voice of the nomadic morning,
Immortal lips uligershina.

enemies. According to the customary law of the tribal society, Geser buries the defeated enemy according to ancient custom with military honors. At the same time, the hero says: “I should not boast that I suppressed the mighty enemy,” since he understands that the struggle is not yet over. Since the circle of his loved ones remains behind the defeated opponent, they can try to take revenge on the winner.


	Sampilov Ts.S. Sketches for the epic Geser	Sampilov Ts.S. Sketches for the epic Geser	Jamsaran (Tib. Jamstrin). Mon- Golia XIX	Geser (Goviin lha). Mongolia XIX	Geser. Mongolia, mid-19th century

Tibetan cursive manuscript of the Hesariad	Pages of the Tibetan manuscript of the Geseriada	To the 275th anniversary of the publication of the Mongolian version of the Gesariad. Booklet			Distribution map of the Buryat Geser

Sakharovskaya A.N. Abay Geser	B.M. S. Zydrabyn. Illustration for a branch of the first epic Geser	E. Purevzhav. Geser Khan is on his way	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser's victory over Gal-Nurman Khan	Shonkhorov Ch. B Birth of GESERA on earth	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Last fight

	Dorzhiev B. Songs about the native land. 2005	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Lobsogoldoy turned Geser into a donkey	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Last fight	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser on the hunt	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Meeting of three tengeri

Shonkhorov Ch.B. War between western and eastern tengrii	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser's struggle with the Mangadhai	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser's fight with the gazarai Gani-Bukhe	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Geser rises to the seventh heaven	Shonkhorov Ch.B. Illustration for the epic Geser	Sakharovskaya A.N. etc. Geser descends to the ground (batik)

		Morinhur	Geser. Mongolia, early 19th century	I. Garmaev as Geser. 1995

The bearers and keepers of the ancient epic traditions were their experts, the Uligershins. They enjoyed great honor and respect of the people. The proverb says about Buryats’ love for storytellers: “Uligershin is supposed to sit on an olbok pillow, and a singer on a dobun hill” or “Uligershin is treated with foam and cockroach, the storyteller is put on a carpet and a pillow.”
At the time of the productivity of the epic tradition, the Uligers probably knew, if not all, then many. Even now, through a survey of people of the older generation, the names of many storytellers who performed uligers back in the 20-30s were revealed. But not every expert on uligers could become a good uligershin. They became the best in skill and knowledge, possessing the appropriate talent. The narrator had to have an impeccable memory in order to convey huge epics consisting of thousands of verses without gaps and distortions, as required by tradition. Uliger could not be reduced, remade in its own way. His performance was assessed by listeners who knew the content of the uligers well. The singer had to have a sonorous beautiful voice, an ear for music, a good command of the word, and most importantly, be able to be inspired, for he "is a kind of inspired poet." The narrator, as it were, reincarnated as a hero, selflessly surrendering to singing; voice, special intonations, gestures or playing the khur conveyed the features of the events taking place in the epic. Such a state of inspiration came to Uligershin only in front of the audience, “in a certain exciting environment,” as Ts. Zhamtsarano writes.
Thus, a good uligershin was an actor, musician and poet all rolled into one. Such demands were conditioned by life itself and proceeded from the syncretism of ancient art. And therefore it is not surprising that “in a good rhapsodist, the listeners weep in strong tragic places, express the liveliest joy when the truth suddenly triumphs.
Buryat storytellers were not professionals. Often ordinary workers, people from the poor strata, were fond of the art of telling uligers, many of them worked as laborers in their youth.
Narrators perceived texts from childhood, mainly in the family circle. Most of them had parents or grandparents as narrators. In addition to the family, experts in folklore from their own or neighboring ulus could be the source of the repertoire. So, Uligershin P. Petrov in his childhood heard folklore works from his father, as well as from the storyteller from the neighboring village Tabaran Dorzhiev. Since there was no professional performance, there were no “schools” for admission to the storyteller “as a student”. Over time, the storyteller's repertoire, perceived through family line, expanded and replenished. Most often this happened in places where people from different areas gathered.
According to epic scholars, the poetics of the Hesariad is highly organized, the verbal text is richly saturated with metaphors, hyperbole, antitheses and other artistic and visual means. The storytellers themselves had a good sense of rhythm and meter, used the methods of speeding up and slowing down the rhythm.

They skillfully varied various consonances, alliterations, internal and final rhymes. Narrators often used such a technique as parallelism - psychological and syntactic. The epithet was distinguished by freshness and novelty, although, as is typical of every epic, the stability of favorite definitions was traced: black and yellow colors are, as a rule, negative, while at the same time, the yellow color of certain objects - the hilt of the sword, the brush of the headdress - is perceived as positive. Positive colors are always white, red, silver.
The performance of the uliger was considered not an easy task and pursued not only entertainment goals. Usually it was timed to coincide with some social event. Ts. Zhamtsarano noted: “Uliger is sung (sayed) to achieve various benefits, for example, to heal the sick, to see the blind, to succeed in crafts, hunting, round-ups, while catching fish, etc .; uliger contributes to success in campaigns.
The production and ritual significance of the performance of the epic was preserved for a long time. The performance of the uliger in the past was an integral part of the household complex of the ancient collective. So, the specific purpose of the uliger is reflected in the ritual of hunting preparations of taiga hunters, who were to enter the world of forest animals. “After arriving at the hunting place, the Buryats performed some rituals aimed at appeasing the spirits of animals and forests, on which one or another outcome of the hunt depends. Then, in the evening, before going to bed, the singer spread his white felt (not stained with horse sweat) in a hut, on it they put lighted branches of juniper, a cup of wine or milk, stuck an arrow into it and all night, until the first glimpses of the morning dawn, they sang at length his epic: without this ceremony, hunting, according to the Buryats, could not be successful.
This is how those Uligershins (M. Imegenov, E. Shalbykov, L. Bardakhanov) with whom Ts. Zhamtsarano met and worked for a long time in the uluses of the Kudinsky valley of the Irkutsk province at the beginning of the 20th century understood the meaning of their storytelling. He noted that the performance of the uliger requires a suitable audience, which means listeners who know the content of epic poems and understand the intricacies of storytelling. However, the aesthetic side of the performance of the epic became more tangible and began to gradually prevail in the performance process. In the old days, at the time of active epic creativity, uligers were performed at a certain time or in a certain setting. So, the storyteller P. Petrov did not perform uligers in the summer (more precisely, after the winter cold) and in the daytime. Usually uliger was performed in autumn and winter evenings in the circle of odnoulusniks. The listeners perceived the uligers as memories of the historical past of the people. The perception of the uliger is marked by depth and seriousness, its effect was "cleansing" and influencing the spiritual mentality of the listeners. At the same time, one should take into account the huge artistic impression made from the performance of the uliger.

(archetypal picture)

Now there are three main versions of "Geser": Buryat, Tibetan and Mongolian. The most archaic features of the common Central Asian myth have been preserved in the Buryat variants.
The epic "Geser" reflects the people's dreams of an ideal kingdom and a just ruler. In the first seven songs of the Buryat version, anti-Lamaist motifs are found.This epic contains extensive data on shamanistic cosmogony.

In the epic “Geser” the representations of people who lived in society at the stage of transition from gathering and hunting to cattle breeding, from matriarchy to patriarchy were reflected in an allegorical form. The poem glorifies fidelity to duty, stigmatizes treason and betrayal."Geser" is a hymn of love for one's land. “Do not allow the enemy to your native land, do not wait for him, but go out to meet him, there he will be defeated” - this is one of the most important motives of this epic tale.

The epic tells that in ancient times it happened that unprecedented diseases, famine and pestilence began to spread on the earth, wars broke out, misfortunes and troubles began to come to people, the Celestials, seeing this, decided to send Buhe Beligge to the earth, which should was born on earth as a man, and not come to people in the guise of a celestial. The future hero was born in the family of a seventy-year old man and his sixty-year-old wife, who was actually the daughter of the sun, and received the name Zurgay.

(image is clickable)

It was an ugly child: snotty and mangy, but already in early childhood, the magical abilities of this extraordinary baby appeared. His earthly relatives began to guess about the great destiny of the future hero. Even at the time when Zurgai was lying in the cradle, an evil shaman was sent to him by heaven, who was supposed to destroy the hero. The baby easily copes with the shaman. Soon Zurgai himself makes a bow for himself and makes a horse out of tree bark, on which he goes to fight the evil demons albins. He brings brides to the house: first, the khan's daughter, and after a while, another girl, the rich man's daughter, wins the competition. Thanks to these girls, Abai Geser appeared to people in his true form: a hero - the liberator of the earth from evil demons. The celestials send Geser a magic horse to help him, which will be his faithful assistant in dangerous battles and campaigns. The first feat of Geser is the battle with the giant Lobsogolda-Mangadhai. The evil charms of this giant's wife turn Geser into a donkey. But the celestials help him to regain the former appearance of Abai Geser. The battle with a powerful enemy lasted six months, and the celestials did not remain indifferent to this battle. In the end, Geser manages to win. Another feat of Geser was the battle with a monster with great magical power, Gal-Durmekhan. The hero cannot defeat the villain in a fair duel, because Gal-Durme Khan can die an infinite number of times and be reborn again. But exhausted by the battle, he promises not to do evil to people in the future and retires to the eastern edge of the earth. In the battle with Kharaabal Mergen, Geser dies, struck down by formidable black forces that came from the east. These powers were called forth by the magic spells of Kharaabal Mergen. The prophetic horse Geser informs the wives and sons of his master about his death and helps them find a magical remedy that brings Geser back to life. Gzzr accomplished many more other feats. He cleansed the world of monsters, established peace, harmony and prosperity on earth, made it more suitable for human life.

The epic about Geser has preserved ancient folklore motifs. In the language of the legend, there are many words and idiomatic expressions that have long gone out of use. This gives linguists material for studying the history of the Buryat language.

Many peoples who know the epic legend about Geser worship Geser as a celestial, deity, great spirit. Geser patronizes warriors, protects herds, he is the vanquisher of demons and the giver of a happy fate (including hunting luck). In shamanic invocations, Geser is called Burkhan or Tengri, the son of the sky, who lives above a high white mountain peak, in the house of clouds and fogs. Unlike Tibet, where many associates and opponents of Geser are deified, among the Mongolian peoples, only Geser is the subject of cult veneration. There are legends among the Buryats that songs about Geser protect from the ghosts of the dead and demons. There were special magical talismans of Geser, which were supposed to save their owner from the machinations of evil spirits.

The historical origin of the legend of Gzser is lost in the distant past of the great nomadic empires of Central Asia. It is still not known who is the real prototype of epic heroes. The century-old history of the study of the epic has given rise to many theories and hypotheses.

Representatives of the Buddhist Gelukpa school believe that the epic has no historical basis. Representatives of other traditions believe that King Kesar (Geser) was the leader of the nomadic tribes of Central Asia, who were at enmity with Tibet. The basis for the hypothesis that Geser lived in the 11th-12th centuries AD was the biography of Padmasambhava, which mentions the name of Geser. Albert Grünwedel expressed the opinion that the name Kesar represented the Mongolian-Tibetan translation of the Roman title Caesar (Caesar). In the Manchu tradition, King Geser is identified with Guan-di, the popular hero of the famous Chinese novel The Three Kingdoms. Guan-di was the commander of the founder of the Wuhan dynasty. There is a hypothesis that Gesariada sings of the folk hero Genghis Khan. However, studies of the Buryat version of the epic have shown that this is not so, since the legend of Geser was compiled among the people long before the birth of Genghis Khan. Europeans learned about "Geser" from the message of the famous traveler, naturalist and historian Peter Simon Pallas. In 1772, traveling through Eastern Siberia, he visited the city of Maimachen (now Altan-Bulak) on the border of Mongolia, where the temple of Geser was located. Pallas described the temple in detail and reported the existence of the epic. In addition to the only description of this temple, Pallas wrote down the prayer to Geser read here, as well as oral tradition, according to which the Dalai Lama is the incarnation of Geser. After the expedition of Pallas, a lot of evidence was collected about the veneration of Geser and the temples erected to him. Temples of Geser were built until the 30s of the 19th century. In the middle of the 19th century in Urga (now Ulaanbaatar) a statue of Geser was consecrated in the form of a Buddhist monk. One of the datsans of Urga (Dishi - samdanlin-datsan) received a two-volume Geser-un choinkhor (Geser's Prayer Drum) - a collection of prayers and spells to drive out evil spirits in the name of Geser. It is known that during the Japanese-Chinese war of 1894, a new statue of Geser the Militant was erected in the hallway of one of the Mongolian temples of Geser the Good. The lamas and the laity believed that the old Geser-Monk would not have dared to kill the Manchu Emperor, but Geser the Warlike would be able to do it. In 1921, Baron Ungern, having taken possession of Urga, announced in the courtyard of the Geser temple that he had come to protect the religion of Buddha and the throne of the great Manchu emperors from the Reds and atheists. Baron Ungern was proclaimed the incarnation of Gesar the Militant. The lamas argued that the bullets of the Red Russians and the Black Chinese could not harm the incarnation of Geser, and only a Mongol bullet could defeat him. In 1932, a new temple of Geser was built near the Gandan Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, where believers were attracted by a soothsayer who predicts the future.

The epic has 22 thousand lines. The first literary edition of the Mongolian version of the epic was published in Mongolian in Beijing in 1716. The epic has been translated into many languages of the world. Mongolian scholar B. Laufer, who believed that the epic has Mongolian roots, wrote: “The legend of Geser Khan ... is, without a doubt, the most interesting work of all Mongolian literature, in which heroism, humor and poetry are mixed with oddities and trivial.” In 1930 - 1931. under the editorship of Academician B..Ya. Vladimirtsov published a grandiose epic of the Buryat people, written down by Ts.Zh. Zhamtsarano according to Manshud Emegeev, one of the great Buryat storytellers-Uligershins. Vladimirtsov highly appreciated the Buryat version of Geser and put it on a par with the masterpieces of world literature. He called it "a colossal Buryat epic, far surpassing the Iliad."

In 1931, the French traveler Alexandra David-Neel, who had lived in Tibet for a long time, published in French a short retelling of the Tibetan version of Geser. She came to the conclusion that the legends about Gesar rest on a historical basis. The great military leader, a truly historical figure, whose life is hidden in the mythological narrative, in her opinion, lived between the 11th and 12th centuries. She called the Gesariad the "Iliad" of Central Asia" and believed that the epic about Gesar "by its national significance should be considered along with the Iliad, the Aeneid, the Nibelungs and Roland."

Many places are associated with the name of Geser in Buryatia and other countries. It is believed that Geser's homeland was the high mountains of the Sayan Mountains, and Geser's throne was the highest peak - Mount Munku-Sardyk (Eternal White Char), located on the border of Mongolia and Buryatia. Near the city of Ulan-Ude, an architectural complex was created, which is called the "Parking of Geser", where, according to the myth, the hero of the epic stopped to rest and tied his horse to the hitching post before moving on. The millennium of the epic “Geser” was solemnly celebrated in Buryatia in 1995.

Geser

Since ancient times, a hero sent by heaven to cleanse the earth of demons and monsters has been revered. Geser's father was the deity Esege Malaan-mengri, who lives in the Upper World - in the sky. He is born on "the very edge of the earth", in a small hut in a family of poor old people. “He was ruddy, strong, healthy, only in appearance very severe. He didn’t drink or eat anything yet, but he managed to get the diapers dirty. ” That's what they called him: the prankster. And they gave him the name Nyurgay. From birth, he showed miracles of strength and courage.

The epic "Geser" includes nine books, nine branches of the green tree of life. You are offered an excerpt from the second book, which tells how Geser finds his true appearance and name.

Nyurgay has two wives now,

They began to live without swearing.

He has two beautiful wives

He has two sun-faced wives,

He has two bright-eyed wives,

The daughters of khans are great.

But Nyurgay behaves very strangely,

He does not sleep with his wives,

Under a worn, old fur coat

Lonely in the corner huddles.

After every last night

The two wives were very surprised:

What is going on with their husband?

And they decided, agreed,

They pretended to be asleep at night.

One eye - closed and sleeping,

In the other eye - they look with might and main.

Wives see that their husband is dressing

And going somewhere to go

Puts on a torn shirt

He puts on an old coat.

One of them got caught

Tied a thread to a fur coat.

Their hubby is quickly removed,

A string follows him.

As he walks away, he seems to rejoice.

In the dark, his wives sneak behind him.

They approached Mount Sumber,

We stood near a high cliff.

Suddenly their boy, snotty and gray,

Turned into a clear falcon

Wings spread across the sky

And rose above the mountains.

Sumber sank to the top,

Transformed into a giant.

Well, women, of course, are wingless,

They look up, only their mouths are open.

Look behind - there is a mountain,

Look ahead - there is a rock.

Great hero, huge and yet

Look at the face - it looks like a person .

Face tanned, red,

Eyes black, clear

Black braid in arshin,

Heavenly Burkhans son...

The beautiful wives rejoiced,

This is the kind of husband they like.

A hero with an enlightened face

Started to make a fire on the mountain,

Esage Malaan, father of fathers,

Started making a sacrifice

And also those who live in the upper abode,

sent him to earth,

Fifty-five celestials,

Burkhans white and glorious.

He took on an important task

Red-scarlet blood from the wound

Hissed on the hot coals.

This sacrifice from a pure heart

Bringing, he fervently prayed,

The smell of fried, fragrant,

Streamed from the fire into the sky.

Father of the Celestials Esege Malaan

In their stretched skies

The smell of fried immediately recognized

He asks those close to him:

Whose fire is burning on the ground,

Who is making a sacrifice for me?

And this, they tell him,

On the land of Ulgen firewood burns,

A white-fronted ram is sacrificed there,

That's where the smell comes from.

This is Hana Khurmasa

Son of Buhe Beligte,

Mighty and glorious Bator,

Turns, our lord, to you,

Being at the top of the desert mountains.

Let me add,

Heed unworthy.

Council of Celestials

He is sent to earth.

He's sent for the brave

And decisive action

So that inept people

Get rid of disasters.

And now at the sacrificial fire

He asks you for a warhorse,

And he asks, oh, our sun,

Thirty-three worthy squires

And a weapon worthy to be,

To crush the enemies on the spot.

Esege Malaan listened to the speaker,

He came out of the mansions.

Swift white messengers

He sends to a thousand different directions,

Accurate, well-aimed messengers

Sends to ten thousand directions.

Rush, - orders, - faster than lightning,

Fulfill my order.

Notify all the celestials

Invite them to the meeting.

Fast, white messengers

Fled in all directions

All the Burkhans were notified

They were invited to the meeting.

Everything is in the stars,

The meeting starts.

Everyone settled down on the moon

Get ready for the discussion.

How long, how short was it all,

But the assembly decided:

"Khana Khurmas

The middle, red son,

Bukhe Beligte batoru,

Sitting now at the sacrificial fire,

Give everything he asked for.

First, a worthy horse,

Secondly, squires worthy and strong

To carry his weapons behind him,

Let go, as he asks, thirty-three ... "

So said Esege Malaan -

Supreme god.

The decision was approved

sealed with a seal,

We talked a little, and there

We happily went home.

At the top of the mountain Nyurgai prayed,

Smoke drifted from the fire to the heavens.

The breeze blew, there was silence,

The stars twinkled, the moon shone.

With a strong hot body

With shiny smooth hair,

With light strong bones,

With non-slip hooves

With a restless back

With a body thirty paces long,

With teeth in three fingers,

Three-quarter ears

With a tail of thirty cubits

(Waving over his croup),

With a mane of thirty arshins

(Throwing it at the withers),

Hooves carving fire,

Emitting lightning from black eyes

With saddle and bridle in silver,

A horse appeared on Sumber Mountain.

Bukhe Beligte bator

Prophetic fairy horse

Grabbed by the red silk occasion,

In jingling silver stirrups

He stood up straight and firm.

In the Yakut silver saddle

sat down firmly

And from that moment began to be called

Abay Geser.

The prophetic horse began to soar to heaven,

Abay Geser managed to hold on with his skill,

Fairy horse on the ground began to spread,

Abai Geser managed to resist with his prowess.

The horse asks his rider:

How much strength do you have and how strong is it?

The rider answers:

I won't boast

Praise Bator - the last thing,

But if the earth has a handle to grab onto,

I would turn the earth both to the right and to the left.

And now you answer me, -

Asks the rider on a bay horse, -

How fast are you, what are you worth

From whom will you run away, whom will you catch up with?

Three blades of grass in the fire will not have time to burn.

I will run our round earth by a third.

While nine blades of grass will burn the fire, Z

your horse will run around the earth.

If so, we have successfully connected,

Speed and strength are intermarried here.

With such a successful union, our

Not a single adversary is afraid of us, -

So the rider said to his horse

And jumped towards the house.

Prophetic bay horse

Like an arrow flies

Between heaven and earth

Like an eagle soars

Land under the horse

Ringing, shaking

Sky around the edges

shudders

The black mountains are falling apart

Black dust rises

Red mountains are breaking

They turn into red dust.

Blue mountains are crushed

They swirl with blue dust.

At this very time

Where the southern mountains end

In a spacious meadow

Thirty-three bators appear.

They go towards Geser,

They carry weapons to Geser,

They look up - they laugh,

They look down - they are sad,

With your boss and leader

Thirty-three bators meet.

By the decision of the divine council,

According to the designation of the five divine books

From the halls of the upper and bright

To the mountainous, lower land,

For decisive battles and actions,

To save people from disasters,

To revive the life of the people,

With a goal like this, noble,

Khan Khurmas middle son,

Bukhe Beligte bator,

He descended to the land of forests and mountains.

And they called him in that land,

Earthy and gray

Abay Geser.

Such was the earthly name

Renowned for his exploits.

Abai Geser,

To ride on solid ground

Purebred argamak has,

Abai Geser,

To defeat all enemies

Combat weapons have

Abai Geser,

To defeat all enemies

Has bogatyrs-squires.

Born from the orphan old men,

Having been a snotty boy,

Having traveled on a crappy horse,

In a simple, wooden saddle,

Son of Khan Khurmas after all

Took on a real look

Got a real face.

Noble Sargal Noyon

Abay Geser jumped,

To the hitching post, braided with gold,

He tied the horse.

From the horse he dismounted proudly,

He tied the horse slowly.

Sargal Noyon

Walking towards him,

Gives a hand for greeting.

They greeted slowly

We greeted each other nicely.

Sargal Noyon beats a golden tambourine,

Invites northern people.

Sargal Noyon

Beats a silver tambourine

Collects southern people.

Sargal Noyon,

Loving everything in order

He sits the guest on his right hand.

wine lake

Poured into a bowl

Hump of meat

He looms in front of her.

Abai Geser never drank sweeter,

Abai Geser has never eaten better.

Enjoying drink and food,

Giving good conversation to each other,

They celebrate for eight days

For nine days they feast

On the tenth day, everyone gets drunk,

They are leaving for their homes.

But before you all go home

And see each his own herd,

Assign the good fellow the nickname "Remote"

He began to be called Abay Geser hubuun.

Translated from the Buryat language into Russian by V.

Questions and tasks

7. Read the text carefully, think: what preceded the transformation of Nurgay into Geser?

2. How is the connection between the Upper World (heaven) and the Middle World (earth) manifested in the epic? Find in the text and read examples of this connection.

3. How is Geser's horse described?

4. How is the strength of the hero Geser described?

5. Can Geser be called an ordinary person? Support your opinion with quotes from the text. Pay attention to artistic details.

6. Prove that Geser is a mythological hero.

7. Prepare a message about the exploits of Geser.

8. Prepare a story about the lifestyle of the Buryats in Siberia. Select illustrations for the story.

9. Recall the content of the fairy tales from the first section of the reader. Which of them remind you of myths? Why? Prove your opinion.