JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES

More documents

Recommendations

Info

October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume I., Issue 4. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Academy of Sciences, A. Schiefner, the knower of many Turanic and Aryaic languages and editor of numerous philological works. In the month of February of the year 1873 I went with the recommendation of the R. Imp. Asiatic Department into Mongolia and there at da-Kürien (Russ. Urga) I became a welcomed guest of the R. Imp. Consul I.P. Shishmarov and his secretary I. V. Taderin, both excellent knowers of the Mongolian language. Again, I did not live under the tents of the Mongolians, but the mentioned consul was so kind to arrange for me the help of a Mongolian speaking Khara-lama (a Mongolian married clergyman), who had wandered in several parts of Mongolia, and a Mongolian yamun officer for the Manju language. For 155 days I did nothing else than writing down phonetically all things my lama or the persons he called to me were able to dictate to me. I read the whole fable of Geser Khan with my lama and transcribed it in the spoken language. I must remark that my lama was not literate; nevertheless, he was cleverer and more experienced than many of the learned ones. I tried with that class of people, too, but it did not go well, because the learned persons can not dictate else than by syllabifying the matters they had once memorized and the Mongolian language syllabified after the writing sounds is indeed very different from the spoken one. At my Manju studies I experienced the usefulness of Romanized dictionaries of the Manju language, published by the late Conon von Gablentz, which though a small tome, contains nearly all words of very large native dictionaries. I directed my main attention to matters concerning the customs and traditions of the Mongolians; therefore I wrote down the customs and ceremonies of birth, marriage, and death, which are given in the second part of the present grammar. As for the traditions, I could get no more, than an extract from the Black Book of Tshingis Khan, which my lama dictated me from memory. As I could not give this piece without increasing too much the size of the present work, I will mention its chief contents in order to show how cunningly the lamas have brought the inextirpable national feelings for the great Khan Tshingis in consistency with the Buddhism or better said, Lamaism. Firstly, it is mentioned that the ancient or black religion of Tschingis’ people had permitted to torment and kill living beings (men and animals) without the least remorse and make funerals by killing the best horse and hounds of the deceased and break his bows and his other instruments. In order to erradicate this black religion, three religious books Altan Gandshur (Gold Gan-dshur the translation of Buddha’s words), Altan yum (Gold y.) and Altan Dan-dshur (The gold translation of doctrine) were sent in a blue crystal box by Khormuzda tenger (Ormuzd god, the father of Tshingis) from heaven among thunder and shower to the earth at the cave where Tshingis khan’s eldest son was meditating. The son, perceiving the books, took them and followed by his two disciples went to his father Tshingis khan. He told him that the three books were requested by himself from his father Khormuzda tenger before his appearance on earth in the shape of a triangular stone; and now about leaving this world he mandated him as Dalai Lama the duty of keeping the religious books and making the living beings gods until the appearance of Maydere (Maitreya), the burkhan (god of Buddha) of the future kalpa and with this command gave him the yellow flag. Hereupon Tshingis khan gave his see and the blue flag to his son Tshing-Taidshi and ordered him to be the emperor of the Manjus; he promised him safety from all kinds of evil, if he will pray to Khormuzda tenger, offer sacrifice with the different products of his empire and avoid at least the 10 black sins (see the Chrestomathy). The third son Khung Taidshi received from his father the red flag and was appointed to be the emperor of the Ölöts. _____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright Mikes International 2001-2009 168
October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume I., Issue 4. _____________________________________________________________________________________ At last appeared before the great khan his fourth and youngest son Dzalar Khung Taidshi, who happened to sit before him squattingly, which manner of sitting denotes haste and tending to go far. (yarbol, yabon so =if thou makest haste sit squattingly. Prov.) The great khan appointed him to be the emperor of Russia and rule over all nations of the false doctrine (ters boro nomtan) until Maydere’s Kalpa arrival, when he shall accept with all his people the yellow religion (Buddhism). He gave him the nine pronged white flag, a round cup, a round seal and the well hitting sorcerer’s ax (Almosin süke), astonishing him by instructing not to harm with his numberless army the people of the Mongolian race (Monghol idzaghortan). The instruction Tschingis Khan gave his second son Khung Taidshi the khan of Ölöts is interesting: “When the various foes shall attack thee, thou must but pray to Khormuzda tenger, shake thy red flag and thou shall rejoice at having no enemies. Thy people are indeed bad, but thou must make up thy mind, acquire all kind of science and knowledge, gather the wise and sage about thee, endeavour to multiply welth and instruments, patronize the religion and chiefly follow my path and then thou will have success. During my life I turned the stones into men, the rocks into horses; I turned to the waterless places into watered ones, the plains into mountains and the mountains into plains; I took the gold and silver snares from the heaven and I turned the sunless regions into sunny ones, the moonless regions into moony ones; I turned the fireless regions into such as having fire; I make the far countries near and near foes I make far; I threw the rocks big as mountains like a play bone; if thou will follow my example, thou shall do all these!” As the lower class of lamas (one of whom was my leader too) are nearly replacing and representing the ancient shamans, I was curious to hear about the fortune telling by means of the sheep shoulder blade (scapula Mong. dalo). Hereupon brought my teacher to me an unburnt scapula (tsagan dalo, white scapula) and a burnt one (tülesen dalo) and pointed out on the first one the characteristic marks and the fine splits on the second one, out of which the dalatshi kün (soothsayer) reads like out of an opened book not only the future but the cases of theft, too. He also told me the history of this well-paid practice. According to his recital, a 120 years old anchoret (arshi-in dayantshi) called Otshir was the first who taught partially this art to the 82 years old Naran Dshirghalang (Sun-delight). This in his turn passed over his knowledge to his son Sara Mandal’ (Moon disk) and sent him to Tibet, China and Manjury to learn the languages and sciences of those people, too. As the tan was setting out the father burnt a scapula and looking at the splits found that his son would encounter two cases of danger on his journey; firstly a Tibetian lama would try to destruct him by the Kharialin tarni (dharani of malediction), but by throwing it into the fire he would be saved and the head of the Tibetian lama would split into three parts; then when he finished his studies on his returning he would encounter the second danger by the poison of the Manju governor but he would meet a supernatural virgin and she would save him. The son went away and all happened as his father had foretold him. He met with the virgin called Naran Ghoa (beautiful like Sun), who was the daughter of the 120 years old lama, Otshir and had in her possession all books of the science both of burnt and unburnt scapula. After the mutual recital of their fate they become friends and continued their journey together. As they were returning to Mongolia passing the border, the Manju governor invited them, they accepted the invitation but before entering the governor’s house, the Dakini girl put her jewel into the mouth of her companion and so when asked by the governor about his success he could not speak and when food and drink was offered could not taste them. The governor came to the conclusion that “Sara Mandal” was already made useless for his nation and let them go freely. Thus they returned safely to Mongolia, where they spread out their science. _____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright Mikes International 2001-2009 169
Page 1 and 2:
JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES _______
Page 3 and 4:
October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EU
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118: October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EU
Page 167: October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EU
Page 171: October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EU
show all

JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?