For several centuries, Buryats have lived side by side with Russians, being part of the multinational population of Russia. At the same time, they managed to preserve their identity, language and religion.
Why are the Buryats called “Buryats”?
Scientists are still arguing about why the Buryats are called “Buryats”. This ethnonym first appears in the “Secret History of the Mongols,” dating back to 1240. Then, for more than six centuries, the word “Buryat” was not mentioned, appearing again only in written sources of the late 19th century.
There are several versions of the origin of this word. One of the main ones traces the word “Buryat” to the Khakass “pyraat”, which goes back to the Turkic term “buri”, which translates as “wolf”. “Buri-ata” is correspondingly translated as “father wolf.”
This etymology is due to the fact that many Buryat clans consider the wolf to be a totem animal and their ancestor.
It is interesting that in the Khakass language the sound “b” is muffled and pronounced like “p”. The Cossacks called the people living to the west of the Khakass “pyraat”. Later this term was Russified and became close to the Russian “brother”. Thus, “Buryats”, “brotherly people”, “brotherly Mungals” began to be called the entire Mongol-speaking population inhabiting the Russian Empire.
Also interesting is the version of the origin of the ethnonym from the words “bu” (gray-haired) and “Oirat” (forest peoples). That is, the Buryats are peoples indigenous to this area (Baikal region and Transbaikalia).
Tribes and clans
The Buryats are an ethnic group formed from several Mongol-speaking ethnic groups living in the territory of Transbaikalia and the Baikal region, which did not then have a single self-name. The formation process took place over many centuries, starting with the Hunnic Empire, which included the Proto-Buryats as Western Huns.
The largest ethnic groups that formed the Buryat ethnos were the Western Khongodors, Bualgits and Ekhirits, and the Eastern ones - the Khorins.
In the 18th century, when the territory of Buryatia was already part of the Russian Empire (according to the treaties of 1689 and 1727 between Russia and the Qing dynasty), Khalkha-Mongol and Oirat clans also came to southern Transbaikalia. They became the third component of the modern Buryat ethnic group.
To this day, tribal and territorial divisions have been preserved among the Buryats. The main Buryat tribes are the Bulagats, Ekhirits, Khoris, Khongodors, Sartuls, Tsongols, Tabanguts. Each tribe is also divided into clans.
Based on their territory, the Buryats are divided into Nizhneuuzky, Khorinsky, Aginsky, Shenekhensky, Selenginsky and others, depending on the lands of residence of the clan.
Black and yellow faith
The Buryats are characterized by religious syncretism. Traditional is a set of beliefs, the so-called shamanism or Tengrianism, in the Buryat language called “hara shazhan” (black faith). From the end of the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelug school - “Shara Shazhan” (yellow faith) began to develop in Buryatia. He seriously assimilated pre-Buddhist beliefs, but with the advent of Buddhism, Buryat shamanism was not completely lost.
Until now, in some areas of Buryatia, shamanism remains the main religious trend.
The advent of Buddhism was marked by the development of writing, literacy, printing, folk crafts, and art. Tibetan medicine has also become widespread, the practice of which still exists in Buryatia today.
On the territory of Buryatia, in the Ivolginsky datsan, there is the body of one of the ascetics of Buddhism of the twentieth century, the head of the Buddhists of Siberia in 1911-1917, Khambo Lama Itigelov. In 1927, he sat in the lotus position, gathered his disciples and told them to read a prayer of good wishes for the deceased, after which, according to Buddhist beliefs, the lama went into a state of samadhi. He was buried in a cedar cube in the same lotus position, bequeathing before his departure to dig up the sarcophagus 30 years later. In 1955, the cube was lifted.
The body of Hambo Lama turned out to be incorrupt.
In the early 2000s, researchers conducted a study of the llama's body. The conclusion of Viktor Zvyagin, head of the personal identification department of the Russian Center for Forensic Medicine, became sensational: “With the permission of the highest Buddhist authorities of Buryatia, we were provided with approximately 2 mg of samples - these are hair, skin particles, sections of two nails. Infrared spectrophotometry showed that the protein fractions have intravital characteristics - for comparison, we took similar samples from our employees. An analysis of Itigelov’s skin, carried out in 2004, showed that the concentration of bromine in the llama’s body was 40 times higher than the norm.”
Cult of struggle
Buryats are one of the most fighting peoples in the world. National Buryat wrestling is a traditional sport. Since ancient times, competitions in this discipline have been held as part of surkharban - a national sports festival. In addition to wrestling, participants also compete in archery and horse riding. Buryatia also has strong freestyle wrestlers, sambo wrestlers, boxers, track and field athletes, and speed skaters.
Returning to wrestling, we must say about perhaps the most famous Buryat wrestler today - Anatoly Mikhakhanov, who is also called Orora Satoshi.
Mikhakhanov is a sumo wrestler. Orora Satoshi translates from Japanese as “northern lights” and is a shikonu, a professional wrestler's nickname.
The Buryat hero was born as a completely standard child, weighing 3.6 kg, but after that the genes of the legendary ancestor of the Zakshi family, who, according to legend, weighed 340 kg and rode two bulls, began to appear. In the first grade, Tolya already weighed 120 kg, at the age of 16 - under 200 kg with a height of 191 cm. Today the weight of the famous Buryat sumo wrestler is about 280 kilograms.
Hunting for the Nazis
During the Great Patriotic War, the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic sent more than 120 thousand people to defend the Motherland. The Buryats fought on the war fronts as part of three rifle and three tank divisions of the Transbaikal 16th Army. There were Buryats in the Brest Fortress, which was the first to resist the Nazis. This is even reflected in the song about the defenders of Brest:
Only stones will tell about these battles,
How the heroes stood to the death.
There are Russians, Buryats, Armenians and Kazakhs here
They gave their lives for their homeland.
During the war years, 37 natives of Buryatia were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 10 became full holders of the Order of Glory.
Buryat snipers became especially famous during the war. Which is not surprising - the ability to shoot accurately has always been vital for hunters. Hero of the Soviet Union Zhambyl Tulaev destroyed 262 fascists, and a sniper school was created under his leadership.
Another famous Buryat sniper, senior sergeant Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev, by January 1943, had destroyed 270 enemy soldiers and officers. In a report from the Sovinformburo in June 1942, it was reported about him: “A master of super-accurate fire, Comrade Dorzhiev, who destroyed 181 Nazis during the war, trained and educated a group of snipers, on June 12, snipers-students of Comrade Dorzhiev shot down a German plane.” Another hero, Buryat sniper Arseny Etobaev, destroyed 355 fascists and shot down two enemy planes during the war years.
Buryats ( Buryaaduud,Baryaat) - Mongol-speaking people in the Russian Federation, the main population of Buryatia (286,839 people). In total, in the Russian Federation, according to preliminary data from the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, there are 461,389 Buryats, or 0.34%. In 77,667 people (3.3%). In the Trans-Baikal Territory there are 73,941 Buryats (6.8%). They also live in northern Mongolia and northeastern China. Buryat language. Believers - , .
Buryats. Historical overview
Archaeological and other materials suggest that individual Proto-Buryat tribes (Shono and Nokhoi) formed at the end of the Neolithic and in the Bronze Age (2500-1300 BC). According to the authors, tribes of pastoralists-farmers then coexisted with tribes of hunters. In the Late Bronze Age, throughout Central Asia, including the Baikal region, lived tribes of the so-called “tilers” - proto-Turks and proto-Mongols. Since the 3rd century. BC the population of Transbaikalia and Cisbaikalia is drawn into the historical events that unfolded in Central Asia and Southern Siberia, associated with the formation of early non-state associations of the Huns, Xianbei, Rourans and ancient Turks. From this time on, the spread of Mongol-speaking tribes in the Baikal region and the gradual Mongolization of the aborigines began. In the VIII-IX centuries. the region was part of the Uyghur Khanate. The main tribes that lived here were the Bayyrku-Bayegu.
In the XI-XIII centuries. The region found itself in the zone of political influence of the Mongolian tribes of the Three Rivers - Onon, Kerulen and Tola - and the creation of a unified Mongolian state. The territory of modern Buryatia was included in the indigenous inheritance of the state, and the entire population was involved in the general Mongolian political, economic and cultural life. After the collapse of the empire (XIV century), Transbaikalia and Cisbaikalia remained part of the Mongolian state.
More reliable information about the ancestors of the Buryats appears in the first half of the 17th century. in connection with the arrival of the Russians in. During this period, Transbaikalia was part of Northern Mongolia, which was part of the Setsen Khan and Tushetu Khan khanates. They were dominated by Mongol-speaking peoples and tribes, subdivided into the Mongols themselves, the Khalkha Mongols, the Barguts, the Daurs, the Khorins, and others. The Cis-Baikal region was in tributary dependence on Western Mongolia. By the time the Russians arrived, the Buryats consisted of 5 main tribes:
Greetings, dear readers.
There are three Buddhist republics in our country - Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva. However, the Buryats and Kalmyks have relatives - the Mongols.
We know that the bulk of the Buryat population is concentrated in Russia. To this day, debates continue about how the Buryats differ from the Mongols and how similar they are to each other. Some say that these are the same people. Others tend to believe that there is a big difference between them.
Maybe both are true? Let's try to figure it out! And first, of course, let's go back to the origins.
Origins of the Mongol peoples
Previously, the territory of present-day Mongolia was forested and swampy, and meadows and steppes could be found on the plateaus. Studies of the remains of ancient people have shown that they lived here about 850 thousand years ago.
In the 4th century BC. e. The Huns appeared. They chose the steppes near the Gobi Desert. A few decades later they began to fight with the Chinese, and in 202 BC. e. created the first empire.
The Huns reigned supreme until 93 AD. e. Then Mongolian, Kyrgyz, Turkic, and Uyghur khanates began to appear.
The emergence of the Mongol Empire
The tribes repeatedly tried to unite into a common state. Finally they succeeded, although only partially. Education, in essence, represented a tribal union. It went down in history under the name Khamag Mongol.
Its first leader was Khaidu Khan. The tribes that were part of the state were distinguished by belligerence and often entered into fights with their neighbors, in particular with residents of the regions of the Jin Empire. In case of victory, they demanded tribute from them.
Yesugey baatar, the father of the future legendary ruler of Mongolia, Genghis Khan (Temuchjin), also took part in the battles. He fought until he fell at the hands of the Turks.
Temujin himself, at the very beginning of his path to power, enlisted the support of Wang Khan, the ruler of the Kereits in Central Mongolia. Over time, the army of supporters grew, which allowed the future Genghis Khan to take active action.
As a result, he became the head of the most significant tribes of Mongolia:
- Naimanov (in the west);
- Tatars (in the east);
- Kereitov (in the center).
This allowed him to receive the title of Supreme Khan, to whom all Mongols submitted. The corresponding decision was made at the kurultai - a congress of the Mongolian nobility. From that moment on, Temujin began to be called Genghis Khan.
The ruler stood at the helm of the state for more than two decades, conducted military campaigns and thereby expanded its borders. But soon the power began to slowly disintegrate due to the diversity of cultures of the conquered lands.
Now let's turn to the history of the Buryats.
Formation of the Buryat ethnic group and culture
Most researchers are inclined to think that the current Buryats come from different Mongol-speaking groups. Their original homeland is considered to be the northern part of the Khanate of Altan Khans, which existed from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 17th century.
Representatives of this people belonged to several tribal groups. The largest of them:
- bulagats;
- hongodor;
- Khorin people;
- ehirites.
Almost all of the listed groups were under the strong influence of the Khalkha-Mongol khans. The situation began to change after the Russians began to explore Eastern Siberia.
The number of settlers from the West constantly increased, which ultimately led to the annexation of the coastal Baikal territories to Russia. After joining the empire, groups and tribes began to get closer to each other.
This process seemed natural from the point of view that they all had common historical roots and spoke dialects similar to each other. As a result, not only a cultural but also an economic community was formed. In other words, an ethnic group that was finally formed by the end of the 19th century.
The Buryats were engaged in raising livestock, hunting animals and fishing. That is, traditional crafts. At the same time, sedentary representatives of this nation began to cultivate the land. These were mainly residents of the Irkutsk province and the western territories of Transbaikalia.
Joining the Russian Empire also affected the Buryat culture. From the beginning of the 19th century, schools began to appear, and over time a layer of local intelligentsia emerged.
Religious preferences
The Buryats are adherents of shamanism and what makes them similar to the Mongols. Shamanism is the earliest religious form, called “hara shazhan” (black faith). The word “black” here personifies the mystery, unknown and infinity of the Universe.
Then Buddhism, which came from Tibet, spread among the people. We're talking about . This was already “shara shazhan”, that is, yellow faith. The color yellow here is considered sacred and symbolizes the earth as the primary element. Also in Buddhism, yellow means jewel, higher intelligence and exit from.
The Gelug teachings partially absorbed the beliefs that existed before the advent. High-ranking officials of the Russian Empire did not object to this. On the contrary, they recognized Buddhism as one of the official religious movements in the state.
It is interesting that shamanism is more widespread in Buryatia than in the Mongolian People's Republic.
Now Mongolia continues to demonstrate its commitment to Tibetan Gelug Buddhism, slightly adjusting it to suit local characteristics. There are also Christians in the country, but their number is insignificant (a little more than two percent).
At the same time, many historians are inclined to believe that at present it is religion that acts as the main connecting link between the Buryats and the Mongols.
Separate nationality or not
In fact, this formulation of the question is not entirely correct. The Buryats can be considered as representatives of the Mongolian people, speaking their own dialect. At the same time, in Russia, for example, they are not identified with the Mongols. Here they are considered a nationality, which has certain similarities and differences from citizens of the Mongolian People's Republic.
Just a note. In Mongolia, the Buryats are recognized as one of their own, classified among various ethnic groups. They do the same in China, indicating them in the official census as Mongols.
Where the name itself came from is still not clear. There are several versions on this matter. According to the main ones, the term can come from the following words:
- Storms (in Turkic - wolf).
- Bar – mighty or tiger.
- Storms are thickets.
- Burikha - to evade.
- Brother. Written evidence has reached our times that during the Middle Ages in Rus' the Buryats were called fraternal people.
However, none of these hypotheses has a solid scientific basis.
Difference in mentality
Buryats who have visited Mongolia admit that they are different from the local residents. On the one hand, they agree that they belong to the common Mongolian family and act as representatives of one people. On the other hand, they understand that they are, after all, different people.
Over the years of close communication with Russians, they became imbued with a different culture, partially forgot about their heritage and became noticeably Russified.
The Mongols themselves do not understand how this could happen. Sometimes they may act dismissively when interacting with visiting brothers. At the everyday level, this does not happen often, but it still happens.
Also in Mongolia, they wonder why the majority of residents of Buryatia have forgotten their native language and ignore traditional culture. They do not accept the “Russian manner” of communicating with children, when parents, for example, can publicly make loud comments to them.
This is what they do in Russia and Buryatia. But in Mongolia - no. In this country it is not customary to shout at small citizens. Children are allowed almost everything there. For the simple reason that they are minors.
But as for the diet, it is almost identical. Representatives of the same people living on opposite sides of the border are mainly engaged in cattle breeding.
For this reason, as well as due to climatic conditions, their tables contain mainly meat and dairy products. Meat and milk are the basis of the cuisine. True, Buryats eat more fish than Mongols. But this is not surprising, because they extract it from Lake Baikal.
One can argue for a long time about how close the residents of Buryatia are to the citizens of Mongolia and whether they can consider themselves one nation. By the way, there is a very interesting opinion that by Mongols we mean those who live in the Mongolian People's Republic. There are Mongols from China, Russia and other countries. It’s just that in the Russian Federation they are called Buryats...
Conclusion
In pre-Chinggis times, the Mongols did not have a written language, so there were no manuscripts on history. There are only oral traditions recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries by historians
These were Vandan Yumsunov, Togoldor Toboev, Shirab-Nimbu Khobituev, Sayntsak Yumov, Tsydypzhap Sakharov, Tsezheb Tserenov and a number of other researchers of Buryat history.
In 1992, the book “History of the Buryats” by Doctor of Historical Sciences Shirap Chimitdorzhiev was published in the Buryat language. This book contains monuments of Buryat literature of the 18th - 19th centuries, written by the above-mentioned authors. The commonality of these works is that the forefather of all Buryats is Barga-Bagatur, a commander who came from Tibet. This happened around the turn of our era. At that time, the Bede people lived on the southern shore of Lake Baikal, whose territory was the northern outskirts of the Xiongnu empire. If we consider that the Bede were a Mongol-speaking people, then they called themselves Bede Khunuud. Bade - we, hun - man. Xiongnu is a word of Chinese origin, so Mongol-speaking peoples began to call people “Hun” from the word “Xiongnu”. And the Xiongnu gradually turned into Khun - man or Khunuud - people.
Huns
The Chinese chronicler, author of “Historical Notes” Sima Qian, who lived in the 2nd century BC, first wrote about the Huns. The Chinese historian Ban Gu, who died in 95 BC, continued the history of the Huns. The third book was written by the southern Chinese scholarly official Fan Hua, who lived in the 5th century. These three books formed the basis of the idea of the Huns. The history of the Huns dates back almost 5 thousand years. Sima Qian writes that in 2600 BC. The “yellow emperor” fought against the Zhun and Di tribes (simply Huns). Over time, the Rong and Di tribes mixed with the Chinese. Now the Rong and Di went south, where, mixing with the local population, they formed new tribes called the Xiongnu. New languages, cultures, customs and countries emerged.
Shanyu Mode, the son of Shanyu Tuman, created the first Xiongnu empire, with a strong army of 300 thousand people. The empire lasted for more than 300 years. Mode united 24 clans of the Xiongnu, and the empire stretched from Korea (Chaoxian) in the west to Lake Balkhash, in the north from Baikal, in the south to the Yellow River. After the collapse of the Mode empire, other superethnic groups appeared, such as the Khitans, Tapgachis, Togons, Xianbis, Rourans, Karashars, Khotans, etc. The Western Xiongnu, Shan Shan, Karashars, etc., spoke the Turkic language. Everyone else spoke Mongolian. Initially, the proto-Mongols were the Donghu. The Huns pushed them back to Mount Wuhuan. They began to be called Wuhuan. The related tribes of the Donghu Xianbei are considered the ancestors of the Mongols.
And three sons were born to the khan...
Let's return to the Bede Khunuud people. They lived on the territory of the Tunkinsky region in the 1st century BC. It was an ideal place for nomads to live. At that time, the climate of Siberia was very mild and warm. Alpine meadows with lush grasses allowed herds to graze all year round. The Tunka Valley is protected by a chain of mountains. From the north - the inaccessible chars of the Sayan Mountains, from the south - the Khamar-Daban mountain range. Around the 2nd century AD. Barga-bagatur daichin (commander) came here with his army. And the Bede Khunuud people chose him as their khan. He had three sons. The youngest son Khorida Mergen had three wives; the first, Bargudzhin Gua, gave birth to a daughter, Alan Gua. The second wife, Sharal-dai, gave birth to five sons: Galzuud, Khuasai, Khubduud, Gushad, Sharaid. The third wife, Na-gatai, gave birth to six sons: Khargana, Khudai, Bodonguud, Khalbin, Sagaan, Batanai. In total, eleven sons who created eleven Khorin clans of Khoridoy.
The middle son of Barga-bagatur, Bargudai, had two sons. From them descended the clans of Ekhirites - Ubusha, Olzon, Shono, etc. In total there are eight clans and nine clans of Bulagats - Alaguy, Khurumsha, Ashaghabad, etc. There is no information about the third son of Barga-bagatur; most likely, he was childless.
The descendants of Khoridoy and Bargudai began to be called Barga or Bar-Guzon - the Bargu people, in honor of Barga-bagatur's grandfather. Over time, they became cramped in the Tunkinskaya Valley. The Ekhirit-Bulagats went to the western shore of the Inland Sea (Lake Baikal) and spread to the Yenisei. It was a very difficult time. There were constant skirmishes with local tribes. At that time, the Tungus, Khyagas, Dinlins (Northern Huns), Yenisei Kyrgyz, etc. lived on the western shore of Lake Baikal. But Bargu survived and the Bargu people were divided into Ekhirit-Bulagats and Khori-Tumats. Tumat from the word “tumed” or “tu-man” - more than ten thousand. The people as a whole were called Bargu.
After some time, part of the Khori-Tumats went to the Barguzin lands. We settled near Mount Barkhan-Uula. This land began to be called Bargudzhin-tokum, i.e. Bargu zone tohom - the land of the Bargu people. In the old days, Tokh was the name given to the area where people lived. Mongols pronounce the letter "z", especially the Inner Mongols, as "j". The word "barguzin" in Mongolian is "bargujin". Jin - zone - people, even in Japanese, nihon jin - nihon person - Japanese.
Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov writes that in 411 the Rourans conquered the Sayans and Barga. This means that the Bargu lived in Barguzin at that time. The remaining part of the indigenous Bargu lived in the Sayan Mountains. The Hori-Tumats subsequently migrated all the way to Manchuria, to Mongolia, in the foothills of the Himalayas. All this time, the great steppe was seething with eternal wars. Some tribes or nationalities conquered or destroyed others. Hunnic tribes raided Ki-tai. China, on the contrary, wanted to suppress its restless neighbors...
"Brotherly people"
Before the arrival of the Russians, as mentioned above, the Buryats were called Bargu. They told the Russians that they were Barguds, or Bargudians in the Russian manner. Out of misunderstanding, the Russians began to call us “brotherly people.”
The Siberian order in 1635 reported to Moscow “... Pyotr Beketov with service people went to the Bratsk land up the Lena River to the mouth of the Ona River to the Bratsk and Tungus people.” Ataman Ivan Pokhabov wrote in 1658: “The Bratsk princes with the ulus people... betrayed and migrated away from the Bratsk forts to Mungali.”
Subsequently, the Buryat began to call themselves Barat - from the word “brotherly”, which later transformed into Buryat. The path that was traveled from Bede to Bar-gu, from Bargu to the Buryats for more than two thousand years. During this time, several hundred clans, tribes and peoples disappeared or were wiped off the face of the earth. Mongolian scholars who study the Old Mongolian writing say that the Old Mongolian and Buryat languages are close in meaning and dialect. Although we are an integral part of the Mongolian world, we have managed to carry through millennia and preserve the unique culture and language of the Buryats. The Buryats are an ancient people descended from the Bede people, who, in turn, were the Huns.
The Mongols unite many tribes and nationalities, but the Buryat language among the variety of Mongolian dialects is the only one and only because of the letter “h”. In our time, bad, strained relations between different groups of Buryats persist. Buryats are divided into eastern and western, Songol and Hongodor, etc. This is, of course, an unhealthy phenomenon. We are not a superethnic group. There are only 500 thousand of us on this earth. Therefore, every person must understand with his own mind that the integrity of the people lies in unity, respect and knowledge of our culture and language. There are many famous people among us: scientists, doctors, builders, livestock breeders, teachers, artists, etc. Let's live on, increase our human and material wealth, preserve and protect natural wealth and our holy Lake Baikal.
Excerpt from the book
, Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug and other areas of the Irkutsk region, Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug and other areas of the Chita region. Outside Russia, Buryats live in northern Mongolia and in small groups in northeastern China (mainly the Shenehen area of the Hulunbuir aimag of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region).
It is believed that the ethnonym “Buryat” (Buriyat) was first mentioned in “The Secret History of the Mongols” (). However, whether this ethnonym has anything to do with the modern Buryat-Mongols is unknown. The etymology of the ethnonym has several versions:
- From the term “buri” (Turkic) - wolf, or “buri-ata” - “father wolf” - suggests the totemic nature of the ethnonym. In all likelihood, the word “wolf” was taboo in the Mongolian languages, since another word is usually used - chono (bur. Shono, written Mongolian chinu-a);
- From the term “burut” (Mongolian) – wrong, unfaithful, (sometimes) traitor. By Burut, Mongol groups meant Muslim Kyrgyz, so the use of this term to refer to northern Mongol groups who were shamanists and Buddhists like all other Mongols is unlikely. [ ]
- From the word bar - tiger, it is also unlikely. The assumption is based on the dialect form of the word “Buryat” - “baryaad” (Shadayeva. “Some problems of the ethnocultural history of the Buryats.” 1998).
The number of Buryat-Mongols is estimated at 550 thousand people, including:
- In Russia - 445 thousand people. (census year)
- In northern Mongolia - 70 thousand people. (according to year)
- In northeast China - 25 thousand people.
Buryat-Mongols speak the Buryat language of the Mongolian group of the Altai language family. In turn, the Buryat language consists of 15 dialects, some of which differ quite significantly. Like other Mongols, the Buryat Mongols used a writing system based on the Uyghur script. Most of the Buryat-Mongols (Eastern) used this writing before the year, since the year - a writing based on the Latin alphabet, and from the year - on the basis of the Russian alphabet. The basis of the modern literary language was the Khorin dialect.
For the Buryats, as for all other Mongols, a traditional set of beliefs is designated by the term shamanism or Tengrism; in the Mongolian language it was called “hara shashin” (black faith). Since the end of the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism (inaccurately called Lamaism) of the Gelug school or “Shara Shashin” (yellow faith), which partially absorbed pre-Buddhist beliefs, became more widespread. A feature of the spread of Buddhism in the Buryat-Mongolian territories is the greater proportion of shamanic beliefs compared to other territories inhabited by the Mongols.
The forced spread of Christianity among the Buryat-Mongols began with the advent of the first Russian colonists. The Irkutsk diocese, created in the city, widely launched missionary work. Christianization intensified in the 2nd half of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, 41 missionary camps and dozens of missionary schools functioned in Buryatia. Christianity achieved the greatest success among the Irkutsk Buryats. This was manifested in the fact that Christian holidays became widespread among the Western Buryats: Christmas, Easter, Elijah’s Day, Christmastide, etc. Despite the superficial (often violent) Christianization, the Irkutsk Buryats remained shamanists, and the eastern Buryats remained Buddhists.
In the city, Buddhism is recognized as one of the official religions in Russia. At the same time, the first Buryat permanent monastery was built - Tamchinsky (Gusinoozersky) datsan. The establishment of Buddhism in the region is associated with the spread of writing and literacy, the development of science, literature, art, architecture, crafts and folk crafts. It became an important factor in shaping the way of life, national psychology and morality. From the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century there was a period of rapid flowering of Buryat Buddhism. Philosophical schools operated in datsans; Here they were engaged in book printing and various types of applied arts; Theology, science, translation and publishing, and fiction developed. In the city of Buryatia there were 48 datsans with 16,000 lamas. By the end of the 1930s, the Buryat Buddhist community ceased to exist, all datsans were closed and looted. Only in the city were 2 datsans re-opened: Ivolginsky and Aginsky. The true revival of Buddhism in Buryatia began in the second half of the 80s. More than two dozen old datsans have been restored, lamas are being trained in Buddhist academies in Mongolia and Buryatia, and the institute of young novices at monasteries has been restored. Buddhism became one of the factors of national consolidation and spiritual revival of the Buryat-Mongols. In the second half of the 1980s, a revival of shamanism also began.
Modern Buryat-Mongols were formed, apparently, from various Mongol-speaking groups, which were united by the khan
