The Sacred in Tuvan Culture: Past and Modernity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2023.3.14Keywords:
Tuvan culture; sacred; holiness; Tuvans; Tuvan languageAbstract
The article analyzes the concept of ydyk ‘the sacred, holy thing’ in Tuvan culture. The Tuvans’ beliefs about consecration and holy objects are not always associated with religious veneration and special rites. The term of ydyk means the sanctity that covers a much larger class of objects than what is sanctified by the rites of dagylga. The authors present a classification of sacred objects (ydyk), having collected information from traditional folklore, toponymy, Tuvan literature and songs.
The same expansion of the class of sacrosanct objects (ydyk) occurred in Tuva during the post-Soviet period. Even the Constitution of the Republic of Tuva and the state symbols of the Republic, including its anthem, are called ydyk. That is, there is a noticeable desire to sublime all traditional as well as valuable things to the status of the sacred. Today, the characteristic of ydyk is generously assigned to a large number of objects and things surrounding the Tuvans in order to strengthen their value of sacrosanctity and untouchability.
References
Bredis, M. A. (2023) Simvolika chisla deviat' v tuvinskoi lingvokul'ture (na fone riada tiurkskikh i mongol'skikh iazykov) [Symbolism of the number nine in Tuvan linguoculture (as compared to some Turkic and Mongolian languages)]. The New Research of Tuva, no. 1, pp. 228–242. (In Russ.). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2023.1.13
Vainshtein, S. I. (1991) Mir kochevnikov tsentra Azii [The world of nomads of the center of Asia]. Moscow, Nauka. 296 p. (In Russ.).
Dongak, S. Ch. (2018) Mal ydyktaar tyva ezulaldar. Tuvinskie obriady osviashcheniia skota [Livestock blessing rituals of the Tuvans]. Kyzyl, Tuvan Institute for Humanities and Applied Socioeconomic Research. 52 p. (In Tuv. and Russ.).
Kenin-Lopsan, M. B. (2006) Traditsionnaia kul'tura tuvintsev [Traditional culture of Tuvans]. Kyzyl, Tuvan Book Publishing House. 232 p. (In Russ.).
Kenin-Lopsan, M. B. (2017) Tyva chaңchyl [Tuvan traditions]. Parts I and II. Kyzyl, Tuvan Book Publishing House. 360 p. (In Tuv.).
Ondar, B. K. (1995) Kratkii slovar' gidronimov Tuvy [A Short dictionary of hydronyms of Tuva]. Kyzyl, Tuvan Book Publishing House. 48 p. (In Russ.).
Ondar, B. K. (2008) Tuvinskaia toponimiia: sopostavitel'nyi analiz toponimii Tuvy s toponimami Iuzhnoi Sibiri i drugikh tiurkoiazychnykh territorii [Tuvan toponyms: A comparative analysis of toponyms of Tuva with those of southern Siberia and other Turkic-speaking territories]. Kyzyl, Tuvan Book Publishing House. 296 p. (In Russ.).
Ondar, A. U. (2019) Prirodnye ob"ekty pokloneniia u roda oiun [Natural objects of worship of the Oyun clan]. In: Sovremennye etnicheskie protsessy na territorii tsentral'noi Azii: problemy i perspektivy [Modern ethnic processes on the territory of Central Asia: problems and prospects]: sat. mat. II International Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Historical Faculty of Tuva State University / ed. by Z. Yu. Dorzhu. Kyzyl, TuvSU Publ. 222 p. Pp. 118–124. In Russ.).
Pallas, P.-S. (2001) Puteshestvie po raznym provintsiiam Rossiiskoi imperii [A journey through various provinces of the Russian Empire]. In: Khrestomatiia po kul'ture Chuvashskogo kraia: dorevoliutsionnyi period [A reader on the culture of Chuvash Krai: The pre-revolutionary period] / comp. by N. I. Egorov and M. G. Danilova. Cheboksary, Chuvash Book Publishing House. 255 p. Pp. 156–169. (In Russ.).
Potapov, L. P. (1946) Kul't gor na Altae [Cult of mountains in Altai]. Sovetskaia etnografiia, no. 2, pp. 145–160. (In Russ.).
Samdan, A. A., Munge, B. V. and Sedip-ool, M. M. (2021) Neizvestnyi variant pervoi Konstitutsii Tuvinskoi Narodnoi Respubliki [An unknown version of the first Constitution of Tuvan People’s Republic]. The New Research of Tuva, no. 3, pp. 5–14. (In Russ.). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2021.3.1
Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie tiurkov Iuzhnoi Sibiri. Prostranstvo i vremia. Veshchnyi mir [The traditional worldview of Turkic peoples of South Siberia. Space and time. The outer world] (1988) / E. L. Lvova, I. V. Oktyabrskaya, A. M. Sagalaev and M. S. Usmanova ; ed. by I. N. Gemuev. Novosibirsk, Nauka, Siberian Branch. 225 p. (In Russ.).
Khomushku, I. Yu. (2013) Sviashchennaia strela — khranitel' semeinogo blagopoluchiia semei Tulush i Dongak [The sacred arrow — a custodian of family welfare of Tulush and Dongak families]. The New Research of Tuva, no. 2, pp. 131–138. (In Russ.).
Published
How to Cite
For citation:
Lamazhaa Ch. K., Suvandii N. D. and Mongush A. V. Sviatoe v tuvinskoi kul’ture: proshloe i sovremennost’[The Sacred in Tuvan Culture: Past and Modernity]. New Research of Tuva, 2023, no. 3, pp. 220-241. (In Russ.). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2023.3.14
Issue
Section
Author Biographies
Chimiza Lamazhaa, Independent Researcher
Doctor of Philosophy, independent researcher, Russian Federation.
E-mail: lamazhaa@tuva.asia
Nadezhda D. Suvandii, Tuvan State University
Кандидат филологических наук, заведующая лабораторией этнологии и лингвокультурологии Тувинского государственного университета.
Адрес: 667000, Россия, г. Кызыл, ул. Монгуша Сата, д. 9, лит. В, каб. 107.
Эл. адрес: suvandiin@mail.ru
Aylaana V. Mongush, Tuvan State University
Junior Researcher, Laboratory of Ethnology and Linguoculturology, Tuvan State University.
Postal address: 36, Lenin St., 667000 Kyzyl, Russian Federation.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Author(s) license holder(s) grant rights for their work to the journal (grantee of a license) under the simple non-exclusive open license in accordance with Art. 1286.1 «Open license for a research work, work of literature or fine arts», Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
New Research of Tuva publishes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (CC BY-NC).
Since it is an open license, author(s) reserve the right to upload the article to their institutional repository, submit it to another journal (if it allows republications), or republish it on their own website (in full, or in part).
However, several conditions apply here:
a) The republished version must always contain the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s), the original title and the hyperlink to the original version on the New Research of Tuva website;
b) It must be in open access, free of charge, and no category of readers must be in any way whatsoever advantaged over general readership.
c) should the contribution be submitted elsewhere by its author(s) without substantial modification (30% or more of original text unchanged), the body of the article should contain a disclaimer that the original version was published in New Research of Tuva (with a link to the respective page)
The CC-BY-NC is a non-revocable license which applies worldwide and lasts for the duration of the work’s copyright.
