Образ Шестирукого Махакалы и его окружения в тексте «Ритуал умилостивления и подношения торма Быстродействующему Защитнику Мудрости — Шестирукому Махакале»

Introduction. This article deals with the analysis of a ritual text devoted to the Six-Armed Mahakala. Mahakala is one of the most powerful protectors of Tibetan Buddhism. The article gives a description of the Six-Armed Mahakala and his retinue and discusses the structure of the ritual text rendering its content and describing the rules and the sequence of acts in propitiating the deity. It is pointed out that the text is a compilation and some of the original authors are identified whose works were used in the ritual text signed by Khedrup Je. Also, the text is most voluminous and includes the discussions of a great number of other pertinent rituals. The aim of the present paper is the discussion and the interpretation of the image and attributes of the Six-Armed Mahakala based on a fragment of the text, translated and introduced for the academic community. Data and methods. The text “The Ritual of Propitiation ...” is used as the research material; the method employed is descriptive, complemented by methods of structural-semantic, conceptual, and contextual analysis. Results. The iconography of the deity contained in the text presents a description that includes a detailed explanation of some of the deity’s elements. This allows to reveal the wrathful character of the fierce Dharmapala and shows that all the elements, such as attributes, gowns, adornments, postures, and gestures have deep symbolic meanings associated with philosophical and religious ideas, as well as with the ethical norms of Buddhism. This preliminary research, including the structuring and the analysis of the text under study, indicates the relevance, as well as the urgency of further examination of the introduced material, granted that ritual texts are seen as helpful additional sources for the study of the Buddhist deities.

ABOUT ONE PRA-TURKIC MAGIC FORMULA, WHICH BECAME THE REASON FOR THE FORMATION OF THE GENRE «SONG» IN RITUAL FOLKLORE

Historical reconstruction problems of traditional rituals, worldview, language and poetics of folklore, folk art require an integrated approach from a modern researcher of the ethnos spiritual culture. The latter takes into account the achievements of modern related sciences, primarily ethnocultural studies and ethnolinguistics, archeology and folklore studies, comparative and typological ethnology. Using this method, the history of the archaic formula found in a number of genres of Chuvash ritual poetry is successfully restored, and its archaic semantics is also restored. In the Altai and pra-Turkic epochs, the semantics of “singing” (a melodic speech performance of a ritual text) had a number of lexemes, which later became differentiated and acquired complementary meanings. The Chuvash language, due to its early separation from the rest of the Turkic languages, was able to preserve the most archaic incantatory formula. The Chuvash term yora / yura, as a synthesis of a ritual-verbal incantatory text and a musical melody, was formed during the formation of military democracy in the society of the ancient Bulgars and other related tribes. Over time, thanks to an archaic magic formula, this term began to mean not only ritual, but also lyrical melodious speech texts. Thus, in the Chuvash folklore, the term acquired semantics, meaning not only a separate genre, but also a whole group of melodic-speech texts.

Translating the Cult of the Book: Publishing and Performing the Fifth Dalai Lama’s The Wish-Fulfilling King from Lhasa to Beijing

In 1673 the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617–1682) composed The Wish-Fulfilling King (Yid bzhin dbang rgyal), a ritual manual for the worship of the seven buddhas of healing. In the first hundred years after its composition, the Fifth Dalai Lama’s ritual text was published in the original Tibetan in no less than five different woodblock editions. It had also been translated into Mongolian and Chinese and published in several woodblock editions in those languages. Most of these woodblock editions were produced by imperially sponsored Tibetan Buddhist temples in Beijing. The ritual described in the text was performed in monasteries and temples across central Tibet, Mongolia, and in Beijing. This article examines the history of this text, its transmission, and what those tells us about the culture of Tibetan Buddhist books in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly as they relate to the Mayāyāna ‘cult of the book.’

Myths and Ideology in Customary Ritual of Ma’tammu Tedong for Life of Toraja People

Customary ritual of rambu solo’ in Toraja is based on noble values of culture that influences life pattern of Toraja people. Current development has changed the way of life and thinking of Toraja people to customary ceremony. Basic understanding is needed in interpreting the ceremonies. This paper discusses the meaning of ritual text myth that is represented by buffalo meeting. Participant observation methods used with field notes, recording, and interview techniques completed the data collection. The data were analyzed interpretatively by semiotic approach. The ritual text of the buffalo meeting ceremony in rambu solo’ ceremony is a symbolic form, parallelism, and metaphor which also constructs the meaning of customary ritual myth. Through the ritual remarks on the seven types of buffalo in the ceremony of rambu solo’ indicating views, concepts, and motivations are used as guidelines for life for Toraja people. The result of the research shows that, (1) the customary ritual text of buffalo meeting is symbolic, parallelism, and metaphor characteristics that represent myth meaning, (2) customary ritual text of buffalo meeting is to construct myth and ideology about Toraja character value. The value of the characters is represented by the seven types of buffalo in the customary ritual ma'tammu tedong namely, (a) balian buffalo represented as a leader figure or role model; (b) bonga buffalo as torch in human life of Toraja; (c) pudu’ buffalo as guardians in maintaining the life of the Toraja; (d) todi’ buffalo as a unifier that strengthens kinship ties; (e) sokko’ buffalo describes a polite and humble person; (f) tekken langi’ buffalo as a safeguard that reconciles the Toraja over the conflict; (g) sambao’ buffalo as customary guardians for customary offenses. Those values indicate the existence of the relation between man and Almighty and man with others. Also, they strengthen the character of human life of the Toraja and nation character.

Ritual and ritual text in the Zoroastrian tradition: The extent of Yasna 41

This article examines the extent of the concluding section (Y 41) of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti in light of the manuscript evidence and the section's divergent reception in a Middle Persian text known as the “Supplementary Texts to the Šāyest nē Šāyest” (Suppl.ŠnŠ). This investigation will entertain the possibility of an alternative ritual being described in the Suppl.ŠnŠ. Moreover, it argues that the manuscripts transmit the ritual text along with certain variations and repetitions while the descriptions of the extent of each section preserve the necessary boundaries of the text as a textual composition or unit.

The mythological image of the owner of Altai: functions and semantics

The paper describes the mythological image of the owner of Altai in the religious beliefs and ritual culture of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. It has been revealed that the degree of preservation of the Altai cult is currently undergoing certain changes, depending on the area of residence of a particular people. The image the owner of Altai has similar mythological, symbolic, virtual, and real features in different peoples existing in a single historical and cultural context. In most of the texts, the dominant functions in his character are those that personify the owner of the land and all living things on it, the patron of wealth, the deity of fertility and procreation. He embodies the features of a heavenly divine being and traditional land masters, making him similar to the White Elder from the Mongolian cultural tradition. We have studied the features of the folklore text functioning in ritual practice, considered the ritual text structure, determined the stable motives of ritual texts addressed to the spirit-master of Altai, and characterized the ethnic specifics of the sacralization and deification of the Altai space in the traditions of the Turkic-Mongolian world. It should be noted that ritual and mythological contexts suggest that connotative semantics reveals the ancient origins of the primary denotation with the help of epithets determining the sacred character meaning. The verbal material analysis has revealed that in some cases, the primary denotative sign is lost or acquires a new mythological version over time.

The History of a Ritual Text Published by Ivan Sakharov

Among the publications prepared by Ivan Petrovich Sakharov (1807–1863), there are a number of texts that represent literary stylizations and hoaxes based on folklore. The article deals with one of these pseudo-folklore texts — a Christmas carol (kolyadka) that describes goat sacrifice. This carol was first published by I.P. Sakharov in 1837, reprinted by I.M. Snegirev in 1838, and then reproduced by many researchers of Slavic mythology. This paper argues that this carol is a combination of two texts: the first of them is the carol first published in 1817 by I.E. Sreznevsky in Ukrainsky Vestnik; the second one is the song being part of the fairy tale about brother Ivanushka and sister Alyonushka (SUS 450). This contamination is unique and occurs only in one text, albeit many times reprinted later. The article argues that this carol may belong to the pen of two anonymous folklore carriers, I.E. Sreznevsky and I.P. Sakharov. Sakharov’s stylization technique is characterized by the contamination of works belonging to various folklore genres. As a result, we encounter texts that are obscure within authentic tradition. Despite the fact that the Sakharov carol is an authored work, generations of historians and mythologists read it as a description of the ritual that was performed in ancient times by pagan Slavs.

Poetics of shamanic text dedicated to the deity Altai-Kudai, in the recording of A.V. Anokhin

The paper is devoted to identifying the compositional and semantic features of the shamanic text recorded by A. V. Anokhin in 1910 from the Tuba shaman Balandi. The analysis showed the text to consistently reflect all the ritual actions characteristic of the shaman rite. The main actions are invoking deities and host spirits, sacrifices to deities and master spirits of the Middle World, and sprinkling of the Ot-Ene, home spirit of fire. The ceremony had a family and household character, with the main purpose being to ask for grace for one family. The cult of mountains, worship of the deities and spirits of the Middle World reflected in the rite (Altai-Kudai ‘Altai-God’, Jayik ‘Dyayik (Idol Creator)’, Ot-Ene ‘Fire-Mother’) indicate the involvement of the performer of this ritual text in the South Altai tradition of shamanism. The appeal to the deity Altai-Kudai testifies to the fact that already at the beginning of the twen- tieth century, the Altaians formed a monotheistic image of a single deity. The key mythologeme in the text is the shaman’s journey to the top of the ridge inhabited by the deity Altai-Kudai who gives grace, happiness, and prosperity to the souls of cattle and children. The analyzed shamanic text is distinguished by a high solemn style. The poetic form of the shamanic text provides maximum expressiveness and ultimate emotional and semantic richness. Its syllabic structure varies from seven to twelve syllables. The ritual structure consists of three-day actions with sacrifice to the spirits-masters of the sacred mountains.

A Model of the Universe in Kathmandu's Old Royal Palace

This paper discusses a model of the universe found in Mohan courtyard of the old royal palace of Kathmandu, the Hanumānḍhokā. It was commissioned and installed by King Pratāpa Malla in 1656 CE. The artifact is referred to as “earth-ball” or terrestrial globe (bhūgola) in an inscription and is based on Purāṇic concepts of the universe. An eighteenth-century ritual text indicates that it was an object of worship in the courtyard.