To the issue of textual tradition of white old man (based on one Tibetan collection of ritual texts from Tuvan archives)

The paper introduces one manuscript from the Tibetan text collection of White Old Man cult entitiled as “Prayer-Offering Devoted to White Old Man” (Tib. Dkar po rgan po gsol mchod bzhugs so) and kept in the manuscript repository of the Tuva Institute for Humanitarian and Applied Socio-Economic Research under the Government of the Republic of Tyva. The text is of considerable interest, because Tibetan texts devoted to the White Old Man have not been introduced yet in Mongolian and Tibetan studies, excluding individual research papers in which they are mentioned. The analyzed manuscript contains several texts: 1) “Sutra of One Who Can Subdue Earth and Water” (Tib. sa dang chu’i ’dul bar gnon par nus pa’i mdo zhes bya ba) representing translation of the Mongolian version of the sutra; 2) prayer-appeal to the White Old Man (Tib. gsol ’debs); 3) bsangs incense offering (Tib. bsangs) and tshethar freeing-life ritual (Tib. tshe thar); 4) g.yang khug invocation of prosperity (Tib. g.yang khug). According to the text, these rituals are to be performed on the second, eighth, tenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, twenty-second, twenty-fifth lunar days and the main goal of them is to protect livestock from adversities and unfavourabilties. In the end of the text it is said that it was compiled by Padmasambhava (Tib.pa+dma ’byunggnas). As for first two texts, Mongolian-language originals have been identified: for the first one it is the “Sutra of One Subduing Earth and Water”, represented by numerous copies in Mongolian and Oirat script, for second - the text of the bsangs incense offering, published by W. Heissig as the text no. XIX. Comparative analysis of Tibetan translations with Mongolian versions in both cases reveals a fairly accurate adherence to the original text. For third and fourth texts Mongolian-language originals have not been identified. Studies on such ritual texts in Tibetan kept in Russian repositories will provide the possibility to describe specific features of local traditions of Mongolian Buddhism, in particular in the aspect of the White Old Man cult.