Underwater world in the traditional Buryat worldview

Purpose. The article reconstructs the traditional views on the underwater world spread among the Buryats. Results. In the Buryat culture, water is considered as a special substance with complicated characteristics. The underwater world is perceived as a part of the Middle world inhabited by mythical and real creatures. According to folk beliefs, water had ambivalent properties connected with life (fertility) and death. The Buryats were aware of mineral springs’ healing influences, but they also believed that water of other water sources had some healing effect as well. Shamanic rites practiced among the families of the Predbaikal’sky Buryats (those living around Lake Baikal) included ritual purification and healing with water. The Buryat mythology demonstrates a hierarchy in the underwater world among the mythical characters inhabiting it. The superior creatures are Ukhan khats (water rulers). On the basis of these beliefs, the Buryats had a cult of the water rulers, who required seasonal sacrifices and rites of worship. The cult had some local variants. Among the Pribaikal’sky Buryats there was a fishery cult. It developed due to the impact of the economic factor as in addition to cattle breeding they practiced fishing, mainly in Lake Baikal. In the Buryat worldview, fish is associated with fertility. They believed in lycanthropy, when mythical water-rulers and people could turn into fish. Some Buryat groups worshiped only such fish as burbot and taimen (lax). At the same time, fish was not considered patronizing people. Having a commercial value, fishing was not banned. In the rites practiced by separate groups of the Buryats, fish was represented as both a victim and an attribute. For instance, the Predbaikal’sky Buryats had a tradition of collective sacrifice to Ukhan khats and performed a ritual of feeding them with fried fish. This fish was a victim in the rites of worship for some spirit-owners of the area. The attributive function of fish was in considering fish as a live ongon (animal devoted to a particular deity or spirit-owner). Buddhism greatly influenced the attitudes of the Zabaikal’sky Buryats concerning fish and changed their traditional beliefs and rituals associated with water and water rulers. In contrast to the Buddhist Buryats, Shamanist Buryats attributed only positive connotations to fish. Conclusion. In the traditional Buryat worldview, the underwater world played a great role. A whole body of ideas about Ukhan hats and other mythical characters, as well as fish, was associated with it. On the basis of such beliefs, the Buryats formed local cults of water rulers and performed different ceremonies worshipping them. These rituals and world views underwent a transformation under the influence of religious and economic factors such as the introduction of Buddhism and development of fishing among the Pribaikal’sky Buryats.