Geser. The Вuryat heroic epic

At present in the Center for the Oriental Manuscipts and Block-prints at the Institute for the Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan studies of the Siberian Depatment, the Russian Academy of sciences, the collection of the epics (uliger) contains over one hundred authentic works among which presented most richly is the epic of Geser. There are about ten variants of “Geser”. The records were made in different years in such districts of the Irkutsk province (oblast’) as Ekhirit-Bulagat, Bokhan, Osinsk and Nukut.

The epic-tellers were M. Imegenov, A. Vasiliyev, P. Petrov, P. Dmitriyev, P. Tushemilov, N. Ivanov, P. Stepanov, A. Baldakshinov, B. Zhetukhaev, A. Toroyev and the others.

The academic studies and the texts ofВ the heroic epics are published beginning with the 1950-s. One can mention aВ fundamental study completed byВ aВ Mongol scholar Ts. Damdinsuren [1957]. He made aВ comparative study ofВ the Mongol, Buryat and Tibetan versions ofВ the epic.

The French scholar R. – A. Stein completed a study of the various aspects of the Tibetan Geseriade [1959]. The Hungarian scholar L. Lorincz studied the Mongol and Buryat epics, particularly “Geser” [1978—79]. The issues of the epical heritage of the Mongols and Buryats were studied by the scholars in such countries as Japan (K. Tanaka), France (R.-A. Stein, R. Hamayon), Germany (W. Heissig, C. Sagaster).

The Ekhirit-Bulagat variant of the Buryat version of the “Geser” epic written down by Ts. Zhamtsarano in 1906 from the epic-teller Manshud Imegenov was published in Buryat in the academic transcription in St.Petersburg in 1930. In 1961 its second publication with the translation to Russian was completed by M. P. Khomonov. Then in 1969 it was again published with a new translation to the Russian language by N.

O. Sharakshinova.

Since that time about fifty years passed. During those years a great progress was made in the study of the heroic epic of the Buryats. The academic level of the preparation of the texts for publishing improved as well as the translating techniques to Russian. The book “Abai Geser khubun” (1995) was prepared taking into account the new requirements.