Research On The Culture

The present dissertation is an attempt of a systematic elaboration of "wind horse" (hiimori, vitality or vital force), which is an important phenomenon in the Mongolian and Tibetan cultures. The study is based on both written (mainly manuscript) sources and a field research combining approaches of history, anthropology, ethnography, religious studies, and literary science. Precedence is given to the hermeneutic study of folk religious texts, description of folk traditions, and their symbolic values.The dissertation deals with the "wind horse" as a common cultural term, its origins, its realisations, manifestations and metamorphoses, its place within the folk customs and folk worship and the ritual texts connected to the "wind horse".In the introductory part, I described the reason for choosing this topic, described its significance and assessed the present state of research.The first chapter focuses on the basic concept of "wind horse", its origins and the materialized structural forms of hiimori. In the first section, the contemporary common understanding of the world hiimori is given, followed by an essay about its origins. The notion of "wind horse" originated in the Tibetan tradition of Bon and came into Mongolia with the second conversion of Mongols to the Tibetan Buddhism. It became integrated into the Mongolian indigenous customs and religious thought and underwent remarkable metamorphoses of ritual expressions. The second section deals with common Mongolian materializations of hiimori-"wind horse" in form of a flag(hiimoriin darcug) suspended from strings and fluttering in wind, which is considered to support one’s vitality (also called hiimori). As a case study, I described and categorized various forms of this objectified hiimori in the tradition of Ordos Mongols. The third section brings an analysis of inscriptions and symbols occurring on the hiimori flags.The second chapter deals with the making of hiimori. It studies the course of current rituals connected with hiimori. The first section describes methods of determinating propitious circumstances to handle the hiimori rituals according to the popular oral knowledge and data collected from astronomical manuscript calendars. The Mongolian practice pays attention to several kinds of propitiousness time:the propitious days for the hiimori ritual in general and individual propitious as "the days hiimori is spreading", "propitious days to scatter hiimori by wind" etc. In Ordos, the notion of hiimori is narrowly connected with the so-called "wind horse pillars" (hiimoriin bagana). I provided a comparison of three manuscripts of "Four kinds of the rite of constructing the wind horse pillar". The analysis is arranged according to the stages in the "wind horse pillar" rite:purification process, decorating the wind horse pillar, inviting and settling local deities and guardian spirits, seeking their benediction, doing corrective rituals, and finally reading the safety-prayer of the "Wind horse incense offering"(Hiimoriin sang). The astrological or calculational aspect of the ritual includes the locating of hiimori according to the twelve-year cycle, correlation of the four substances(dorben mahbod), corrective treatment (recovery of hiimori), methods of (supernatural) protection and the reasons for constructing the wind horse pillar. The present Ordos Mongols replace and reanimate the hiimori flags hung in front of their entrance gate every year. The current ritual is compared to a Tibetan text "Book of animating the wind horse", which I give in translation. The second section goes on with the other current popular customs concerning the wind horse cult arranged in four levels:prostrating to Heaven, lighting a bulb, offering incense, blowing a conch, reading incense offerings prayer-poem, making libation (serjim). Three of the main four actions are done by men, whereas the libation or drink-offering is carried out by women. All of these rites give an evidence that hiimori is apprehended as a sacred and intangible object of veneration. In the course of worshipping hiimori we find a lot of prohibitions and taboos relating to hiimori. I have classified these prohibitions and taboos according to their relation to the materialized expressions of hiimori on one, and to the abstract notion of hiimori on the other side. I summarized the reasons, why certain actions or behaviour are prohibited, according to three aspects. The third section deals with the conclusion of hiimori rituals, the influence and symbolic connotations attributed to them. I proposed, that hiimori, as perceived by Mongols, brings symbolism of life and soul (sunesu, sulde" the spirit of invincibility "); "the four powerful ones" (dorben hucuten) symbolise vigour and strength; another symbolic category are the five colours of hiimori. In modern society, hiimori usually stands for a good fortune and good luck.The third chapter turns to the verbalized forms of the hiimori cult represented by the "Wind horse incense offering prayers" (Hiimoriin sang). In the first part, I wrote about the term sang and the literary genre of the sang (=incense offering) poetry. Further, I pointed out the reasons of reading the texts of Hiimoriin sang. All of the manuscript and printed versions of Hiimoriin sang I was able to collect are given detailed information in a table included in this section. In the second part, I compared different redactions of Hiimoriin sang following the common structure:prologue, main part, and epilogue. Content of Hiimoriin sang is oriented towards nature or towards human society, expresses the religious thoughts of the contemporary people and mirrors the principal concepts in correspondence with hiimori as "the four powerful ones" etc. I attempted a comparison of the earliest versions of Hiimoriin sang with a known authorship (versions by Mergen gegen Lubsangdambijalsan, the Second Jamiyangsadba roncoyjigmedwangbo and the Sixth Panchen Lama Lobsang Palden Yeshe. All of these versions were composed in the 18th century either in Mongolia or in Tibet. The Mongolian versions are rather free renderings of the Tibetan originals, well adjusted to the Mongolian poetic rules. Through a comparison of various manuscripts, I indicated shifts, transformations in the course of the handover of these texts and described their individual particularities. On the basis of the detailed study of Hiimoriin sang, I defined the benefits traditionally attributed to the reading of Hiimoriin sang. Consecutively, I illustrated the popular belief of reasons leading to the decline of hiimori (vitality) and methods of recovering hiimori by particular examples.In the conclusion, I summarized the main findings of the present dissertation and evaluated, how far it answered the questions posed in the introduction, pointed out main achievements and setbacks and mentioned problems worthy of further consideration.