Монгольское сочинение о гадании по приметам из собрания Рукописного фонда Института восточных рукописей РАН

Oriental Studies. 2019. № 2. С. 263–278.

Tsendina A.

The history of everyday life, intensively developed in European science since the second half of the last century, has not found a noticeable reflection in Mongolian studies, from time to time getting a place in the sphere of ethnological or source discourse. Meanwhile, this area of social history can help to take a fresh look at the many processes that took place in Mongolia. It covers all the cycles of everyday life of the Mongols ‒ economy, life rituals and seasonal rituals, daily religious practices, magical rituals associated with sacrifices, treatment of cattle, divination, etc. Many of such practices are reflected in written sources. One of such works is the text under the code Q 695 from the Manuscript Fund of the Institute of Oriental manuscripts of RAS in St. Petersburg. It is dedicated to omens and divination by omens. The work can be divided into several parts: omens on the behavior of animals: horses, cows, sheep; on a bird coming in the house; on the barking and howling of a dog; on the buzz of pots; on the deformity of animals; on the behavior of dogs, the appearance of a tornado, the gnashing of teeth. Obviously, this work is a collection of narratives from various sources. Much attention to the cattle breeding theme seems to be in favor of the Mongolian character of the monument. However, there are also stories that are not typical for nomadic life. There are signs of the use of Tibetan and Chinese materials. On this basis, we can say that this work has a heterogeneous character and is a compilation from different sources. As for the concepts of omens themselves, they obviously have a wider area of distribution than certain national borders and reflect the practices of protecting life in a wide area of Central Asia, Northern India and China.

Keywords: история повседневности, written tradition of the Mongols, письменная традиция монголов, history of every day life, omens, приметы