Научно-популярный журнал «Хан Тэнгэр» как источник по изучению несказочной прозы ойратов Синьцзян-Уйгурского автономного района Китайской Народной Республики

Abstract

The popular scientific journal “Khan Tenger” is an important and valuable source for the study of the folklore of the Oirats of the PRC. This periodical is devoted to the study of the culture and language of the Oirats living in the PRC (XUAR PRC, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) was published in the period from 1981 to 1993 by the Xinjiang People’s Publishing House (Šinǰiyang-giyin aradiyin keble-liyin xorō) in Urumqi city. The journal was published four times a year in the Oirat “clear script” and is a unique collection of the best examples of oral folk art of the Oirats of the XUAR of the PRC. The article examines some genres of non-fairytale prose of the Oirats of the XUAR of the PRC, recorded in the Khan Tenger journal. Non-fairytale prose is the richest heritage which contains the ancient beliefs of ancestors, moral norms and historical memory of the Oirats. A large number of cosmogonic myths about the creation of the world, the origin of the earth, sky, stars, sun, moon, as well as etiological myths about the origin and characteristics of animals, birds, insects, plants, and natural phenomena are published on the pages of the Khan Tenger journal. Legends and traditions reproduce the historical reality in the refraction of people’s mind through their vision and assessment. They have absorbed archaic elements that characterize the mythological consciousness and the ancient views of distant ancestors. The publication of texts of myths, legends and traditions will help to fill in the “white spots” in the genre system of the folklore of the Oirats, will help to study the spiritual culture of the Mongol-speaking peoples.