Hauteurs sacrées dans la topographie des plaines. Les kurgans ovaa dans le paysage bouddhique kalmouk

Abstract

Since their migration to the northern Caspian, the Kalmyks have attributed the ritual, political and functional roles of the sacred cairns (Mo. ovoo, Kalm. ovaa) of Inner Asia to steppe kurgans, or ancient burial mounds that abound throughout the North Caucasus and Caspian Depression, the oldest dating from the early Bronze Age. This study is concerned with Kalmyk terminology, certain ritual practices and contemporary discourses constructing burial mounds as reference points of Kalmyk Buddhist cosmology and history. Focusing on two examples of particular mounds, I present popular narratives, some archaeological findings and recent public events in connection with the chosen sites in order to explore how these landscape entities are conceptualized as powerful agents of Kalmyk religious and ethno-cultural renewal. Whether ovaa kurgans can be situated within the category of the Inner Asian ovoos or whether they present a separate type of ritual structure is another set of questions the article raises.