The study of the epic of Geser started with the publication of the texts including the texts of the shortened variants of the chapters, translations and scientific recordings of the epic. In the period to follow one can mention a more purpose-oriented, scholarly and systematic collection of the folklore pieces. With this in view quite a few folklore expeditions followed. S.Sh. Chagdurov made a contribution to its study by a number of his books. In the 80s of the last century the female personages, the epical genres, the various oral traditions were studied (S.S. Bardarkhanova, E.M. Kuzmina, D.D.Gomboin, S. Yu. Nekludov). The study of the Mongolian version of the Geser saga, particularly of over sixty manuscripts and xylographs of the written version of Geser in the Old Mongolian script was carried out (E. O. Khundaeva). In 1995 published in the academic edition The epic of the Euroasian peoples was Abai Geser the Mighty which was written down from the epic-teller Manshud Imegenov (Emegeev) by a well-known scholar Ts. Zh. Zhamsarano in 1906. In 1995 the book The Geseriade of the western Buryats was completed by D.A. Burchina, who gave a brief account of the various versions of the Buryat epic of Geser. In 1999 the two books by E.O. Khundaeva were published, one of them being The Buryat epic of Geser: the symbols and traditions, the other The Buryat epic of Geser: the ties and the poetical style. Both of them are devoted to the problems of the symbolic nature of the epopee, the cult rituals, the everyday customs and habbits, the language and style. In 2015 the book entitled The Geseriade: the Buryat epic and the Mongolian written story was published by E. Khundaeva and Ch. Erdyneeva.
In the Buryat and Mongolian epic of Geser there is a persisting idea of closeness, coherence, unification of man and nature which has been of great importance in all times, for the alternative to it might be neglecting all the laws and regularities of nature. At present there are the attempts at the ecological revival of the old traditions, rituals, holding festivals that evidences of the emotional loving attitude towards nature. A persistent necessity of waking up in the people of all the positive which had been accumulated by the ancestors, a respectful attitude towards ones own culture and resulting from it self-education and the spiritual growth. This all presupposes a true recognition of the other cultures which cease to be alien in that case. This involves a two-fold task, to excite interest in the world civilization through cognizing ones own.
On the study of the Geser heroic epic
The manuscrpipt Abai Geser khubun (Abai Geser the Mighty) is kept in Ulan-Ude in the archives of the Buryat folklore pieces in the collections of the Center for the Manuscripts and Block Prints at the Buryat Scientific Center which is a part of the Siberian Department (the city of Novosibirsk) of the Russian Academy of sciences (Moscow). It is well known all over the world among the orientalists, and its prestige among the scholars is ever growing. It is one of the richest repositories of the oriental heritage which attracts lots of the experts from the various countries. It has the ties with the scientific organizations and workers throughout the world. There are a lot of the foreign guests visiting or working in its richest archives. It is of the innovational nature and well equipped. The workers of the Centre also keep close ties with the scholars from many countries. They go on expeditions and business trips across the world and complete the joint projects. Very many international scientific forums take place in its assembly halls. It has got the international recognition and is making a good contribution to the further development of the oriental science.
In 1776 P.S. Pallas gave the first information in Russia concerning the epic Geser. B. Bergmann rendered the contents of the two chapters from the Kalmyck version of the tale of Geser (1804). J. I. Schmidt re-edited in the Old-Mongolian script the so-called (так-называемый) Peking version of 1716 consisting of the seven chapters [1836], and in three years he published its translation in German [1939]. S. A. Kozin published the translation of Geser to Russian [193536]. A.M. Pozdneev in 1896 published the rendering (пересказ) of a Kalmyck version with the translation in Russian [1896]. G. N. Potanin gave the rendering of a Buryat version [1981, 1883]. He then published in proze the Tibetan and Buryat versions of Geser [1893]. M. N. Khangalov wrote down from the epic-tellers the variants of the Buryat version and published their renderings (пересказ, переложение) in Russian in the so called Balagan collection [1903, 1959].
One should take note of the fact that in 1909 an English traveler J. Curtin published the three variants of Geser making use of his notes [1909]. One can find among them the abridged tale of Geser written down from the epic-teller M. Imegenov. This curtailed variant has some passages which differ it from the full recording made from the same epic-teller by Ts. Zhamtsarano in 1906. One should bear in mind that the texts in J. Kurtins book present the result of the double translation. At first the text was translated from Buryat to Russian by V. Mikhailov on the request of J. Kurtin. Then it was translated from Russian to English, therefore they present in fact a prosaic rendering of some motives of the epic but certainly they cannot be taken as the precise recording of the epic performed by the epic-teller.
On the contrary, the records made by Ts. Zhamtsarano are of great academic interest. In the first and second issues of the second volume of The patterns of the folklore of the Mongolian tribes one can find the tales Abai Geser khubun, Oshor Bogdo and Khurin Altai written down from a story-teller M. Imegenov [1930, 1931]. Ts. Zhamtsarano accompanied his records with the comments, the characteristics of the epics, the peculiarities of their performing art. The epic-teller M. Imegenov was born in 1849 into a poor peasants family in the village of Kukunut. He had a special gift for story-telling. Ts. Zhamtsarano wrote: When the rhapsode performs the uliger, he puts the pure water near him to have it time from time, leans back, half closes his eyes and gets absorbed in the atmosphere of his epical poem and begins to sing in a drawn-out, melodious manner being carried away while as if drawing one picture after the other with a surprising calmness and impassivity despite his being inspired and taken away. The listeners echo him whenever necessary [Obraztsy, 1930]. (Translated by Ye. Khundaeva).
The folklore experts S. P. Baldaev, A. K. Bogdanov, G. D. Sanjeev, K. A. Khadakhane, K. B. Baginov, A. I. Shadaev, I. N. Madason, D. D. Khiltukhin, N. G. Baldano, R. F. Tugutov, D. A. Alexeev, N. O. Sharakshinova and the others wrote down the tales of Geser in all the districts of Buryatia. They wrote down the epics from the celebrated (знаменитый) story-tellers of the 2030-s of the 20 century.
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 of the heroic epics are published beginning with the 1950-s. One can mention a fundamental study completed by a Mongol scholar Ts. Damdinsuren [1957]. He made a comparative study of the Mongol, Buryat and Tibetan versions of 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 [197879]. 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. The Buryat authentic text, its translation to Russian, the commentaries and the academic articles are in essence a new academic interpretation of the epical monument in its unique and artistic originality taking account of the new requirements concerning the edition of the epics.
But it hasnt been translated to English although it might be the prerequisite (предпосылка) of its becoming known to a wider public. Therefore a decision was taken to translate the epic to the English language. The English translation of the Ekhirit-Bulagat variant of the Buryat version of Geser written down by Ts. Zhamtsarano in 1906 from Manshud Imegenov was recently completed by Ye. Khundaeva. The present English translation of the epic of Geser is made on the basis of the manuscript (Inv. No 1) of the collection of the Buryat folklore (The Center for the Oriental Manuscripts and Block Prints, The Institute for the Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan studies, SB RAS, Ulan-Ude) which is entitled Abai Geser khubun and its published variant (Abai Geser khubun, Moscow, 1995).
А brief summary of the contents of Geser
Those were the remotest times when there were neither celestial gods nor sun, stars. Instead of the sky there was some misty haze and below there was only water. The Great Mother the Goddess was all alone. And she decided to create a world and fill it with some creatures. For the beginning she made an earth from a piece of clay brought from water by the duck created by her earlier and put it on back of the turtle. Then there appeared the mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes; moreover, there appearеd the beasts, birds and fish. The goddess makes the sun and the moon. From the rays of the sun and the light of the moon she gives birth to the two daughters Manzan Gurme and Mayas Khara who afterwards become the foremothers of the kind western and the evil eastern sky-dwellers or deities-tengris. The goddessess daughters had then many children and grandchildren who were fond of having merry open-air parties and festivals with the games naadan. On the first day of the naadan there were the wrestlers competitions, on the second those of the archers, on the third day the horse races, on the fourth day the people devotedly listened to the singers, storytellers and epic-tellers uligershins, on the fifth day there were the contests of the sages. In a word, there was a joyous festival which might be called the yokhor in the Buryat language.
In the western part of the sky there live the fifty five tengris, their head being Khan Khormusta. He has the three sons, the middle of them being future Geser. In the eastern part of the sky there live the forty four tengris, the head over them being Atai-Ulan, who has the three sons too. Living in the middle place of the sky is Segen-Sebdeg tengri. He has a daughter Seseg-Nogon, she is a beauty and sews skillfully. The eldest sons of the heads of both the skies eagerly wish to take her as wife. The western and eastern deities want to get possession of the middle sky, there bursts out a quarrel between them. In the battle that followed the western tengris win. Having cut Atai-Ulan into the pieces they throw them down to the earth that causes the people the numerous troubles and misfortune. From the parts of Atai-Ulans body there appear the various monsters: from the chest Gal-Durme khan, from the thigh Lodsogoldoi mangadkhai (monster), from the neck vertebrae Sherem-Minata devil, from the stomach Mitagar Khara Mila, from the liver Ganga Bured khan, from the right hand Abarga Sesen mangadkhai, from the left hand Asurai Shara mangadkhai, from the right leg Khitad Gumen khan, from the left leg fourty-eyed Dume, from the kidneys the Edir sagan tree and the spotted deer Taril Eren, from the lungs Black Guma Mitan who had a thousand of the white eyes. Apart from them, there were the other monsters that caused the innumerable troubles, such as Arkhan Khara devil, fifteen-headed Asurai mangadkhai, ninety-five-headed Yenkhoboi mangadkhai.
In order to save the people from all the misfortunes Khan Khormustas middle son Erkhe Beligte (future Geser) gets down to the earth. To complete his mission he is to be re-born on the Earth because being of the celestial origin he is too pure and sacral for the earthly life. He gets born into a poor childless family of an old man Sengel and an old woman Sengelen. The old woman gets pregnant in a magic way and gives birth to the three children. The two daughters get up onto the sky, remaining is the son who is far from being nice-looking and stains all around at that. He gets the name of Nyukhata Sura (Snot Sura). He does a lot of trouble to his elderly parents.
Being quite a small child the future Geser does away with the envoys of the monsters. Having completed a lot of the noble deeds, he gets the three wives. Nyukhata-Sura becomes а bagatur (mighty warrior) Abai Geser Bogdo khan. The tengris give him a magic horse, bators (mighty warrior) clothes and the miraculous weapon and armour. When he comes back he learns that his native place was attacked by the three Sharyn (Sharaigol) khans. He sets out for a fight to save his wife from those khans. On his way he comes across a she-mangadkhai Moyil-Khara who desecrates him with a piece of dirty felt and turns him into a donkey. Gesers celestial sisters set him free and make him a human being again. Geser-bator punishes the monsters and saves the earth from the evil. Each chapter of the epic is devoted to his struggle against the enemies of the people.
In some other variants of the Geseriade conflicting in the primordial times are the two camps of the tengris the celestial deities. Those are the western fifty five tengries headed by Khan Khirmas-tengri and the eastern forty four tengris headed by Atai Ulan-tengri. Among the western tengris there is the second son of Khan Khirmas by name of Bukhe Beligte, the earthly name of Geser after his second birth. Atai Ulan-tengri gets Naran Gokhon to fall seriously ill. In case she dies the western tengris will have to submit to the eastern deities. Manzan Gurme-grandmother reads the sacred book and learns how one could cure the girl. She sends Bukhe Beligte for a skylark with the golden letters on the back and the silver letters on the chest. They apply the bird on the chest and the back of the sick girl and she recovers.