Geser. The Вuryat heroic epic

But it hasn’t 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 goddesses’s 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-Ulan’s 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 Khormusta’s 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, bator’s (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. Geser’s 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.

Such a description of the start of the heavenly events is connected with the mythological ideas of the Sun deity whose personification was Naran Dulan tengri as skylark. The reason for the quarrel between the heads of the western and the eastern tengris was the desire to possess the rich and prosperous middle Segen Sebdeg tengri’s land. Atai Ulan sends his bators to Segen Sebdeg with the request of submitting to him. Khan Khirmas makes the same suggestion. Segen Sebdeg values his own freedom and the independent position and refuses them. He drives the envoys away. Then Atai Ulan sends his sons to Segen Sebdeg with the same message. Bukhe Beligte (future Geser) from the western skies also arrives there. Sagan Sebdeg again refuses them. The sons of the tengris (heavens) begin to fight. Bukhe Beligte wins the victory over his adversaries. He throws down Atai Ulan’s sons onto the Earth where they turn into the evil Sharablin khans.

After the defeat of his sons and warriors Atai Ulan again sends the tengris of the mist, dusk and gloom, hoar-frost. But Bukhe Beligte meets them with the nine tengris of wind and flame. Khan Khurmas and Atai Ulan join the battle. Khan Khurmas, having learned that the soul of his adversary is in the metatarsus of the big finger of his right foot, strikes it and thus beats the enemy. The defeated Atai Ulan-tengri is thrown upon the Earth where the various monsters come out of the different parts of his body.

In the land of the three Tugeshin khans there comes the time of the misfortunes, mortality. The people die, the rivers and grass dry out and fade away. The shamaness Sharagshakhan makes the offerings of the sick people’s tears to the western deities, namely, to the head of the 55 tengris Khan Khirmas-tengri, to Shutegte-burkhan and Manzan Gurme- grandmother. Thus she informs the tengris of the misfortunes on the Earth. Khan Khirmas asks in turn his sons to get down to the Earth but only Bukhe Beligte agrees to go down on condition that his father should give him all he asks for.

Bukhe Beligte turns Naran Gokhon-maid into a lark. He calls up the dreams to Sargal Noyon-khan about the lark with the magic letters on the chest and the back. If they caught that lark the Tugeshin khans would prosper. The khans shoot with an arrow and get down the lark that turns into Naran Gohon beauty. They marry her to Sengelen – khan and drive them away having first crippled her.

Then Naran Gohon gives birth to the children: the son Jasa Mergen and the three daughters. They are born from the top of her head, her armpit and the navel. They rise to the Sky. The last child is born in the usual way as all the earthly children. That was the future Geser who now got born on the Earth. That’s how he descended down from the Heavens onto the Earth to save the people from all kinds of misfortune.

Being still a child Geser punishes the evil creatures: a black mouse as big as a three-year-old bull, a yellow wasp (оса) as big as a horse’s head, a mosquito or a gnat as big as a horse, sends down into the sea the seven black and nine yellow devils. Sargal Noyon-khan brings back Sengelen-khan and Naran Gokhon, adopts Geser having given him the name of Nyuhata Nyurgai [Snot Nose Nyurgai].

Nyuhata Nyurgai goes to his future wife Tumen Yargalan together with his uncle Khara Soton. His future father-in-law Turushkhai Bogdo-khan puts his daughter’s fiancés on trial at the match. Nyuhata Nyurgai wins the victory over his rivals.

Then Nyuhata Nyurgai goes again together with his uncle Khara Soton to Urmai Gohon maid, Ulanai Bogdo khan’s daughter, to ask her as wife. He catches the three wasps – werewolves, who tried to suck the blood from his chest. Ulanai Bogdo-khan pleads Nyuhata Nyurgai to set them free. He promises to give him half of his herds, gold and silver as well as his daughter Urmai Gohon as his wife. The hero together with his wife Urmai Gohon comes home where they have a rich feast.

The Tengris-protectors send down from the Heavens for Nyuhata Nyurgai the thirty three bators (mighty warriors), bator’s weapons and a magic winged horse. Thus Nyuhata Nyurgai becomes Abai Geser-khan. Having obtained the mighty armor Geser goes hunting in the Altai and Khukhei but in the course of the three days he does not manage to “let out even a black mouse’s blood”. He comes across a hunter on a sorrel horse. Geser cannot catch up with the hunter. The unknown hunter disappears in the sea, Geser following him goes down into the sea. The hunter appears to be Alma Mergen, the daughter of the Lord of the underwater kingdom. Geser manages to curb the obstinate girl. He marries her and stays at his father-in-law’s place for three years. When his wife gives birth into a daughter they go home. Geser after having returned home builds the palaces for his three wives.

Geser learns from the yellow book of fortune that on the southern slope of the Sumer mountain lives the Lord of the thick forests. Then there is a white monster Orgoli who can draw into his mouth everything from the distance of forty versts [forty four km; 26, 4 miles]. He has an intention of swallowing Geser together with his bators. Abai Geser, Sargal noyon, Khara Soton and the warriors fight and kill the monster.

Geser defeats Abarga-mogoi (a huge snake) with the twenty seven heads and thirty three tails having pierced his main head with a spear. He carries away an underground treasure with the silver that the snake guarded.

Khara Soton who made many unsuccessful attempts at enticing Geser’s wife Tumen Yargalan goes to the nether world to the nine devils who advise him to deliver a blow on Geser’s health. Geser falls ill having inhaled the yellow mist that spread from the black sheep’s blood. According to the prediction of the yellow book of fortune for Geser to recover it was needed to send Tumen Yargalan to the mangadkhai Abarga Sesen-noyon. Geser thinks that it is better to die than send his wife to the monster. Tumen takes a decision to go to the land of the mangadkhai to save Geser. Her people are ready to follow her but she scatters her coral string of beads and tells to collect them. On her way she overcomes many obstacles. The mangadkhai comes out to welcome her.

Geser and Khara Soton go to the mangadkhai’s place to save Tumen Jargalan. Because of the heat that Geser has caused Abarga Secen is bathing in the sea. On the shore the two boys whom Geser had turned into are playing with a bow and arrows. Abarga Sesen puts on his head a pellet and asks the boys to hit it. One of the boys utters an incantation in a low voice and shoots. The arrow hits the mangadkhai’s right eye. Abarga Sesen calls Tumen Jargalan. She recognizes Abai’Geser’s black Khangai arrow, ties the mangadkhai with a rope and hammers in the arrow still deeper. Abai Geser and Tumen Jargalan burn the mangadkhai together with his horse. In order to keep Geser to herself, so that he did not leave her, Tumen Jargalan gives him the food that makes him quite silly and helpless. Now he grazes the mangadkhai’s red calves.

Erkhe Taija, the son of the eldest of the three Sharablin khans who possess the Sharaid valey made a magpie and sent it to look for a beautiful girl for him to marry. Having returned from the land of the larks the magpie says: “There is no one more beautiful than Urmai Gokhon”. They then send a black raven and a magic bird Gangga Zada and they claim the same.

The three Sharablin khans send their warriors to Geser’s land. His warriors courageously fight with the enemies. Khara Soton betrays Geser and his warriors fall dead desecrated with the bloody water. Alma Mergen having turned into a man like Geser in appearance accepts the battle.

The three Sharablin khans attack Urmai Gokhon and seize her with the help of slyness. Manzan Gurme-grandmother learns from the maternal book about the trouble in Geser’s camp. She sends onto the Earth Geser’s three sisters who find him and take away and give him back his true mighty look.

Abai Geser returns home. Alma Mergen meets him. Geser raises his bators and warriors from the dead. The bators want to kill their offender Khara Soton but Geser does not give his consent. Khara Soton pretends to be dead. Geser goes to the lands of the Sharablin khans to bring back Urmai Gokhon.

Geser in a magic way turns into a child. He is adopted by Sagan Gerelte khan. The boy who is given the name of Foundling grows up very quickly. He takes part in the contests of the bators and wins. The Sharablin khans are happy, they think that he can grow a strong man and fight against Abai Geser.

The Sharablin khans send their troops headed by Foundling against Geser’s warriors and bators. Foundling (Geser) joins his warriors and defeats the Sharablin khans. Then in his own look heading his warriors he comes to the land of the Sharablin khans. The latter ask for mercy. Abai Geser and Urmai Gohon return home. Their people meet them with great joy. They have a big feast.

In the land of Gangga Burged-khan there are great misfortunes: the rivers and lakes got dried up; the fatal illnesses, dreadful diseases and epidemics began to spread all over the place. Ganga Burged-khan learns from an old man that all the misfortune comes from the crafty designs of Gal Dulme-khan, the monster that came from Atai Ulan-tengri’s head that had been thrown down upon the earth from the skies. The old man says that they should ask Geser to help them. Geser says that it is still early to start the fight with him. Nine years should pass before they might attack him. He is still too strong, possesses the magic abilities, and has got the six hundred bators and the six thousand warriors. But Geser’s bators are ready to fight with Gal Dulme-khan and try to persuade their head to start the battle.

Geser agrees and the battle begins. He asks the fifty five tengris and Manzan Gurme-grandmother to help them. On the order of the deities Geser’s brother Zasa Mergen descends from the skies. He shoots Gal Dulme-khan’s central eye in which hidden is his soul and his vital energy. The defeated enemy and his horse are burned down. His beauty-wife is cut in two, from her belly a seven-month-old baby falls out. No weapon could cut him and only the seven celestial smiths could deal with the boy. He falls into the lower world.

The black mangadkhai Lobsogoldoi had three sisters. The eldest sister Yenkhoboi tells Lobsogoldoi to turn into a traveling lama, build a temple and desecrate Geser with a dirty cup. Lobsogoldoi captures Urmai Gokhon. Asurai mangadkhai ploughs on the donkey. Alma Mergen flies to the country of Khonin Khoto as a lark. There she sends the hail on the ground. The donkey eats the hail and that gives him strength. Alma Mergen having turned into Lobsogoi’s sister Yenkhoboi comes and asks to give her the donkey. Together with the donkey she rises up to the sky to Gurme grandmother. They clean and wash Geser and he resumes his former look.

Geser together with his bators sets out on a journey. His place of destination is the country of Khonin Khoto. He wants to bring back his wife Urmai Gokhon. He fights with Lobsogoldoi, throws him into a deep hole and leaves the guards with the iron bodies armed with the arrows. Having returned home he arranges a good feast which lasts nine days.

Geser fights with Shirem Minata devil. Neither Geser’s Khanggai arrow nor his black spear, nor his yellow damask steel dagger can cut the devil. Sherem Minata beats Geser with a cast iron whip. The bator gets weakened. On his winged horse he goes to the skies and asks his father Khan Khirmas and his brother Zasa Mergen to give him advice how he could conquer the devil. Manzan Gurme-grandmother gives Geser a wool-carding twig. Geser with that twig knocks to pieces the devil’s cast iron whip and beats him to death.

Geser goes to Alma Megen’s father to ask him help to tame the late four sons of the Mother-Earth. Uhan Lobson-khan gives him his magic walking stick. Geser sets out in search of those four late sons, at last he finds them. They turn into a healing spring, silver, gold and ginseng, that help Geser live a long and happy life.

The Chinese sovereign Gumen-khan after his favorite wife’s death orders his people to mourn her for three years in the posture her death caught them. He himself fell asleep for three years embracing his dead wife. The khan’s subjects decided to address Abai Geser for help, they sent one of the seven black smiths to him. Geser promises to help them but he needs the seven black smith’s heads, the seventy carts of wool and a big copper.

When the khan’s people brought those objects Geser made of the sculls of those heads the seven cups and rose on back of his winged horse to Manzan Gurme-grandmother. They both have the arkhi from those cups. When his grandma got drunk Geser opened the trunk with her keys and took out the fifteen magic treasures and got down to the Earth. The grandma having awakened found out that her treasures disappeared. She was in rage and threw those seven cups after Geser. The cups turned into the seven stars known as the Great Bear.

Then she got sorry about what she had done in rage and sprinkled with her milk in the same direction. The splashes turned into the Heaven’s stitches, or the Milky Way and Geser’s protective armor. The bator came to Gumen-khan who was still asleep. Abai Geser buried the khan’s wife and instead of her he put a black bitch. When Gumen-khan awoke he threw Geser into the dungeon. Geser cleaned the dungeon and filled it up with the treasures.

When going home he took with him the Chinese khan’s daughter. But on the way home he told her that they would not be happy together and sent her home. Geser goes to the land of Tebid to shoot through the top of a lonely growing tree that threatened to grow through the eight celestial vaults. He shoots off its top with his Khangai arrow, utters an incantation for the tree to remain as it has been before and not to grow upwards and in breadth.

Having completed all his deeds on the Earth Geser goes back to the sky to his grandma Manzan Gurme. He says: “I have done away with all those evil and cruel enemies, I have cut short those that grew too high, I narrowed those that grew too wide, I have done away with those with the beaks and fangs. Now we’ll live on having the three lucks each day”.

The epic shows that Nature is closely connected with the life of man. Nature gives the man strength and vital energy. The co-evolution of man and nature or the principle of the ecological imperative, ecological ethics and ecological responsibility that are believed to be the main contribution of the epic to the common knowledge of the humankind cannot be overestimated.

The Image of Nature in the Buryat heroic epic

A good deal of attention is given to the image of the Mother-Earth in the Buryat myths. In the old days they worshipped the Earth that gives everything to the man including life and everything returns back to her. She is the Hostess of the water, she represents the souls of fish, bird, snake, all the beasts and animals. She is taken to be the Great Mother of the Beasts. The image of the Great Goddess in the Buryat epic “Geser” has its parallels in the world folklore. The most ancient image of the Mother – Earth was discovered in Ur, an ancient Sumerian city on the Euphrates. This is a mother holding the son in her hands, both depicted with the snake’s head. The snakes represent the eight kinds of the spirits of the Earth worshipped by the peoples including the Buryats who thought the snake-like sabdaks to be the hosts of the territory or locality. In Sumer she is a dual divinity, in the morning she is the goddess of the battles and heroes, whereas at night she is the goddess of fertility. In a later time in Egypt she was understood as the virgin giving birth to all the worlds. In the Buryat uliger or epic she conceives from the rays of the Sun and the Moon and gives birth to the daughters who continue the lineage of the human beings.

Yenkhoboi sisters from the Geseriade like the Mother-Earth from Sumer also had the long breasts, they threw them back which symbolized death and forward which symbolized life. The bulls in the epic are understood as the totemic forefathers of the Buryats. The grain is often mentioned in the Buryat uligers. They are of the sacral meaning, Geser when praying throws them around as an offering to the hosts of Nature.

Understanding of the essence of the physiological phenomena like pregnancy, birth, growing of corn from grains, the appearance of birds out of eggs, the reproduction of fish, insects, worms in the water led to the sacralization of the biological vitality. The water, grain, egg were attributed the magic vital potentiality. Their ritual part in the religious cults was enormous. Those natural elements have a deep symbolical meaning connected with the idea of the vital energies. The larva reminding of the worm is of interest in understanding the phenomenon of the sacralization of Nature.

One of the main attributes of the shaman is the crown on his head which is connected with the idea of the World Tree. On the crown there are the hangings. The semantics of those objects was not quite clear. The hypothesis put forward by S. V. Alkin enables to solve the problem to some degree. He takes them to be the images of the larvae of the insects. The crown is the image of the World Tree with the souls of the unborn people that are depicted as the larvae. The outward similarity of the human and the animal embryons with the C-like larvae might give rise to the formation of a peculiar cult.

The epic gives much attention to the chaos, fire, water, air, wind, rain, frost, etc. which all have the special epical names. One of the powerful personages of the “Geser” epic, Gal Durme Khan is the symbol of the Fire. Thus one can say that the prime elements of nature are attached a great significance to in the Buryat tales. The Buryats took note of the fact that their household and everyday life were dependent on the natural phenomena, such as the periodical change of seasons, the climatatic variations, rain and snow, humidity of soil, etc. Alongside with this they mastered the reality in the spiritual sense, they had the ideas of the spiritual relationship of Man and Nature. As a result there emerged quite a few cult rituals.

There is a custom of hanging from a tree a Khii-morin (air horse), a personal votive flag for well – being and prosperity. This is connected with the honor and respect for horse. The horse is regarded as mediator between the Sky and the Earth. The horse plays one of the most important parts in the Geseriade and in the life of the Buryats, especially in the early ages.