Article
Article name Aspects of the Khormusta Image in Mongolian Mythology
Authors Dugarov B.S. Doctor of Philosophy, Leading Researcher, khairkhan@mail.ru
Bibliographic description Dugarov B. S. Aspects of the Khormusta Image in Mongolian Mythology // Humanitarian Vector. 2018. Vol. 13, No. 5. PP. 92–97. DOI: 10.21209/1996-7853-2018-13-5-92-97.
Section ORIENTAL STUDIES
UDK 398(517.3)
DOI 10.21209/1996-7853-2018-13-5-92-97
Article type
Annotation The article examines the aspects of the Khormusta image and its transformation in the system of Mongolian religious mythology – Buddhist and shamanic – due to the significant role of Buddhism in the history of Central Asia. First, the author draws attention to the Uighur Buddhist factor which had a noticeable influence on the worldview of the Mongols in the 13th and 14th centuries. In relation to this, according to the comparative analysis, there is a twofold adaptation of the image of Khormusta in the uranium views of the Mongols. In the first one, Khormusta who is identical to Indian Indra is considered the head of thirty-three tengries living on the summit of Mount Meru – the Buddhist Olympus. By contrast, in the shamanic tradition, Khormusta is perceived as a supreme deity of the sky due to the merger of his image with Khukhe Munkhe tengri. Because of the wide spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia in the late 16th century and its affirmation at the state level, the image of Khormusta undergoes a significant evolution and is pushed in the background by Buddhist characters of Indo-Tibetan origin. In general, the Buddhist-shamanic bivalence of Khormusta, which is the product of historically developed circumstances, constitutes his theological phenomenon in the gallery of Eurasian deities.
Key words early Buddhism, Uighur cultural factor, Khormusta, Mongolian mythology, Tibetan influence, Central Asia
Article information
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