Article
Article name	The Cult of Geser in Mongolian Ritual Texts
Authors	Vanchikova T.P. Doctor of History, Professor, vanchikova_ts@mail.ru
Bibliographic description	Vanchikova Ts. P. The Cult of Geser in Mongolian Ritual Texts // Humanitarian Vector. 2017. Vol. 12, No. 2. PP. 145–151. DOI 10/21209/1996-7853-2017-12-2-145-151.
Section	ORIENTAL STUDIES
UDK	82-13:2-265.3:811.512.36
DOI	10.21209/1996-7853-2017-12-2-145-151
Article type
Annotation	The aim of this article is to convey an analysis of several religious texts in old Mongolian script connected with Geser and to give detailed analysis of the work “The Offering of incense to Geser Khan” as a source for the study of the cult of Geser – a literary hero, whose life and deeds are described in the epic “Geser-Khan”, one of the largest epics in the world’s literary heritage, which traditions of transmission have been preserved until the present time and are still alive among the Tibetans and the Mongols of China. Epic tales of Geser were very popular and widespread among the peoples of Central Asia and they have preserved their ethnic and regional features. They have been passed through from generation to generation in two ways: through oral tradition and through the printed or handwritten version. Despite the fact of more than two centuries of studying the epic, many of the issues related to the history of its origin, relationships between the different versions, editions, some of the least explored are the issues related to the emergence of the cult of Geser, how and why the hero of the epic became the object of religious veneration. In this regard, this paper is a preliminary attempt to answer these questions. Several Mongolian ritual texts of his cult are identified and examined for the first time. It was found that they contain sufficient information base, testifying the polysemanticity and syncretic character of cult of Geser Khan’s veneration. The cult of offering incense was the most common ritual. It was also found out that the cult of Geser included different traditional forms of shamanistic beliefs and Buddhist elements that contributed greatly to making Gesar the object of cult worship to whom the people addressed with prayers and requests for the help and salvation, deliverance from evil spirits and diseases, asking for good luck and assistance, for which he had become a universal and protective deity.
Key words	Geser epic, Tibet, ritual texts, the cult Geser, Mongolian ritual texts
Article information
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