The Cult of the Horse in the Traditional Culture of the Buryats

This article presents the cult of the horse in Buryat mythology, religion, traditional medicine, and culture for the first time. In the nomads’ habitat, the horse was man’s best friend and companion, accompanying him from early childhood to old age. In the ritual and ceremonial complex of the Mongolian peoples, the horse cult had a sacred meaning that began with the initiation rites of the three- and seven-year-old boys to become horsemen and hunters and ended with the funeral and burial rites. The semantics of the horse cult can be found in various contexts: in shamanic mythology, religion, rituals, traditional culture, the Buryat circle dance – ‘yehor,’ and the musical instruments of the Mongols and Buryats. Of particular importance is the study of the phenomenon of the horse cult in connection with the origin, construction, and sacredness of the Mongolian musical instrument morinhur, the analog of which is the Buryat musical instrument khur. The deep mythological and religious ideas of the Buryats and Mongols about the horse are reflected in legends, uligers, West Buryat funeral songs of Uhelei duunuud, the circle dance of yehor as well as in the examination of the semantics of morinhura/khura in the context of the sound image of the world as an information model of shamanic rituals.Dotted parallels reflect the horse cult in the traditional culture of the Turkic and Mongolian ethnic groups.

horse cult, semantics,rituals, traditional culture, musical instruments, Buryats, Mongols