The wave of liberalization in the Soviet Union after 1985 came only slowly to Buriatia. In 1984 the new Soviet leadership retired the long-ruling Buriat apparatchik Modogoiev and replaced him as party secretary with A. M. Beliakov, a Russian. At the same time Buriat-language education was revived in the primary schools, and in 1989 the sagaalgan was openly celebrated.
In 1990–91 the existing ASSR leadership was forced to respond to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the new multiparty situation. As in other autonomous units, a declaration of sovereignty, a new flag, a declaration of equal official status for the local language (i.e., Buriat) and Russian, and finally in 1992 a new constitution fol- lowed. Nevertheless, just as in other regions of Russia, Buriatia soon found financial needs overwhelming desires for greater autonomy. While the elections of 1994 brought the Buriat Republic a Russian president, overall the Buriats remained in a strong position governmentally. In the legislature 40 percent was Buriat (compared with 50 percent in 1989), as were 70 percent of the republic’s ministers. Even so, Moscow’s plans for administrative consolidation threaten to merge the Buriat Republic with one or more neighboring Russian provinces.
With the new freedom of expression, historical and cultural questions are being frankly discussed. Renewed contacts with the Buriats of China, who seem to have preserved their traditions so well, have only accentuated the Russification of the Buriats in their homeland. In this situation the question for the Buriats was expressed in the title of the noted historian Shirap B. Chimitdorzhiev’s book: Kto my Buriaty? (Who are we Buriats?).
Many Buriats have looked for the answer to this question in religion, specifically Buddhism and shaman- ism. A Buddhist revival began in 1988, and by 2000 25 monasteries and religious organizations existed on Buriat soil. The role of Buddhism was recognized by the republi- can government with the 1991 celebration of the 250th anniversary of the empress Elizabeth’s recognition of Buriat Buddhism. Shamans, too, have organized on an official level, forming the Association of Shamans of Buri- atia in 1993, which sponsored large-scale tailgans, or clan sacrifices, at Ol’khon Island in 1993 and 1996. However,
as in the early 20th century, new connections with Tibetans and non-Buriat Buddhists have created contro- versial organizations and sparked criticism of clerical marriage and alcohol consumption tolerated by the Tradi- tional Buddhist Sangha (Monastic Community) of Russia, the successor of the Soviet-era organization of Buddhists.
The lasting division between Buddhism and shaman- ism and the new divisions in Buddhism have made the epic hero Geser the most consensual symbol of Buriat identity. In 1990 the Buriat republic’s legislature declared 1990 the 1,000-year anniversary of Geser. From 1991 to 1992 a series of Geser readings, coinciding with summer sur-kharbaan festivals and the movement of the official Geser banner, was staged successively at the birthplaces of famous Geser singers in Ust’-Orda, Khori, and Aga. Both Ust’-Orda and the new Tunka National Park have adopted the tourist slogan “Land of Geser.”
A more sensitive question is that of Buriat unity and the link to Mongolia. The Buriat legislature officially charged on August 27, 1990, that Moscow’s dismember- ment of the republic in 1937 was illegal since it had never been approved by the ASSR itself, yet the practical obsta- cles to restoring the pre-1937 boundaries have proved insuperable. Thus, both the relatively mainstream All- Buriat Association for Cultural Development (founded February 1991) and the more political Congress of the Buriat People (July 1996) have sought nonadministrative ways to strengthen Buriat unity. While often denounced by Russians both in Buriatia and elsewhere, pan-Mon- golism has not had any practical success. The word Mon- gol in the republic and the autonomous areas’ names has not been revived, and pan-Mongolian parties have as yet obtained no share in power. Many of their more talented alumni have, however, been coopted as individuals into the government. The vogue of Chinggis Khan seems to be quite superficial compared to the profound veneration in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. Even so, the continuing economic and social crises have again stimulated apoca- lyptic rumors that after some great catastrophe, Russians will take over the land and the Buriats will return to Mongolia.
See also AGA BURIAT AUTONOMOUS AREA; CLOTHING AND DRESS; DANCE; EPICS; HUNTING AND FISHING; JEWELRY;
RELIGION; UST’-ORDA BURIAT AUTONOMOUS AREA; WED-
DINGS; YURT.
Further reading: James Forsyth, A History of the Peo-
ples of Siberia: Russia’s North Asian Colony, 1581–1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); Roberte Hamayon, “Emblem of Minority, Substitute for Sovereignty: The Case of Buryatia,” Diogenes 49.2 (2002): 16–25; Caroline Humphrey, “Buryats,” in The Nationali- ties Question in the Soviet Union, ed. Graham Smith (Lon- don: Longman, 1990): 290–303; Caroline Humphrey, Marx Went Away, but Karl Stayed Behind (Ann Arbor: Uni- versity of Michigan Press, 1998); Caroline Humphrey, “The Uses of Genealogy: A Historical Study of the
Nomadic and Sedentarized Buryat,” in Pastoral Production and Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979): 235–260; Helen Sharon Hundley, “Speransky and the Buriats: Administrative Reform in Nineteenth Cen- tury Russia” (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, 1984); Rinchen, Four Mongolian Historical Records (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1959); Robert A. Rupen, Mongols of the Twentieth Century, 2 vols. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1964); Elena Stroganova, “Millenarian Representations of the Contemporary Buriats,” Inner Asia 1 (1999): 111–120; Natalya L. Zhukovskaya, “Religion and Ethnic- ity in Eastern Russia, Republic of Buriatia: A Panorama of the 1990s,” Central Asian Survey 14 (1995): 25–42.
Buriats of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia Estab-
lished by BURIATSfleeing Russian peasant attacks in 1919,
the Buriat communities in Mongolia and in China’s Inner Mongolia have often been leaders in modern reforms in their communities.
In Mongolia Buriats number 35,400, or 1.7 percent of the population (1989 figures). In China the Buriats remain socially distinct, although they are officially regis- tered as Mongols. Due to this fact, no official figures on their population exist, although their numbers were esti- mated in 1990 at more than 6,000.
With the establishment of the Russia-Qing frontier in
1727, the Buriats of Russia and the KHALKHA Mongols
under Manchu Qing rule were separated by wide border zones manned by frontier guards. As Russia established its sphere of influence in Mongolia in the early 20th cen-
tury, Buriats began using pasture in HULUN BUIRand along
the northern border of Mongolia. With the 1911 RESTORA-
TION of Mongolian independence, educated Buriats also
served as translators, interpreters, and schoolteachers, working for both the Russian consulate and the Mongo- lian government.
During the Russian Revolution attacks and land seizures by Russian peasants intensified against the Buri- ats. In April 1919 Aga and Khori Buriats, along with many Khamnigan (Buriat-influenced EWENKIS), in des- peration fled over the border to today’s EASTERN PROVINCE
and KHENTII PROVINCEin Mongolia and to Hulun Buir in
Inner Mongolia, while Tünkhen and Tsongol Buriats fled to areas in today’s SELENGE PROVINCE, BULGAN PROVINCE,
and KHÖWSGÖL PROVINCE. Buriats fighting for the White
Russian cause likewise took refuge in Hulun Buir. The Buriats and the native Bargas and Khalkhas frequently clashed over pastures and incidents of armed robbery and horse theft.
After the 1921 REVOLUTIONmany Buriat intellectuals
again returned to Mongolia’s capital as prominent politi- cal figures, while the rural Buriat refugees petitioned to receive refuge in Mongolia. Since many were anti-Com- munist, this was a sensitive issue for Mongolia’s new
Soviet-aligned government. On February 5, 1922, the Buriats in the capital convened and established a Buriat Assembly, which served as the new People’s Government’s liaison with the rural Buriats in Mongolia until 1925. From 1922 to 1923 the government established six spe- cial Buriat banners in Setsen Khan and Tüshiyetü Khan provinces. Finally, at Mongolia’s First Great Khural in November 1924, the Buriats of Mongolia, numbering 4,361 households and 16,093 persons, were collectively naturalized as Mongolian citizens. In 1931, with the provincial reorganization, the Buriat banners were replaced by ordinary sums.
In Hulun Buir the autonomous banner authorities agreed on December 3, 1921, to allow the Aga Buriat and Khamnigan herder refugees to stay permanently. They based their decision in part on sympathy with the refugees’ sufferings at the hands of the Reds and in part on Hulun Buir’s historical connection with the Aga and
Khori Buriats and the Khamnigans (see EWENKIS). The
next year a new banner was formed on the Shinekhen (Xinhen) River in Solon Ewenki territory (modern Ewenki Autonomous Banner) with about 160 house- holds and 700 people. While Buriat emigration to Mon- golia ceased after 1921, anticommunist Buriats continued to move into Hulun Buir, bringing the Shinekhen population in 1931 up to about 800 house- holds and 3,000 people.
In both Mongolia and Hulun Buir the Buriats intro- duced new handicrafts, farming techniques, hay-mowing machines, improved horse and cattle breeds, sewing machines, and enclosed portable stoves with stovepipes instead of the old open fires. Mostly nomadic, in Mon-
golia’s wooded KHENTII RANGE they built supplementary
log cabins and in Hulun Buir mud-brick houses. The Buriats built many Buddhist temples throughout their new banners.
With the beginning of Mongolia’s leftist period in 1929, Buriat intellectuals with “White” (i.e., anticom- munist) pasts were dismissed from government posi- tions. The Japanese occupation of Manchuria increased the Soviet advisers’ sense of threat from pan-Mongolist
Buriat espionage. In July 1933 the LHÜMBE CASEbecame
the first manufactured spy case to affect the Buriats, sending 251 to execution or lengthy prison sentences.
The GREAT PURGE of 1937–39 had a far more terrible
impact. By one count Buriats in Dornod and Khentii provinces accounted for 5,368 of the 25,785 persons known to have been unjustly shot or imprisoned, as special execution squads in trucks (khorpoodlog) roamed the Buriat countryside.
These grim years left a legacy of suppressed bitter- ness among Mongolia’s Buriats, expressed by both the
dissident poet RENTSENII CHOINOMand the orphaned spir-
its that possessed Buriat shamans. Still, the Buriats remained occupationally successful. In 1989 27.7 percent of the Buriats were white-collar workers, the highest of
any subethnic group in Mongolia. Mongolia’s prime min- ister from 1991 to 1992, D. Byambasüren, was a Buriat.
While the Shinekhen Buriats prospered during that time in Hulun Buir, they remained wary of possible Soviet invasion. By 1945 more than half the Buriats had migrated south from Hulun Buir and were living in
SHILIIN GOL and Jirim leagues. The Soviet invasion in
August 1945 swept scores of Inner Mongolia’s Buriat lamas and many more laymen into Soviet labor camps, although the major leaders evaded capture. During the ensuing Chinese civil war the Shiliin Gol Buriats waged a guerrilla war against the Chinese Communists. Defeated, many Buriats were executed, while others fled west as far as Kökenuur. By 1956 the surviving Buriats had all been resettled back at Shinekhen, where in Octo- ber 1957 they were made citizens of China. In 1990 the
three Buriat SUM(districts) had about 5,950 Buriats out
of 7,981 residents; another 1,000 were Khamnigan Ewenkis.
With liberalization in China after 1980 and in Mon- golia after 1990, the distinctive Buriat culture of well- kept genealogies, strict clan exogamy, lamas, BARIACH (Buriat, baryaashan, bone setters), and shamans has been openly revived. Mongolian and Shinekhen Buriats both preserve their Buriat tongue, wear distinctive Buriat clothing on festive occasions, and frown on intermarriage with local Mongols, whether Khalkha, or BARGA. Only in Mongolia, however, can the memories of persecution be openly recalled. Buriats of Russia have become interested in both groups, but especially the Shinekhen Buriats, as preservers of traditional Buriat culture.
See alsoAGA BURIAT AUTONOMOUS AREA; BURIAT LAN- GUAGE AND SCRIPTS.
Further reading: A. Hurelbaatar, “An Introduction to
the History and Religion of the Buryat Mongols of Shine- hen in China,” Inner Asia 2 (2000): 73–116; Ippei Shima- mura, “The Roots Seeking Movement among the Aga-Buryats: New Lights on Their Shamanism, History of Suffering, and Diaspora,” in A People Divided: Buryat Mongols in Russia, Mongolia and China, ed. Konagaya Yuki (Cologne: International Society for the Study of the Cul- ture and Economy of the Orclos Mongols, 2002).
Buriyad SeeBURIATS.
Burma (Myanmar) Mongol campaigns in Burma (modern Myanmar) shattered the Pagan kingdom but did not lead to permanent conquest.
In the 11th century the rulers in Pagan adopted Theravada Buddhism, the scholastic sect of Buddhism based in Sri Lanka. At the same time they subdued the more civilized realm of the Mon, a people speaking a lan- guage related to Khmer on the coast. Called Mian by the Chinese, Burma had abundant gold, which attracted
traders from Bengal in the east to YUNNANin the west.
In 1271 and 1273, the Mongol administration in Yunnan sent monks as envoys to Pagan’s king Narathi- hipate (Narasihapati, r. 1256–87) but the Pagan kingdom in reply began harassing the Gold-Tooths (ancestors of the modern Dai and then Mongol subjects) along the Yunnan-Burma border, launching a full-scale attack in March 1277, with a large army including elephants. The 700-man Mongol garrison under Qutuq rallied Achang and Gold-Tooth tribesmen along the Yunnanese border and defeated the Burmese at Nandian (near Tengchong). In November the Mongol official Nasir-ad-Din (d. 1292;
see SAYYID AJALL) raided Burma with an army of 3,840
Mongols, Cuan (Yi), and Mosuo, reaching the Irawaddy at Jiangtou (probably modern Katha). In December 1283 10,000 soldiers from Sichuan and Miao tribal auxiliaries, all under the Mongol prince Sang’udar, advanced by raft and by land to Jiangtou and Biao-Dian (probably modern Mabein), garrisoning them before taking Tagaung. Peace negotiations proved inconclusive.
In November 1286 QUBILAI KHAN’s grandson Esen- Temür, the prince of Yunnan, set out from Yunnan with 6,000 troops and 1,000 Gold-Tooth auxiliaries. While King Narathihapate’s son Thihathu (Sihasura) seized the throne and murdered his father at Shrikshetra (modern Prome), the Yuan army garrisoned Tagaung and Mong- Nai-Dian (near modern Molo). Esen-Temür advanced that spring to Pagan, but disease decimated the Mon- gols, and they withdrew. The Pagan kingdom fell into anarchy.
In 1297 Thihathu’s brother Tribhuvanaditya submit- ted to the Yuan court, but in 1299 his younger brother Athinkaya murdered him. Another expedition was dis- patched to suppress Athinkaya, but already involved with the Babai-Xifu of northern Thailand, the Yunnan authori- ties recommended accepting Athinkaya’s proferred sub- mission. Central and southern Burma soon came under Thai rulers who paid nominal tribute to the Yuan, and only the north remained under Mongol control.
Buryats SeeBURIATS.
buuz Meat dumplings, generally called buuz, are the
most typical holiday fare among the Mongols, always
served during the WHITE MONTHand for welcome guests.
Adopted during the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), buuz (from Chinese baozi) are meat dumplings wrapped in thin skins of leavened flour and cooked in a steamer. The meat filling, or shanz (from Chinese xianzi, today xianr), is made of ground mutton or beef mixed with onions, cabbage, salt, and today black pepper. In wrapping the skins, cooks leave a small hole at the top with a whirl pattern around it to allow steam to escape. Buuz, bänshi (small meat dumplings in soup), and such foods are gen- erally eaten during the winter months; vast amounts are made and frozen to be eaten during the course of the
White Month (lunar new year). During the summer they are served only when special guests come. Dumplings are particularly popular in Mongolia’s capital, ULAANBAATAR, where buuz, potato salad, slices of sausage with onion, and shots of vodka form the standard food for guests.
See alsoFOOD AND DRINK.
Buyannemekhü (Sonombaljiriin Buyannemekh, Buin Nemkhu) (1902–1937) Mongolia’s first revolutionary poet
and playwright
Buyannemekhü was born in Tüshiyetü Zasag banner (in modern Delgerkhangai Sum, Middle Gobi) but was early taken to Khüriye (modern ULAANBAATAR). At age 10 he was adopted by the Inner Mongolian anti-Chinese rebel Togtakhu Taiji (1863–1922) and tutored in Mongolian, Manchu, and some Chinese. Buyannemekhü also listened to the minstrels who entertained Togtakhu. At age 16 Buyannemekhü was enrolled in Mongolia’s new public primary school and studied Mongolian, Russian, and Chinese. Buyannemekhü greatly appreciated CHINESE FIC-
TIONand Beijing opera.
Fleeing Chinese rule, Buyannemekhü joined the Mongolian People’s Party at Troitskosavsk (in modern KYAKHTA) on February 27, 1921. His “Mongolian Interna- tionale” became for many years the de facto national ANTHEM. After working as a publicist in Irkutsk, he returned to Khüriye in late 1921 and became a leader in
the MONGOLIAN REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH LEAGUE. Buyan-
nemekhü and his comrades wrote and performed shii jüjig (Beijing opera style plays) in Mongolian with revo- lutionary or historical themes: Oirakhi tsag-un tobchi (A survey of modern times, written 1922, revised 1924), covering Mongolian history from 1911 to 1921, and Bagatur khöbegün Temüjin (The heroic boy Temüjin, writ- ten March 3, 1928), describing the boyhood of Temüjin (CHINGGIS KHAN).
Naive and excitable in his politics, Buyannemekhü was briefly imprisoned during the Third Congress (August 1924). Terrified by the congress’s execution of opponents, Buyannemekhü fled to Inner Mongolia, where he worked
with the Daur revolutionary MERSE for more than a year.
After reconciling with the new Mongolian regime, he did propaganda work in Buriatia until August 1928.
In January 1929 he helped form the Writers’ Circle
with TSENDIIN DAMDINSÜREN, BYAMBYN RINCHEN, and
other writers. The group’s first collective anthology, Uran üges-ün chuglagan (A gathering of artistic words), con- tained several of his songs, poems, and essays.
Buyannemekhü’s first wife, Dulmajab, divorced him while he was in Inner Mongolia. His alcoholism and her jealousy made his second marriage with a Tatar woman, Zhena, miserable. In 1930 he was expelled from the party for his controversial past and irregular personal life. In March–September 1932 he was imprisoned for his involvement with Merse and other INNER MONGOLIANS.
During the succeeding NEW TURN POLICY, however, Buyannemekhü became a leading journalist and play- wright. Buyannemekhü’s most famous play, Kharangkhui Zasag (A dark regime, 1934), pictured all the characters of Qing-era Mongolian society and the way they con- spired to destroy the lowborn couple Tsetseg and Chulu- unbaatur. His reminiscence about his 1922 meeting with Lenin, published in 1935, was widely reprinted. In 1936 he received the Star of Labor. With the GREAT PURGE, however, Buyannemekhü was arrested on September 11, 1937, and executed on October 27. In 1963, with de- Stalinization, he was posthumously exonerated and his collected works reprinted in Cyrillic.
See also LITERATURE; MONGOLIAN PEOPLE’S PARTY, THIRD CONGRESS OF; REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
Byzantium and Bulgaria Mongol contacts with Byzantium and Bulgaria resulted from Mongol advances into the Black Sea steppe and the Caucasus. As the Mon- gol prince Batu’s armies retreated from Hungary, they crossed the Danube and forced Bulgaria to pay tribute (1242–43). After the Mongols dispatched an embassy to Byzantium in 1254, Michael VIII Palaeologus (1259–82)
allied with Il-Khan HÜLE’Ü(1256–65), to Mongol ruler of
the Middle East, partly from fear and partly to gain an ally against Turkmen raids.
In 1262, however, MAMLUK EGYPT sought a three-
power alliance against Hüle’ü among Egypt, Byzantium, and Berke (1257–66), Mongol khan of the GOLDEN HORDE. Michael at first temporized until NOQAI, the Golden Horde’s commander, invaded in 1264 with 20,000 troops and Bulgarian allies, forcing Michael to join the alliance. In 1265, however, Michael married a natural daughter to Hüle’ü’s son Abagha (1265–82), who agreed to be bap- tized. Thereafter, Michael managed to remain friendly to both warring Mongol parties and Egypt as well.
Bulgaria and Byzantium remained, however, gener- ally hostile to each other, and in 1272 Michael concluded