Folklore of Sart-Kalmyk of Kyrgyzia: texts and audio records

Abstract

The article is devoted to the texts and audio records of the SartKalmyk folklore. The Sart-Kalmyks are among the least studied Mongolian peoples living in the settlements of Kyrgyzstan. The first examples of oral folk art of the Sart-Kalmyks can be found in the manuscripts written by the Russian Mongolian scholar A.V. Burdukovin 1929, as well as in the notes made by K.E. Erendzhenovin 1933 and published in the newspaper “Ulan khalmg” (“Red Kalmyk”) in 1935. The most important sources for the study of Sart-Kalmyk folklore are the collections of the Archive of Orientalists of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Scientific Archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (KalmSC RAS), where besides fables, songs and proverbs the manuscripts of the texts of the epic “Dzhangar”, the historical legend “Zyungar Khan” (“Dzungar Khan”) are kept. The fund № 16 of the Scientific Archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences contains the inventory № 1 with expeditionary records of Sart-Kalmyk folklore on magnetic tapes collected by the researchers of the Folklore Department of the Kalmyk Research Institute of Language, Literature and History A.Sh. Kichikov (1979), B.B. Okonov (1979), T.B. Badmaeva (1979). In the last twenty years, Russian and foreign researchers have carried out a number of important scientific expeditions to the places of permanent residence of the Sart-Kalmyks in order to collect new field material. A deeper look into the history of collecting and publishing Sart-Kalmyk folklore allows to conclude that the texts and audio (video) records made by Russian scientists are valuable sources for the study of the folklore tradition of the Sart-Kalmyks of the 20–21 centuries.