Sensing “Place”: Performance, Oral Tradition, and Improvisation in the Hidden Temples of Mountain Altai

• Issue: Volume 27, Number 2
• Author(s): Carole Pegg, Elizaveta Yamaeva
• Article: View PDF | Download PDF
• Citation: http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/27ii/pegg-yamaeva

Abstract

This article suggests that during two Ak Jang (“White Way”) Sary Bür (“Yellow Leaves”) rituals in hidden open-air temples in Mountain Altai, kaleidoscopic relations are created through bodily movements, oral poetry, epic, and song. These components stimulate three interrelated senses of “place” for participants: a topographical, indigenous “place of gatherings;” a numinous interactive spiritual place; and a situational “being-in-place” that serve to strengthen personhood and enable personal transitions in the face of difficult contemporary political and natural change.

eCompanion

Küree temple above Lower Talda, Kuroty Valley, Altai Republic, 2010.

Photo: Carole Pegg

Küree temple above Kulady, Karakol Valley, Altai Republic, 2006

Photo: Carole Pegg

Valentina Todoshevna Chechaeva and Elena Tӧlӧsӧvna Mandaeva singing a ritual jangar song, Kulady, 2010.

Photo: Carole Pegg

Female participants circumambulating between outer and inner tagyl altar crescents after purifying and tying up a kyira ribbon. Lower Talda küree, 2010.

Photo: Carole Pegg

Arzhan jarlyk reciting blessing-fortune (alkysh-byian) verses while sprinkling milk, his “helper” stroking his head.

Photo: Carole Pegg

Valentina Bachibaeva making food offerings to Üch Kurbustan via the fire in the hearth, Lower Talda küree, 2010.

Photo: Carole Pegg

Arzhan jarlyk playing topshuur lute and performing blessing-fortune verses using kai throat-singing before the hearth, Lower Talda küree, 2010.

Photo: Carole Pegg

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