From Hare Skin to Silk Scrap: The Origin and Evolution of the Symbolic Design of Traditional Buryat Ritual Practices

From Hare Skin to Silk Scrap: The Origin and Evolution
of the Symbolic Design of Traditional Buryat Ritual Practices

doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2026.54.1.116-124

M.M. Sodnompilova
Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Buryat Scientific Center, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sakhyanovoy 6, Ulan-Ude, 670047, Russia

This study focuses on the practical and ritual meaning of scraps of fabric in traditional Buryat culture. The “textile theme” provides a link between the archaic hunting tradition and the rites of nomadic herders belonging to the Buddhist world. Scraps of fabric were common attributes of shamanic and Buddhist rites. The symbolic, magical, and social functions of those artifacts are assessed. Scraps of fabric, or their analogs, were used as gifts or offerings to shamanic and Buddhist deities and spirits. In wedding rites, they symbolized family relations established by marriage. Some of their magical functions were used in esoteric healing rites and in those relating to life and calendar cycles. Specifically Buryat symbolism evidenced by local Buddhist temples is described. The origin of scraps of fabric in traditional Buryat culture is reconstructed. Parallels in their symbolic meaning and functions among the Mongolian, Turkic, and Tungus-Manchu traditions attest to wide-ranging historical, cultural, and linguistic contacts between Buryats (Mongols), Turks, and Tungus-Manchu peoples of Central and North Asia.

Keywords: Buryats, traditional worldview, Buddhism, fabric, scrap, ritual