Matching with the bannner of Geser, Ulan-Ude, the Soviets' square.
I. Garmaev starring as Geser
Celebration of 1000th anniversary of Geser, hippodrome of Ulan-Ude, June, 1995.
Horsemen of Geser, Ulan-Ude, 1995.
At the end of June – the beginning of July, 1995 Buryatia marked the 1000th anniversary of the Buryat people’s epic “Abai Geser”. The celebrations in honor of this jubilee acquired the inter-regional and international character owing to the participation in them of the representatives of the neighboring regions and republics of the Russian Federation, the Irkutsk and Chita regions, the Ust’- Orda and Aginsk Buryat autonomous districts, of Tuva, the Gornyi Altai. Kalmykia, Moscow, St. Ptersburg, Mongolia, China, Taiwan, japan, the USA, Bulgaria, Germany and the other countries, as well as the representative of the commission on the UNESCO affairs in Moscow.
The program of the Geseriade which is very tich in the events has the main aim – the enlightenment and education as well as the revival of the traditions. Customs and the language of the Buryat people.
Program
of the international festival dedicated to celebrations of the 1000th year of “The Abai Geser” epic in Ulan-Ude on the 1st and 2nd of July, 1995 encorporated:
- the International scientific conference “The epic of Geser as the treasury of the peoples of Central Asia” with the participation of the researchers from Russia, Mongolia, China, Checkia, Bulgaria.
- The opening of the International festival “Geseriada - 95”, a theatrical performance “In the land of Geser”.
- The grand rally dedicated to the 1000th anniversaty of the epic “Abai Geser”.
- The opening of the exhibition of the works of the BUryat artists in the Art museum named after Sampilov.
- The performance “The peoples’ Baatar Geser-khan” at the Buryat state academic drama theatre after Kh. Namsaraev.
- The children’s ethnographical festival “In the land of Geser”.
- The contests of the uligershins (storytellers), of the yokhor round dance, of the “Geser’s dangina-beauty”, of the yurts (traditional dwelling) of the ethnic Buryatia.
- The opening of Geser’s camping “Geserai buusa” of the Selenga river bank. The solemn laying of the foundation stone for the monument to the memory of Geser.
- The final sports contests: the national Buryat wrestling, archery, horse races.
On the opening day at 8 o’clock in the morning Buryatia gave a start from an earth tremor. The epicenter of the earthquake as strong as 7 balls appeared to have taken place in the ridges of the Sayam Mountains where shortly before this there was the Banner of Geser completing the five-year travel around Baikal.
- Geser-khan heard us and landed in the Sayans! – the old men said in agitation. This happened an hour before the opening of the Art exhibition in the museum and the international scientific conference in the House of the government. The seismic waves reached Ulan-Ude in weakened state and did not cause any worry of neither the hosta, nor the numerous guests, both Russian and foreign.
Arriving to celebrate Geserade’s jubilee were about 200 guests from the various regions of Russia and foreign countries.
The contest of the uligershins (storytellers) in the “Uliger” theatre proved to be the central event of the Geseriade. In the process of narrating of great importance are both the phenomenal memory and the reverential, worshipful tuning, the artistic skill, the vocal and musical skills and habits, the accompanying instruments, the carriage, the manners and the clothes. The contests jury took into account these criteria, its chairman being professor D. S. Dugarov, a well-known scholar, folklore expert and practicing uligershin (storyteller).
The thirty two uligershins got together from all the regions of the Republic and the Buryat national districts. The participants were more numerous including the musicians accompanying some uligershins and the choir comprised of the students of the East-Siberian Academy of culture and arts who demonstrated the collective performing of the “formular” episodes of the epic.
In the of “Geser” persecution and even earlier, in the thirties, the storytellers were persecuted on charges of practicing shamanism. At that time the few storytellers who escaped the persecution told the stories and legends only for a narrow circle of people whom they trusted and sometimes when they were alone not to forget the thousands and thousands of the sacred verses.
The contests prize-winners were E.D. Budzanaev from the Bayangol settlement of the Barguzin district and L. D. Dabaev, a mechanic from the settlement of Khuramsha, the Ivolginsk district.
On the first day of Geseriada celebrations along with the contest of the uligershins there was the contest of the performers of the Buryat people’s songs “Aradai zhergemel” (“The Buryat lark”) which collected over 50 participants from all the districts of Buryatia as well as the Ust’-Orda and Aginsk autonomous districts. It was quite a job for the jury which was headed by a well-known singer. The peoples’ artist of Russia Chimita Grigorievna Shanyushkina. The chief criteria were the rarely performed sons, genre variety, the national spirit or roots, or just the folk origin, the traditional roots in the performance and idiosyncrasy and specificity of performing.
The contest of the beauties “Geserai dangina” took place in the theatre of opera and ballet. An authoritative jury headed by a merited artist of Russia V. Balzhinimaev selected nine finalists out of 29 participants. The hosts of the contest, well-known young actors Sayan and Erzhena Zhambalovs, the authors of the scenario, declared open the first all-Buryat “Geseria dangina” contest of the beauties, introduced the finalists who demonstrated charm, good skills in singing and dancing, the knowledge of their own tongue, the history of the people, the genealogy of their family. The third concluding stage of the contest took place in front of a numerous audience that gathered on the first day of July on the Soviets’ square. The third “Geserai dangina” was our countrygirl from Ulan-Ude Tsypilma Ayusheeva, an actress of the “Baikal” song and dance company.
Coming to Ulan-Ude from the whole republic were the young experts of local history and children’s folklore collectives who took part in the republican children’s folklore festival “In the land of Geser”. The participants of the festival were the delegations from the districts that demonstrated the most informative and meaningful content of work in the course of the expeditions of the schoolchildren, the winners of the district conferences.
The children’s ethnographic festival has been organised by the Center of the children and youth tourism and local history, the ministry for education jointly with the State committee for the youth’s affairs.
On the concluding day of the Geseriade festival in the race-course there was a theatrical performance “In the land of Geser”. Suddenly there were the explosions on the slopes of the mountains. It was Geser who was descending on the earth to root out the evil.
The action was of a multi-aspect, multidimensional and multidisciplinary nature , it either got concentrated on the stage where located were the stylized Geser’s palaces or passed over to the yurts that were quite authentic and were impregnated, saturated with the smoke of the ancient times and were located in the southern periphery of the racecourse opposite the spectators’ tribunes and platforms.
The action sometimes flared up simultaneously in all those places. The bright theatrical action then passes to “the three games of men”, i.e. to the sports program. Geser’s Banner is kept now in the museum of All Buryat Association for the development of culture (AADC).
The Geseriade appered tobe a beneficial, wholesome stimulus and breathed in the new life to such dying out genres of folklore as performing the epical works in recitative, the poetical praising or laudation of the fast horse; or racer that won in the horse race.
The custom of worshipping the most sacred mountains and nature has acquired the second breath for the reason that Geser according to the epic is the envoy of the kind tengri-celestials whose locality and activity is connected with the cult of the mountains. The Geseriade helped display the national sports contests in their initial form and name – Eryn gurban naadan (The three men’s contests): archery, horse races, national wrestling.
The precepts of Geser who combines in his destiny the Sky and the Earth and embodies in his cosmic predestination the hopes, expectations and aspirations of the people of kindness and fairness, finds the support of the people of the third millennium (as B. Dugarov once said):
- Honor the Heavens as your forefather.
- Honor the Earth as your foremother.
- Remember: the man is the son of Nature, and the blade of grass is the sister of yours.
- May you be in your thoughts as pure and deep as the Baikal sacred sea.
- May you be in your thoughts and deeds strong and tall as the tethering posts of the Universe
– the tops of the Altai and the Khukhei.
- Remember: the sword turns into the lotus, the man is the heir to the spiritual light.
- Respect and love your ancestors as the tree its roots, as the river its source, be worthy of them in your life in the name of your Motherland and descendants.
- Respect the elder people, do not offend the weak people – this is the precondition of the wisdom and strength of yours.
- Remember: The Evil is endless, but the Kindness is eternal. Each person has to affirm the existence of the Kindness at the example of his own life and helping you here will be the Sky and the Earth and the history itself of the human being’s spirit.
| Дарашагүйдайгаадараhан, | The one who defeated the merciless, |
| Дабашагүйдабаагаадабаhан | Who defeated the what that cannot be defeated, |
| Абай Гэсэр хүбүүн. | The son of the Sky and the Earth – Geser |
| (The Buryat “Abai Geser”) |
