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Paramon Dmitriev (1883 - 1958) was born and lived for the whole of his life in the village of Borot-Ongoi. He borrowed his repertoire from his father, storyteller Dylgir Khankhaevich Dmitriyev whose ancestors were from the Ongoi kin, the khulmenge family. His father, an amateur of the artistic word and storyteller told his children of their precedents drawing their bright memorable images.
Despite being tired after hard work he told the peoples’ works. He performed them in the fascinating and captivating way, no one remained indifferent. His passion for poetry passed to his children. Paramon memorized and keep in mind songs, fairytales and epics and then performed them himself. It was in essence the school of the future uligershin.
P. Dmitriyev started to tell uligers and fairy-tales, sing songs with his young years, even when he was just a child. As for the competitions with the old men he began that when he was 15. He learned the epic of Geser from a gifted uligershin Zharbakha Malakhanov whom he took as his teacher.
His repertoire involved big “horse” uligers (morin uliger) including “Geser”, a number of fairytales, legends, songs, good wishes as well as proverbs, sayings and riddles. P. Dmitriyev remembered upon the whole about 200-250 thousand lines which is not typical of each storyteller.
In 1954 V.I. Zolkhoyev having written down from P. Dmitriyev “Boyilon Gookhon duutei Bogdoni Khubshe mergen” he supplemented it with a very valuable and important document “The list of the uligers that the etoryteller П. D. Дмитриев knows…”. The list obviously far from being complete includes: 1) “Geser”, 2) Elenge Tarkhi khaani Erkhen nyuden khubuun, 3) Anzaari mergen khan, 4) hokhor Bogdo khan, 5) Narin Nogoon Namazha khan, 6) Arnai Gerde mergen, 7) Suuta doloon Khulagshad, 8) Khaan Sagta mergen, 9) Khaan sagta abakhai, 10) Sayikhar Sagaan, 11) Hayidar Buuder khoyor, 12) Altai Gasuu, 13) Bogdoni Khubshe mergen Boyilon duutei, 14) Eredee ere turehen Ere Khabtas mergen, 15) huuja hamgan, 16) Ereen obogon hanjuurgatai Ereekhe basagan, 17) Teersegyn khubuun, 18) Oshor Tayizha khubuutai Onyol Gookhon basagatai.
P. Dmitriyev told or recited the uligers but he could sing them as well. It should be noted that his performing the epic was not dry and impassionate. All the collectors writing from him (D. D. Khiltukhin, V.I. Zolkhoyev, N.O. Sharakshinova) noted that “when telling uligers, he felt strong emotions”, keenly felt the on-going events, took them close to his heart, even cried sometimes, had a hard time to go through, suffered just like his epical heroes did.
“The old man took close to his heart what was going on in the story, - recollects D.D. Khiltukhin . – Cries and performs, wipes off his tears and goes on with telling. He spoke with intense feeling, surprisingly quickly, enunciated the words clearly, his voice was mild, velvety, fine, I’d say…”.
P. Dmitriyev, just like P.Petrov believed that the events in the iligers, as well as the heros took place and existed in reality, that the heroes after their death became either the stars or the deities on the sky.
The folklorists wrote down from P.Dmitriyev quite a number of the heroic and epical works.
Kept in the manuscript department of the IMBT, SD RAS are nine uligers numbering from 1400 to 2500 verses. The greatest of all the tales is “Geser” with a volume up to 6305 verses in which lacking is only “the chapter” of Sherem Minata devil. It was written down by D. Khiltukhin and was edited in 1953 in Ulan-Ude as a separate and independent edition under thr title of “Geser”. Along with the other full variants this one was used by Namjil Baldano when compiling a complex text of the Buryat people’s epic “Geser” that was published twice (Ulan-Ude, 1959, 1969).
The storytellers variant of “Geser” by D. Dmitriyev occupies a special place in the Unga epical tradition. It consists of the following 10 chapters: 1) The strife and the war of the tengris, 2) On the child deeds of Nyukhata Nyurgai khubun, 3) Geser’s birth on the Earth, 4) Geser’s country, 5) Abai Geser’s war with the Agy mountain, 6) Abai Geser’s war with the varicoloured Ogtonoi tiger, 7) On the three sharablin khans, 8) The war with Gal dulme khan, 9) The war with Lobsogoldoi, 10) The Chinese Gumel-khan.
Although P. Dmitriyev’s variant has some plotline similarities with the variants of his countrymen P.Petrov and P.Tushemilov as they all belong to one and the same storytelling (unga) area but still the variant by Dmitriyev is noted for its peculiar differences. Thus, appearing in its celestial prologue is a number of original personages inherent only in this variant. This is the foremother of the 44 eastern tengris Nuran Gurme, a mythological personage Agyn uula (“A cave mountain”).
The latter image is a rare attribute of the Buryat epicalk tradition and is most likely a relic belonging to the most ancient layers of the Turk-Mongolian mythological community. Paramon Dmitriyev is one of the most remarkable storytellers of the XX century. He lives in the grateful memory of the people as well as his undying masterpieces.
