A Study Of The Legend Of Mazhan Battle

Mazan Bagatur was a person with the rank of Taiji from the Erketen clan of the Torgut tribe who lived in the 17th century from the time of Shukur Daijing Khan of the Torgut khanate until the time of Ayuki Khan. The legend of Mazan Bagatur spread widely in the Republic of Kalmykia of the Russian Federation and among the Oirat people of Xinjiang. In the Kalmyk Republic, the study of Mazan Bagatur mainly concentrated on its historical aspects, while research on the oral tradition of the tale is rare, and research that takes the versions of the tale that have spread in Xinjiang into account is very rare. This paper, next to correcting some mistakes found in previous studies, constitutes the first attempt to study the legend of Mazan Bagatur from both historical and oral literature aspects while taking into account versions of the legend from both Kalmykia and Xinjiang.This paper is composed of five parts:introduction, three chapters, conclusion, plus references and an appendices. The introduction introduces the reason of choosing the topic and its significance, the purpose of the research, the state of research, the method, etc.The first chapter mainly deals with Mazan Bagatur in a historical perspective and tries to clarify some aspects of his biography and his clan affiliation. The biographical part, relying mainly on documents written in Clear Script (Todu bicig), corrects the recollections found in some tales that his father was named Oljeitu, instead arguing that he was named Ocir. Then, based on both historical documents and oral narratives, it is concluded that it was not Mazar Bagatur himself who founded the Erketen clan, but that it already existed at the time of Mazar Bagatur’s grandfather Elunce Cecen Noyan. Based on Russian state archives, Mazan Bagatur’s valiant participation in the Turk and Crimean War is discussed, and on the basis of the 17th century Clear Script letters and oral narratives, the circumstances of his death are addressed.In the second chapter, while Mazan Bagatur’s name disappears from the historical records in Clear Script, the oral narratives, albeit in a subjective way, preserve the true events, reasons and results related to his participation in the war of the Torgut against Abalai Taiji and his son Cagan. For this reason, the legends about Mazan Bagatur can help to clarify the actual nature of the conflict between Abalai Taiji and the Torgut and thus fill a blank spot in historical research. Secondly, this chapter discusses the issue of how "horses with deer-shaped ears" are related to Mazan Bagatur. In contrast to the opinion of some scholars, there is no firm basis to establish that Mazar Bagatur had such a horse (which can currently still be found in Xinjiang), but it is to be assumed that actual historical events got blurred here and that these two issues became connected to render the narrative more interesting. As horses with deer-shaped ears were another symbol of high cultural significance, they were used to enrich the narrative of Mazar Bagatur and to render it more memorable.The third chapter focuses solely on the legends that spread about Mazan Bagatur in Kalmykia and Xinjiang. While some characteristics attributed to him such as outer appearance, marksmanship and mystical powers are identical in both narrative traditions, the Xinjiang tradition conflates some of his traits with typical characteristics of heroes from regional epics and thus becomes historically less inaccurate, but more entertaining, while the Kalmyk tradition stays closer to the actual historical events.