A Study Of Mongolian Folklore Legends

In this dissertation we took the custom tales as an independent sabjiect in the framework of Mongolian folk tales treasures, setting them at the general background of Mongolian history, culture, folklore, religions and living way and focusing on some texts by the research approaches like comparation and motif analysation and or so in order to make corresponding classification and folklore, cultural researches. Our purpose in doing so is to academically make disclosures of and reach conclusions to their origins, circulations and cultural charasteristics.The whole paper consist of an introduction, main body including four chapters and a conclusion.In the introduction we gave a presentation on the research subject, academic foundation and the research methodologies. On the topic side we precisely stated our reasons of selecting this subjiect and its academic significances. On the academic foundation we started with statements in the famous folklore work 1918 The folklore of Mongols by Luvsanchoidan to the academic publications of indivisiual researches to some mongolian custom tales since 1980s, together with our comments of their accomplishments and the criticism of insufficiencies. Given this circumstances we took our pronounciation that we will work on a comprehensive study to those acedemic questions. On the research theories and methodologies side we elucidated our academic perspectives such as oral tradition, folklore and cultural anthropology and clarified the handing together and use of the research methods like comparation, motives analysation and or so.In main body of the paper according to the affiliation of customs related we made classification of the mongolian custom tales into four sorts including living custom tales, social custom tales, religious practice tales and festival tales and, discussed each of them respectively in a chapter.In Chapter I, The Mongolian tales of living customs, we made an overview to the mongolians tales of living customs and selected two examples from food habits tales including The bladebone must be given to all and The tale for the custom of giving back the alckhol to the toaster; and two examples from the clothing habits tales including The origin of Avgai dress and The origin of woman swirl Sibeg, to put for discussion and trashed over the correlated questions. As we know in acclimation to the natural conditions and because of the mode of production and religious believes Mongolians raised their own unique tradition of clothing and food styles. The tales for bladebone must be given to all is originated from the practice of anciet mongolian bladebone worship and take its shape in the circulation process of that custom. According to archeological discoveries and oral and writing traditions, the bladebone worship was one of the ancient mongolian believes, and we can therefore believe the case that the tale for bladebone must be given to all truly comes from the ancient bladebone worship practice. The tale for the custom of giving back the alckhol to the toaster tells the story of a king in old time who survived successfully by giving the alckhol back to the toaster when he found the poison in alckhol. This tale sound to be fairy but, if contrasting it against the mongolian historical case of Yesugei, the father of Chingis Khan, who died of the poisoned alckhol toasted by Tatars and the allocution about alckhol by Chingis Khan, we imidiately find that this tale is certain enough to substanciate itself. Because of their different natural surroundings and neibours mongolian tribes all have their own habits and customs of clothing. The tales for Avgai dress and woman swirl Sibeg are respectively legendary explanations of the unique styles of clothing of Buriats and Ordos Mogols.In Chapter II, The Mongolian tales for social relation practices, we gave an general presentation on the Mongolian tales for social relation practices and took five exampels from folk treasures of marriage and growth to put for discussion and explanation, including The tale for the taboo of father’s absence in see-off ritual on daughter’s wedding, The tale for the custom of dismounting the bride on a felt pad, The tale for the custom of shut-door-up to bridegroom in wedding, The tale of grandson blocking grandpa’s mouth for reciprocation and The tale for the custom of avoiding to show dead body to cat. The tales for wedding ceremony are in some extent connected with some historical cases. For instances, the case of Ambagai Khan, an ancient Mongol King, who captured by Tatars and killed by Altan Khan as go and see off his daughter, constitute the argument for the taboo of father while the custom of shut-door-up is possibly concerned to ancient marrying practice by capture. Identifying the bride is a common tale motif of marriage in peoples over the world, but Mongolian text distinguish by the fact that tell their custom of dismonting the bride on felt pad. Throwing old man to the wild is also a common motif seen worldwide, then in term of the killing way Mongolian text has its own fashion that let grandson block the mouth of grandpa by sheep wool, which well demonstrate Mongolian way of living and thinking. The tale for the custom of avoiding to show the body to cat is samely associated to nomadism and some mongolian legend motives.In Chapter III, The Mongolian tales for religious practices, we gave an general presentation on the Mongolian tales for religious practices and took four examples from the tales treasures of divination, witchcraft, taboo, sacrifice and blessing to put for discussion and explanation, such as The tale for bladebone divination, The tale for the custom of saving animal’s luck, The tale for fire sacrifice and The tale for practice of Geser singging. The Mongolian tales of religious practices take their shapes on foundation of the existences of primitive worships, Shamanism and Buddhism. There are worships of bladebone and shin among mongols. The bladebone divination is probably assoiciated with the bladebone worship while the current tale about the divination is might from foreign sources. The Mongolian tales for fire sacrifice can be divided into two versions, one tells the story of a rich man who deprived of everything by fire hazard because he did not sacrifice the fire when the poor did; the others tell why some people did the sacrifice at 23th day of the final month of the year when others at 24th day. The fire sacrifice tale caused by fire worship and according to its implication it seem to be true that at a certain time once something happend to Mongols, which lead to some people do the sacrifice at 23th day while the others at 24th day. The tale on Geser singging is composed on the ground of the circulation of Geser Story and occurance of Geser worship in Mongolia.In Chapter Ⅳ, The Mongolian tales for festivals, we gave an general presentation on the Mongolian tales for festivals and took six tales as examples from the tales treasures of the four seasons, new year, songs and tales, games to put for discussion, such as The tales for the origin of the 12 animals for year cycle, The tales of Mongolian fifth month, The tales for the Final Day of the year, The legend for tale telling custom and The tale of bone-answering custom. The tales of 12 animals for year counting mainly concentrated on two issues, one is as to why the mouse headed year cycle, the other as to why the camel suffered exclusion. The tale of Mongolian fifth month reflect Ordos Mongols traditional month counting and possibly originated from the expeditionary campaign by Chingis Khan. The tales for the Final Day and New Years Day are Mongolian people’s expressions of blessing for the good and dispelling of the evils, and literally contain foreign elements on some degrees. The tales for tale-telling and bone answering are products from Mongolian language skills and demonstrate the fullness of humours and wisdoms in Mongolian language.In the conclusion we summed up our new theoretical acquisitions from this research and pointed out the academic prospects of this subject. On the regard of the theoretical acquisition, we principally refered to three clauses including the relationship between custom tales and the custom themselves; the relationship between custom tales and Mongolian history, cukture, folklore and religion and the ethnic charasteristics of the Mongolian custom tales.