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Introduction. Translations from Tibetan had been of great importance for the making of Mongolian literature. Translation as cultural phenomenon influenced the shaping of standard Mongolian, gave rise to terminological clusters in different spheres of written language, such as philosophy, medicine, astrology, etc. The principles of translation that had emerged in the period of Buddhism’s dissemination in Mongolia still remain instrumental enough in performing translations from other foreign languages. Translations from Tibetan of historical, hagiographical, narrative and other compositions constituted an essential part in the reading agenda of Mongols to further influence the latter’s culture at large. So, Mongolian literature entered the literary zone of northern Buddhism. Goals. The study seeks to raise a question on delineation — with certain frames and peculiarities — of Mongolian national literature. We should also keep in mind that some parts of literature stay beyond this zone and were only partially influenced by the examined phenomenon — historical literature, recorded (and published) epic narratives, folk ritual literature, etc. Results. Our insight into the complex of various traditions demarcates the originality of medieval literature of Mongols. So, translations from the Tibetan language can be considered as a fact of Mongolian culture, as a special feature in the development of Mongolian written traditions — but not as part of Mongolian literature proper.

Introduction. The oral tradition has figured largely in the literature of Mongols since ancient times. This is due to the nomadic way of life resulting in that sparse population gets scattered across vast territories forced to exchange news and knowledge by word of mouth. Such intensive functioning of the oral text transmission form can be witnessed even nowadays. Goals. The paper aims at introducing some data on ‘oral histories’ contained in Ts. Damdinsüren’s diaries into scientific circulation. Results. The tradition of using oral narratives in the functional sphere, in particular, to preserve and transmit historical facts — i.e. to somewhat ‘document’ the past — has given rise to such genres as ‘oral history’ (aman tuuh), ‘oral memoires’ (huuch yaria), and ‘folkloric accounts’ (yaria) that have become very popular in recent decades. And it is Academician Ts. Damdinsüren that can be viewed as initiator of this genre in Mongolian literature. The diaries of Ts. Damdinsüren dated from 1956 to 1986 contain materials used by him in his publications of ‘oral histories’. The latter can be somewhat provisionally classified into a few categories. First of all, it is evident enough that Ts. Damdinsüren was interested in funny stories, amusements, and anecdotes. Furthermore, he had been collecting narratives about supernatural entities for many years. The theme aroused the academician’s interest as manifested mythopoeia of the Mongols and as embodied living mythology of the people rather than as some mere object of curiosity, neither was he ever that enthusiastic about insights into esoteric practices of Mongolian Buddhist priests. The notebooks also contain quite a number of texts dealing with the Mongolian Revolution and the dramatic 1930s to have witnessed harsh repressions. The latter coupled with arrangements directed against the old culture did capture the scholar’s attention. The recorded ‘oral histories’ were articulating inconvenient and sometimes even hostile data for authorities on topics that remained banned up to the 1990s. So, the ‘oral histories’ not only introduce new historical and cultural facts, opinions of commoners on certain events, but also narrate about Mongolian household life of the past, peculiarities of ethnic worldviews and attitudes.

Introduction. Various collections of Mongolian xylographs and manuscripts may contain works on divination practice with eight khulils. What does the word khulil mean? Why does one use eight khulils? What are the texts devoted to the khulil divination? This article deals with the practice of khulil divination in Mongolia, while introducing a Mongolian text devoted to this form of divination. Results. The divination practice goes back to the oldest Chinese source on divination Yijing (I Ching, Book of Changes, about the seventh century BC). Divination is carried out with the help of the trigram, or the three dashes, which are the result of casting coins or of some other method. A combination of trigrams means a particular future. These three lines are called khulil in Mongolian (gua in Chinese). Divination by 8 gua, or 8 khulils, and 64 (8 × 8) or 512 (8 × 8 × 8) combinations is the most common form of divination in China. Later, each trigram was represented by a year of the 12-year animal cycle so that the ninth year was the beginning of the next cycle. Thus, each of the 8 years symbolizes a certain trigram, or khulil, according to the ordinal number of the latter. Granted the number of Mongolian manuscripts on khulil divination in various collections, this divination form was widely practiced by Mongolians. By way of introducing the literature on the subject, the present article presents the Russian translation of the initial fragment of manuscript MN 1145 originating from Ts. Damdinsuren museum in Ulaanbaatar. This is a Mongolian translation from Chinese made relatively late that has few traces of Mongolization or efforts of adaptation to nomadic realia. Besides concerns for the illnesses of relatives or issues of choosing a son-in-law or a bride, which are of a universal character, the most popular topics are questions about farming, such as: should one expect rain? what will be the harvest of grain and raw silk? Also, there are many questions related to promotion and career, e.g., passing exams for the degree of an official. The text contains numerous Sinicisms, including idioms, expressions, and names of Chinese astrological signs; there is also a reference to buying a jins, which points to the Manchu period. Notably, neither Tibetan items nor Buddhist deities are mentioned in the text.

Introduction. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Mongols had widely used texts on apotropaic magic in their daily life. Among them there are writings with pictures and descriptions of talismans aimed at averting diseases and mishaps, attracting wealth and good favour. All this sort of writings resembles heterogeneity of traditions. Goals. The paper aims at examining various types of ‘booklore’ talismans in magic practices of the Mongols. Results. Like other spheres of Mongolian culture those represent pre-Buddhist, Buddhist and Chinese layers. That was conditioned by the history of the Mongols, their neighbourhood with civilizations they had been integrated with during the course of their existence. As for ‘booklore’ talismans, there are two groups of them: one includes pictures originated from Taoist talismans, the other includes Indian and Tibetan dharanis, texts and Buddhist symbols. They penetrated into the Mongolian culture in different periods and in different ways. Thus, usage of ‘booklore’ talismans by the Mongols resulted in complicated multi-layer complexes which assembled Hindu, Tibetan pre-Buddhist, Mongolized Buddhist and Chinese Taoist elements in different combinations. Conclusions. The work reveals several clusters of ‘booklore’ talismans once popular among the Mongols and originated from pre-Buddhist, Buddhist and Taoist beliefs.