The Narrative about the History of the Shenekhen Buryats

Abstract

The article is devoted to the narrative written by Bodongut Abida about the history of the emigration of the Aga Buryats to China at the beginning of the XX century, which was of an economic and ethno-protective nature. The aim of this research is to introduce into scientific circulation a new document on the history of Buryat emigration.  In the Soviet historiography until now days, it was customary to keep silent about the emigration of the Buryats to China. The main attention is focused on the content of the written monument in the Old Mongolian script. The structure of the work is considered. For the first time is given the biographical information about Bodongut Abida. The data used for this research were taken from this document and the Buryat chronicles written in Old Mongolian script in XIX century. Based on the results of the analysis, it was found that the process of loss of the native language and the ethnic identity among the Buryats of China received significantly less development than the Buryat ethnos in Russia. The empirical material shows that the one of the most important factors in the consolidation of the ethnic group and the ethnic identity of the Shenekhen Buryats is the language, the possession of the Mongolian script, which is the traditional letter of the Mongolian peoples. Besides the sense of national pride and national self-awareness, as well as the factor of the compact settlement of the ethnos in the dominant Mongolian-speaking environment are the factors of their consolidation. In addition, the present state of the language and culture of the Shenekhen Buryats is presented, based on the expedition materials of the author of this paper.