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THE WAY TO TIBET: RELIGIOUS SONGS OF THE KALMYKS AND THE REALITIES OF TRAVEL // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2021. Issue 3 (33). P. 91-104

The article analyzes the Kalmyk folk songs about the pilgrimage to Tibet through the example of the texts titled “Zu gidg gazr” (“The Country Called Tibet”), “Alta gidg gazras” (“From the Land Called Altai”). The comparative study of records of the song “Zu gidg gazr” of different times (1897, 1903, late 20th century) and insights into historical data and versions of legends about Jijeten Lama conclude that the religious song is dedicated to the pilgrimage embassy of Khan Donduk-Dashi (1755‒1757) and contains information about the way to Tibet through Mongolia and Kokonor. The analysis of the song “Alta gidg gazras” and the data of the most complete text of the song “Zu gidg gazr” recorded by G. J. Ramstedt makes it possible to conclude that those reflect information about two main routes to Tibet. Archival and literary materials about pilgrimages to Tibet indicate that in the 17th century when boundaries of the emerging Kalmyk Khanate were still mobile, routes to the shrines of Lhasa (Zu) went through the traditional territories of Oirat settlement ― “from the area called Altai”. From the beginning of the 18th century, for a number of reasons, the way to Tibet lay through Mongolia and Kokonor. Only at the beginning of the 20th century the path to Tibet which had been traditional for ancestors (now called the “new one”) was mastered again.

Keywords: Kalmyks, Tibet, religious songs, pilgrimage, path, delegation of Donduk-Dashi