The image of the ular bird in the traditional culture of the Tuvanians and the peoples of Western Mongolia

The article examines the image of the bird ular (Altai snowcock, Tetraogallus altaicus) in the traditional everyday culture of Tuvans and Western Mongolian peoples (including ethnic Tuvans of Mongolia). For the first time, oral narratives, mythological plots, and folk beliefs associated with this bird and preserved in oral tradition among both the Tuvans of the Republic of Tuva and Mongolian peoples are introduced into scholarly circulation.

The study is based on academic and popular scientific literature, the authors’ field notes collected during expeditions to the Republic of Tuva (Kyzyl, Erzin District, 2011) and Western Mongolia (Khyargas, Turgen, and Naranbulag sums of Uvs aimag, 2013), as well as information from various Russian internet sources.

The authors applied methods field study in collecting and documenting materials (interviews, surveys), as well as a complex approach involving the study of folklore, language, mythology, and ethnography as components of traditional culture.

The authors aimed, on the basis of an analysis of folklore sources and ethnographic literature, to identify three main aspects of representations of the ular: its mythopoetic image (including the etiological myth of its lost tail), its role in popular beliefs as a sacred bird – the “favorite of the spirit-master of taiga,” and the use of ular meat in the traditional medicine of nomads.

The relevance of the article’s topic is determined by the need to preserve and introduce into scholarly circulation disappearing elements of traditional culture, as well as to document oral history, which is rapidly fading from the living memory of cultural bearers under conditions of globalization and the erosion of nomadic traditions.

The study of ethno-ornithological representations makes it possible not only to reconstruct certain fragments of archaic worldviews but also to understand the mechanisms through which cultural codes are formed, in which natural objects are endowed with complex symbolic semantics.

The novelty of the article lies in the introduction into scholarly circulation of previously unpublished field materials (narratives and beliefs) recorded from holders of traditional culture. The study attempts a comprehensive analysis of the image of the ular as a multilayered cultural phenomenon that integrates mythological, ritual, and ethno-medical aspects; it also examines archaic military-magical practices associated with ular meat, reconstructed on the basis of folklore sources.

Particular attention is paid to unique beliefs related to hunting taboos, the concealment of the fact of meat consumption, and archaic rituals (including military-magical practices of banner consecration and anthropophagy) reconstructed from narratives referring to the era of Chinggis Khan and Manchu rule. A parallel is drawn between folklore data and information from Tibetan medicine regarding the healing properties of the ular.

The authors conclude that the image of the ular in Tuvan culture represents a complex semiotic system combining ornithological observation, mythological thinking, and empirical knowledge of folk medicine, which allows it to be regarded as an important component of the ethnic worldview of the Tuvans.

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