Yakut religion. Yakuts are hardworking and hardy people

Centuries, millennia go into oblivion, one generation replaces another, along with this, many ancient knowledge and teachings will sink into oblivion. Behind the mists of centuries one can no longer discern the events of the past centuries. Everything that is consigned to oblivion becomes an unsolved mystery for subsequent generations, dressed in myths and legends. Myths and legends, legends and tales - this is the chronicle of bygone times.

Many unsolved secrets, white spots in ancient history Sakha people. Shrouded in mystery and the origin of the Sakha. In scientific circles, there is no consensus about the ancestors and primordial ancestral home, about the religious beliefs of the Sakha people. But one thing is known: the Sakha are one of the most ancient peoples of the world, who have preserved the secret knowledge of mankind, cosmic culture.

Judging by the legends, the Sakha had their own clergy, the priests of the "religion" Aar Aiyy, they were White Shamans- bearers of ancient secret knowledge, maintaining contact with higher forces, with the Cosmic Mind, that is, the Creator - Yuryung Aar Aiyy Toyonom, Tangara.

One of the cult holidays, which was celebrated from December 21 to 23, is the Winter Solstice Day, this is the Birthday or Day of the release of Yuryung Aar Aiyy Toyon to people. From that day on, the renewed Sun begins its new cycle. These are times of peace and quiet, peace and harmony. The ancient Sakha welcomed the renewed White sun, as a sign of reverence for the Divine Luminary, they kindled a sacred fire, performed sacred sacraments. Our ancestors on these Solstice Days cultivated a sense of harmony and happiness in themselves, dreamed of everything beautiful, spoke only about the positive.

In these bright days, water acquired healing power. The fire of the hearth was filled with magical power. These were the days of great magical actions associated with the universal rhythm of the movement of powerful energies. Ancient rites were held Aiyy Namygyn Udaganov- priestesses of the White Blessed Sun.

The next ritual holiday was held from March 21 to 23, it was a holiday of the rebirth and awakening of nature, a holiday of the masculine principle. He was usually dedicated to the Deity Dөһөgөy, personifying the masculine principle of the Universe. The image of this Deity is very peculiar; it also reflects the cult of veneration of the Sun. In myths and legends, some information has been preserved that at that time in ancient times a special cult rite “Kyydaagynygyyaҕa” was performed, when the noble families of the Sakha dedicated a herd of snow-white horses White Light Deities. This herd was driven to the east, where the Divine Sun rises, by three riders in snow-white clothes on milk-colored horses. Tuom of this rite was performed by three White Shamans.

Kind New Year in the centuries that have sunk into oblivion, the Sakha people met on a sacred day - May 22. At this time, Mother Nature came to life, everything blossomed. They paid tribute to the good earthly energies - the spirits. A rite of unity with Nature was carried out.

The most beautiful, long, great religious and religious holiday was celebrated on the day of the summer solstice from June 21 to 23. This ritual holiday was dedicated to God Yuryung Aar Aiyy Toyon and all the White Deities. The ancient Sakha met the sunrise - the symbol of Tangar (God), its life-giving rays cleansed people, gave them vitality, at this time Mother Nature herself gained healing power; water, air, herbs, trees these days could heal people.

The autumn cult rite was held from September 21 to 23, on the day of the autumn solstice, when new winter which had to be successfully experienced. Nature faded, as if going into a long sleep, mother earth rested under the cover of snow. The ancient Sakhas performed the rite of Blessing for all deities and celestials, earthly spirits and underground demons, asked Yuryung Aar Aiyy Toyon for well-being in the coming year, sat until midnight, when one lived year replaced another, wishes made in that share of timelessness came true. Sakha believed that there is a moment when there is neither time nor space, when the portals of the Universe open, and at this moment a person can send his requests to higher powers, make wishes and they will surely come true. These sacred times are the days of the solstice. There are legends that during the autumn sacrament "Tayylҕayһyakha" nine shamans performed a ceremony of honoring all universal energies. They gave a snow-white horse as a tribute to the Light Forces, dark-colored cattle to the Dark Forces.

A sacred symbol for the ancient Sakha, personifying the cycle of life, the change of seasons, the four cardinal points was the cross. All human life on Earth rests on four key concepts: four human ages, four times of the day, four seasons, four cardinal points.

Sakha beliefs are the religion of Good and Light, glorifying Life. Like the ancient Iranian religion, the "religion" of the White Aiyy preaches the triumph of life, the victory good start. Therefore, the ancient Sakha, considering earth, sky, water, fire to be sacred elements, buried the dead in ground structures, where the dead energy did not come into contact with sacred objects. Some clans of the Sakha arranged a funeral pyre, where the purifying power of the fire expelled all filth. Sakha never returned to the graves of the dead, so as not to bring negativity from the outside dark forces and not to disturb the peace of souls who have departed for another world, who, at will, Higher Forces could be reborn in this world. After the funeral rites, they were cleansed with fire, water, clothes were left outside for nine days, so that the winds carried the filth to where it was needed. Pregnant women and those with small children, sick people and children under the age of majority did not go to the funeral. This was strictly observed at all times. It was a kind of mental protection against shocks, the ancient Sakhas protected their peace of mind and inner harmony.

Deep in our minds, we descendants ancient people, we keep the ancient commandments, we try to live according to the canons of half-forgotten, but already reviving, sacred beliefs that preached life in harmony with the outside world and with ourselves, in reverence for nature and universal order.

Varvara KORYAKINA.

There are three versions about the origin of the Yakuts. The authors of the first and oldest of them were the so-called pre-Russian Yakuts. According to her, the Yakuts are the fundamental principle of all mankind, for the northern Adam and Eve (Er Sogotokh Elley with his wife) are the very first people on planet Earth, from whom the entire human race arose. The original man Er Sogotokh Elley is a celestial. He, descending to earth, married one of the two daughters of the earthling Omogoya. And in order to leave Ellyai and his wife as the only ancestors of the human race, in the legend, Omoga and his wife and their second daughter are deliberately killed. Bearing in mind the celestial origin of Ellyai, the Yakuts still call themselves "aiyy aima5a", i.e. demigods. This opinion could not have arisen in a vacuum. It obviously comes from the knowledge of Deering Yuryakh and the idea of ​​the role of the Deering-Dyuktai primary center in the emergence of mankind in the northern hemisphere.

Second opinion on origin

Yakuts comes again from the Yakuts themselves - only the post-Russian period. All

Yakuts, without exception, are considered descended from Tygyn - a man of times

the arrival of the Russians. In all the genealogical tables compiled by anyone,

the table is headed by one Tygyn, sometimes with a nod towards Ellyai. Wherein

it is noteworthy that mayaat Badaayy is mentioned as the father of Tygyn, and in

his sons include Tungus and Lamut (Labynkha Syuryuk). The same mayaat of Badaayi

to this day is listed as the ancestor of the Kobyai Yakuts.

Like Manas and Dzhangar, Tygyn

here consciously exhibited as bodily, accurately chronologized and

personified creator and organizer of the Yakut people. At the same time, the entire

the pre-Russian period is called the "non-Yakut period", i.e. "kyrgyz

uete", which literally means "the age of bloody strife".

The people vividly illustrate it with legends about independent strife, no one

subordinate heads of sovereign clans - booturs and khosuuns. These genera are Tygyn

Yakuts consider them not Yakuts, not Tungus, not Lamuts, i.e. devoid of ethnic

accessories. Hence the non-ethnos term "kyrgys uete". Term

this one completely crosses out the ethnicity of all the clans of Yakutia before Russian

time, calling them "the simplest fighters."

And this thought is alive

illustrated with characteristic stories. What are boot tours like Legoy worth?

borogonian. Neither the tribe nor the genus of the Legoi was recognized. Legoevism was typical

for the entire pre-Russian "Kyrgys" Yakutia, when ethnicless pugnacious

roosters - booturs and khosuuns for the sake of their personal ambitions hindered the process

attempts to form ethnic groups. Therefore, none of the legends about khosuuns and

booturs in all of Yakutia nothing is mentioned about their ethnic group and appear only

the names of the booturs and the name of the genus. Attempts to ethnonymize "Kyrgyz" here

to nothing. This would be violence against the traditions and conceit of a multi-ethnic

folklore of the region. The ethnicity of the legends about the Khosuuns and Booturs is universal

a feature of pre-Russian folklore throughout Yakutia. So the dating

the emergence of the Yakuts by some kind, sucked out of the finger by 11-15-16 centuries - nothing

other than violence against the self-conceit of the Yakuts of Tygynovsky and post-Tygynovsky

time, up to 1917. In their opinion, the date of birth of the Yakut people is clear and

exact - this is the arrival of Russian Cossacks and service people in Yakutia.

Why was this date considered decisive?

it's easy to understand. The impetus for consolidation by ethnic groups was given precisely by the appearance

Russian factor. Without such a factor, it is impossible to explain the formation in

peoples of sovereign families. On the other hand, as we move east, for

convenience of management throughout Siberia in a purely administrative way ethnic groups and peoples

established a royal government. The documents even mention the

principles of creating ethnic groups and peoples of Siberia: language, main occupation ...

Such ethnic groups as the Yukagirs, Chukchi, Chuvans were also created using the method of artificial

administration. All this perfectly took into account the popular opinion of the Yakuts

Tygynov and post-Tygynov time.

became illiterate explorers of the 17th century. They suggested that the Yakuts might

are Horde Tatars. This is a folk fortune-telling, having got to the West, already in

by the power of instructions, Thus, relying on other people's rumors, arose in the far West

the basis of the future version of the supposedly "southern" Tatar origin of the Yakuts.

A completely illiterate mass of Yakuts, not knowing about it, until Soviet power continued

to repeat about their origin from Tygyn and Ellyai. True, the missionaries managed

turn the celestial Ellyay into a Tatar. By the end of the 19th century. and at the beginning of the 20th century. version about

Tatar origin of the Yakuts reached such a dead end that they threw her out, and

forever stopped searching in the south for sites suitable for the "ancestral home"

Yakuts, then, to turn the version around, the Tatars went to be replaced by anyone: and

Turks, and Hunno-Ugrs, and Samoyeds, and Tungus Yuch Khoro Khans from Ust-Kuta...

All these innovations were happily picked up by today's Yakut intelligentsia.

The ethnos is sick, and this disease

began due to the loss of the feeding qualities of the Yakut language. Moreover, the language

itself fragmented into urban and rural languages, the language of folklore and semi-Russified

Yakuts, literary language. Bilingual parents began to teach their children only

Russian, accelerating the Russification of the Yakuts. Against this background, in the soul of a Yakut intellectual

a shame for one's ethnic group, hidden from all, appeared, It is because of this shame - to be

Yakut - the people began to strenuously impersonate anyone in the past. not sick

such a disease, the pre-Soviet Yakuts, however, proudly called themselves

Yakuts, descendants of their own ancestors.

In the heat of the moment, of course, my

tribesmen will begin to deny in unison that they have an inner shame for their

past ethnicity. However, when they cool down, they will understand that the ethnic group is sick, like itself

human. This disease is at an early stage. Therefore, if desired

she can be cured. And if he becomes stubborn, then one should remember that many

of the ethnic groups that have gone into oblivion in the past died due to the flight of the ashamed

"Youth of Yakutia". -

S.I. Nikolaev - Somo5otto / Memories,

articles/literary experience/Yakutsk/2007

  population- 381,922 people (as of 2001).
  Language – Turkic group Altaic family of languages.
  resettlement- The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

Self-name - Sakha. According to the territory of settlement, they are divided into Amga-Lena (between the Lena, Nizhny Aldan and Amga rivers, as well as on the left bank of the Lena), Vilyui (in the basin of the Vilyuya river), Olekma (in the basin of the Olekma river) and northern (in the tundra zone , basins of the rivers Anabar, Olenek, Kolyma, Yana and Indigirka).

The dialects are combined into the central, Vilyui, northwestern and Taimyr groups. 65% of Yakuts speak Russian and another 6% consider it their native language. In 1858, at the initiative of the scientist and missionary I.E. Veniaminov published the first "Concise grammar of the Yakut language".

Both the local Tungus-speaking tribes and the Turkic-Mongols who came from the Baikal region, who settled in Siberia in the 10th-13th centuries, participated in the formation of the people. and assimilated with the local population. The ethnos was finally formed at the end of the 16th century. By that time Yakuts subdivided into 35-40 exogamous "tribes". The largest numbered up to 2-5 thousand people. The tribes were divided into tribal groups - "paternal clans" (aga-usa) and smaller "maternal clans" (iye-usa). Frequent intertribal wars, popularly known as the events of kyrgys yuiete - "a century of battles, battles", made military training for boys necessary. By the age of 18, it ended with an initiatory rite with the participation of a shaman, who “infused” the spirit of war (ilbis) into the young man.

The traditional culture is most fully represented among the Amga-Lena and Vilyui Yakuts. The northern ones are closer to the Evenks and Yukaghirs, the Olekminskys have a very noticeable influence of the Russians.

In the 17th century Yakuts were called "horse people"

The traditional occupation is the breeding of cattle and horses. Were bred special breeds these animals, adapted to the harsh climatic conditions of the North: hardy and unpretentious, but unproductive (they were milked only in summer). In Russian sources of the XVII century. The Yakuts were called "horse people". The men took care of the horses, the women took care of the cows. In summer, cattle were kept on pasture, in winter - in stables. Haymaking was practiced even before the arrival of the Russians. Animals occupied a separate place in the culture of the Yakuts; special rituals are dedicated to them. A special place was given to the image of a horse, even its burials are known along with a person.

They caught elk, wild deer, bear, wild boar, fur-bearing animals - fox, arctic fox, sable, squirrel, ermine, muskrat, marten, wolverine - and other animals. At the same time, very specific techniques were used, for example, hunting with a bull (when the hunter sneaked up on the prey, hiding behind the bull that he drove in front of him), horse chasing along the trail, sometimes with dogs. They hunted with a bow and arrows, a spear, and from the 17th century. - With firearms. They used notches, fences, hunting pits, snares, traps, crossbows, graze.

Fishing played a special role in the economy. For the Yakuts, who did not have livestock, fishing was the main economic activity. Documents from the 17th century the word balysyt - "fisherman" was used in the meaning of "poor". Sturgeon, whitefish, muksun, nelma, whitefish, grayling, tugun were caught on the rivers, minnow, crucian carp, pike and other fish were mined on the lakes. Fishing tools were tops, muzzles, nets, horsehair nets; big fish were beaten sharp. In the autumn they organized collective fishing with a seine, the prey was divided equally. In winter they were engaged in ice fishing.

The spread of agriculture (especially in the Amga and Olekminsky districts) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers. They grew special varieties of wheat, rye and barley, which had time to ripen in a short and hot summer. Horticultural crops were also cultivated.

According to the lunisolar calendar, the year (syll) began in May and was divided into 12 months, 30 days each: January - tokhsunnu - "ninth", February - olunnu - "tenth", March - kulun tutar - "month of feeding foals" , April - muus is obsolete - “the month of ice drift”, May - yam yya - “the month of milking cows”, June - bes yya - “the month of harvesting pine sapwood”, July - from yya - “the month of haymaking”, August - atyrdah yya - “ month of haystacking”, September - farce yya - “month of migration from summer camps to winter roads”, October - altynni - “sixth”, November - setinny - “seventh”, December - ahsynny - “eighth”.

Of the crafts, blacksmithing, jewelry, woodworking, birch bark, bone, leather, fur, and the manufacture of molded ceramics were developed. Crockery was made from leather, cords were woven and twisted from horse hair, with which they embroidered. Iron was smelted in cheese-blowing forges, women's jewelry, horse harness, and cult objects were made from gold, silver and copper (by melting down Russian coins).

The Yakuts lived in seasonal settlements. Winter yurts of 1-3 were located nearby, summer ones (up to 10 yurts) - near pastures.

In the winter dwelling (kypynny die - farce) lived from September to April. It had sloping walls made of thin logs on a log frame and a low sloping gable roof. The walls were plastered with clay and manure, the roof over the log flooring was covered with bark and earth. From the 18th century polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof spread. The entrance was arranged in the eastern wall, the windows - in the southern and western, the roof was oriented from north to south. In the northeast corner, to the right of the entrance, a chuval-type hearth was installed, along the walls - plank bunks. The Nara was considered honorary, going from the middle of the southern wall to the western corner. Together with the adjoining part of the western nara, it formed an honorable corner. Further to the "north" was the owner's place. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for young men and workers, to the right, by the hearth, for women. A table and stools were placed in the front corner, chests and various boxes made up another setting. On the north side, a barn was attached to the yurt. The entrance to it was behind the hearth. In front of the door to the yurt, a canopy or canopy was built. The dwelling was surrounded by a low mound, often with a fence. A hitching post (serge), decorated with rich carvings, was installed near the yurt. From the second half of the XVIII century. for the winter they began to build Russian huts with a stove.

The summer dwelling (urasa), in which they lived from May to August, was a cylindrical-conical structure made of poles with a birch bark roof. In the north, turf-covered frame buildings of the type of the Evenki golomo (holuman) were known. Barns (ampaar), glaciers (buluus), cellars for storing dairy products (tar iine), smoking dugouts, and mills were built in the villages. At some distance from the summer dwelling, a barn for calves was set up and sheds were built.

They traveled mainly on horseback, transporting goods in packs. In winter, they went on skis lined with horse skins, rode sledges with runners made of wood with a rhizome, which had a natural curvature; later - on a sleigh like Russian wood, which was usually harnessed to bulls. The northern Yakuts used reindeer straight-dust sleds. On the water they rafted on rafts, dugout boats, shuttles, birch bark boats.

They ate milk, meat of wild animals, horse meat, beef, venison, fish, edible plants. Most often they boiled meat, fried liver, prepared zrazy, offal stew, soup with brisket, crucian fish soup (sobo mine), stuffed crucian carp, caviar pancakes, stroganina. The fish was also frozen and fermented for the winter in pits. Dairy dishes - koumiss from mare's milk, milk foam, whipped cream, curdled milk, butter. Cream was harvested for the winter, freezing in large birch bark vats with the addition of berries, roots, and bones. Soup (salamat), flatbreads (leppiesketė), pancakes (baakhyla), etc. were prepared from flour. Mushrooms, berries, meadow and coastal onions, wild garlic, sarana roots, bearberry, pine and larch sapwood were collected. Vegetables have long been known in the Olekminsky district.

Traditional wooden utensils - bowls, spoons, whorls, whisks for whipping cream, birch bark for berries, butter, bulk products, etc. Carved wooden goblets for koumiss (chorony) played an important role in the ceremonies at the Ysyakh holiday and were of two types - on a conical pallet and on three legs in the form of horse hooves.

The Yakuts are characterized by small families. Until the 19th century there was polygamy, and the wives often lived separately, each ran her own household. Marriage was entered into between the ages of 16 and 25, it was concluded by matchmaking with the payment of bride price. Among the poor, runaway marriages, with the kidnapping of the bride, working off for the wife were common. There were levirates and sororates.

There were customs of blood feud (often replaced by a ransom), hospitality, and the exchange of gifts. The aristocracy - the toyons - stood out. They ruled the clan with the help of the elders, acted as military leaders. Toyons owned large herds (up to several hundred heads), had slaves, they and their households lived in separate yurts. There were customs to give cattle to the poor for grazing, to feed for the winter, to transfer impoverished families and orphans to the dependents of a rich relative (kumalanism), to trade in children, and later to hire workers. Livestock was private property, and hunting, pasture land and hayfields were communal.

Birthing rites were associated with the cult of the fertility goddess Aiyy-Syt, the patroness of children. According to legend, she lives on the eastern side of the sky and gives the newborn a soul. Childbirth took place in the left half of the yurt, on the floor. The place of birth was fenced off with a curtain. In the summer they gave birth in the barn, sometimes (during haymaking) - in the field. The midwife helped the woman in labor. On the fortieth day after giving birth, the woman went to church, where she performed the church rite of purification. The child was baptized and given the name of a stranger who first entered the house after birth. This man himself could give a name to the newborn. Some names were associated with the circumstances of the birth of the baby: Saiynngy - "summer", Bulumdyu - "foundling", i.e. born out of wedlock. There were amulets: Bere (“wolf”), which scares away evil spirits, Kusagan (“bad”) - evil spirits do not pay attention to him, as well as names of an evaluative nature, for example, Kyrynaas (“ermine”), i.e. fast, mobile.

In ancient times, the Yakuts buried the dead by air, and from the 18th century. they began to bury them in the ground, laying their heads to the west. The dead were dressed in the best clothes hung with decorations, weapons and tools, stocks of meat and dairy food were placed in the grave. Horse burials are known.

According to the ideas of the ancient Yakuts, the Upper World was inhabited by Yuryung Aiyy Toyon (White Creator God) - the supreme deity, Ieikhsit - the patroness and intercessor of the human race, Aiyy-Syt - the goddess of fertility and childbearing, Kyun Dzhesegey Toyon - the god of horses and other gods. Baai Bayanai, the spirit of the forest, Aan Alakhchin khotun, the goddess of the earth, Khatan Temieriie, the spirit of fire, and other spirits lived in the Middle World together with people. They had to be appeased with the help of sacrifices. The lower world is the abode of terrible monsters.

Shamans were divided into white and black. The former served the celestials with various offerings, spells, led the Ysyakh holiday. The second were to fight the evil spirits that caused natural disasters, loss of livestock, diseases. The right to become a shaman was inherited. The initiation was accompanied by a complex ceremony. Each shaman had a patron spirit (emeget), whose image in the form of a copper plaque was sewn onto the chest of clothes, and an animal-double (iye-kyyl - "mother-beast"). Shaman tambourines (dyurgyur) - oval, with a wide rim - are similar to Evenk ones.

Healers (otosuts) had a specialization: some were engaged in bloodletting, others - in massage or bone-cutting, treated eye diseases, women's diseases, etc.

National clothing consists of a single-breasted caftan sleep (in winter - fur, in summer - from cow or horse skin with wool inside, for the rich - from fabric), which was sewn from four wedges with additional wedges at the waist and wide sleeves gathered at the shoulders, short leather pants (syaya), leather leggings (sotoro) and fur socks (keenche). Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar appeared. Men girded themselves with a belt, the rich - with silver and copper plaques. Women's wedding coats (sangyah) - length to the heels, expanding downwards, on a yoke, with sewn-in sleeves and a fur shawl collar - were decorated with wide stripes of red and green cloth, braid, silver details, plaques, beads, fringe. They were valued very dearly and were inherited. A women's wedding headdress (diabacca) made of sable or beaver fur looked like a cap with a high top made of red or black cloth, velvet or brocade, thickly trimmed with beads, a braid, and certainly with a large silver heart-shaped plaque above the forehead. Ancient headdresses are decorated with a plume of bird feathers. Women's clothing was complemented by a belt, chest, back, neck jewelry, silver, often gold engraved earrings, bracelets, braids and rings. For winter, high boots were made of deer or horse skins with fur outside, for summer - boots made of suede with tops covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué.

In Yakut folklore, the central place is occupied by heroic epic olonkho, which is considered the main type of poetry, and by the nature of the performing arts - the basis of folk opera. The leading theme of the olonkho is the story of the ancient ancestor heroes, inhabitants of the Middle World, who feel themselves part of the mighty aiyy aimaga tribe, created and guarded by the aiyy deities. Olonkhosuts are the creators and keepers of the oral tradition of epic performing arts. According to beliefs, they possessed a divine gift. These people have always been surrounded by honor, enjoyed great respect.

Among the northern Yakuts, the term olonkho combines the heroic epic and fairy tales about animals, magical, everyday. Plots and images everyday fairy tales built on the basis Everyday life reflect the moral ideals of the people. Their characters are rich and poor, merchants and beggars, priests and thieves, smart and foolish. Historical traditions - the oral chronicle of the people.

Deep and diverse in content are small genres of folklore: proverbs, sayings, riddles, peculiar tongue twisters (chabyrgakh).

There are cult, ritual, non-ritual and lyrical songs: road songs, which were performed on horseback, travel songs on horseback, entertainment ditty songs; “night”, “plaintive”, etc. At all family and tribal holidays, songs-hymns sounded - large-scale poems with ballad plots of mythological, legendary and historical content.

The shamans sang solo on behalf of the guardian spirits who had inhabited them.

Basic musical instrument khomus - an arc metal harp with a large round loop. According to tradition, it was predominantly played by women, articulating (“pronouncing”) speech statements or well-known melodies.

The most common dance among the Yakuts is the osuokhay, accompanied by a choral song to the tune of an improviser. It is performed by any number of participants, sometimes up to 200 or more people gather in a circle. The organizers of the dance are most often men. In the song, as if accompanying fun, they sing of the awakening of nature, meeting with the sun, the joy of work, the relationship of people in society, family, certain significant events.

Russian socio-economic transformations in the 90s. led to an outflow of the population from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), especially from industrial and northern uluses, where mining enterprises are concentrated. The search for work, the desire of young people to get an education make people move to cities. Most Yakuts work in state farms, agricultural cooperatives specializing in animal husbandry and vegetable growing. In the north of the republic, the main traditional occupations remain: reindeer herding, fishing, hunting, enterprises for processing agricultural products and collecting wild plants have appeared.

Since 1992, the activities of communities have been improved, a unified system for the purchase of meat, fish, furs has been created, a sales market has been formed, etc. Handicraft processing of wood, fur, leather, artistic woodcarving and mammoth ivory, the manufacture of toys, as well as horsehair weaving are developing.

The education system is developing. The book publishing house "Bichik" publishes textbooks, manuals on the Yakut and Russian languages ​​and literature. A network of higher educational institutions and scientific institutions emerged. world fame acquired the Institute of Problems of Indigenous Peoples of the North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the only one in Russia, which is headed by Academician V. Robbek.

The revival of national culture is promoted by professional theaters, museums, the Higher School of Music, the Boys Choir national fund"Bargary" ("Revival"). The New Names program is designed to support young musicians, artists, scientists, artists and sportsmen.

Honored artists, artists and artists A. Munkhalov, N. Zasimov, E. Stepanova, N. Chigireva, T. Tishina, S. Osipov and others, writers and poets I. Gogolev, D. Sivtsev, N. Kharlampyeva, M. Dyachkovsky (Kelbe).

The newspapers “Kyym” and “Sakha Sire” are published in the Yakut language, as well as the magazine “Cholbon” (“ polar Star”) and about 80% of the programs of the national broadcaster. The company "Gevan" ("Zarya") prepares television and radio programs in the languages ​​of the indigenous peoples of the North living in the territory of the republic.

The revival of traditions, the preservation and development of the cultural heritage of the people are promoted by public organizations and associations - the Center for the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, the republican movement "Two Thousand Good Deeds in 2000", the International Children's Fund "Children of Sakha - Asia". The interests of the indigenous peoples of the North are defended by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North of Yakutia.

encyclopedia article
"The Arctic is my home"

Publication date: 03/16/2019

BOOKS ABOUT YAKUTS

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Safronov F.G., Ivanov V.F. Yakut writing. Yakutsk, 1992.
Sleptsov P.A. Traditional family rituals among the Yakuts. Yakutsk, 1989.
Tokarev S.A. Essays on the history of the Yakut people. M., 1940.
Yakovlev V.F. Horse-drawn serge. Yakutsk, 1992.

In the north-east of Siberia, by the time the Russian Cossacks and industrialists arrived there, the Yakuts (Sakha) were the most numerous people who occupied a prominent place among other peoples in terms of the level of cultural development. By the 30s. XVII century their main tribes inhabited the triangle formed by the middle course of the Lena, Aldan and Amgoyu. In addition, small groups of them lived on the river. Yana, Olekma, at the mouth of the Vilyui and in the Lower Lena region, where Zhigansk was founded by the Russians.

The ancestors of the Yakuts lived much further south, in the Baikal region. According to the corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Derevyanko, the movement of the ancestors of the Yakuts to the north began, apparently, in the VIII-IX centuries, when the legendary ancestors of the Yakuts settled in the Baikal region - the Kurykans, Turkic-speaking peoples, information about which was preserved for us by the runic Orkhon inscriptions. The exodus of the Yakuts, pushed northward by stronger neighbors the Mongols - newcomers to the Lena from the Trans-Baikal steppes, intensified in the 12th-13th centuries. and ended around the XIV-XV centuries. (58, p. 61).

According to legends recorded at the beginning of the 18th century. Yakov Lindenau, a member of the government expedition to study Siberia, a companion of academicians Miller and Gmelin, the last settlers from the south came to Lena at the end of the 16th century. led by Badzhey, the grandfather of the tribal leader (toyon) Tygyn, well-known in the legends. A.P. Derevianko believes that with such a movement of tribes to the north, representatives of various nationalities, not only Turkic, but also Mongolian, also penetrated there. And for centuries there was a complex process of merging different cultures, which, moreover, were enriched on the spot with the skills and abilities of the indigenous Tungus and Yukagir tribes. This is how the modern Yakut people gradually formed.

Resettlement from the south to the harsh conditions of Yakutia was not in vain for them. They lost much of what they could and what they owned earlier. The Yakuts are skilled cattle breeders. Living in the south, they bred sheep and camels in addition to cattle and horses. But in Yakutia, the climate did not allow them to do this.

They also lost their writing. The fact that they had it is evidenced by writings with runic signs on the rocks along the banks of the Lena. They were discovered by academician A.P. Okladnikov on the banks of the Upper Lena on the Shishkinsky rocks below the village of Kachug, then to the north, not far from Verkholensk and in several other places. The world's northernmost monument of runic writing was discovered by A.P. Okladnikov on the left bank of the Lena, below the village of Sinsk, 200 km from Yakutsk, near the village of Petrovskaya, already in Central Yakutia.

In the Yakut language there were, apparently, even before the arrival of the Russians, the terms “letter”, “letter”, “letter”, “write” - “suruk” and “bichik”. Both words in the same meaning are also found among other Turkic-Mongolian peoples. Yakut legends testify to the presence of writing among the ancestors of the Yakuts. One of them talks about the flight to the north legendary hero Elley, who taught the Yakuts to keep cattle and horses in the harsh conditions of the taiga, to cook koumiss: “Elley used to have letters, but he forgot his book in his homeland (in the south, from where he fled. - M. Ts.).” Another legend tells that Elley “was literate, had books, but threw his books into the river when he fled from home” (58, p. 72).

After moving to the north, the Yakuts also lost the agricultural skills they had previously possessed. They knew how to smelt iron from ore and make axes, knives, palm trees (wide knives worn on a long shaft), cauldrons, spear and arrowheads, chain mail (kuyakhs), blacksmith tools and devices (hammer and anvil), etc. many Eastern peoples, their blacksmiths were surrounded by honor. Moreover, the Yakuts believed that the blacksmith was stronger than the shaman. They believed that the spirits are the patrons of blacksmiths, stronger than shamanic spirits, that the skill and skills of a blacksmith testify to his possession of the power of fire, capable of killing any shaman.

The main wealth of the Yakuts was cattle. Horses were used as riding and draft horses. Koumiss was prepared from mare's milk, cattle and horses gave meat food. Butter and other dairy products were made from cow's milk. Clothes and shoes, belts, dishes, etc. were made from the skin of cattle and horses. Horse hair was widely used.

For feeding cattle in winter, the Yakuts prepared hay, and the horses spent the winter on pasture. Due to the need to harvest hay, the Yakuts led a semi-nomadic life. In the summer they went to the summer pastures. In winter, they migrated to winter roads, which were built near the meadows, where hay was harvested.

An important source of meat and fur was hunting and fishing. The Yakuts sewed warm clothes from sable, fox, wolf, hare and other furs. Therefore, in the Yakut epic important place occupied by the god of hunters, the spirit is the owner of the forest Bai Baianai. The Yakuts borrowed many hunting techniques from the indigenous northern peoples - the Tungus and the Yukagirs. The level of culture of the Yakuts is evidenced by their ability to make pottery. Neither the Tungus, nor the Yukaghirs, nor the Lamuts (Evens) and even the Buryats, the inhabitants of the Baikal region, were able to do this before the arrival of the Russians.

Ancient Yakut arrows, helmets and quiver

The majestic monument of the ancient culture of the Yakuts are the heroic poems about the exploits of the heroes - olonkho. They, according to the historian Zakhar Vasilievich Gogolev, an expert on the ancient history of Yakutia, developed at a time when the ancestors of the Yakuts lived in the south, in close contact with the ancestors of the Sayan-Altai tribes and with the ancient Mongols.

These legends contain 10-15 thousand lines each, and large legends - up to 20 thousand or more. Yakut storytellers-olonkhosuts for many evenings talk about the creation of the worlds: the upper, middle and lower. The upper world is inhabited by gods headed by the supreme deity Yuryung Aiyytoyon. But there, in some places, cannibal monsters abaasy live. In the middle world lives, as one legend says, "35 tribes inhabiting the middle world, 35 human uluses." But even in the middle world there are abaas in some places. And in the lower world, only abaasy live, led by the main monster Arsaan Duobai.

In the mythology of the Yakuts, there was a whole pantheon of celestials: the deity of fate and fate Dyylga Khan (he was also symbolically called Chyngys Khan), Iyekhsit - the goddess - the patroness of people and cattle, Aiysyt - the goddess of childbearing, Ilbis Khan - the god of war, the deity of thunder Syunko - khan Shuge toyon and others.

One of the most revered were Aan Alakhchyn Khatun - the goddess of the ancestral land (homeland), Bayanay - the god of the forest and hunters, Aan Darkhan toyon - the god of fire, Khomporuun Hotoy aiyy - the god of birds, Kydai Bakhsy - the god of blacksmiths.

Many legends tell about the exploits of heroes, about their struggle with evil monsters. Usually the hero of legends is a kind protector of people and all life on earth, his enemies abaa-syaymaga (relatives of the devil) are vicious, cruel monsters that attack people, devastate their homes, kidnap women and children.

A whole cycle of Yakut legends tells about the life and exploits of heroes, the images of which are based largely on authentic historical events end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. These are legends about the Yakut “king” Tygyn, who, apparently, did not live to see the annexation of Yakutia to Russia, but whose role in the life of the Yakut tribes of that time was quite significant. Tales about him were recorded at one time by Yakov Lidenau, whom we have already mentioned.

The first, apparently tribal, leader of the Yakuts in the Middle Lena was Badzhey, Tygyn's grandfather. He remained in the people's memory as an exceptionally rich and powerful ruler, who had many warriors, servants and slaves. His possessions, according to Academician A.P. Okladnikov, spread along the left bank of the Lena from present-day Yakutsk to Pokrovsk (125 km upriver).

Then his son Munan became the leader, and the latter was succeeded by the youngest son Tygyn (or Dygyn). In the legends, Tygyn appears as a giant hero. Here are the words of the legend in the retelling of Academician A.P. Okladnikov: “His growth is such that the shadow of a tree on a moonlit night reached only the dark border of the breast nipples, eyeball weighed 30 pounds (12 kg. - M. Ts.), and the distance between the eyes was equal to two quarters of an arshin (35 cm. - M. Ts.) ”(11, p. 190). The same heroes, according to legend, were his sons. Even the smaller of them had such strength and endurance that during skirmishes with the Cossacks they brushed off bullets as if they were annoying insects.

In the legends, Tygyn pursues other clans and tribes, demands obedience from them, cruelly suppresses all pockets of disobedience, and brings everyone into obedience. His sons also became victims of his lust for power. But when Tygyn became old and weak, retribution came. When the formidable servants of the powerful king came from the south, there were no heroes left around Tygyn.

J. Lindenau, who wrote down the legends about Tygyn, wrote that the elder brothers were extremely indignant that the father appointed his youngest son as his heir and leader. It began in the second half of the seventeenth century. internecine cruel war, which brought a lot of suffering to more than one Yakut family. This folk tragedy remained for a long time in the memory of the Yakuts.

In the Yakut legends there is no information about where and when Tygyn died. Lindenau mentioned that Tygyn was taken hostage by the Cossacks and died as a prisoner before the arrival of the first governors in the Yakut jail. Academician A.P. Okladnikov notes that “Tygyn was for its time the bearer of a certain tendency to unite the Yakut clans and to sort of gather their lands into one whole. Such an association, if it turned out to be real, would be a major step forward and a progressive phenomenon for its time, since it would help, first of all, to limit bloody internecine strife, to some curb the especially violent robbers - toyons, and then to consolidate the forces of the people as a whole, to realize public interests and tribal ties” (11, p. 207, 208).

But then the Yakut tribes did not have objective conditions for this unification. The tragedy of Tygyn was actually the tragedy of the entire Yakut patriarchal-tribal society that was fading into the past.

In the question of the origin of the Yakuts, the vulgar-migrationist point of view, first expressed by researchers of the 18th century, still reigns supreme in science. (Stralenberg, Miller, Gmelin, Fischer) and repeated with differences only in details by all authors, up to the latest. This point of view of the "origin of the Yakuts from the south" is considered an ethnographic axiom.

However, this simplified concept cannot satisfy us. It replaces the problem of the formation of the Yakut people with the question of their geographical movement, is based on a non-historical approach to the problem of ethnogenesis and does not provide a key to understanding the complexity and originality of the Yakut culture and language. This concept explains only some features of the culture and language of the Yakuts, but leaves a number of others unexplained.

Repeatedly attempts were made to identify the Yakuts with one or another of the ancient peoples of Asia: they were brought together with the Huns, Sakas, Uighurs, Kurykans, Sakyats, Uryankhs. But all these attempts are based either on one consonance of the names of this or that people with the self-name of the Yakuts "Saka", or on extremely shaky geographical considerations.

In order to correctly approach the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts, it is necessary first of all to raise the question of the ethnic composition of the Yakut people. To what extent is this people a homogeneous group and what data does it have that would make it possible to single out its components.

Not only at present, but also in the era of the Russian conquest, that is, around the middle of the 17th century, the Yakuts were an already consolidated ethnic group. They stood out sharply from among all their neighbors - forest hunting tribes - not only more high level economic and social development, but also by the fact that, in contrast to the motley and multilingual mass of the Tungus-Lamut-Yukaghir tribes, the Yakuts spoke the same language.

However, in socio-political terms, the Yakuts in the era of the Russian conquest were far from unity. They were divided into many tribes, large and small, independent of each other. According to yasak books and other documents of the 17th century. we can have a fairly complete picture of the tribal composition of the Yakut population of that time, and partly of the geographical distribution of individual tribes and their numbers.

We know about 80 names of large and small Yakut tribes that existed in the 17th century. The number of the largest of them (Megins, Kangalas, Namtsy, etc.) was 2-5 thousand people each, others numbered several hundred souls.

It is quite legitimate to assume that these tribal groupings reflect to some extent a complex, multi-tribal composition. Yakut people.

This assumption is confirmed by the analysis of both anthropological and linguistic and ethnographic material.

The study of the racial composition, material and spiritual culture, language and ethnonymy of the Yakuts reveals the heterogeneity of the elements included in the Yakut people.

Anthropological data (Gekker's materials on 4 Yakut naslegs) indicate the presence in the Yakut population of two or more main racial types, of which a part, apparently, has a connection with the type of the North Baikal Tungus (Roginsky), and may be North Asian.

A fairly clear idea of ​​the heterogeneity of the composition of the Yakut people is given by the analysis material culture Yakuts. This latter contains elements that are very heterogeneous in origin. The pastoral economy of the Yakuts is clearly of southern origin and connects the Yakuts with the nomadic cultures of southern Siberia and Central Asia. However, the cattle breeding of the Yakuts underwent a kind of processing in the conditions of the northern nature (acclimatization of livestock breeds, originality of methods of keeping livestock, etc.). On the contrary, the fishing and hunting economy of the Yakuts does not reveal any links with the south, but is clearly of local, taiga origin.

In the clothes of the Yakuts, we see, next to the elements that connect the Yakuts with southern Siberia (the festive "sangyah", women's headdresses), such types that should be considered local ("son," shoes, etc.).

The forms of dwelling are especially indicative. We hardly find elements of southern origin here. The dominant type of Yakut dwelling - a "booth" in the form of a truncated pyramid of obliquely placed poles - can only be brought closer to the old "Paleo-Asiatic" type of dwelling - a quadrangular dugout, from which it,
apparently developed. Another, now almost extinct, type - the conical "urasa" - again brings the Yakuts closer to the taiga hunting culture.

So, the analysis of the material culture of the Yakuts confirms the conclusion that the Yakut culture is of complex origin, that in its composition, along with elements brought from the southern steppes, there are a number of elements of northern, taiga, i.e., autochthonous origin. At the same time, it is especially important to emphasize that all these elements did not mechanically pass into the Yakut culture, but underwent processing, and that some of them gave only the beginning of a completely independent development of original cultural features on the local Yakut soil.

An analysis of the phenomena of spiritual culture, in particular religion, from the point of view of clarifying the cultural ties of the Yakuts, is challenging task. For this purpose, it is useless to compare the main forms and content of the beliefs and cult of the Yakuts with similar phenomena among other peoples, since they are only a reflection of the socio-economic system. given people and their similarity by no means always speaks of cultural kinship. The latter can be traced by individual details in rituals and beliefs, as well as by theonymy (names of deities). Here we find some common features with the Buryat beliefs (the names of some deities), but more with the Tungus cults (a type of shamanism; the costume and shape of the shaman's tambourine, a hunting cult), and in some details with Paleo-Asiatic ones (shamanic spirits "keleni" || Chukchi " kele" || Koryak "kala" |] Yukagir "kukul", "korel").

The data of linguistics also confirm the correctness of our point of view on the complexity of the ethnic composition of the Yakut people.

The Yakut language is very well studied in terms of its connection with the Turkish and Mongolian languages ​​(Bötlingk, Yastrembsky, Radlov, Pekarsky), but is completely unstudied in terms of its connection with the Tungus and Paleoasian languages. However, in the excellent work of Radlov on the Yakut language, it is well shown that this language is not basically Turkish, but is a language „ unknown origin”, which was subjected to Mongolization in the course of its development, and then (twice) Turkization, and that the modern Turkish structure of the Yakut language is only the result of the last stage of its development.

The substratum on which the formation of the Yakut language took place was probably the Tungus dialects of the Lena-Aldan-Vilyui basin. Traces of this substratum can be traced not only in the Yakut dictionary, but even in phonetics (okania and okania of Yakut dialects, geographically connected with the areas of Tunguska okaya and akaya dialects; longitude of vowels and consonants) and in the grammatical structure (lack of local case). It is possible that in the future it will be possible to discover an even more ancient Paleo-Asiatic (Yukagir) layer in the Yakut language.

Finally, the ethnonymy of the Yakuts not only keeps traces of the multi-tribal and multi-lingual composition of the Yakut people, but also gives more accurate indications of the presence in its environment of both alien southern and local northern elements. The remnants of the southern tribal groups that have merged into the Yakut population can be considered the Yakut tribes and clans (now nasleg): Batulintsev, Khorintsev, Kharbyatov, Tumatov, Ergitov, Tagusov, Kyrgydais, Kirikians. On the contrary, a number of other names of clans and tribes should be considered the remnants of local groups that underwent Yakutization: Bytakhsky, Chordunsky, Ospetsky and other clans and naslegs; Tungus also have one-shift births.

In the Yakut folklore, traces of the foreign origin of some of these tribal groups have been preserved. So, the Yakuts have a memory that the Khori (Khorolors) spoke a special language. There is even a Yakut proverb: “I am not speaking to you in Khorolor, but in Yakut”; Northern Yakuts have an expression "good rear" - the language of the Khori people, an indistinct, incomprehensible language. There are also traces that the Uranhaians were a special tribal group. Probably, after their unification with the Sakha tribe, the expression “Urangkhai-Sakha” was formed, meaning the entire Yakut people.

As for the origin of the term "Sakha" - the current self-name of the Yakuts, then, apparently, it was the name of one of the tribes that became part of the Yakut people. The transfer of this name to the entire nation was probably due to the predominance of this tribe in social or cultural terms. It is quite possible to allow historical connection of this Sakha tribe with Rashid-Eddin's Sahyat, and perhaps with the ancient Sakas of Central Asia. But this assumption does not mean at all, as previous researchers assumed, that the Yakuts as a whole are the direct descendants of these Sakas or Sakyats.

The Sakha tribe must apparently be identified with the speakers of that Turkish language, the penetration of which, from the point of view of Radlov, gave the final shape to the Yakut language, informing it of its current Turkish system.

All the above facts, therefore, testify to the same thing: the complex composition of the Yakut people, the presence in it of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural elements. Some of these elements are of local northern taiga origin, and their presence in the composition of the Yakut population means nothing more than the presence of an ancient autochthonous layer, which can be considered conditionally “Tunguska”, and perhaps also Paleoasian. But the other part has a direct connection with the nomadic south: this kind of elements can be traced in the language, culture, and ethnonymy of the Yakuts. The presence of these "southern" elements in the Yakut population is a fact beyond doubt. But the whole question lies in the interpretation of this fact, in explaining the origin of these "southern" elements.

The very process of the formation of the Yakut people consisted in the economic and cultural interaction of the native hunting and reindeer herding and alien pastoral groups. In this way, a common cultural type was developed (in which pastoralism prevailed) and the Yakut language was formed (based on a local substrate, but with the dominance of Turkish alien elements that determined the Turkish design of the Yakut speech).

The very penetration to the north, into the basin of the Middle Lena, of pastoral groups from southern Siberia did not have the character of a single mass migration of an entire people. Such a resettlement, at a distance of 2.5 thousand kilometers, to the unknown and deserted regions of the northern taiga, would be an impossible thing. In fact, judging by all the available data, there was a slow, gradual advance of individual tribal groups (Turkic and Mongolian), partly from the Baikal region, partly from the Upper and Middle Amur. This movement could also go down the Lena to the area of ​​\u200b\u200bpresent Yakutsk, and along the Lena through the Chechuy portage or Suntaro-Olekminsk to Vilyui, and along the Vitim, and along the Oleksa, and even along the Aldan. The resettled clans probably moved in stages, lingering for more convenient places on the way to. Most, in all likelihood, lost their livestock, many of them died themselves.

But for many centuries, after many failures, individual groups managed to move into the basin of the Middle Lena and acclimatize their cattle here.

In the Aldan-Vilyui interfluve, the newcomer pastoral groups met with the local hunting and fishing population - Tungus or Paleo-Asiatic in language. The relations that developed between the newcomers and the natives were, of course, varied, but they were hardly generally hostile. Russian documents of the 17th century. paint us in most cases a picture of peaceful economic and domestic relations between the Yakut pastoralists and the Tungus hunters. Between those and others there was a regular exchange, beneficial to both parties.

These peaceful economic relations between aliens and natives were the most important prerequisite for the process of their gradual rapprochement and merging, as a result of which the Yakut people were formed.

Thus, the process of the Yakut ethnogenesis was a complex process that took place mainly in the place where the Yakuts now live. It consisted in the union of alien pastoral groups with local taiga hunting and fishing tribes. The cultural superiority of the newcomers, carriers of a more progressive pastoral cultural and economic way, also determined the predominance of the dialects they brought, which was expressed in the Turkic system of the Yakut language, in which, however, the aboriginal, pre-Turkic and pre-Mongolian substratum is clearly traced. The same can be said. about the entire Yakut culture: the dominant layer in it is the cattle-breeding culture of the steppe origin, but from under this layer the more ancient layer of the taiga hunting and fishing Tungus-Paleo-Asiatic culture stands out quite clearly.