Study on Traditional Mongolian Rituals found inside "The Secret History of the Mongols"

As one of the most representative historical texts on Mongolia, "The Secret History of the Mongols" also contains folk nomadic culture in 13th century Mongolia and surrounding Inner Asian regions. Recently, interest increased enormously in investigating on "The Secret History of the Mongols" from various approaches, such as family, kinship, food, annual customs, animal symbols, etc. Yet further spheres still remain to be examined. In this respect, traditional Mongolian rituals are one of primary topics to be researched. It is apparent that through the investigation on traditional rituals reflected in "The Secret History of the Mongols" the living culture of Mongolians in the 13th century is clearly projected. Hence, in this article, I try to outline various aspects of folk culture concerning nomadic traditional rituals in 13th century Mongolian society which all can be found inside "The Secret History of the Mongols". By looking into traditional Mongolian rituals from folkloric perspectives, I deal with four major categories of traditional rituals inside "The Secret History of the Mongols". Namely rituals for establishing fictive kinship such as anda relations, some significant rites for one's lifetime (i.e. rites of passage), religious rituals and rituals for annual customs as well as festivals are those four distinguished rituals inside the 13th century text. In particular, rituals for both establishing anda relationship and making arrangements are relatively fully described in this historical document. In addition, some examples describing rituals for sacred mountains and shamanic performances are given in this written historical text. Lastly, on the surface, the historical documents like "The Secret History of the Mongols" apparently seemed to focus only on the historical development of political matters such as alliance, dispute, campaign, conquest, etc. Nevertheless, in depth, it also contains various cultural elements which are often either symbolically described or highly compressed into several keywords. Therefore, in order to understand systematically the living culture in the past the comprehension of folk cultural elements inside historical texts has to precede. In this sense, some further researches on "The Secret History of the Mongols" from the standpoint of folkloristics are highly in demand.