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The National Library of the Buryat Republic presents |
September 24 was a beautiful autumn day in Ulan Ude. The presentation of our book Shanar: Dedication Ritual of a Buryat Shaman in Siberia took place in the large auditorium at the Buryat National Library. There were lots of people, many friends, and a surprising amount of students, not only theatre students, but also young Buryats who were studying to become English teachers. The theatre students sang ancient ritual songs that we collected in Buryat villages in Mongolia. It was great to hear these ancient songs sung by young people. The event had a wonderfully informal tone. We poke briefly: Sayan Zhambalov talked about the ritual, I spoke about how I became interested in topic and Alexander Khantaev, the photographer, literally said one sentence: ‘I’m happy how my pictures came out.” Then there were questions, some difficult, which everyone said we handled well.
One of the old writers, Tsydenzhap Zhimbiev, who had published a collection of old shaman chants a few years ago, spoke about how glad he was to see this book and how important it was. Afterwards there was a reception organized by the Buryat Philharmonic.
The Zhamtsarno Library of the Aga Buryat Autonomous Region presents Next day we drove 800 kilometers east to Aga, where there was another presentation at the Zhamtsarno Library. The library has two large rooms with stacks and an area where they have meetings. The staff was very excited since this is the first time a book published in English would be presented. I pulled out the book and handed to the head librarian. Then as she turned the pages I explained what was on each page. The rest of the staff soon crowded around her. They were really interested and asked a lot of questions. It turned out to be a good preparation for me, since I included answers to what they asked later.
Over 50 people squeezed into the room for the presentation. It was chaired by the Aga Region Minister of Culture. He introduced us and we all spoke briefly. Then he asked the “hero of the story” shaman Bayir Rinchinov to speak. Bayir said he was very glad with how the book turned out. He then introduced Volodya and some of the other shamans present, as well as his wife. When we finally handed him the book I felt so relieved. I had completed my task. Then there were speeches by two community elders, both over 80. One was the local scholar, who wrote several books on the history of education in Aga. The other was the eldest journalist in the region who very was witty. They both asserted that this book was extremely important and then mentioned its predecessor. Tsyben Zhamtsarno, (the library is named after him), was the first to collect shaman chants and actually published them in Buryat. His book was first published in Germany and only recently republished in Buryatia by Zhimbiev. We gave books to the library, the local school, all the shamans, the Head of the Administration and Sayan’s mom. Afterwards we had a reception and many toasts and everyone was very, very pleased with the event. Finally we decided to donate the ten framed photos to the Library. They looked so good there and somehow it was fitting. The librarians were totally delighted . The gift prompted a whole new set of toasts and an extended party at Zhambalov village. We are so happy that the shamans liked the book. -- Virlana
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Copyright (c)1995-2003 Yara Arts Group; all rights reserved. Photo on this page by Alexander Khantaev and Arkadi Batomunkuev.
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