About fifteen years ago I created and published Dashinima Norboev's book "Prophetic arrows of the great steppe". Naturally, there were lines about Erkhatuev, and his portrait was put on the cover.
Descendants, especially Buryat archers, remember the famous master and will remember for a long time.
Yesterday I found an interesting work "Land of the Mergen", where a 10th grade student Liana Munkueva talks about Buryat archers. The extensive material she collected also speaks of the Agin archers:
“With their national bows, the Aga archers first entered the Avangard stadium in 1957, when the world festival of youth and students was held in Moscow. In addition to traditional types, they got acquainted with a number of sports novelties. Among them was archery.
Polish, Czech and Finnish archers were amazed at the demonstration performances of Buryat archers from the national bow without a sight, which retained the traditional form of ancient times. The arrows are wooden, longer than the classic ones, and instead of a target on the cinder track, colored felt rollers - "suras" were laid in a row. The length of the rollers was 10 cm, and the diameter was 8 cm. Dressed in bright national costumes, the Buryat archers went to the firing line and, easily pulling the bowstring, very quickly, as if not aiming, accurately sent arrow after arrow into the red felt roller - "lasts" symbolizing the center of the target. This precision amazed the entire stadium.
Bows and arrows, which had been stored for many years, were mostly unusable for shooting. But it was conceived to organize a massive team competition. Who can restore the seemingly lost bows? And such a person was found - Dondok Erkhatuev from the village of Zutkulei - a master of the ancient technology for the manufacture of national bows. It was he who, for 40 years, restored, restored ancient bows and made new ones. Thanks to such a master, it was possible to create a material base for the development of mass national archery in the Aginsky National District. "
Presumably, a year after the performance of the Buryat archers at the Avangard stadium in Moscow, the editorial staff of the Komsomolets Zabaikalya newspaper sent their correspondent to Zutkulei, to Dondok Erkhatuev. It's time to talk about the Buryat onion.
And a few years after these events, Buryat archers started talking all over the world.
uryat bow
The bow and arrow, originally inherent in the Buryats, are one of the most ancient tools of production and weapons. They were widespread among the Buryats until the middle of the 18th century, until that time they were the only type of long-range weapon, since the Buryats were forbidden to use firearms. In addition, reinforced bows were more convenient for horse hunting, and they were preferred over the primitive guns of the time. N. Witsen wrote: "And although they have very good muskets, they nevertheless more willingly used bow and arrows against the enemy, because they could fire two or three arrows before loading the musket." From the second half of the 18th century. the bow was used by the Buryats on a par with firearms. In the XIX - early XX century. the bow continued to be used by hunters, but to a greater extent now it was used in round-up hunting, which was most likely due to the greater adaptability of the bow and arrows to horseback hunting. A similar phenomenon was observed among other nomadic pastoralists of Siberia. Tuvans before the beginning of the XX century. hunted with bows and flintlocks, and the population of Altai used bows until the 19th century. inclusive.
Boo The ryats distinguished two types of bows (nomo and manza no-mo). The first bow shape had an almost round kibit (wooden base) in the center, flattening towards the ends, while the second was flat and wide. The bow was very resilient and long-range. As M.N. Khangals, Buryats brought such bows from Mongolia, in fairy tales and legends they were called Bukhar shara nomo. Perhaps the shape of the onions is due to the fact that climatic conditions were taken into account when they were made. According to the observations of an Arab researcher, bows with narrow horns, which included many sinews, were made for moderately hot and cold regions; for areas with extremely hot and extremely cold climates, bows were made, in which the wooden base prevailed over the others, and had wide horns. In all likelihood, both varieties of onions among the Buryats represented a new ethnographic form of a universal type of onion, referred to in special literature as "Mongolian".
The length of the bow in a free state approaches 160 cm, archaeological materials from medieval Transbaikalia show that the size of complex bows at that time reached an average of 150-160 cm.The bow consists of four layers: from a birch tree, on the inside of which there is a horn or bone ; on top of the tree from the outside there are tendons, and on top of them - birch bark. The first three layers give the bow strength (khusen), providing it with a long range, birch bark protects it from dampness.
Buryat bows have five main sections, or parts, and four connecting, or nodal, points. All of them have different functional purposes: in the handle (baruul) and two shoulders (burees) the throwing power of the bow is enclosed. On the inner side of the two ends, there are end plates 18 cm long. In addition, there are front end plates (slightly smaller than the first ones) with a cut (khershele) for the bowstring (hubshe), under the knots of the bowstring on the linings there are filly (tebkhe). All the component parts are connected at the nodal points, which are, as it were, the articulations of the bow. The tendons located across the onion increase the elasticity of the bow.
An important functional load is carried by the bowstring supports. This specific feature of Asian bows acts as a limiter for the inertial movement of the bow's shoulders. Fixing them at the level of its height, it does not allow the bow to turn out in the opposite direction after firing and returns it to its original position. The front end pads have a similar load, allowing the kibiti to oscillate within their specified interval.
Technological the process of making the bow was quite complicated, it required professional skill and a long period of time. For the manufacture of onions, the Buryats used dried birch, boiled birch bark, cow horns boiled until softened, which were cut into flat pieces, leveled, sometimes formed a mosaic base of a kibiti of two colors of horn, alternating between them. For bows, long tendons were taken with spinal parts of the animal, sometimes they were removed along with the skin (the belt cut from this part was called sur (Nur)). The use of the dorsal tendons of deer, elk, bulls and other animals was due to the fact that these long, strong elastic fibers had the ability to stretch under the influence of external influence and then contract again when this influence ceased.
An important technological process is gluing the tendons: firstly, when gluing the tendons, it was necessary to calculate the pulling force of the bow, and secondly, the gluing of the next layer of tendons occurred only after the previous one had dried. This drying lasted from four days to a week. When the entire adhesive was over, the tendon thickness reached about the thickness of the thumb. It took about 2 years to make the bow. To give the bow a long range, or the so-called reflexivity, the finished bow was placed in a special frame, where it was kept in a dry room at room temperature for a year. All parts of the onion were glued together with fish glue or glue made from the skin of a skinny cow or from scraps of skin and deer antlers. Such glue fixed the horn, bone, tendons well, was distinguished by great resistance to moisture, as well as elasticity, it firmly held the glued parts in those places where they had to bend and stretch.
For tet Buryat willows used special raw materials, which was due to the fact that, being the most important part of the bow, it had to be strong and resistant to deformation - both pulling the bowstring and its reduction are equally dangerous. It was good for the string to be damp with spinal parts of the skin, as the strongest, but the best was the skin from the belly of a skinny cow. The rawhide belt was cleared of fat, stretched, twisted, the bowstring prepared in this way did not stretch and did not shrink, retaining its original length. The bowstring was also made from the intestines of a skinny sheep, which were oiled in raw form with ghee, then rolled. Such a bowstring was good for warm weather, but it stretched out from the dampness. A bowstring made of twisted raw horse hide, according to I.E. Tugutova, retained its elasticity during frost.
The above materials make it possible to assume the existence among the Buryats of the differentiation of the bowstring according to its seasonal purpose. A horse-hide bowstring was more acceptable in winter, while a string was more acceptable in summer. There are two methods of fixing the bowstring with the Buryats on the bow: in the first case, the feet of the outstretched legs of a seated archer are the support for drawing the bow; in the second - in the "standing" position, the bow is passed under the left leg and the right one serves as a support for pulling the bow. Methods for securing the bowstring are to some extent ethno-distinctive load, in the special literature, the above methods are defined as inherent in the Mongols.
The wide range of use of bows and arrows as tools for hunting various game and wild animals and as military equipment is indicated by the variety of designations of an arrow and its component parts in the Buryat language: arrow - no; arrow with a horn or wooden tip - good; plumage arrow - uudhe; arrow without plumage - moho; arrowhead - zebe; arrowhead with four holes - zen (g); horny whistle - zen, yanan zorkho.
Along with the usual means of production, there were special tools for making arrows. Such an instrument was called mono, hence the name of the artisan - monoshin. There are known references to special knives used to make arrows, in Mongolian they were called onibchi, in Buryat monuments - sumuchi.
Buryat craftsmen carefully selected the material for the bow shafts from a good forest, this tradition has been known to nomads for a long time. Page spruce from poor quality and poorly prepared wood crooked and unsuitable for shooting. Dried birch shafts provided the main technical requirement for the arrow - it must be perfectly straight. This inherent quality is reflected in the language. The word nomo (arrow) is also used in the meaning of "straight (like an arrow)" and, in addition, has a figurative meaning "straight, honest". The high technical qualities of the Buryat arrows are evidenced by the fact that the eastern Tuvinians appreciated them and exchanged them for furs.
The materials cited indicate that the Buryats paid much attention to the quality of arrows. This was probably also due to the prestige of a male hunter, especially since at the end of the hunt, everyone recognized their arrows and collected them. "In order not to risk losing honor and respect for myself, I did not want to shoot with a wet or unusable arrow, for the one who shoots the best is the most famous among them."
Buryat arrows reach a length of 80 to 100 cm, their thickness is 1 cm, a notch is made at the end of the shaft to put it on the bowstring, and above the notch it is wrapped with tendons, which facilitates the process of drawing the bow. For the same purposes, sometimes a thickening or several lateral notches are made above the "ears" on the shaft, which creates convenience for fixing the arrow. These specific details of the Buryat arrows are due to the peculiarities of the Mongol-type bows and the technical methods of use. They are functionally justified.
Opera Buryat arrows (usually 3 or 4) are made from feathers of a goose, crane, eagle and other birds. For this, only tail feathers are used, since the arrows, covered with feathers from the wings, fly obliquely. According to other sources, for the straight flight of an arrow, it is important to use hard and smooth feathers, whether they are tail or fly wings. The Buryats observed the following rule when firing arrows: all fins of the fins should have the same length and width and bend in one direction, which gives the arrow in flight helical rotation and stability. In addition, when shooting at a target, the features of the flight of feathered arrows were taken into account. So, for example, an arrow with feathers taken from the right wing of a bird rotates in flight from left to right, and vice versa.
The Buryats knew arrows without plumage (moho). They were heavy-tipped arrows. They could function without feathering and quite accurately reach the target, since this was facilitated by a heavy iron tip, which, by balancing the parts of the arrow, ensured direct flight. In this case, the shape of the iron tips played a significant role. The Tuvans made arrows with iron tips without the plumage of the shaft.
Functional features determine the variety of arrowhead shapes. Birds and small animals were beaten with arrows with a wooden or bone cone at the end, as well as with light arrows with a narrow iron tip; large animals were hunted with arrows with wide diamond-shaped metal tips. The Buryats chose arrows depending on the distance at which the horse archer was shooting: “On the close, arrows with narrower tips are used, on the far - with wider and more feathers. further in flight and could, if not hit the target, then at least touch it with its sharp edge or edge. "
In hunting practice, tips with bone whistle plates were used. This ancient tradition of using whistling arrows in hunting is preserved among the Buryats up to the beginning of the 20th century. When the deer was leaving the pursuers, a whistling arrow was fired after him, which delayed the animal listening to its flight. Whistling arrows were used in squirrels fishing. Seeing a squirrel hiding between the branches, the hunter shot a "singing" arrow above the tree. Frightened by the whistle, the squirrel sank lower or jumped to another tree, and the hunter shot at her with an ordinary arrow.
We find curious data on the use of arrows with bone whistle plates by the Buryats and Mongols for military purposes in N. Witsen. He wrote: "The arrows ... had a thickened front end made of bone, they have three or four whistles that whistle very loudly in the air, which is funny to hear. ... Their chiefs of military detachments shoot such whistling arrows over their heads. their troops to arouse their courage, and also to give orders with this sound, depending on the direction in which they shoot. "
The synchronous distribution of these types of hunting arrows in the territory of Southern Siberia has been known since ancient times. In the graves of Kudyrge, an image of a broad-bladed arrowhead and a bunch of arrows without metal tips, slightly thickened and sharpened at the end, were found. Arrows with bone whistle attachments were widespread in the Xiongnu period and in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. A number of arrowheads identified on the basis of archival materials most likely belong to combat ones and are evidence of the developed military equipment among the Buryats.
For hunting, arrows with blunt wooden or bone tips, light arrows with a narrow sharp spear, and arrows with a flat wide rhomboid iron tip were used. During the hunt, tips with whistle nozzles were used. Combat tips were designed to pierce armor and chain mail, according to the nature of the cross-section of the feather, they belonged to flat and faceted. When choosing arrows, the distance at which the target was located to hit also mattered.
At Stringing techniques and archery techniques.
The Buryats pull the bow tightly, the right hand, in which the bowstring and the end of the arrow are clamped, moves back so that the bowstring is behind the ear, and the left one is extended to its full length, and the arrowhead approaches the bow itself. To protect the fingers and hands, a special thimble made of hollow bone (yanan erhe) or sewn from thick leather was used, it was worn on the thumb of the right hand. While pulling the bowstring, the index finger was placed on the thumb, while the thumb carried the main load, and the index finger helped him by pressing from above. In special literature, this method is known as the Mongolian one: "The arrow is held in the depth of the notch between the thumb and forefinger. Such holding of the bowstring facilitates its deflection to the left, therefore, with the Mongolian method, the arrow is always placed to the right of the bow."
During round-up hunts, rutting and corral, the Buryats fired at a gallop. This tradition of horse hunting and horse fighting has developed long ago and is inherent in nomadic peoples. N. Witsen wrote very vividly and figuratively about the methods of galloping shooting of the Buryat nomads: "... they sit low on a horse, what do they do in order to more easily turn the bow in the direction from the enemy, then turn sharply towards him to shoot, but they always shoot upwards so that the arrow falls straight from top to bottom when it has the greatest force, as he clearly showed me and how it is mathematically justified.When he launched the arrow, he kept both eyes open ... and so knew how to calculate the time that when he shot the second arrow after the first, I saw several times how the second almost touched the first, and both arrows fell at the same time, very close to each other. Truly, I would not have believed it if I had not seen it. "
The bow was held in a bow (khoromgo), placing it down with a bowstring. The cover protected the onion from dampness and damage. The cover was made from a single piece of embossed leather (Bulgari), the seam ran along the long side of the product. The arrows were kept in quivers (saadak). In the XIX - early XX century. these quivers were of an open type, on a rigid wooden frame, covered with the same leather as the bows. For convenient placement of arrows in the quiver and protection of the feathers of the arrows, it had distributors made of a thick cord sheathed with red cloth. The quiver could store from 4 to 15 arrows, depending on the type of arrows and the nature of the hunt. The bows and quivers were decorated with metal plates, which, possibly, protected the warrior from the arrows of the enemy.
The Buryats wore a bow on the left side, a quiver with arrows on the right side. This was due to the fact that when firing, the arrow from the quiver was taken with the right hand, tip forward. The bow and quiver were also attached to the belt with special rings. If the ring was located in the central part of the back side of the bow, then the belt was threaded through it, while the bow was not hanging vertically, but obliquely, which was convenient when riding. Quivers were worn on a long belt over the right shoulder, positioned so that they covered the right back and forearm, resting on the elbow. Archaeological materials on Eastern Transbaikalia, dated from the 1st to the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD, show the presence of several types of iron rings and hooks for these purposes. The methods of attaching quivers, bows, preserved on a given territory from the specified time to ethnographic modernity, allow us to characterize them as traditional for the Mongol-speaking peoples.
The ancient Buryat was completely dependent on the surrounding nature. A dangerous and hectic life gradually led him to the conclusion that in order to successfully ensure his safety and get food, it is necessary to hunt with joint forces. MN Khangalov writes: “What could the ancestor of the modern Buryats do with them (I mean with predatory animals), armed with his simple tools - a bow, arrows, spear, knife or spear? How could his safety be ensured, both from these terrible enemies, and from an even more terrible enemy - man? What, finally, could ensure the success of this man's hunt if he went out alone? "
For a long time each of the ancestors of the modern Buryats solved these issues independently, dying from the paws of a bear or the horns of an elk, before he came to such a simple idea that connection with other tribesmen and joint action was needed. This is how the zegete-aba hunt was born.
Isbrants Ides has brief descriptions of the round-up hunting in the 17th century: “In spring and autumn they (ie Buryats) unite in crowds of up to 1000 people and set off on horseback to hunt deer and wild goats. This hunt is called "abaa". When they arrive at the place where they tracked down the game, they disperse around the neighborhood in order to more conveniently overtake the beast and surround it with a ring. If they can reach him with their arrows, then each shoots from his bow, so that a rare beast will survive, because each shooter can fire thirty shots one after the other. "
Nature itself demanded improvement of hunting techniques and tactics, preparation of young people for it. There were games and dances, the imitative nature of the traditional occupation - hunting. With the change in the socio-economic conditions of the ancient Buryat, his transition to nomadic cattle breeding, games reflecting his labor process acquired an independent form in the form of physical exercises.
The most significant and popular games of the Buryat people were archery, wrestling (bukhe-barildaan) and horse racing, which went down in history under the general name surkharban. He is also popularly known as “eryn gurban naadan” (three games of husbands).
The international festival "Altargana-2016" in Buryatia promises to be a major event in the history of Buryat archery surkharban. The government of the republic, together with athletes and activists from other Buryat regions, studied the situation with Buryat bow shooting. The experience of previous shooting in Mongolia, as well as new realities in the technologies of making Buryat bows, were taken into account. Surkharban rules on "Altargan 2016" have been slightly updated.
Teams for surkharban will consist of nine people (6 men, 3 women). On the first day of the competition, all participants will shoot at distances of 50 m, 45 m. Two test shots are given for each day at the initial distance. Further, at each distance, the participant performs 8 test shots, in a series of 2 arrows, if during the shooting process one or both arrows break, then only a replacement is allowed. You cannot shoot the same arrow twice in a row, i.e. series. The sequence of distances: 50 m., 45 m. For knocking out the "last" the participant is given 3 points, to the left and right of the "last" - 2 points, the rest by 1 point. The number of harsh ones at stake: 6 pieces on each side of the "last" - only 12 pieces.
The bow and arrow in the Buryat culture remain important symbols, a kind of markers of tradition and at the same time dynamism, movement through the centuries and generations. Buryat shooting surkharban has become one of those elements of traditional culture that has survived in the modern world and has good chances for development.
Sports in general and national sports in particular, as noted by researchers and experts, has an interesting dependence on the socio-economic indicators of a country and / or region. Thus, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, seven out of ten first positions in terms of the number of gold medals were taken by representatives of the G8 countries. However, excellent results were shown by the non-G8 China (1st place), Australia (6th place) and South Korea (7th place). Among the countries of the then G8, Canada did not make it to the top 10, and the United States slightly surpassed China in the total number of medals (gold, silver and bronze). Note that Australia and Korea are far from leading in terms of population, their success is not the result of simple "pressure by numbers".
The phenomenon of success of developed countries in sports is usually explained by the increased attention of rich countries to investments in the sphere, from the construction of capital sports infrastructure facilities to the holding of massive, but not rated, competitions and games in courtyards, parks and on the streets of settlements. On the other hand, historians pay attention to the interconnection of indicators.
The industrial revolution in almost all countries was accompanied by a massive migration of peasants to cities, where the level of alcoholism and crime was rising. Reforms in the social sphere, including those related to the organization of the life and leisure of the proletariat, have caused not only a decrease in tension in the workers' quarters, but also contributed to an increase in the quality level of the labor force. In turn, the establishment of the social sphere, health and education of the proletariat allowed the developed countries to move towards the production of high-tech products. Thus, the relationship between mass sports and the socio-economic development of a country / region is manifested in both directions, although this manifestation is uneven in terms of time.
If government investments in sports infrastructure can affect formal results in the first 5-7 years, then the tangible return on the development of mass sports takes a period of about a generation (20-25 years). At the same time, in mass sports, it is not so much formal indicators, for example, the number of medals, that are important, but the breadth of coverage of the population. In turn, the popularization of a sports lifestyle among the masses sooner or later leads to success in the international sports arena, which is clearly seen in Australia. In this country, the passion for sports immediately catches the eye, even on a rainy day there are not empty sports grounds. On university campuses in the winter (and there it gets dark already at 6 pm) on the football fields, floodlights are turned on and students train until late at night. In rather rough weather (in winter, by the evening the temperature drops to + 2-0), in rain and wind, everywhere in green areas you can see people running or playing sports.
The popularization of a healthy lifestyle in South Korea is quite noticeable. In this country, the introduction of sports hobbies into the masses is going on in sync with the so-called "Korean wave", pop music and cinema, which promotes a total fashion for physical beauty. In densely populated cities, it is extremely rare to meet people with obesity, with significant excess weight, etc. Young people amaze with their beautiful figures. The mass enthusiasm for team games, unlike Australia, is not so noticeable, but, apparently, young Koreans devote a lot of time to individual classes in fitness centers and gyms.
Korea, by the way, is a kind of non-Mongolian analogue of Buryatia in terms of the complex of national sports. For Buryatia (and almost any other Mongolian region, with the exception of Kalmykia), horse racing, wrestling and archery were native, never interrupted traditions. Exactly the same applies to Korea, with the difference that here it is not the ancient wrestling of sirrym that has become more popular outside the country, but the relatively new martial art of taekwondo.
The Korean bow and Korean shooting technique are not as well-known in the country as taekwondo, but, along with the Japanese and Mongolian, it is one of the three most famous modern bows, which continue to be made using traditional technologies, and in shooting from which competitions are held. Since there is a stable and with the development of the Internet an increasingly growing community of archery enthusiasts in the world, interest in traditional types of archery competitions in the 21st century has also increased, perhaps by an order of magnitude.
The Buryat onion, having its own history and technology (it differs from the "Khalkha onion" now adopted in Mongolia), as well as an annual competition, is becoming more and more famous every year. This is mainly the result of the enthusiasm of individual popularizers and masters who conduct some kind of activity in the vastness of the world network. The state, being much more interested in formal indicators, is trying to focus primarily on Olympic sports, and on ordinary sports archery.
This is a common approach not only of Russia, but also of many other countries, to some extent one can understand Russia here, because there are a lot of national sports on its territory, and you cannot keep up with all of them. Nevertheless, such exclusive and potentially spectacular species as Buryat archery should receive more attention. The opinion that national types are unpromising and supposedly have a limit of popularization comes across examples of baseball and numerous martial arts of the Far East. All of these species were promoted outside their regions by and large in a short period in the 20th century. Sooner or later, investments in promising sports will return, if not directly, but indirectly.
Today, the Republic of Buryatia and the Buddhist traditional Sangha are mainly involved in supporting Buryat archery. On the territory of the Republic, according to the Ministry of Sports of Buryatia, about 300 people are engaged in archery according to national rules, and there is an upward trend. From this year, the Republican competitions for children and youth begin to be held. A project has been prepared for the assignment of sports categories to the master of sports of the Republic of Buryatia. In terms of financing, small, but still positive, shifts are also finally taking place, although specific numbers have not been announced. All this inspires hope and demonstrates attention to the topic.
In terms of bow manufacturing technologies, life has made its own adjustments and today the situation is such that athletes with bows made using modern materials are increasingly taking part in competitions. Such bows have an advantage over purely traditional ones, so the shooting distance on the surkharban will be increased. If earlier the shooting was carried out at distances of 45 and 30 m, then this year at the "Altargan" it is planned to increase the distances to 50 and 45 m.
In the future, it would be nice to revive some old Buryat types of archery, which are highly entertaining. First of all, it is worth mentioning the buy-harban competition, which existed in the memory of living people, and was held during the Great Patriotic War in the Bichursky and Mukhor-Shibirsky regions during prayers at the Oboo.
In addition, there was a very interesting tradition of shooting accuracy and penetration at the same time. This type, apparently, was practiced the longest by the Buryats of the Ekhirit tribe. Here, an original target in the form of a cart wheel was used, in front of which a piece of felt was hung. The arrow was supposed to pierce the felt and hit the center hole of the wheel. Legends claimed that some baturs could pierce wet felt or even several pieces of felt with an arrow. Presumably, this most interesting view comes from the military exercises of the nomadic Mongols, who set up their camps (kurens) inside a ring of carts and carts. To protect against hinged shooting, curtains of freely hanging long pieces of felt were installed in kurens, in which arrows got stuck, especially if the felt was wet. Shooting the wheel through a piece of felt probably imitated the assault on such a nomadic kuren.
A software engineer makes Buryat bows using ancient technologies
The tradition of making Buryat onions may be interrupted. The Kalmyks, whose regiments, armed with bows and arrows, took Paris as part of the Russian army in 1812, no longer compete in their Surkharban in shooting from the national type of weapon. Is this the future fate of the traditional Buryat onion? But once the ancestors of the Buryats in the Chinese Empire were called "the nation of bows and arrows."
It all started with an ancient bow
No, I am sure the tradition will not be interrupted, ”says Dylgyr Tsyrendorzhiev, software engineer at the Buryat National Boarding School and arms business enthusiast.
As a child, he had seen competitions of Buryat archers more than once, but he got the idea to make a real national bow himself eight years ago. Then an ancient bow fell into his hands.
Luke was already 150 years old, but he was in excellent condition, - recalls Dylgyr, - it is difficult to convey my feelings when I held him ... I saw the battles of antiquity. The whistle of arrows and the clatter of a thousand hooves. Snoring horses. Horsemen galloping, striking the enemy without missing. The ringing of the bowstring and the rustle of an arrow flying away. The wind in the face and the whole steppe ahead ... for a long time I did not want to let go of it.
Dylgyr Tsyrendorzhiev set himself the task of making onions the way the Buryats did one hundred, two hundred, a thousand years ago.
Unfortunately, here, in Buryatia, I did not manage to learn from the masters, - says the master, - those people with whom I talked either are jealous of their secrets, or are engaged in a frank "remake", passing it off as a traditional Buryat bow ... I had to restore the traditions of making Buryat onions from books, materials on the Internet, in personal conversations with historians and archaeologists. Last year I met one master who came from Agha to Surkharban. He made several bows and is really a great master at this. Unfortunately, I lost touch with him, as far as I remember, he is a former driver, and now, retired, makes bows.
Dangerous profession
Dylgyr made his first bow for six months:
The bow turned out to be good, only I did not follow the recipes of our ancestors in everything, and as a result, after one of the shots, the horn on the bow broke off, and the textolite with which I replaced the animal's horn was simply torn to pieces. It's good that I was not injured during the shooting. After that, I decided to follow the old technological subtleties in everything and use only original materials.
Dylgyr explains that experts divide all traditional bows into two types: simple and compound bows. An example of a simple bow is English, you've all seen it in the Robin Hood movies. In fact, it is just a wooden stick, bent into an arc, the ends of which are pulled together with a bowstring. An English craftsman could make several such bows from yew per day. The Buryat onion is a kind of Mongolian compound bow, which has been made for at least two to three years. It has five pieces of wood glued together at four connecting points, and three layers of sinew, wood, and horn that store energy when the string is pulled. All this is protected from the outside with a thin layer of birch bark to protect it from atmospheric moisture. All of them have different functional purposes that improve the shooting qualities of weapons.
Director of the Moscow Museum of Nomadic Culture, Konstantin Kuksin compares English and Mongolian bows like this:
An arrow from a Robin Hood bow flew only 300-400 meters, and from a Mongolian bow - 800 meters. Therefore, if Mongolian archers and the troops of European knights collided, for example, in the 13th century, of course, the Mongols would have won. It is as if now they were fighting with Kalashnikov assault rifles against flintlock rifles, that is, they were inaccessible to the enemy.
Work for two years
After a long break, Dylgyr started making his second bow, when he returned to live in Ulan-Ude from Moscow. This time it took him two years to make the bow. He began by visiting republican museums and trips to villages, where he sketched old bows and arrows, removed drawings from them. Having decided on the model, he set about harvesting wood.
The tree from which you can then shoot must be selected with great care. - says Dylgyr. - We need a trunk of a birch tree growing in the pad, where it stretches with all its strength towards the sun, which is why it is straight and has almost no branches, which means no twigs. From a tree that has already been felled, only the northern part is taken, because the wood there is denser. I followed all the recommendations that have survived to this day.
Dylgyr boiled the harvested wood in a large boiler, and dried the resulting material at home for several months. He wanted to buy ox horns for onions at the BMP, but just before his arrival, some wholesaler bought a long-term supply of horns at the combine. I had to be content with cows, and they are more winding and shorter. It was necessary to straighten the horns by hand very carefully, heating them over the candle. Insufficiently long cow's horns were supplemented with fragments of moose horn, and it was necessary to use modern material - ebonite.
The tendons with which the outer part of the onion is glued was harvested as follows: first, the tendons are separated from the carcass of a cow or horse and dried until they become transparent. Then, on the incus, the tendons are split into fibers, divided into strands a millimeter thick, and only then they are long and carefully glued onto the bow in several layers. Traditionally, glue made from the swim bladder of the Baikal sturgeon was used for this, but now it is listed in the Red Book. And that sturgeon glue, which is sold legally, was too expensive for Dylgyr at that time. So the bone glue was fine. The ends of the bow, where the bowstring rubs against the wood, were covered with fish skin.
Dylgyr Tsyrendorzhiev took the made bow with him to the children's camp, where, as a teacher, he taught lyceum students the basics of shooting from the Buryat bow.
I deliberately made it weakened enough so that even a child could pull the string, ”says Dylgyr. - Children with great pleasure shoot from a bow, one might say, they themselves are drawn to history. Many of my friends bring children to our field trips so that they know from an early age what a bow looks like, how a bowstring clicks when you shoot an arrow at a target.
Sacred family relic
Now friends and acquaintances bring old bows to Dylgyr, which were kept in their family for many years. To a request for restoration, he almost always refuses.
I saw examples of unsuccessful, almost barbaric restoration, when ancient patterns and the author's trademark ("tamga") were simply ripped off a two-hundred-year-old bow, says Dylgyr. - Of course, I would be very curious to disassemble the old bow myself, to see how the ancient master made it, but it seems to me that it is better not to take it at all if you are not sure that you can do it right. I would only do a little renovation. My friends-historians say that, by and large, the history of Buryatia has not yet been written. And it is very important to preserve antiquities as much as possible, especially in such an important area as combat history. I don’t want any talented historian from the BNTs to remember me and my restoration with a bad word in the future. There is another reason why I do not recommend restoring bows. According to many beliefs, the strength of this family, of this kind, can be stored in a family weapon that is passed down from generation to generation. And after the weapon is unsuccessfully repaired, the unique "tamga" of religious significance are removed, the core of the family may break.
The master also told his favorite Buryat legend related to the bow and arrow.
There is a legend that tells about a black charmed arrow, says Dylgyr, once released from a bow, this arrow will fly after its target until it hits it. It is impossible to hide from it or shoot it down in flight. The only way for the condemned to be saved is to sprinkle arshan on it, then it will become soft and, having hit the person, will not kill him, but only slightly knock.
From a bow it was possible to shoot both on the hunt and in battle. For battle, original arrowheads were used: the crescent tip cut off the enemy's head, the needle tip had to penetrate between the joints in the armor, the barbed tip inflicted maximum wounds when it was pulled out of the body. Blunt-tipped arrows that did not spoil the skin were intended for fur animals.
Having made the second bow, Dylgyr is already thinking about the third. Now that he already has harvested wood, the process of creating weapons can be shortened to five months. When asked if he will make custom-made bows, Dylhyr shrugs. It is not known how much such work can be estimated.
Masters of national bows are a "piece" people. For example, in Korea, 47 million, there are no more than 10 people who have devoted their lives to making Korean onions. There are about the same number of archery masters in Mongolia. Dylgyr Tsyrendorzhiev hopes that young people in Buryatia will be interested in continuing the tradition of the Buryat onion. He is ready to help everyone with advice and pass on the experience of older masters.
It is difficult to describe the sensations that you experience when you make your first bow, says Dylgyr. It's how to become in line with your ancestors, to feel a sense of history and pride. The Buryat onion is a time machine that transports distant ancestors to the era of harsh life and military glory.
Buryat bow and arrows Techniques for pulling a bowstring and methods of shooting from a bow the bow itself. To protect the fingers and hands, a special thimble made of hollow bone (yanan erhe) or sewn from thick leather was used; it was worn on the thumb of the right hand. While pulling the bowstring, the index finger was placed on the thumb, while the thumb carried the main load, and the index finger helped him by pressing from above. In special literature, this method is known as Mongolian: “The arrow is held in the depth of the notch between the thumb and forefinger. Such a holding of the bowstring contributes to its deviation to the left, therefore, with the Mongolian method, the arrow is always placed to the right of the bow. " During round-up hunts, rutting and corral, the Buryats fired at a gallop. This tradition of horse hunting and horse fighting has developed long ago and is inherent in nomadic peoples. N. Witsen wrote about the methods of galloping shooting of the Buryat nomads: “... they sit low on a horse, what do they do to make it easier to turn the bow in the direction of the enemy, then turn sharply towards him to shoot, but always shoot upwards like this that the arrow falls straight from top to bottom when it has the greatest force, as he clearly showed me and how this is mathematically justified. When launching an arrow, he kept both eyes open ... and he knew how to time the time so that when he shot the second arrow after the first, I saw several times how the second almost touched the first, and both arrows fell simultaneously, very close to each other. Truly, I would not have believed it if I had not seen it. " *** A bow during a campaign or hunting was held in a bow (khoromgo), placing it down with a bowstring. The cover protected the onion from dampness and damage. The cover was made from a single piece of embossed leather (Bulgari), the seam ran along the long side of the product. The arrows were kept in quivers (saadak). In the 19th - early 20th centuries, these quivers were of an open type, on a rigid frame wooden base, covered with the same leather as the bows. For convenient placement of arrows in the quiver and to protect the feathers of the arrows, it had distributors made of a thick cord sheathed with red cloth. The quiver could store from 4 to 15 arrows, depending on the type of arrows and the nature of the hunt. The bows and quivers were decorated with metal plates, which, possibly, protected the warrior from the arrows of the enemy. A bow was worn on the left, a quiver with arrows on the right side. This is due to the fact that when firing, the arrow from the quiver was taken with the right hand tip forward. The bow and quiver were also attached to the belt with special rings. If the ring was placed in the central part of the back side of the bow, then the belt was threaded through it, while the bow did not hang vertically, but obliquely, which is convenient when riding. Quivers were worn on a belt over the right shoulder, positioned so that they covered the right back and forearm, resting on the elbow. *** Archaeological materials on Eastern Transbaikalia, dated from the 1st to the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD, show the presence of several types of iron rings and hooks for these purposes. The methods of attaching quivers, bows, preserved on a given territory from the specified time to ethnographic modernity, allow us to characterize them as traditional for the Mongol-speaking peoples. The ancient Buryat was completely dependent on the surrounding nature. A dangerous and hectic life gradually led him to the conclusion that in order to successfully ensure his safety and get food, it is necessary to hunt with joint forces. M.N. Khangalov writes: “What could the ancestor of today's Buryats, armed with his simple tools - a bow, arrows, spear, knife or spear, have done with them (with predatory animals)? How could his safety be ensured, both from these terrible enemies, and from an even more terrible enemy - man? What, finally, could ensure the success of this man's hunt if he went out alone? " For a long time each of the ancestors of the modern Buryats independently solved these issues, dying from the paws of a bear or the horns of an elk, before he came to such a simple idea that connection with other tribesmen and joint action was needed. This is how the zegete-aba hunt was born. *** Isbrants Ides has a short and rather colorful description of the episode of a round-up hunt among the Buryat tribes in the 17th century: goats. This hunt is called "abaa". When they arrive at the place where they tracked down the game, they disperse around the neighborhood in order to more conveniently overtake the beast and surround it with a ring. If they can reach him with their arrows, then each shoots from his bow, so that a rare beast will survive, because each shooter can fire thirty shots one after the other. " Nature itself demanded improvement of hunting techniques and tactics, preparation of young people for it. There were games and dances, the imitative nature of the traditional occupation - hunting. With the change in the socio-economic conditions of the ancient Buryat, his transition to nomadic pastoralism, games reflecting his labor process acquired an independent form in the form of physical exercises. The most significant and popular games of the Buryat people were archery, wrestling (bukhe-barildaan) and horse racing, which went down in history under the general name “surkharban”. He is also popularly known as "eryn gurban naadan"
