Монголоведение (Dec 2021)
Fieldwork Endeavors of Purbo B. Baldanzhapov
Abstract
The article examines one of the aspects of the creative heritage of Purbo Baldanovich Baldanzhapov (1921–1991), the eminent scholar of history and culture of Mongolian-speaking peoples. The study is of relevance, granted the importance of his field work and materials collected in the expeditions, including the data on the history and culture of Buryats, Mongolians, and Tuvans that need to be published. The article aims to give an estimate of Baldanzhapov’s scholarly work and of his role for the development of science in Buryatia and to introduce his field materials to make them available for scientific study. For the purpose, methods of source studies were used for the description and analysis of the field materials under study and the biographical method was employed in the estimation of the scholar’s contribution to the study of the history and culture of the Mongolian-speaking peoples. Materials used for the research were his field reports, reports, expedition diaries, and notebooks kept in the scholar’s personal archive (f. no. 29) at the Center for Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Institute of Mongolian Studies, Buddhology and Tibetology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Results. While he was involved in numerous scholarly activities, Baldanzhapov focused on the collection and identification of written monuments, especially Mongolian chronicles and works on Indo-Tibetan medicine. As a member of historical- ethnographic expeditions, he collected data on shamanistic rituals, Buryat clans and families, folklore, and ethnography. His data on the spiritual culture of the Buryats and Mongolians, the transformation of Mongolian society and the development of school education in Mongolia substantially supplement and concretize the history and culture of the peoples under study. Conclusions. Baldanzhapov managed to implement several large projects for the study of written sources, the spiritual culture of the Buryats and Mongolians, and Indo-Tibetan medicine. The draft records of most field materials are not easy to work with, but they are sure to be of relevance for the researchers in the field. Notably, in terms of their thematic coverage, the archival materials, Mongolian and Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, microfilms, which the scholar managed to collect, are unique in the collection of the Center of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies (SB RAS).
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