Towards a Tradition of Home Prayers in Kalmyk Buddhism: the Specificity of Texts

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the tradition of home prayers of Kalmyk Buddhist laymen. On the basis of the data on the traditions of Theravada and Mahayana, the author comes to the conclusion that the laity’s tradition of prayer on special days three times each lunar month dates back to the ancient period of the history of Buddhism. Though the tradition is still preserved in Kalmyk Buddhism it has some specific features. Of particular importance are the texts, read by Kalmyk believers in Kalmyk and Tibetan languages during the days of fasting which are called Matsg. The author identifies 4 groups of texts and gives their examples. Further research will probably be connected with the identification process of all the texts included in the collections of the prayers of fasting days.

Keywords

• buddhism
• kalmykia
• laity
• prayers
• texts