The study of the epic of Geser started with the publication of the texts including the texts of the shortened variants of the chapters, translations and scientific recordings of the epic. In the period to follow one can mention a more purpose-oriented, scholarly and systematic collection of the folklore pieces. With this in view quite a few folklore expeditions followed. S.Sh. Chagdurov made a contribution to its study by a number of his books. In the 80s of the last century the female personages, the epical genres, the various oral traditions were studied (S.S. Bardarkhanova, E.M. Kuzmina, D.D.Gomboin, S. Yu. Nekludov). The study of the Mongolian version of the Geser saga, particularly of over sixty manuscripts and xylographs of the written version of Geser in the Old Mongolian script was carried out (E. O. Khundaeva). In 1995 published in the academic edition The epic of the Euroasian peoples was Abai Geser the Mighty which was written down from the epic-teller Manshud Imegenov (Emegeev) by a well-known scholar Ts. Zh. Zhamsarano in 1906. In 1995 the book The Geseriade of the western Buryats was completed by D.A. Burchina, who gave a brief account of the various versions of the Buryat epic of Geser. In 1999 the two books by E.O. Khundaeva were published, one of them being The Buryat epic of Geser: the symbols and traditions, the other The Buryat epic of Geser: the ties and the poetical style. Both of them are devoted to the problems of the symbolic nature of the epopee, the cult rituals, the everyday customs and habbits, the language and style. In 2015 the book entitled The Geseriade: the Buryat epic and the Mongolian written story was published by E. Khundaeva and Ch. Erdyneeva.
In the Buryat and Mongolian epic of Geser there is a persisting idea of closeness, coherence, unification of man and nature which has been of great importance in all times, for the alternative to it might be neglecting all the laws and regularities of nature. At present there are the attempts at the ecological revival of the old traditions, rituals, holding festivals that evidences of the emotional loving attitude towards nature. A persistent necessity of waking up in the people of all the positive which had been accumulated by the ancestors, a respectful attitude towards ones own culture and resulting from it self-education and the spiritual growth. This all presupposes a true recognition of the other cultures which cease to be alien in that case. This involves a two-fold task, to excite interest in the world civilization through cognizing ones own.
On the study of the Geser heroic epic
The manuscrpipt Abai Geser khubun (Abai Geser the Mighty) is kept in Ulan-Ude in the archives of the Buryat folklore pieces in the collections of the Center for the Manuscripts and Block Prints at the Buryat Scientific Center which is a part of the Siberian Department (the city of Novosibirsk) of the Russian Academy of sciences (Moscow). It is well known all over the world among the orientalists, and its prestige among the scholars is ever growing. It is one of the richest repositories of the oriental heritage which attracts lots of the experts from the various countries. It has the ties with the scientific organizations and workers throughout the world. There are a lot of the foreign guests visiting or working in its richest archives. It is of the innovational nature and well equipped. The workers of the Centre also keep close ties with the scholars from many countries. They go on expeditions and business trips across the world and complete the joint projects. Very many international scientific forums take place in its assembly halls. It has got the international recognition and is making a good contribution to the further development of the oriental science.
In 1776 P.S. Pallas gave the first information in Russia concerning the epic Geser. B. Bergmann rendered the contents of the two chapters from the Kalmyck version of the tale of Geser (1804). J. I. Schmidt re-edited in the Old-Mongolian script the so-called (так-называемый) Peking version of 1716 consisting of the seven chapters [1836], and in three years he published its translation in German [1939]. S. A. Kozin published the translation of Geser to Russian [193536]. A.M. Pozdneev in 1896 published the rendering (пересказ) of a Kalmyck version with the translation in Russian [1896]. G. N. Potanin gave the rendering of a Buryat version [1981, 1883]. He then published in proze the Tibetan and Buryat versions of Geser [1893]. M. N. Khangalov wrote down from the epic-tellers the variants of the Buryat version and published their renderings (пересказ, переложение) in Russian in the so called Balagan collection [1903, 1959].
One should take note of the fact that in 1909 an English traveler J. Curtin published the three variants of Geser making use of his notes [1909]. One can find among them the abridged tale of Geser written down from the epic-teller M. Imegenov. This curtailed variant has some passages which differ it from the full recording made from the same epic-teller by Ts. Zhamtsarano in 1906. One should bear in mind that the texts in J. Kurtins book present the result of the double translation. At first the text was translated from Buryat to Russian by V. Mikhailov on the request of J. Kurtin. Then it was translated from Russian to English, therefore they present in fact a prosaic rendering of some motives of the epic but certainly they cannot be taken as the precise recording of the epic performed by the epic-teller.
On the contrary, the records made by Ts. Zhamtsarano are of great academic interest. In the first and second issues of the second volume of The patterns of the folklore of the Mongolian tribes one can find the tales Abai Geser khubun, Oshor Bogdo and Khurin Altai written down from a story-teller M. Imegenov [1930, 1931]. Ts. Zhamtsarano accompanied his records with the comments, the characteristics of the epics, the peculiarities of their performing art. The epic-teller M. Imegenov was born in 1849 into a poor peasants family in the village of Kukunut. He had a special gift for story-telling. Ts. Zhamtsarano wrote: When the rhapsode performs the uliger, he puts the pure water near him to have it time from time, leans back, half closes his eyes and gets absorbed in the atmosphere of his epical poem and begins to sing in a drawn-out, melodious manner being carried away while as if drawing one picture after the other with a surprising calmness and impassivity despite his being inspired and taken away. The listeners echo him whenever necessary [Obraztsy, 1930]. (Translated by Ye. Khundaeva).
The folklore experts S. P. Baldaev, A. K. Bogdanov, G. D. Sanjeev, K. A. Khadakhane, K. B. Baginov, A. I. Shadaev, I. N. Madason, D. D. Khiltukhin, N. G. Baldano, R. F. Tugutov, D. A. Alexeev, N. O. Sharakshinova and the others wrote down the tales of Geser in all the districts of Buryatia. They wrote down the epics from the celebrated (знаменитый) story-tellers of the 2030-s of the 20 century.
At present in the Center for the Oriental Manuscipts and Block-prints at the Institute for the Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan studies of the Siberian Depatment, the Russian Academy of sciences, the collection of the epics (uliger) contains over one hundred authentic works among which presented most richly is the epic of Geser. There are about ten variants of Geser. The records were made in different years in such districts of the Irkutsk province (oblast) as Ekhirit-Bulagat, Bokhan, Osinsk and Nukut. The epic-tellers were M. Imegenov, A. Vasiliyev, P. Petrov, P. Dmitriyev, P. Tushemilov, N. Ivanov, P. Stepanov, A. Baldakshinov, B. Zhetukhaev, A. Toroyev and the others.