The Birth of a Religion: Altaian Burkhanism - the Religious Form of an Ethnic Identity
"The Birth of a Religion: Altaian Burkhanism - the Religious Form of an Ethnic Identity" is an English version of ground-breaking research from the 1970s-1980s on the emergence of Burkhanism in Gornyi (Gorny) Altai. The author of the research is Liudmila Ivanovna Sherstova. The book was translated by M. Shabalin. What follows is an overview of the book that will soon be available. The overview contains a summary of the main arguments regarding the emergence and content of Burkhanism.
Motivation
It is usually considered that religions can emerge only in the past, under the conditions of the prevalence of the religious consciousness and the traditional way of life or be a result of a successful construction by charismatic personalities of their own variants of the world religions. Meanwhile, in the history, there are examples of religions or religious movements, which emerged in more recent times and which were witnessed by Europeans. One such religion is Burkhanism, which manifested itself outwardly in May 1904 in Gornyi Altai - a remote, Siberian territory of the Russian empire. From the moment of its emergence, it became the subject of close attention on the part of the Siberian public, the local and central authorities, as well as the church and missionary circles.

In the complex political conditions of Russia of the early twentieth century, the Burkhanist movement received a politicised assessment, which became fixed to it for the whole subsequent period of the Russian history. As a result of this, the question about the emergence of Burkhanism, about its role in the Altaian society, about the causes of its preservation was solved in the context of the Marxist theory of class struggle. However, the author's ethnographic expeditions to Gornyi Altai in the 1970s-1980s, study of archival materials and witness accounts forced her to doubt the scientific validity of such a view of Burkhanism. A consequence of these doubts became a scientific research project, dedicated to the investigation of the origins and contents of Burkhanism, which found reflection in the author's doctoral dissertation, defended in the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1986. The monograph “The Birth of a Religion: Altaian Burkhanism - the Religious Form of an Ethnic Identity” has been written on the basis of it. The monograph consists of four chapters that are logically connected.

The logical structure
Chapter 1 “A historical-ethnographic characterisation of the Altai-kizhi at the end of the nineteenth-beginning of the twentieth century”
In Chapter 1, proposed for analysis is the problem of the identification of the influence of historical, social-economic, political, and cultural factors, which determined the development of the ethnic self-awareness (ethnicity) of the Altaians (Altai-kizhi) in a confessional form expressed as Burkhanism. A conclusion is made that the inclusion of a part of the territory of Gornyi Altai into the Russian empire in the mid-eighteenth century (where Burkhanism emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century) is connected with the ethnic processes, whose beginning goes back to the pre-Russian - Zunghar period. Having partially deformed under the influence of Russian policies, they led to the formation at the beginning of the twentieth century of a new ethnic community, which adopted its own ethnonym - Altai-kizhi (Altaian person, Altaian). The ethnocultural heterogeneity was overcome as a result of the processes of consolidation, a reflection of which became a unified material culture, uniform economy and way of life. However, the Altai-kizhi, like also the other ethnic groups of Gornyi Altai, preserved many cultural traits of the common heritage of the Turkic-Mongolian nomadic world, so the ethnocultural opposition of “us-them” was expressed weakly. For a more visible distinction of self and for strengthening of their own ethnicity, an additional factor was required - this factor became a religion “of their own” - Burkhanism (“ак jанг”, ak dyang - “white faith”, as it was named by the Altai-kizhi).

Chapter 2 “The sociopolitical context of the outward shaping of Burkhanism”
Chapter 2 is dedicated to the reconstruction of the events connected with the beginning of the Burkhanist movement in May 1904, the outward expression of which became a rejection by the followers of Burkhanism of money, of Russian-made goods, of blood sacrifices to the evil deities and spirits; they also started persecuting the shamans, burning their bubens, holding crowded orisons in the Töröng valley. The changes in the behaviour of the Altaians caused a hostile attitude on the part of the Russian peasants - resettlers, who, in the conditions of constant disputes over land, did not understand the essence of what was happening. The Altai Spiritual Mission, which had a strong influence in Altai, was worried at the possible decrease of their flock, because many Orthodox Christian Altaians were converting to Burkhanism. But the intrusion of the Mission into the life of the Altaians was limited by the Ustav (Statute) on the Rule over the Siberian Aboriginals (1822), which regulated the relations between the Russian authorities and the Siberian Aboriginals and which established “the freedom of confession” of the latter. Not having a legal basis for intervening in the religious processes, the Mission attracted to them the attention of the secular authorities. The governorate and central authorities were concerned at the incomprehensible developments in the mountains of Altai and under the conditions of the Russo-Japanese War were afraid of external provocations on the borders of the empire. After establishing the absence of the “Japanese” factor, the central authorities lost interest in the events, but the gubernatorial authorities had to sort out the situation. The problem was solved during the pogrom of the Burkhanists and the arrest of 36 people. In 1906, a court trial took place, during which all political charges were dropped and they were released. The new faith of the Altaians became legal and spread widely in Gornyi Altai, without, however, leaving the habitat of the Altai-kizhi. This peculiarity of it set the task to consider Burkhanism as the national-religious ideology of the Altai-kizhi.
Chapter 3 “Burkhanism as the national-religious ideology of the Altai-kizhi”
In Chapter 3, the content of Burkhanism as the national religion of the Altaians is considered. A comparison is made of the structure of the shamanic and Burkhanist pantheons and a conclusion is made that the names of the main deities coincided, but that especially at the early stages of the development of Burkhanism, there distinctly manifested itself a tendency of the development of the principle of monotheism; the significance of the “good” deities grew while the worship of the evil ones was rejected. A consequence of this became substantial changes in the cult activities - a complete rejection of blood sacrifices and their replacement with milk sprinklings, an increase of the sacral meaning of the word (prayer), and the formation of special rites connected with the mass orisons in special “sacred” places of all Burkhanists, regardless of their kin affiliation. A component analysis of Burkhanism shows that it is a syncretic phenomenon, present in which are the most archaic, pre-shamanic components and the adapted elements of Zunghar Lamaism and Orthodox Christianity. The national idea found reflection in the reanimation of historical lores and sujets, in which the Zunghar period of the Altaian history is idealised. The figure of the national Messiah became the aggregate mythologised image of the Zunghar (Oirat) Khanate - Oirot-khan.
The emerged religion exerted a decisive influence on all spheres of the life of the Altaian society, and this aspect is considered in Chapter 4.
Chapter 4 “The Altai-kizhi as an ethnoconfessional community”
Under the influence of Burkhanism change the family rites, behavioural norms, calendar, greetings, everyday life. But the society of the Altaians is not something uniquely unique - such ethnic entities with a religiously framed way of life, with the ethnic self-awareness coinciding with the confessional affiliation, existed in the past and exist in the modern world. They are ethnoconfessional communities formed as a result of a conjunction of the ethnic and the confessional processes. In their subsequent development there is a possibility for a transition from the confessional identity to a political one due to the weakening of the former, leading to an aspiration to build national statehood. This tendency of the Altai-kizhi was partly realised in the twentieth century in the form of the Oirot Autonomous Oblast', and the Republic of Altai.

Context
In the modern world, with a few exceptions, there remain no states which had not been from the beginning polyethnic or which had not become such as a result of migrations. The contemporary globalisation boosts inter-ethnic and inter-confessional contacts, complicating the cultural diversity. It is clear that our world will for a long time remain polyethnic and polyconfessional, hence the scientific and political importance of studying the functioning of a multinational state. Because developing in such states are not only the populous, titular, but also all the other peoples.
The Russian Federation, like the Soviet Union and the Russian empire, is a multinational state. On the territory of modern Siberia live more than forty Aboriginal peoples, whose history had begun long before their inclusion into the Russian state. They had a rich cultural heritage and a long experience of intercultural contacts, which was supplemented with the Russian-Aboriginal links. One such people is the Altaians (the Altai-kizhi), who live in the mountainous districts of Altai in the south of West Siberia. At present time, they number less than 75,000 people. Their ancestors acceded to the Russian empire as a result of the crushing defeat by the Chinese in 1755-1759 of the Zunghar Khanate (the state of the western Mongols - Oirats), whose subjects they were. Being an ethnocultural fragment of Central Asia, already within Russia they preserved the traditions of the “nomadic world”, the study of which represents a considerable scientific interest. At the beginning of the twentieth century, they rejected their previous ethnonyms and adopted a new one, which reflected the process of their ethnocultural development and the formation of a new ethnic identity. At the same time, among them spread a new religion, that the Russians called Burkhanism after the name of the main and only god - Burkhan. Among the Altaians, this religion received the name “ak dyang” (“ак jанг”) or “süt dyang” (“white faith”, “milk faith”).
In the Russian historiography, it was characterised in many ways - as “a political movement directed against the state authority”, “religious reformism”, “the national-liberation movement against the Russian colonialism”. However, from the 1930s right until the mid-1980s it was defined as a “bourgeois-nationalist, anti-Russian, pro-Japanese movement”, that had an “artificial” origin. Obviously, in such an understanding of Burkhanism manifested itself the politicised, ideologised approach, which had little to do with a scientific understanding of this phenomenon. The dominance in the Soviet historical science of the class approach violated the integrity of the national groups, pitted them against each other, did not give a chance to identify and research the all-national interests.
The consideration of the peoples of Siberia from the positions of the Marxist formation method correlated them with the initial stage of the history of humanity - the primitive society. The peoples of Siberia, whose ancestors were part of the Central-Asian empires or had their own potestary structures, were declared “primitive”, incapable of self-standing development. And although these assertions contradicted facts, the monopoly in science of one methodology, and an adapted, simplified one, at that, hindered the scientific enquiry. In such conditions, the appearance of works with a different understanding of Burkhanism could only be a consequence of a weakening of the ideological pressing, which is what happened by they mid-1980s. So, the research of Burkhanism as an ideological phenomenon, as a natural result of the ethnohistorical development of the Altaian ethnos, undertaken by the author, was the first attempt to sort out its essence.

Methodological framework
The chronological boundaries of the research are determined by the need to identify the conditions and factors that had determined the development of the ethnic community of the Altai-kizhi and the emergence in it of ethnic self-awareness, whose marker became the new ethnonym and the national religion. The lower boundary - the mid-eighteenth century - has to do with the transition of the ancestors of the Altaians from the ethnocultural areal of Central Asia to the Eurasian space of Russia. In this period, the Zunghar Khanate, whose part Gornyi Altai was, ceases to exist as a result of the Zunghar-Chinese War, and its subjects, including the ancestors of the Altaians, known as the Telengits, Teleuts, and Uriankhais become the subjects of the Russian empire.
However, due to a weak interference by Russia into their internal affairs right until the second half of the nineteenth century, they reproduced in their internal life the political and cultural traditions of Zungharia. In this period, there unfolded a process of rethinking of their place in the structure of the disappeared Khanate. The past of Zungharia merged with the past of its once dependent population, which led to its perception of the Zunghar statehood as “its own”. The idealised history of the Zunghars - the western Mongols - came to be perceived as its own history, which served as the basis for the formation by the early twentieth century, already within the framework of Burkhanism, of mythologems about a “great past” and about the “return” of its legendary ruler - Oirot-khan, who became the Messiah in Burkhanism. The upper boundary is the beginning of the twentieth century, when about itself outwardly declared not only a new people - the Altai-kizhi, but when emerged and started spreading Burkhanism.
The territorial boundaries encompass the western and central districts of the Republic of Altai of the Russian federation, where the Altaians (the Altai-kizhi) live. They are Shebalino, Ongudai, Ust'-Koksa, and Ust'-Kan districts. It is precisely among the indigenous population of these districts - the Altai-kizhi - that in the 1970s-1980s the main fieldwork ethnographic material was collected on the culture, way of life, religious views and cults, including the Burkhanist one, also legends and lores were recorded.
As the main methodological paradigm was used the interdisciplinary approach at the junction of history and ethnology, drawing on the scientific achievements of folklore studies, linguistics, toponymics, ethnopsychology. An understanding that in a traditional society, the fixation of a novation is possible in the case of its functional overlap with the already present ethnocultural complex, with the possibility to “verify” it by the prior collective experience, put in doubt the thesis about an external source of Burkhanism, its “artificial” origin and “implantation into the Altaian milieu”. So a task was set to as fully as possible research the ethnic processes among the Aboriginal population of West and Central Gornyi Altai from the time of its annexation to Russia, that is, from the mid-eighteenth century. The subsequent development of the Altaian society proceeded within the framework of the Russian statehood, so researched were the political, social-economic, and confessional factors, that had influenced the specifics of the formation by the early twentieth century of the new ethnos - the Altai-kizhi.
A validation of this thesis has allowed a new look at Burkhanism as a natural ethnoideological phenomenon. A structural analysis showed that Burkhanism is the national religion of the Altaians, with its intrinsic markers - the presence of its own system of irrational views, its own cult and its ministers, special sacral places, increased emotionality of its adherents, and the spread among them of messianic moods. A component analysis of Burkhanism as a religious phenomenon allowed to identify in it the pre-shamanic, archaic crust, the religious components, conditioned by the influence of adapted Zunghar Lamaism, the eschatological and messianic motifs, connected with a mythological and idealised rethinking of the Zunghar ethnocultural heritage under a complete rejection of shamanism, especially at the stage of its formation.
The Lamaist crust, adapted to the local beliefs, and being on the periphery of the religious consciousness of the population of Gornyi Altai - the former subjects of the Zunghar Khanate, in which Lamaism was a state religion and which was imposed on all subjects, was revitalised by the sermons of the missionaries of the Altai Spiritual Mission. The ideas of monotheism, messianism, expectation of the Last Judgment as punishment for sins and the very notion of sin are present both in Lamaism and Christianity. And these ideas in the sermons of the missionaries turned out to be in many respects already clear to a part of the population of Gornyi Altai, and they did not contradict the syncretised Shamanist-Lamaist worldview. It was they that “formed” Burkhanism. But it was not yet another variant of Lamaism or Christianity, because it was orientated towards satisfying the national interests of the Altai-kizhi, at their search for their own values and directions for further development.
Such an approach underscored the endogenous, uncontrolled character of the Burkhanist movement of the early twentieth century, despite its politicised assessment that existed in the Russian historiography. The records of the Trial of the Burkhanists in 1906, which had been considered lost, but were discovered by the author in the State Archive of Tomskaia Oblast' in 1985 confirmed the her conclusions. One of the main conclusions of the research was in the new understanding of Burkhanism not only as a religious system, close, by its markers, to national religions, but also as an ethnic self-awareness, expressed in a religious form, of the Altai-kizhi ethnos, which in the early twentieth century represented an ethno-confessional community and among whose members occurred a superimposition of the ethnic and the confessional affiliation. As a result there occurred a strengthening of their own identity, a direction towards their own statehood was marked out. For the first time in the Russian historiography, it was proven in the early 1980s that Burkhanism in the early twentieth century was a religious form of the ethnic identity of the Altaians. At the present time, this thesis is shared by most Russian and international ethnographers and historians.

Readership
This monograph can be interesting both for the dreamers, who like travelling and exotic countries, but also for the researchers of the history and culture of Central Asia, Siberia, and Russia. It aims to satisfy also the professional interests of historians, anthropologists, ethnopsychologists, specialists in cultural studies, experts on the problems of inter-ethnic relations and state policy in polyethnic societies, as well as of the students of the history of religions and those interested in the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in the national districts of Siberia.
Gornyi Altai is known as one of the most picturesque territories of Russia. High, even in the summer snow-capped, mountains, fast and rapid rivers, bitterish and spicy aromas of the herbs of the mountain steppe, places weakly touched by man are already in themselves attractive to the modern man. But all this picturesque landscape is a kind of a peculiar book of memory of the local population - connected with every natural object are legends, lores, the history of the life of individual people and the families of the whole people. And this book can be read. This research is an attempt at such a reading. Gornyi Altai is not just a part of Russia. In the ethnocultural aspect - it is a fragment of Central Asia, where appeared the mighty empires of the nomadic peoples, from where began the great migrations, spread mysterious teachings. In all these events participated the ancestors of the Altaians, which found reflection in their culture, way of life, mentality.

Apparatus
The monograph is supplemented by three unique, hand-drawn maps. The first map shows the migration processes in the south of Siberia by the early seventeenth century, when Gornyi Altai was conquered by the western Mongols and became part of the Zunghar Khanate, which conditioned the processes of acculturation and accumulation by its Turkic-speaking subjects of cultural and religious novations. The second map characterises the ethnopolitical situation in Gornyi Altai by the mid-eighteenth century, when within the Zunghar Khanate formed the community of the ancestors of the Altaians and the border of the Russian empire in the form of the Siberian line came closely to their lands. This proximity encouraged the flight of the population of Gornyi Altai during the Zunghar-Chinese war and the demise of the Zunghar Khanate and aided their adoption of the Russian subjecthood. The third map provides an overview of the distribution and administrative organisation of the population of Gornyi Altai at the beginning of the twentieth century. The decrease of the ethnic territory encouraged the acceleration of consolidational processes, the formation of the Altaian identity, whose confessional form became Burkhanism.
Two figures are appended. The first one - “Dyarlykchi: genesis of features” allows to trace the process of the evolution of dyarlykchi as a result of a syncretisation of elements of the cult practices of the shamans and the lamas, and also to identify the specific traits inherent only to the ministers of Burkhanism. This allows to draw a conclusion of dyarlykchi being one more, self-standing representative of religious practices. The second figure “Burkhanism: analysis of components” makes it possible to see the syncretic character of this religion, whose basis comprised rethought elements of Mongolian Buddhism (Lamaism), traditional shamanic and pre-shamanic notions. However, the main role in the formation of Burkhanism as the national religion and the confessional form of the ethnic self-awareness of the Altai-kizhi belongs to historical lores, which had influenced the formation of the image of Oirot-khan - the Burkhanist Messiah, with whom the Altai-kizhi connected the appearance of the new values “of their own” and the perspectives of national development.
Literature
Sherstova, Liudmila I. 2010. Burkhanizm: istoki etnosa i religii . Tomsk: Tomsk State University Press.
Sherstova, Liudmila I. (forthcoming) The Birth of a Religion: Altaian Burkhanism - the Religious Form of an Ethnic Identity, translated by M. Shabalin.
 
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