OLONKHO
the Yakut Heroic Epos

(Detailed description as it was written in candidate application for the 3rd proclamation of masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of the humanity)

PREFACE

Yakut heroic epos Olonkho as the great monument of the epic tradition is submitted to the International Jury of UNESCO for consideration of its inclusion into the List of the World Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in July 2005.Olonkho is a heroic epos consisting of numerous narrations about the deeds of ancient warriors ("bogatyrs" - epic heroes). Its volume is of 10,000 to 12,000, sometimes over 50,000 lines.

Olonkho traditionally was developed in many versions by various local oral performance schools flourishing in the past. The specific manner of Olonkho performance was formed traditionally as a kind of poetic improvisation and the specific manner of the unique Yakut guttural singing, Kylyhakh.

Collection of Yakut epic monuments began in the mid 19th century. The total of over 120 full text versions, more than 100 narrations and summaries, and above 300 video and audio records have been collected. Of all these, only 22 Olonkho texts were published before Oc tober Revolution of 1917 and 8 in the Soviet time. On the basis of Olonkho texts and records 613 Olonkho authors and performers (17th-21st centuries) have been identified, of those only 2 still alive.

At present the epic atmosphere as well as live Olonkho performance traditions are fading away. The individual manners of performance with their unique attributes (improvisation, technique, poetic speech endowment, specific guttural singing, facial expression, gesticula tion, etc.) are vanishing. The issues of archive records preservation, further edition of Olonkho texts, propagation of the oral epic performing tradition among the younger generations are extremely urgent today.

Considering the Recommendations of the UNESCO International Convention on Folk lore Protection (1989) and the Seminar on the Traditional Culture and Folklore Safeguarding in Siberia of the Russian Federation (Yakutsk, 2002), as well as the decisions of the Interna tional and All-Russia Scientific Conferences "Olonkho in the context of the World Peoples' Heritage" (Yakutsk, 2000)," Epos of the Turkic and Mongolian Peoples" (Yakutsk, 2004), it was recommended to propose Yakut heroic epos Olonkho for nomination to "The List of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity".

Sakha Republic Public Organization "Association Olonkho", the Institute of Humanities of the Academy of Sciences of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, the Chairman of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, the President and Government of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) prepared this Application for the nomination.

Considering the significant role of Olonkho in the spiritual and cultural life of Yakut people, we are confident that granting the heroic epos Olonkho the status of a "World Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" will facilitate preservation of this oral epic tradition, safeguarding Olonkho as one of the unique monuments of the epic heritage of the Turkic-Mongolian world, and its promotion among peoples of Russia and the world.

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