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)

Cultural and Social Descriptions

The Yakut heroic epos Olonkho, being an archaic syncretic genre in the system of spiritual culture played a significant role in the society without writ ten culture. In the past, epos belonged to the genre, characterized by the dom inating esthetic function and serving as a source of many types of professional art and the modern secondary art forms. Olonkho is the heroic narrative about the deeds of the warriors - the first inhabitants of the Middle World, forefa thers and defenders of the Uraanghai Sakha tribes. Uraanghai Sakha is an ancient epic self-name of the Yakut, who descended from the unified tribe of the aiyy aimagha. Olonkho genre is the epic historic memory of the nation on "the level of heroic idealization", which in the mythological form reflected comprehension and evaluation of the past by the people. The content of Olonkhos has much in common with "the oral chronicle" of the Yakut - his toric legends, and it lies within the frameworks of reflection of the tribal soci ety public life.

Olonkho originated in the hoary antiquity and belongs to the most archaic epic monuments of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples. The rudimentary Olonkhos appeared in the period of geographical proximity of the ancestors of the Yakuts to these people (before the 6 - 7 th centuries B.C.). Olonkho content reflects the period of tribal society disintegration. Patriarchal leaders, who own huge amount of cattle, head the tribe. Olonkho plot is limited by the epic heroic period and the mythological space of the three worlds: the Middle, the Upper and the Lower World. Olonkho plots and the images are borrowed from the rich and diverse mythology, which reflects the world outlook, religion, archaic ritual ceremo nies, and the difficult historic development of the people. Connection of Olonkho with the mythology proves its deep antiquity, when the epic folklore was closely associated with mythology. Therefore, Olonkho exuberates with mythological characters, such as the deities aiyy, spirits ichchi, evil monsters abaady, various animals and birds. According to Ye.M. Meletinskyi, Olonkho, being an archaic epos, preserves fairy-tale and mythological heroics.

Olonkho is a general name for the numerous Yakut heroic narratives that on average consist of 10-15 thousand verses, sometimes of 20-50 thousand verses. Olonkho "Nurgun Bootur the Impetuous", reconstructed by P.A. Oiun- skyi, consists of 36 thousand lines. In the 1960s Olonkho " Alaatyyr Ala Tui- gun", consisting of 50 109 verses, was recorded from the performance by Olonkho performer R.P. Alexeyev (Ust-Aldanskyi region). In regard to the oral tradition of Olonkhohuts, they determined the size of Olonkho according to the length of performance. Usually the length of Olonkho performance was measured as follows "one night", "several days and nights". For instance, Olonkho researcher I.V. Pukhov writes: "The performance lasted from 6-7 PM till the dawn. In other words, the performance lasted for about 10-12 hours". (Illarionov V.V. Iskusstvo Yakutskikh Olonkhohutov. Article by I.V. Pukhov "Ispolnenie Olonkho" - Yakutsk , 1982. - P.133). Judging by the tape-records, such a "one night" performance consisted of 9-10 thousand verses. V.L. Sero-shevsky met Olonkho narrator Manchary, who claimed that he was capable to perform one Olonkho during the whole month. In 1970s, the folklorists I.V. Pukhov and P.N. Dmitriyev recorded legends about the famous Olonkhohuts I. Okhlopkov-Chochoibokh and I.V. Tabakhyrov, who hardly had enough time to perform the introductory part of an Olonkho during one night. Thus, taking into consideration the improvisational character of performance, the orally performed Olonkho had even larger size as compared with the lately recorded versions.

Olonkho circulated among the people in numerous versions. In the past, each nasleg and ulus had their own narrators-Olonkhohuts; each of them had a rich repertoire. Certain local oral narration schools of famous Olonkhohuts existed in Sakha. The epic environment favored the development of Olonkho- huts. The oral epic tradition was developed within the family context. Before the revolution, children over 5-7 knew Olonkho texts of huge size, sucking in the richness and beauty of the native language with their mother's milk. Ac cording to the Yakut mythology, the first author and performer of Olonkho was the Man of Wisdom Seerkeen Sehen.

The Yakut narrators perfectly knew all the nuances of the native language, developing and accumulating their language in the heroic epos. No wonder that E.K. Pekarsky, who used Olonkho texts as the main source for his fundamental dictionary of the Yakut language, wrote: "The language of the tribe is the expression of its life, this is a museum, which contains all the treasures of its cultural and supreme intellectual power" (Epigraph to the Dictionary of Yakut language).

Today, the epic environment is lost. The process of the epic environment decay was gradual and was caused by language changes and other objective social and historical factors, as well as development of the written language, book printing, radio and television. Unfortunately, today the Yakut language as the most important component of the folklore has lost its former signifi cance. The Yakut language underwent significant changes during the Soviet years; it is no longer as bright and colorful as the epic language of the past. This linguistic and folklore process is resulted from the negative political and cultural events of the 1920-s, when apparent and concealed persecution of the folklore and epic heritage were practiced. As a result, the link between the live epic tradition and narrating practices was broken.

Since 1990s, when perestroika in the USSR began and consequently the ethnic situation in the regions changed, a new stage in revival of the folklore and traditional culture in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) has begun. Every where in Sakha, various local competitions of performers of all types of tradi tional culture and folklore genres (first singers of the round dance - ohuokhai, folksingers - toiuksuts, algyschits, performers of minor genres - chabyrgakh-syts and Olonkho performers) were held as the national movement. In 1992, for the first time in the history of the Yakut people the national holiday ysyakh was announced the National Holiday, since then it has been revitalized and its archetypal ritual structure has been reconstructed. Since 1996 on the initiative of the enthusiasts and cultural institutions, the regions of the Republic hold the Republican competition of Olonkho performers among schoolchildren "Min Olonkho doidutun oghotobun" ("I am a Child of Olonkho Land"). This com petition disclosed serious interest of the younger generations, aged from 4-6 to 15- 17, in the epic heritage.

Lately Schools and Studios of Olonkho performing among schoolchldren are created in some uluses of the republic (Ust-Aldanskyi, Verkhneviluiskyi, Namskyi, Churapchinskyi, Suntarskyi, Gornyi, Megino-Kangalasskyi, Tat- tinskyi, Momskyi), where fragments of olonkho as amateur performances, and where traditional performing of Olonkho is taught. They are taught by teachers-enthusiasts, but not Olonkho performers.

With foundation of the Republican public organization "Olonkho Associa tion" in 1999 by Olonkho Department of the Institute of the Humanities of the Academy of Sciences of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) interest of the population in Olonkho increased. Various activities on promotion and publication of Olonkho for wide audience are organized. The "Olonkho Association" began publication of the 21-volume series "Sakha Booturdara" ("Yakut Hero War riors"), which would include unpublished texts of the famous olokhohuts and would cover the oral epic tradition of different regions (2 Olonkhos in 4 vol umes have already been published). Interest in Olonkho performance among the folklore amateurs and experts of the middle age (50-60 years), who still remember the epic tradition, have increased. All this proves that people did not lose interest in oral tradition, though neither the epic environment, nor the epic school of famous olnkhosuts, at least on the level of the 1930s-1950s, no longer exist.

Thus, Olonkho is necessary for the modern Yakut society on the level of lovers and propagandists of the people's favorite genre. Enthusiasts create their own branches of "Olonkho Association" in uluses to popularize Olonkho. Rural population of the central, northern, viluiskyi groups of uluses where great olonkhohuts lived and created their Olonkhos, not only remembers, but tries to preserve repertoirs of their famous countrymen-olonkhohuts. There are rooms of Olonkho in local museums, libraries, schools. Enthusiasts col lect Olonkho texts and memoirs of the alive witnesses of oral narrative tradition in their villages. Thus, the people continue to see the heroic past of their ancestors in epos, they get new ideas in philosophy and world outlook of Olonkho. Epic picture of the world, archaic forms of rituals and traditional religious ideas give impulse for further preservation of the oral tradition in local cultural communities of the republic (in branches of "Olonkho Association" in uluses, studios and schools of epos, amateur folk theatres) as a source of cultural interaction, consolidating the Yakut people in difficult conditions of the modern life.

The Yakut epos studies uphold the tradition of collection, scholarly publication and research of Olonkhos and narrators' work. Authentic and amateur Olonkho performing is being recorded in different regions. Treatises on theo retical and applied problems of epos studies by the middle- and senior-aged researchers of the Institute of the Humanities of the Academy of Sciences of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Yakut State University after M. Ammosov and the Institute of World Literature after A.M. Gorky of the USSR Academy of Sciences (G.U. Ergis, G.M. Vasiliev, I.V. Pukhov, N.V. Emelyanov, V.T. Petrov, P.E. Efremov, V.V. Illarionov, and V.M. Nikiforov) were published; scientific conferences, devoted to the epos and its scientific research and cul tural transformation, are held. It is planned to conduct comparative typologi cal research of the Yakut Olonkho in the context of the Turkic-Mongolian epic heritage. The first steps towards creation of integrated multimedia sys- tematization of Olonkho archives (archives of the Yakut Scientific Center, the institutional and personal archives) were taken. After a long break the Insti tute of the Humanities began to organize expeditions, applying techniques of experimental hermeneutics of the oral tradition and are equipped with modern audio- and video appliances. It is planned to establish a laboratory of comput er-added research of the audio and video records of Olonkho and transfer of the materials into electronic media. Lately, two conferences (International Conference in 2000 and All-Russian conference in 2004) on the epic heritage of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples, including the Yakut heroic epos, have been held.

In pursuance of the UNESCO Recommendations (1989) within the context of the above mentioned activities the concept of the interregional mega-project "Epos of the Indigenous Peoples of Siberia and the Far East in the Global Society of XXI century" has been established for the purpose of preservation of the epic heritage of the indigenous peoples, inhabiting the Turkic-Mongo lian regions (Novosibirsk, The Republics of Tyva, Kalmykia, and Buryatia, Gorno-Altaiskyi okrug and others). Regretfully, all these measures are only the initial stage, taking into account the objective circumstances that caused the disappearance of the epic environment and the unique oral narrating tradi tion.

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