Through Siberia

Country of the Buriats.—Their physiognomy and costume.—Habitations.—Mongol yourts.—Hospitality.—Fuel.—Possessions in cattle.—Character of Buriats.—Their religions.—Buddhist Buriats.—The soul of Buddha.—The lamas.—Their celibacy, classification, employments, disabilities.—Buddhist doctrines.—A prayer cylinder.—Christian Buriats.—English missions.—Reports of English travellers.—Results of Russian missions.—Distribution of Buriat Scriptures.

Soon after leaving Verchne Udinsk, we entered upon the vast steppe which occupies a large portion of the Trans-Baikal. Here we found ourselves in the heart of the Buriats’ country. We first met with these people a few miles on the western side of Irkutsk, and their physiognomy at once told us they belonged to a different race from any we had seen. They have very large skulls, square faces, low and flat foreheads; the cheek-bones are high and wide apart, the nose flat, eyes elongated, the skin swarthy and yellowish, and the hair jet black. With the men the hair is allowed to grow upon the crown of the head, and is plaited into a queue that hangs down their backs. What remains is cut close, but not shaved, as with the Tatars. The head-dress of the women is exceedingly rich, and consists of silver, coral, polished beads of Ural malachite, and mother-of-pearl. They wear their hair in two thick braids, which fall from the temples below the shoulders, and the unmarried girls interweave their braids with strings of coral. Several women had many silver ornaments hanging on their breasts, and in some cases a straight rod at the back of the head stuck out horizontally for several inches on either side, and to this the hair was tied. I was desirous to purchase one of these head-dresses for a curiosity, but they were not to be had at shops. The stones and metal are purchased, and made up by household skill. I was, however, somewhat taken aback on finding that their value frequently amounted to twenty or thirty pounds sterling. At a post-station we asked a Buriat what he would take for his hat. To our surprise, he asked the modest price of fifteen roubles merely for the silver knob at the top. The Buriats are said to wear no linen, but a wealthy bride’s dowry sometimes consists of 40 cases of the richest furs.

As for their habitations, the Buriats are such inveterate dwellers in tents that though they are supposed now to be civilized where they come in contact with the Russians, yet they make a tent of the house by piercing a hole in the middle of the roof, and have the fire in the centre of the floor. When visiting Madame Tokmakoff, she had a Buriat man-servant, for whom a Russian house was provided, but in which he could not be happy until he had thus readjusted his dwelling. We entered a Buriat house at Cheelantoui, although only the woman was at home. There was within a rude wooden bench, on which we were invited to sit, and on it was lying a pair of coral ornaments for the head. These the woman, on our noticing them, immediately put on, and she then invited us to drink tea. To have declined would have been considered highly unpolite. Even among the Russians, a general pleasantly told me that he took a refusal to eat food in his house like a slap in the face. Moreover, we were anxious to stand well in the good graces of our Buriat hostess, for we wished to be admitted to the Buddhist temple, and she was the only person in the place through whom we could communicate in Russian with the lamas. But to see the tea served, and have to drink it, was no small trial. Over the fire hung a large open iron pot, full of a bubbling liquid covered with scum. In this was a ladle, which our fair hostess filled and refilled, and emptied back into the pot. Then, scraping the scum away, she took a ladleful of the decoction, poured it into cups, and gave us to drink. We were told it was tea flavoured with salt. I only hope it was nothing worse, but it will hardly be thought matter for surprise if, after tasting it, I had an accident, upset the beverage, and declined a second cup. We had a good look, however, at the furniture of the dwelling, the most interesting item of which was a family altar, something like a small sideboard with drawers. On it were round bronze cups of liquor, and other offerings. There were also about the room some objects of ornamented metal, betokening clever workmanship.

This represents the Buriat in his civilized condition. One gets a better idea of his native habits and antecedents by going away from the haunts of the Russians, or even into the “land of grass,” as their Mongolian brothers call their desert. There they live in tents, which, like those of other Siberian aborigines, are constructed with poles meeting at the top, but covered with felt instead of deerskins. The hospitality of all Mongol tribes is unvarying. Every stranger is welcome, and has the best his host can give; and the more he consumes, the better will all be pleased. The staple dish of the Mongol yourt is boiled mutton, but it is unaccompanied with capers, or any other kind of sauce or seasoning. A sheep “goes to pot” immediately on being killed, and when the meat is cooked, it is lifted out of the hot water and handed, all dripping and steaming, to the guests. Each man takes a large lump on his lap, or any convenient support, and then cuts off little pieces, which he tosses into his mouth. The best piece is reserved for the guest of honour, and, as a mark of special attention, is frequently put into his mouth by the greasy fingers of his host. After the meat is devoured, the broth is drunk, and this concludes the meal. Knives and cups are the only aids to eating, and as each man carries his own “outfit,” the dinner-cloth and service does not take long to arrange. The entire work consists in seating the party around a pot of cooked meat. The Buriats are famous at drinking brick tea, infusing with it rye meal, mutton fat, and salt obtained from the lakes of the steppe. I suspect it was this we had to taste at Cheelantoui. So important an article of food is this tea to the Buriats, that they sometimes lay by stores of it as money. In dry situations, this substance will remain a long time undeteriorated; and consequently on the steppe an accumulation of it is often thought a better investment than herds and flocks.

In the northern parts, the Buriats procure wood for fuel; but in the southern parts, and with the Mongols in the desert, this article is scarce, and they use instead sun-dried camels’ dung, which they call argols, from a Tatar word which signifies the droppings of animals when dried and prepared for fuel.⁠[1]

The Buriat implements for striking fire used to be preferred to European, and commanded a high price among the Russians. They are made of plates of the best tempered steel, from four to six inches long, stitched to a bag for holding the tinder, the bag being of red leather, and tastefully ornamented with silver and steel spangles. The English and Swedish matches have now driven them out of the Russian market.

The ordinary occupation of the Buriats is that of tending cattle, the number of their herds reminding one of the flocks of the Hebrew patriarchs. Mr. Stallybrass told me that, when he was living at Selenginsk, he knew rich Buriats to possess as many as 6,000 or 7,000 sheep, 2,000 head of horned cattle, and 200 horses; and Captain Cochrane mentions the case of the mother of a Buriat chief who possessed 40,000 sheep, 10,000 horses, and 3,000 horned cattle, besides a large property in furs. In a sparsely-populated country, therefore, a man’s children are very useful in looking after his cattle; and since it is necessary to be constantly removing to fresh pastures, it will be understood that this state of things presented to the missionaries a double educational difficulty, namely, unwillingness on the part of the parents to lose their children’s services, and their constant change of residence. The same difficulty besets those still who would carry on missionary and educational work among other wandering tribes of Siberia. The Buriats, in 1876, numbered 260,000—the largest of the native populations of Eastern Siberia. As yemstchiks we thought them livelier than the Russians, and there was a manly independence in their bearing, which easily accounted for the difficulty the Russians had at first in subjugating them. Moreover, they would seem not to be deficient in intellectual power, for the English missionaries taught some of them Latin, and had prepared an elementary work on geometry and trigonometry in the Buriat language. Baron Rosen also mentions that they play chess, having learnt it from the Chinese, and he says that the best player among his comrades, who were Russian officers, having on one occasion challenged a Buriat to a game, was beaten. The speech of the Buriats is a dialect of Mongol, rough and unsophisticated, with Manchu, Chinese, and Turkish corruptions. It is distinguished by its abundance of guttural and nasal sounds. Instead of true Mongolian letters they employ the Manchu alphabet, which is written in vertical columns from the top to the bottom of the page, the lines running from left to right. The only versions of the Scriptures in the Mongolian language are those of the Calmuck and Buriat dialects.

The religion of the Buriats is of three kinds: Shamanism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Shamanism, more or less like that of the other tribes of Siberia, would appear to have been their old religion; and it still lingers most, I presume, in the northern parts of their country, which are farthest from Buddhist influence. Buddhism, however, holds sway over by far the greater portion of the people, and was originally imported from Thibet.⁠[2]

The lamas, or priests, are treated with great reverence, and every Buddhist Buriat desires that one of his family should follow the priestly calling. Hence it comes to pass that the lamas compose a sixth—some say a fifth—of the population. When in full dress they are clothed in scarlet, and shave their heads all over, and their large ears standing off from the skull give them a curious appearance. They are supposed to observe the strictest celibacy; hence Mr. Michie observes that it is a tender point with a lama to be asked how his wife and family are; but Mr. Erman points out that their celibacy has the most prejudicial consequences. The use of spirits is forbidden to them, lest excess “should disorder the brain of the student of the divine oracles, and corrupt the heart by the bad passions it might engender.” The use of tobacco also is denied them, and that for one of the best of reasons against smoking, because “it is conducive to indolence, and tends to waste leisure hours which ought to be devoted to pursuits affording instruction as well as amusement.”⁠[3]

Besides their religious employments the lamas engage in various branches of ordinary industry, especially in the manufacture of their own wearing apparel and their ecclesiastical furniture. A lama labours under one inconvenience, in that he is not allowed to kill anything, through fear that what he slaughters may contain the soul of a relative, or possibly that of the divine Buddha. Even when he is annoyed, says Mr. Knox, by fleas or similar creeping things, with which their bodies are often thickly populated, he must bear his infliction until patience is thoroughly exhausted. He may then call in an unsanctified friend, and place himself and his garments under thorough examination. So again, in connection with this difficulty about killing, Captain Shepherd relates an instance in which the lamas did their best to keep the law and yet evade it at the same time. The captain, in crossing the desert, had bought a sheep, and was somewhat in difficulty as to how the animal should be slaughtered. There were four in the party. The late owner was a lama, and could not take life; so was the guide; the captain was unwilling to turn butcher, and his Chinese servant did not know how. The captain would have shot the animal, but the owner protested. One of the lamas, therefore, took the sheep aside, threw it down, tied its legs, explained to the Chinaman the trick, and lent his own knife for the deed to be done, after which he turned and walked quickly to a distance. When the sheep was once killed, the lamas soon cut it up, had it cooked, and, of course, helped to eat it.

The Buddhist books teach the people that they will attain the highest wisdom if they honour the lama; that the sun itself rises only that honour may be rendered to the lamas; and that persons obtain pardon for the most enormous sins by showing them respect. Any offence against a lama annihilates the merit acquired by a thousand generations. Whosoever shows any contempt for these personages is said to be punished by accident, sickness, and all kinds of misfortunes, and so forth. One of their Siberian monasteries, or lamaseries, with a temple, is at Turgutu, midway between Verchne Udinsk and Chita; and I think I heard of schools there. I have said that we visited a lamasery at Cheelantoui. It was a small one, consisting of about half-a-dozen houses, one of which was the temple, where, if I mistake not, they worship daily at sunset, but into which, unfortunately, we could not enter, as the chief was absent. There were younger lamas present, some of them mere boys; but they either could not or would not understand us, and seemed afraid to grant favours. We saw, however, the praying machine. It consisted of an upright cylinder, from two to three feet high, and perhaps two feet in diameter. It was fixed on a pivot, and could be turned by a rope, to be pulled by the devotee, who secured by each revolution some thousands of invocations to Buddha. Sometimes these machines are turned by mechanical power, like a wind or water mill. This, of course, is easier, and as the quantity of prayer is more important than the quality, the latter method saves much trouble, and is popular.⁠[4]

The Buriats, who are Buddhists, have temples, ritual, an order of priests, and a considerable literature. With a religion so developed, it will not be difficult to account for its overcoming the older Shamanistic creed, nor will it be hard to understand what was told us by the Ispravnik of Selenginsk,—that of the two religions among the Buriats, with whom the Russian missionaries come in contact, they find the conversion of the Shaman Buriats tolerably easy, but the Buddhists are greatly opposed to Christianity.

We now come to that part of the Buriat people who are Christian. Perhaps it was an inquiry into the false religion of Buddha, under which so many millions of the human race are deluded, or perchance only a timid belief in the power of their own creed, that led our early travellers in Siberia, with one exception, to look coldly and unbelievingly on the efforts of the English mission to the Buriats; in connection with which the thought arises for how little the heathen world would have to thank the Christianity of England, if there were not some who take a more believing view than the travellers who go abroad, looking in a superficial way at what is being done, or sometimes not looking at all, and then coming home to pronounce missions a failure or an imposture. Captain Cochrane, for instance, speaking of the missionaries at Selenginsk, goes so far as to say, “For my own part, so small are my hopes of their success, that I do not expect any one Buriat will be really and truly converted.”⁠[5]

I have shown, however, that the English missionaries laid a solid foundation, taught several scholars, and translated the Scriptures, which translation the Russian missionaries have in their hands to-day; and whatever may have been the success or failures of the English, it certainly cannot be said of the Russian missionaries that they have no converts, for, such as they are, they count them by thousands.

The Ispravnik at Selenginsk told me there were about 40 men engaged in nine districts in the Russian mission to the Buriats, though I am not aware whether some of them are not also parish priests. We called upon a priest at Verchne Udinsk to ask about the matter, and sold him some New Testaments and Gospels. He informed us that there were 15 mission stations among them, and that on the eastern side of Lake Baikal there were baptized annually about 300 Buriats, and on the western side more than 1,000. This was confirmed by the missionary upon whom we called further on, and it agrees tolerably with the general almanack of 1878, in which it is stated that in the Irkutsk diocese there were baptized, in the previous year, 1,505 of both sexes, including four Buriat lamas; though the number of converts given for the Trans-Baikal diocese for that year amounted to only 52, there being one lama to every 20 persons.

We had brought with us a number of copies of the Buriat Scriptures. Some of these we left at Irkutsk, some with the Ispravniks of Selenginsk and Troitzkosavsk, and some for the lamasery of Cheelantoui. Others we left at Chita with a view to spreading them over the district, as well as placing them in the prisons. I asked the Ispravnik at Selenginsk what he thought the lamas would do with the books. He said he thought they would first read them and then destroy them; but Mr. Stallybrass, on my return, was of opinion that they were likely to be deterred from destroying them by a feeling that they were holy books. In any case we gave the copies we had brought, and thus endeavoured to do what little we could for this interesting people, who, I doubt not, will gradually be absorbed into the Russian Church.