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RACHEL MIKos In the following riddle, offerings on the shrine are envisioned as a flock of a lama’s sheep ‘grazing’ on the altar place: IM4 JIAMbIH XOHb Ipr33 naraH 631yMH9 — raxuıı® The sheep of the lama doctor Grazing along the bank — (Shrine) offering The ‘bank’ (Khal. a9p92) most likely refers to the horizontal space created on top of a trunk or wooden chest (aedap), which would be placed in the northern honorific section of the yurt (Khal. xotimop). The decorative wooden chest often had another horizontal shelf or glassed-in low vitrine placed on the surface to the back, which could contain sacral statues, images, books and sutras. The lama is the owner (3394) or herder of the sheep, which ‘graze’ on the ‘steppe’ before the statues or images. While the riddle possibly refers to a doctor lama, it is also quite likely that the attribute ‘doctor’ (Khal. amu) was inserted in order to create alliteration with the noun ‘bank’ (Khal. ape, here in the third person accusative suffix form, which could refer to the bank being possessed by the lama). The seemingly infinite horizontal space of the steppe is metaphorically transposed into the finite space of the ger, or yurt. REFERENCES TO MATERIALITY Acertain group of riddles makes explicit reference to the physical materiality of votive objects. On one level, these riddles might be viewed as refuting or denying the sacrality embodied in the object they describe but they actually depict the very grounded, and one could even say, earthy comprehension of Buddhism and its rites among the Mongolians. OBep HB alıT Ap Hb maBap — bypxau'® Gold front Mud back — (statue of) a deity 18 Jlozop, IT. — Onsnüxyrar, Il.: Moxeon apovin onbcozo maeaap, p. 252. '° Slosop, I. — Ousuiixyrar, LI.: Moneon apdtin onbcoeo masaap, p. 252. 154
