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THE CULT OF THE Lorps OF EARTH AND WATERS
belongs to the chthonic spirits. She rides on a pig, holding a golden vessel [with]
jewel, she has such a human shape. Her chest is of human shape and the lower part
of her body, her spine is of snake shape. Such kind of being is she. We used [to say]
Sutää King, but in fact according to the teaching this mountain is not Sutää King, it
is Sutää Queen Mountain. If we start from the twenty-sixth, northwards from here
there is the [Mountain] called Tsambagaraw. Among the others this is the twenty-sixth
[one]. Well, northwards from that there is the twenty-seventh, well, the twenty-eighth,
ninth, and thirtieth [...] up to the Five Holy [Mountains] lasts the Southern Continent.
Following the Sutää is Tsambagaraw Mountain. Then following the Tsambagaraw
is the twenty-seventh part.
The protector-spirit of our Mankhan is Khaanbaatar; the majestic holy mountain,
called Khaanbaatar. This majestic holy [mountain has] a male local spirit (Oir. sabdg,
Khal. sawdag). [What kind of shape is that?] I have no idea, I have not seen him.
Concerning the owner-spirits (Oir. ejn, ezn, Khal. ejen), there is not an only owner¬
spirit [there], under ... there are owner-spirits of underworld (?), owner-spirits of the
stones, and owner-spirits of the trees separately. It is impossible to tell all of them
by heart. Owner-spirits of trees are in forests. There are no forests or groves in our
land. The only growing plant on our land is the thorny Caragana. There is no other
kind of wood and plant.
The local spirit (Oir. sabdg) of Tégrégiin Khar is hard to find. This is actually
a fish — one says. Well, a small motley fish. It is a kind of water being [i. e. chthonic
being] — supposedly. ...
The local spirit of the Gurwan Senker is a female one. An old woman. Such an
old, aged one, such a woman is she. Her running rout is here at this Togrég river up
to the Black Peak and the Birchen Brown Peak.”
Firstly, I would like to present a short survey on the basis of Jigmedjame’s narra¬
tive, how he described the location of his homeland, Mankhan district and the Altai
Mountains in a Buddhist cosmological pattern. His nature comprehension has a strong
Buddhist connotation.
According to his narration, his homeland is placed around the twenty sixth moun¬
tain of the Jambudvipa (Skr.) continent. He said that the twenty-seventh is the Tsam¬
bagaraw Mountain (Khal. Cambagaraw; 48°40'54"N 90°43'30"E) and the thirtieth
mountain is the group of the Five Sacred mountains of the Altai (Khal. Altai Tawan
Bogd; 49°8’45"N 87°49'9"E). There ends the southern continent and starts Central
Asia, the central continent, which is also divided into thirty parts or layers. His district,
Mankhan is the northernmost part of the Jambudvipa. The predominant mountain of
his broader homeland is the Sutéa King Mountain (Oir. Suta/Suté Xan, Khal. Sutai
Xan; 46°37'03"N 93°35'39”E), which is placed south from the centre of Mankhan
and called Sutää King wrongly, because it has a female lord-spirit. That spirit looks
like the spirits belonging to the group of the chthonic /is-spirits. She rides on a pig,
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