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OCR
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 ownerspirit [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 narrative, 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 mountain of the Jambudvipa (Skr.) continent. He said that the twenty-seventh is the Tsambagaraw 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, 381
