Sacral Values of the Jangar Epic

The paper presents new arguments that the Kalmyk epic of Jangar is an exceptional epic tale based on the people’s sacral values that are  of great importance for the global civilization as well. It should be  mentioned that the Jangar epic is far from being fully analyzed. A lot  of questions regarding the epic have yet to be dealt with by  research and including those of sacral values which constitute the  topic of the present paper. Based on their research, the authors of  the article come to the conclusion that the most important idea that  serves as the basis for the epic is sacral values that are of universal  signifi cance. One of the most important values proclaimed in the  epic is the land of Bumba which is a great and powerful empire, and  its essential ideal, its raison d’etre, is to provide peace and  happiness to the people. It is a land where people live in peace,  harmony and prosperity, it is a society where people are not murdered, do not get punished or humiliated. Bumba is a land where people live in social and material equality, where a person is  respected only for being a human being, a bearer of new ideas and  new values. Another value is the citizens of the land of Bumba who  live by the laws of social equality. Jangar Bogd-Khan (the ruler)  himself and his brave and victorious heroes (knights) defending the  land of Bumba and their people from attacks of external enemies also serve as another value. Thereby they also defend the ideas the  land of Bumba lives by. Those are ideas of peace and prosperity,  equality and happiness. The authors of the paper assert that these  ideas are based on certain sacral values. Moreover, as is evident  subsequent to the results of the conducted analysis of corresponding data from the epic, the high moral standards of the people of the  land also form a sacral value. The postulates of the author of the  epic are conceptual: the promoted moral values are based on what  the author of the epic regards as a realistic possibility to construct a  new happy society.

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