The paper deals with the political, social and religious activities by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the founder of the Navayana movement that is a modernized Buddhism in India. Being an outstanding politician and lawyer, Ambedkar devoted his life to the struggle for the rights of the untouchables to which he himself belonged. Ambedkar was convinced that the Hindu traditions namely varna-caste system were the main problems of India that prevented the formation of a united nation and civil society based on equality and freedom. To overcome traditional social organization and win over Hinduism, he turned to Buddhism which contained qualities to unite the nation and resist the Hindu rigid social stratification and hierarchy. According to Ambedkar, Navayana is most close to the traditional Teaching and, at the same time, is not monastic. In Navayana, Ambedkar sought the worldview alternative to Hinduism and ways to egalitarianism and democratization in the Indian society. In the course of struggle for independence, when Indian nationalism was built on the ideas of M.K. Gandhi who was closely associated with politicized Hinduism, Ambedkar did not put forward a national program of action and remained the leader of the untouchables that constituted a significant social group and were one of the objects of M.K. Gandhi’s and the Indian National Congress’s agitation. Gandhi. As a result, Ambedkar stood in opposition to the Hindu leaders, however gained political weight among various strata of Indian society. After achieving independence, Ambedkar actively joined the work for the creation of Indian legislative framework and became the ‘Father of the Indian Constitution.’ At the same time, he hoped to reform Hindu traditional law towards egalitarianism and democracy so as to improve the status of women and India’s underclass which reportedly included the untouchables and minor tribes. However, when the attempts failed, Ambedkar became more decisive in his anti-Hindu agitation among the outcastes. The main event in Ambedkar’s life was his own and his supporters’ conversion to Buddhism in 1956. Modernized Buddhism ― Navayana ― is based on the principles that were formulated by Ambedkar according to the original Teachings of the Buddha as had been preserved in the Pali Canon. The number of Ambedkarian Buddhists grows as a result of the refusal of untouchables from Hinduism when India’s supreme authorities stand on the positions of right Hindu nationalism and have no intention to change life of the most depressed social groups. The Navayana Buddhism and Ambedkar became the slogan and symbol of political parties and organizations, although today their weight in Indian politics is not that impressive. However, the growing number of supporters witnesses the fact that the ideas of egalitarianism and democracy once put forward by Ambedkar are getting increasingly widespread in India.

Domestic historiography (both Soviet and Russian ones) has paid considerable attention to studies of the organization and functioning of multi-leveled government structures supposed to administer the huge, multiethnic and multiconfessional country.
The process of national-state construction and management of national and socio-economic problems in Southern Russia during this period – especially in the North Caucasus inhabited by dozens of ethnic groups with centuries-old cultures and religions – was basically difficult, and the especially difficult task to resolve was the essence and principles for handling land-territorial issues and structural government institutionalization. In the course of administrative procedures, national traditions and customs, peculiarities of national characters of the locals were to be taken into account; it was also required to diplomatically combine new and old forms of government, and, if necessary, turn to traditional governance institutions.
With due ragard of the new realities ― transition to a new economic policy, collectivization ― the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) chose to pay special attention to non-Russian peoples, with an emphasis on the training of national cadres and their involvement in work within the newly established local authorities. Korenization (‘nativization’; Rus. korenizatsiya) of the state apparatus and socio-cultural institutions was initiated in national autonomies of Southern Russia which was basically the case with the rest of the country. The policy was perceived by the authorities as a major stipulation for the development of statehood of indigenous peoples, as ‘a means of pulling forth the culturally and economically backward non-Russians to the level of the advanced (nations)’. With the aid of the movement, the Bolshevik party sought, on the one hand, to strengthen its positions in the national regions, and, on the other, to spread Communist ideas among their populations. As is known, the national regions of Southern Russia experienced acute shortage of specialists that would be representatives of titular nationalities in state and public bodies, economic and cultural institutions, industry and in agriculture. To a certain extent, the national autonomies did form certain national cadres – active and obedient conductors of the Communist Party’s policy in respective regions, those who lived in constant fear of continuous repressions on behalf of the state and, as a result, could not protect the ethnic and national interests of their peoples sufficiently enough.

The article analyzes 15 swords and daggers of the Sarmatian era discovered beyond burial complexes in western steppe-foothill areas of the Southern Urals, in direct vicinity of the taiga mining belt (Russia, Republic of Bashkortostan, Meleuzovsky and Kugarchinsky Districts). The maximum dimensions of the territory are 30 × 20 km.
Among the latter, 5 finds are dated to the 5th–4th cc. BC (including Chertomlyk and Solokha that rare enough for the Southern Urals), 7 finds dated to the 3rd–2nd cc. BC (‘classical’ Prokhorovo samples), and 3 finds dated to the 2nd–1st cc. BC – 1st c. AD (Middle Sarmatian era). Most of the swords and daggers were discovered in the 1960-90s with their finding locations basically identified clearly enough, which allows for a spatial analysis.
The paper shows that all findings are distributed between separate territorial groups (Yumaguzino, Nugush, Itkuchukovo, Verkhotor) which are isolated valleys separated by mountains and 350 m high inland plateaus. Dimensions of such valleys vary from 7×7 to 15×7 km, the distance between them exceeding no 5-10 km. The mountains around the Nugush and Verkhotor Valleys are covered with forest, the Itkuchukovo and Yumaguzino Valleys are characterized by steppe landscape. On one side they border on the mountain-forest zone. The fact that the aforementioned daggers related to both the mid-1st millennium BC and the mid-to-late – late 1st millennium BC were found in the same valleys makes it possible to conclude that nomadic tribes of Scytho-Sarmatian origins had inhabited these territories using them as summer pastures for quite a long time. This suggestion can be well supported by the ethnographic data concerning sizes and locations of ‘nomadic districts’ (as well as summer pasture complexes) of the Bashkir population in the Southern Urals.
The results of the research conducted show that the examined southwestern sub-mountain zone was the farthest northeastern point within the distribution area of Southern Uralic nomadic groups. The lands were actively reclaimed during the last centuries BC, and a number of valleys were used for at least 400–500 years.
Further research and systematization of the collected materials will create opportunities to obtain some data concerning military ‘blade-related’ cults and rituals of the early Eurasian nomadic tribes, and shall provide certain information for reconstruction of the nomadic settlement system in the Southern Urals. The received results can also be helpful in interpolating them on other nomadic territories.

With reference to available archaeological data, the paper considers the most controversial period in the life of the Ufa-II settlement connected with the Golden Horde era.
The work basically applies all archaeological materials of the Golden Horde period available from the Ufa-II settlement; analogies drawn from data on synchronous settlement monuments.
The article distinguishes a number of architectural and building elements typical for the 12th–14th cc. archaeological monuments of the Cis-Urals. In the territories of the ancient objects (settlements and fortifications) structurally different constructions have been identified (housing and productive-economic ones, suval-furnaces, etc.). Other widely known objects include stone mausoleums of Hussein-Bek, Tura Khan and Maly Keshene. At the same time, no similar facilities have been discovered in the territory of the Ufa-II settlement yet, despite the fact this archaeological site is positioned as a stronghold of Bashkort City dated to the 5th–16th centuries. Again, no traces of public buildings (mosques, khan’s palaces, etc.) have been found within the ancient settlement dated to the 12th–14th centuries too. This contradicts the very definition of the city of Ufa-II as a metropolitan city.
Moreover, the composition and quantity of cultural remains of the Golden Horde period hardly make it possible to interpret the investigated occupation earth as actually that of a settlement. Materials from settlements of the Golden Horde time located in the territory of Bashkortostan (Ufa I (Chertovo) hillfort, Gornovo settlement, Turnaly hillfort, etc.) are used as sources of comparative reference data.
The article offers a new interpretation of the destination of the Ufa-II fort site in the Golden Horde era ― a ‘market field’.

In the 20th century, lay Buddhists began to play a far more important role in religious processes both in the West and in Asian countries. Attempts to categorize western Buddhists have shown that the standard division into monks and laity does not work anymore. Going beyond Asia and adapting to new socio-political, economic and cultural conditions, Buddhism has transformed and inevitably taken new forms. The approaches and criteria developed over many years of studying Buddhism in Asia do not describe the whole variety of forms of involvement of western followers. And in the countries of Asia, modernization, secularization and globalization resulted in significant transformations of Buddhist communities.
The article shows the main approaches to classify modern Buddhists and the theoretical problems faced by scholars. One of them is the fact that the religious affiliation of the researchers themselves can often influence their conclusions about the authenticity of certain Buddhist groups and the assessment of their activities. The most vivid example is the interpretation of activities by followers of Ole Nydahl. Reference to these groups as ‘neo-Buddhist’ provides no insight into their nature. Currently, the problem of lay Buddhists’ classification is best developed on the North American materials. Scholars criticize the normative approach according to which religious identity is something integral and fixed. On the contrary, the identity of modern western Buddhists results from a variety of factors. Formal criteria — refuge taking, visiting of temples, etc. — do not reveal the diversity of followers of Buddhism. Western researchers offer to pay attention to a large group of people who do not formally belong to Buddhism but show interest in it — the latter called ‘sympathizers’. They have been an important part of the history of Buddhism since about the late 19th century. Scholars recognize the valid and important the easiest criterion — Buddhist is the one who says ‘I am a Buddhist’.
The main trends in the transformation of Buddhist practice in the West are the lack of a clear borderline between lay people and ‘professional Buddhists’, lack of common authorities, decline of monasticism, egalitarianism, the increase in the role of women, active participation in public life, often emphases on the psychological rather than religious nature of Buddhist practice. Some researchers suggest it can well be identified as a new Buddhism — a qualitatively different phenomenon emerging in the aftermath of adapting Buddhism to postmodern society. Others wonder whether western Buddhism can actually be viewed as a religion.
Many scholars criticize the popular concept of the ‘two Buddhisms’ that distinguishes between ethnic Buddhists (immigrants) and converts (‘white Buddhists’). The use of this concept in the long term shall definitely give rise to further problems: How to classify the descendants of immigrants and converts? Alternatively, some scholars suggest traditionalist and modernist Buddhism(-s) be considered. However, this approach does takes no account of the fact not all converts follow modernist Buddhism, and not all immigrants are traditionalists.
The problem of Buddhists’ classification is relevant not only in the western context. Examining a number of cases from Mongolia and Buryatia, the article illustrates similar tension can also be traced in those regions, and it is difficult enough to identify clear categories of believers.

The article analyzes issues of ethnic and confessional identities in the contexts of challenges set forth by Kalmyk ethnic history studies. It examines a number of debated questions of Kalmyk ethnogenetic studies and the actively promoted (on the Internet) concepts of somewhat unified ethnic identity of the Kalmyks and Western Mongols (Oirats), as well as ideas about the formation of a unified Kalmyk identity in the early 20th century. An insight into the reasons to explain the emergence of the latter included the use of documents stored at archival funds and dealing with activities of Kalmyk Buddhist communities in the early 20th century. The paper shows that the ethnic identity to mirror common culture and origins of territorial groups inhabiting the Kalmyk Steppe before the 1900-1930s was actually ‘supported’ via multi-leveled self-identity processes within the confessional consciousness manifested in the then network of Buddhist monasteries and hierarchical structure of society. Contemporary views on recent formation of a unified Kalmyk identity stem from the available data confirming that during the period under consideration some common Kalmyk identity co-existed with a structurally different identity. The stratified ethnic identity mirrored in documents of Kalmyk Buddhists provides evidence of both somewhat preserved spatial borders of ethnic groups (resulting from peculiarities of the then administrative-territorial division) and the functions of mental (spiritual) markers performed by those borders.
In present-day Kalmykia, people keep searching for new mental markers which gives rise to the current interest in the early Oirat or even Mongolian periods of Kalmyk ethnic history. In this perspective, we witness another actualization of the term ‘Dzungaria’ which is often referred to (in Internet articles) as the ancestral area of the Kalmyks, and the Western Mongols tend to designate this concept as ‘Oirat nutuq’ (Kalm. ‘hereditary / ancestral pasture lands’). Modern Kalmyk society also witnesses an increasing interest towards histories of clans. At the same time, processes of the 20th century resulted in the fact that nowadays the confessional (Buddhist) identity lies beyond any ethnic divisions.

In Mongolia, the problems of medical care for nomadic livestock breeders, veterinary services for livestock have always been relevant enough. Medical service of cattle breeders was one of the weak links in the health care system of Mongolia in the 1980s. At the same time, this period is characterized by the highest indicators in the field of medical services in the country. In subsequent years, the deepening economic crisis led to a deterioration in the level of medical care, especially in rural areas. At present, this situation has only become more complicated, contributing to the growing migration of villagers to cities. The author’s field research also allows talking about the reduction of medical posts, shortage of medical personnel in rural areas, equipment and medicines as such. Against this background, the urgency of knowledge of nomads about the herbal medicinal and poisonous properties of plants is growing. The field materials collected by the author in different regions of Mongolia between 2006 and 2013 show that knowledge of plant properties was an important component of the experience of the nomadic way of life, which is still in demand today. The range of application of plants in the life of the villagers is quite wide. The experience of ancestors helps to treat a number of common diseases among the rural population ― catarrhal diseases, diseases of the digestive and endocrine systems, skin, etc. Medicinal plants are also used for the treatment of livestock. Poisonous plants are used to combat predators. Many useful plants of the Mongolian flora complement the diet of nomads.
Preservation of such knowledge is necessary for the continuation of phytochemical, pharmacological studies of the Mongolian flora and clinical trials of medicinal plants. The current rise of Mongolian medicine industry and pharmaceuticals in neighboring China determines the prospects for exploring the Mongolian flora. The service industry of Mongolian medicine and pharmaceuticals has become one of the most important projects (‘Belts and Ways’). It is well possible that this direction of medicine will enter the list of the World Intangible Cultural Heritage in the near future.

The article examines the symbolism of sheep neck bones in Kalmyk wedding rites. According to present-day wedding procedures, sheep neck bones should by all means be left behind within home space which results from a belief that those are somewhat ‘bad’ meat unsuitable for any ceremonial meals, and can be consumed as routine food only. The available sources on Kalmyk ceremonial culture contain no data that would clarify the role of sheep neck bones and related procedures. Still, an insight into wedding rites of the Turco-Mongols (viewed as comparative reference materials) made it possible to reveal the semantics of neck bones attributed to sacrificed animals and, thus, reconstruct some related activities in the context of traditional wedding rituals.
Ceremonial cultures of the Turco-Mongols — including that of the Kalmyks — associate the seven neck bones with the image of the Ancestor, the seven generation of ancestors and close relatives, and the atlas (the first cervical vertebra) stands for the progenitor (clan founder) as such. The animal’s aorta to be ruptured during a ritualistic sacrifice slaughter lies along the spine (‘pillar / axe / vertical support’) which is a bridge between the three worlds, and, so, the former semantically acts as a ‘fatal thread of life’. Neck bones join the head and the body: the head is a sacral center (the top of the axe) to contact the Heaven, Gods and protector-deities; the body stands for the middle world of humans, relatives (each part of the animal to be strictly delivered to certain relatives); the lower part of the body, legs, are related to the earth with animal and human off-springs, and also viewed as an entrance into the ‘other’ world.
The first cervical vertebra is the founding element of the ‘axe / pillar’, and once it gets destroyed the ‘thread of life’, ‘breath of life’ comes to its end. The paper concludes that the allocation of neck bones throughout the traditional home during ritualistic wedding offerings of the Kalmyks was actually determined by ancient beliefs about interrelation between a sacrificed animal and the cult of ancestors, especially the ongons that had been eradicated by Buddhist clerics by the late 19th century.
The numerous patterns of use of sheep body parts in different wedding ceremonies indicate that inter alia those serve to ‘reconstruct’ the ancestor’s body and thus establish a ‘channel’ to deliver requests for protection, vitality, childbirth, and assistance in building connections between the newly married and multi-leveled Gods, protector-deities which would guarantee happiness for the young family in future. So, the neck bones are ‘responsible’ for sound human life and activities. As a result, ethic culture of the Kalmyks developed a layer of beliefs according to which neck bones serve as symbolically open (energy) channels of the human body that require both real and magic protection means.
The fact that contemporary Kalmyk wedding rites include no rituals to use animal neck parts and the stipulation to leave (consume) the latter behind in home space only testifies of a loss of once tabooed initial knowledge.

In Buddhist studies it has become common to use the term ‘phenomenon’ for translating various Buddhist terms, using the context of E. Husserl’s philosophy. Many researchers that connect the Buddhist theory and Western phenomenology tend to support the use of this term. Despite this, comparative analysis of specific problems of these comparative studies still remains relevant and fruitful. The paper attempts to compare the structure of ‘logical and epistemological knowledge’ in Buddhism and the context of ‘phenomenological reduction’ used in the traditional Tibetan dictionary The Source of Sages (Tib. Wylie. dag yig mkhas pa’i ‘byung gnas). The analysis is based on three methodological positions. First, a modern typological approach resting on the idea that philosophical concepts may have differences in genesis, and still may have a unity in typology at the same time. Secondly, the focus is on analysis of the context of the dictionary rather than on the actual text as such. Thirdly, great importance is attached to the absence of original discursive transparency in the theory of Husserl’s ‘phenomenological reduction’ which allows forming numerous philosophical ‘continuations’ in various areas of modern humanitarian knowledge. These positions may help determine details, some aspects of relationship between modern phenomenology and Buddhist theoretical heritage. The context of the ‘phenomenological reduction’ discovered in the dictionary makes it possible to expand our views regarding achievements in the field of Buddhism’s language and philosophy. It is necessary to emphasize that the theory of ‘phenomenological reduction’ can be viewed not only as a Western philosophical concept, but also as a modern means (‘language’) to understand some complex aspects of religious thought worldwide.

The article examines some versions for the etymology of the title ‘Chinggis’ and notes that the amount and quality of studies on the topic have reached the level when it is necessary to classify and arrange them on the basis of historiographic analysis. Most researchers consider the title of Chinggis Khaan (Genghis Khan) to be a recent one. The most popular opinions regarding the etymology of the title suggest that the word ‘Chinggis’ stems from a number of different lexemes, namely: 1) the word tengis (‘ocean’) borrowed from the language of ancient Turks, 2) the word chin (‘firm’), 3) the word combination chingis tengri related to shamanistic beliefs, 4) the Hunnic title name chan-yu (shaniui, ‘Son of Heaven’) inherited by the Mongols in a misspelled form to evolve into Chinggis.
Still, the paper concludes none of the hypotheses mentioned have been supported with sufficient arguments, and sets forth an original version regarding the origin of the title. The work proposes that the title of the prominent Khan of Mongols stems from the term chigin / tigin traditionally inherited by Mongolic nomads since the earliest times. In Mongolian, the word chigin / chagan / chegen contains the seme ‘white’. The word was first mentioned in written sources describing the states of the Tuoba and and the Xianbei — in the form 直勤 ‘Cjichjeni’. It is thus suggested that the title bestowed upon the noble elites (‘the white bone’) in the mentioned states actually meant ‘Tsagaan’ (‘the White (ones)’). Later, ancient Turks kept using the title in the form ‘tegin’, and attributed the title to members of the ruling dynasty who did not inherit the throne. So, the use of the title ‘chigin’ (‘white’) can be traced back to the era of the Tuoba and Xianbei, and is historically determined by the long-lived tradition to refer to the ruling clan elites as ‘the white bone’. And the ancestors of Mongols passed the title down from generation to generation up to Chinggis Khaan’s reign.

The article presents results of a study conducted within the project framework ‘A Definition Dictionary of the Language of the Kalmyk Heroic Epic of Jangar’. 28 Jangar epic songs have been investigated, the object of research being the lexeme biltsg ‘(signet) ring’ included in the word list of the Definition Dictionary. So, the paper attempts to examine the etymology and semantics of the mentioned word.
Analysis of the thematic group of adornments can hardly introduce any critical discoveries in linguistics or history and ethnography, but it does facilitate solving questions on separate aspects of spiritual and cultural life of people, helps reconstruct fragments of the archaic view of the world once developed by the Turco-Mongols.
The lexeme biltsg is one of the most rarely used words of the epic: only 4 patterns discovered in the whole of the Jangar. The analysis of the etymology — with due regard of related scholarly literature — concludes that the Kalmyk biltsg ‘(signet) ring’ cannot be reduced to the Turkic bizelüq. Still, two etymologically opposing variants of the lexeme were used in Mongolic languages. Thus, the forms bilesüg and bilüčеg have differing morphemic structures. The first one is a compound word and stems from — as aforementioned — the Turkic bilek ‘wrist’ + üsüg ‘ring’ which was actually never adopted by Mongolic languages due to the absence of a corresponding regular affix in the mentioned language systems. The second form is a completely Mongolic word structure, namely: the stem bile- + affix -čЕg. The lexeme is determined (motivated) by a relict stem to have constituted the basis of the proto-Turkic *bilek and that of the proto-Tungus-Manchu *bilen; though the stem is no longer to be traced in modern languages. The historical morphemic structure of the Kalmyk word consists of бил + цг < *bülü + čЕg where the first part is a nominative or verbal (?) stem, and the latter one is an affix applied to form nouns with meanings of either result or object nomination, their main function being that what is denominated by the motivating stem. The epic uses the word biltsg in the meaning of ‘signet ring’ which serves as a symbol of power and strength, also acting as a protective amulet which is typical for traditional culture of the Kalmyks.

Chinese characters — ideograms — represent a mental picture conceptualizing the notion of the surrounding world, that is, they represent an image-schema of the situation which is reflected in the semantics of the sign. The article describes components of the prototypical situation of the Chinese verb and determines its motivating significance with evidence from analysis of diachronic data. The paper reveals that the prototypical situation of the verb 上 shàng is motivated by the meaning of the pictogram from divinatory inscriptions containing the meaning of direction towards the higher power ― the sky (Heaven). A hypothesis set forth that components of the prototypical situation contained in the basic meaning of the verb are also explicitly represented in the graphic form of the 上 shàng sign, and the components of the prototypical situation contained in the basic meaning of the verb are also explicitly represented in the graphical form of the sign where the lower horizontal sign indicates the starting point of the movement ― point A; the vertical line is the route towards the background ― point B, which is above the starting point of the movement and is indicated by a short horizontal line in the hieroglyphic sign. This explains the purpose of moving the figure along the given route – to take a position higher than the position of the starting point of the movement.

The article aims to attract the attention of researchers to the subject matter consi­dering — at this stage — the existing Bashkir variants, with a view to examine same within other ethnic fairy-tale traditions.
In all the variants considered the following components are stable enough: the boy’s poverty, appearance of a friend (cat, fox, old man) and match-making of a princess (a bay’s / Khan’s daughter), consent of the bride’s father, the drowning scene, arrival of the king’s men with the groom’s clothes, the groom’s surprise over the clothes, a guest at the father-in-law’s house and a way home, the herds and shepherds’ response prompted by the cat (a fox, an old man), the king’s determination — due to the cat’s trick (that of the fox, old man) — that the luxurious house belongs to his son-in-law.
All the fairy tales end with a wedding, and only the fairy tale ‘The Fox and the Eget’ has a small continuation: for some time afterwards the fox lives with the newly married. One day it tells time has come for her to pass away, and requests that they bury it under the bunk. Soon the man finds it dead and throws across the fence. The fox, it turns out, only pretended to have been dead to check the eget. It comes to the guy, speaks its mind freely, and expels him and his young wife from the house. After the marriage of the main character to a daughter of a rich man, the fox neutralizes evil.
The story ‘Puss in Boots’ known worldwide has its own peculiarities in the Bashkir fairy tale tradition: it mirrors features of national lifestyles, wedding customs of the Bashkirs; the main character is distinguished by his close proximity to nature, to the world of animals, dwells in the forest, being engaged in hunting (‘The Fox and the Eget’), fishing (‘Red Ilyas and the Fox’). In eight of the above mentioned tales, the magical assistant of the main character is a fox, in three – a cat, and only in one ― an old man.
A comparative study of the Bashkir variants of plot ATU 545 B (‘Puss in Boots’) shows that most of the content options are similar in that the main character’s assistant leads the bride’s father to 10 animals; only ‘The Old Man and the Eget’ recorded by Bessonov in the late 19th ― early 20th cc. differs in that the old man at the prospective father-in-law takes scales several times to somewhat weigh gold and silver. In both cases, the bride’s father gets convinced that the future son-in-law is very rich. A common feature traced in the two tales is that on the way to the main character’s house they meet a herd of horses, herds of cows and sheep that supposedly belong to the newly appointed son-in-law which serves as another proof of his wealth.
This indicates that further comparative studies of other peoples’ tales based on plot ATU 545 B (‘Puss in Boots’) are necessary enough.

The article examines the correlation between the heroic epic and heroic fairy tales. In many traditions, the two folklore forms are close enough to one another and manifest a number of similarities. The problem brought up is essential to both genre identification of some text patterns and to further discussions over historical interconections between heroic fairy tales and the epic. It is believed that the heroic fairy tale could have been the form to have directly preceded the early epic patterns or had been on of such forms.
Nowadays, scholars note that in certain cases the heroic fairy tale is a result of recent transformation of epic forms to have emerged due to weakened positions of the epic within the existing tradition, reduction in the number of epic patterns as such, progressive loss of epic performance techniques, etc. The paper expresses the opinion that both the epic and the fairy tale — and the heroic fairy tale in particular – had emerged and existed as independent forms with differing attitudes towards the depicted realities: fairy tales are obviously fictitious narratives, while epic texts can potentially describe true events.
The generous 2017 publication of Kalmyk heroic fairy tales makes it possible to outline the key features of such tales and — even more important — to identify essential differences between the genre and epic patterns, namely that of the Jangar. The analysis conducted has shown that structures of Kalmyk heroic fairy tales are more diverse as compared to the introduced (delineated) plot models: many of the declared elements have not been found in the examined texts, and not all fairy tale motifs have been clustered in corresponding models; some features once referred to as those to characterize heroic fairy tales can be attributed to Jangar songs as well. Within the Kalmyk folklore tradition, such heroic tales do retain certain essentially distinct features in relation to the Jangar, though remaining comparable enough in terms of plots and motifs. The article emphasizes both common genre differences between the Jangar and heroic tales, and differences between the forms within the Kalmyk tradition. The multiple common elements of heroic tales and the Jangar (poetic techniques, motifs, formulas, etc.) are attributable to the process of intercommunion between the differing — though semantically similar — forms. The fairy tale versions of Gesar and Jangar songs included in the corpus of Kalmyk heroic fairy tales look like quite recent trasformations of epic patterns. The Jangar and heroic tales are approximately similarly abundant in Buddhist realia which signifies their traditional unity; but Jangar songs still contain pre-Buddhist religious beliefs. The study concludes that the genre group of heroic tales basically retains the structure pattern inherent to the magic fairy tale and determined following V. Propp’s functions; the main character of heroic tales is more individualistic in his deeds and goals as compared to epic heroes, and unlike the case with Jangar Bogdo, such fairy tale heroes bear no function of social organization.

The Gaina Bashkirs are an ethnic group of the Bashkir people basically inhabiting the Tol (Tulva) River Valley, a left tributary of the Kama, within the boundaries of Bardymsky District where they constitute one of the autochthonous populations of the region. The region is vivid and multifaceted; a number of monographs and collections of scientific works have been published. Several expeditions and surveys have been organized to collect somewhat factual materials.
In the 21st century, two academic expeditions have been conducted by researchers of the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the RAS. In 2006, the goals of a complex expedition – which involved linguists, ethnographers and folklorists – included not only collecting activities, studies of folklore poetic patterns and linguistic materials, but also anthropological and craniological research. In 2013, folklore specialists of the Institute organized another expedition to Perm Krai.
Analysis of the collected materials shows a significant depletion and reduction in the genre structure of folklore patterns. A number of traditional forms of folklore – such as epic genres and oral fairy-tale traditions – are becoming extinct gradually. So, epic texts and fairy tales were recorded from informants in a fragmentary form, in the form of retelling.
The first folklore research expedition arrived in the Gaina in 1963. Thus, the time gap between the first expedition and the last one is more than 50 years. During the period, the population (and the country in general) had experienced some essential transformations, both in terms of socium, economy, culture, and science. Still, the expedition proved fruitful enough, the participants recorded quite number of multi-genre works of Bashkir folklore. The latter included both some newly discovered patterns and new versions of the already recorded oral texts. The folklore collecting activities involved over 50 informants, the bulk of the group being individuals aged 35 to 90.
As a result, bright samples of lingering and short lullabies, takmaks were recorded. For the repertory of Gaina Bashkirs is characterized by the abundance of such poetic genres as baits and munazhats. In the region, a number of social and historical baits with dramatic storylines have been discovered. Widespread are munazhats (religious hymns). For example, materials of folklore expeditions attest to the current revival of this unique musical lyric-epic genre, and its existence both in written and oral forms. The materials also include stories about villages, toponymic legends. Interesting information about spiritual hosts has been recorded. The Gaininians have their local features of wedding rites. A distinctive feature of Gainin folklore is the spread of numerous marriage divinations for young women.
A rich layer of Perm folk arts is also composed of small folklore genres, namely: zaklichki, verdicts, riddles, proverbs, sayings.
Consequently, despite the current extinction (decline) of some traditional genres (epic patterns, fairy tales, wedding laments), folk rites, songs, baits, munazhats, traditional games and paremic genres still do exist. The vivid field materials collected by folklorists show the steady preservation of Bashkir folk arts in the region.