20 Ewa Nowicka What is it about this modest scrub that it is fulfilling such a role? The explanations provided by my respondents are in accord with a version presented in official documents: altargana’s long roots reach very deeply and can thus take root even in unpropitious soil, growing on rocky hillsides and dry plains. In similar fashion, the Buryat nation has not only been able to withstand difficult historical conditions, but also preserve and maintain its uniqueness. “Just as altargana will survive all difficulties (e.g., frosts, drought, winds, etc.), so the Buryat nation will survive all difficulties and bloom”1 (Basaev 2016). That said, the text at hand will focus on an analysis of three festivals: the Geseriada, the Night of Yokhor, and the Altargana. The first has taken place once; the other two have been held regularly over the course of many years. Social and political context The Buryats constitute a small nation. They number about half a million persons who primarily reside on the territory of the Russian Federation, but also of northern Mongolia and China (Inner Mongolia). In Russia, they are mostly found in three political units which are nominally Buryat: the Republic of Buryatia, the Ust-Orda Buryatia district (west of Lake Baikal), and the Aga-Buryatia district at the Mongolian border and near the Chinese one. Additionally, they are scattered in a diaspora across a territory stretching from Angara to Shilka—not to mention sizeable aggregations in Russian cities. Furthermore, the number of Buryat diaspora communities in European countries and around the globe is rising. Even in their homeland republic, the Buryats are a minority (about 26% of the population); it is only in a few villages that they constitute an absolute majority. Their territorial dispersal, as well as the fact that they live in three separate countries, means that preservation of a cultural and ethnic community poses a crucial problem. The Buryat intelligentsia—a high percentage of a tiny nation—is quite aware of this dilemma. For over 300 years, the Buryats have found themselves dominated, above all, by the Russian culture. The Soviet era between 1920 and 1990 was especially characterized by an exceptional intensification of forced assimilation. Moreover, the demographic disproportion between the preponderating political force and the subordinate group only underscores a typical relationship: dominant majority vs minority. In such circumstances collective 1 Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Russian are my own.
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