The Sin and Merit of Killing a Tiger: Mentions about rituals connected to the tiger hunting in the oral tradition of Altai Uriankhais
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Oyirad Studies |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Altai Uriankhais; tiger hunting; oral tradition; ritual punishment |
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| Description | The extant literature on Mongolian customs include a few mentions about a special tradition of hunting tigers – animals with a highly symbolic value in the whole Inner and East-Asian area. The tradition should have included symbolic and ritual constituent moments: official authorisation of the hunters, ritual communication with local spirits before the hunt, symbolic punishment of the hunters, and rewarding of the hunters by a tax exemption. The written records refer supposedly to traditions connected with the Qing imperial hunting areas. However, a few narratives collected during the field documentation of the current oral tradition of Altai Uriankhais in Western Mongolia testify that a very similar notion of tiger hunting was known far away among Oirat groups despite only marginal occurrence of tigers in their areas in the recent past. |
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