RU | EN
Submenu

Ivanov D. Headdress and Cape of Mongolian Lamas-Oracles from the Collection of Dmitrii Bukinich

Dmitrii Ivanov
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-3096-2943
E-mail: dmitivanov@gmail.com

 

 Download  |  Go to Issue #4. 2022

 

ABSTRACT. Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) has a number of collections received from the soil scientist, hydraulic engineer, archaeologist and ethnographer Dmitrii Demyanovich Bukinich (1882–1939). Unfortunately, there is not much information about this active collector, who paid special attention to the study of Central Asia. The article briefly outlines the main biographical information about Dmitrii Bukinich and his work in Mongolia in 1933–1935, as a member of an expedition to study the Khangai mountains, organized by the Scientific Research Committee of the Mongolian People’s Republic. The trip to Mongolia resulted in extensive ethnographic collections that came to the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Dmitrii Demyanovich was not only an active collector, but also an enthusiastic photographer who took a large number of photographs of Mongolia in the early Soviet period. Among the Mongolian ethnographic exhibits brought by Bukinich stand out artifacts and photographs relating to the Mongolian lamas-mediums, who occupied a special position among the Buddhist clergy. As early as 1887, the well-known Russian specialist in Mongolian language and culture A. M. Pozdneev pointed out the special status of these lamas. Such items are very rare in museum collections and are of considerable scientific interest. The history of oracle lamas in Tibet and Mongolia is also briefly reviewed in the article.

 

KEYWORDS: Dmitrii Bukinich, chos skyong, Mongolian Buddhist oracles, Mongolia in the first half of the 1930s 

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2022-4(18)-86-94

 

REFERENCES

  • Formozov A. A. Russkie arkheologii i politicheskie repressii 1920–1940 godov [Russian Archaeologists and Political Repressions of 1920–1940]. Rossiiskaia arkheologiia, 1998, no. 3, pp. 191–206.
  • Kozhevnikova M. N. Uchenyi sekretar’ Komiteta nauk MNR M. I. Tubianskii [Academic Secretary of Scientific Committee M. I. Tubianskii]. Strany i narody Vostoka [Countries and Peoples of the East]. Iss. XXXIV. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Vostochnaia literatura, 2013, pp. 343–359.
  • Kuz’min S. L. Teokraticheskaia gosudarstvennost’ i buddiiskaia tserkov’ Mongolii v nachale XX veka [Theocratic Governmentality and Buddhist Church of Mongolia in Early 20th Century]. Moscow: KMK, 2016.
  • Lunin B. V. Istoriografiia obshchestvennykh nauk v Uzbekistane: bio-biograficheskii ocherk [Istoriography of Social Sciences in Uzbekistan: Bio-Biographical Essay]. Tashkent: Izdatel’stvo FAN Uzbekskoi SSR, 1974.
  • Lkhagvasuren I. A. D. Simukov — etnograf [A. D. Simukov is Ethnographer]. A. D. Simukov. Trudy o Mongolii i dlia Mongolii [A. D. Simukov. Works on Mongolia and for Mongolia]. Vol. 1. Osaka: Gosudarstvennyi muzei etnologii, 2007, pp. 85–89.
  • Prishchepova V. A. Kollektsii zagovorili [Collections Spoke]. St. Petersburg: MAE RAN, 2000.
  • Simukova N. A. Andrei Dmitrievich Simukov, zhizn’ i Trudy [Andrei Dmitrievich Simukov, Life and Works]. A. D. Simukov. Trudy o Mongolii i dlia Mongolii [A. D. Simukov. Works on Mongolia and for Mongolia]. Vol. 1. Osaka: Gosudarstvennyi muzei etnologii, 2007, pp. 15–29.
  • Tsybikov G. Ts. Izbrannye trudy v dvukh tomakh. Vol. 1: Buddist palomnik u sviatyn’ Tibeta [Selected Works in 2 vols. Vol. 1: Buddhist Pilgrim at the Shrines of Tibet]. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1981.
  • Tsybikov G. Ts. Izbrannye trudy v dvukh tomakh. Vol. 1: Buddist palomnik u sviatyn’ Tibeta [Selected Works in 2 vols. Vol. 1: Buddhist Pilgrim at the Shrines of Tibet]. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1991.
  • Vavilov N. I. Dmitrii Dem’ianovich Bukinich. Izvestiia Gosudarstvennogo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva, 1939, vol. 71, no. 5, pp. 758–759.