Календарные обычаи и обряды народов Юго-Восточной Азии

Summary

Calendar Customs and Rituals in Southeast Asia. Annual Cycle. The book is a follow-up to earlier volumes from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences dealing with calendar festivals of the peoples of the world. It is also another book in a series of studies of calendar rituals in Asia which have not been studied yet in this particular aspect.

The book considers calendar customs and rituals of nine Southeast Asian peoples: the Viets, Laos, Khmers, Thais, Burmese, Malays, Javanese, Balinese, and Tagalogs. Another focus is on the annual cycle festivals there.

Calendar customs and rituals possessed a place of great importance in traditional cultures of above peoples at the turn of the 19^th and the first half of the 20^th century. A vital reason for extensive culturalogical studying of calendar rituals is that the complexities of the historical fate of peoples in this vast region, the syncretism of their religious beliefs (early agricultural cults, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity) and cultures (interaction between aboriginal cultures and ancient Indian and early Chinese civilizations) made these customs and traditions a treasure-house preserving and reviving the cultural ingenuity of local ethnoses.

We learn from the book that at the turn of the 19^th century these peoples had an original array of such festivals distinctive of the spiritual and material cultures of each of them. Their sources are local climatic and regional conditions, economic practices, historical experience, political, economic, and cultural history, and appreciation of time and history implicit in each particular calendar.

Admittedly, each of these peoples had by this time evolved a national pattern of such calendar festivals, accompanied to this day, though, by countless lingering local and regional varieties of them. The process coincided with milestone developments in these peoples, political, economic, cultural, and ethnic history. It was a time of a delapidating feudal system, maturing capitalist relations, imperialist expansion, and extensive national liberation ferment. Many elements of traditional culture were coming under review, as were calendar customs. By the middle of this century the latter came to epitomize each of these nations, distinctive hallmarks of ethnic self-consciousness. Both these festivals and their particular elements assumed explicit ethnic complexions.

The authors come up as well with some theoretical assumptions on the function of calendar customs in each season and on their being common to all the Southeast Asian peoples. This is most tellingly seen in the pervasive rice cult there. The latter endures to complex notions like the Soul of Rice, the Mother of Rice, the Bride of Rice, and the Child of Rice, complete with their iconographies. Equally important are the ancient cults of water (evident in boat racing), of the mountains, and of fire. A significant facet of such festivals are amateur theatricals, masked plays, and puppet shows.

There is further an attempt to classify such festivals and to trace the historico-cultural ties of their practitioners. The study also gives considerable space to interchange between these calendar customs and folklore and the latter’s overwhelming influence on the local peoples, cultural make-up.

The Introduction and Conclusion were written by R. Djarylgassinova: «The Viets» by A.N. Leskinen; «The Laos» and «The Khmers» by I.G. Kosikov; «The Thais» by Ye.V. Ivanova; «The Burmese» by A.G. Gavrilova; «The Malays» by L.V. Nikulina; «The Javanese» and «The Balinese» A.A. Bernova and «The Tagalogs» by K.Yu. Meshkov.