Barguzin Buryats: population size, wedding traditions (based on the field research materials of 2018-2019)
The paper is dedicated to studying the history of population, songs and wedding traditions of the Barguzin Buryats, who live in Barguzin and Kurumkan regions of the Republic of Buryatia. Barguzin Buryats represent the local ethnical group of Buryats who moved from the banks of the Lena River in the 18th century and settled in the Barguzin Valley, where they have lived up to now. Wedding traditions of Buryats were studied by many scholars such as M. N. Khangalov, S. P. Baldayev, K. D. Basaeva, G. R. Galdanova, and others. The paper’s relevance is due to the novel field materials collected by the authors in 2018-2019, including songs, wishes, cliché dialogues, etc. For instance, the tradition assumes many cliché dialogues during the ritual of matchmaking, and they are also described in the paper. Also, different fragments of songs for putting on different parts of wedding clothes and accessories are considered. All the songs were collected from the old women living in different villages of Barguzin and Kurumkan regions. They were recorded in the Barguzin dialect of the Buryat language. The songs were sung by their mothers, and the women inherited their traditional performance. The paper summarizes the peculiarities of modern wedding traditions of Barguzin Buryats, with the fragments of songs provided. Each wedding stage is described, and the sequence of actions is specified.