Experience of systematization of folklore texts about climbing the sacred mountains (based on Kosh-Agach Telengit folklore tradition data)

Abstract

The paper discusses the variants and versions of the legend about the flood – chayik and of the oral stories of how people climbed the sacred mountains, recorded by the author in the Kosh-Agach district of the Altai Republic. The time and place of the event in the legend and oral tales are also considered. The author provides the Index of plots and versions based on the Telengit folklore tradition on the topic: “The Sacred Mountains – Iyik”. The storytellers relate the time of the events in the legend to the distant past. Many performers count the time “after the flood” in their narratives. The people currently living in the Chui Valley are believed to be the descendants of those who survived the flood. In contrast to the legend about the flood – chayik, the time of the events in oral tales about how people climbed the sacred mountains – Iyik, is related to the recent past. The narrator or a person well known to the narrator climbed to the top of a mountain – Iyik. The locale of the event in the legend of the сhayik is the sacred mountain Iyik (Iyik-Kokoru / Tepsen-Bash / Irbistu). During the flood, people survived on the tops of the sacred mountains and left a kazan or fragments of a boat or a raft there. The Altai people traditionally believed the sacred mountains to be their defenders, saviors of human lives, and shelters during natural disasters, destructive wars, and raids.