 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Burkhanism" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Khan-Altai (1912) byGrigory Gurkin | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| up to 81% ofAltai[1][2] | |
| Founder | |
| Chet Chelpan • Chugul Sarok Chandyk | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Altai Republic | |
| Religions | |
| Ethnic religion • Tengrism | |
| Languages | |
| Altai | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Altaians |
| Part ofa series on |
| Tengrism |
|---|
 |
| ACentral Asian–Eurasian Steppe and partlySiberian–East Asian religion |
| Supreme deity |
| Other deities/spirits |
| Movements |
| Related movements |
| People |
| Priests |
| Scriptures |
| Holy places |
| Toponyms |
| Related conceptions |
 Religion portal |
Burkhanism, knownendonymically asAk Jang (Altay:Ак јаҥ[ɑqt͡ɕɑɴ];lit. 'White Faith'), is anindigenistnew religious movement that flourished among theAltai people ofRussia'sAltai Republic between 1904 and the 1930s. TheRussian Empire was suspicious of the movement's potential to stir up native unrest and perhaps involve outside powers.[3] TheSoviet Union ultimately suppressed it for fear of its potential to unify SiberianTurkic peoples under a common nationalism.[citation needed]
Originallymillenarian,charismatic and anti-shamanic, the Burkhanist movement gradually lost most of these qualities—becoming increasingly routine, institutionalized (around a hierarchy of oral epic singers) and accommodating itself to the pre-existing Altaianfolk religion. It exists today in several revival forms.[4][5]
On the whole, the Burkhanist movement was shown to be a syncretistic phenomenon combining elements of ancient pre-shamanist, shamanist,Tibetan Buddhist andEastern Orthodox Christian beliefs. According to a professor ofTomsk State University Liudmila Sherstova, it emerged in response to the needs of a new people—the Altai-kizhi or Altaians who sought to distinguish themselves from the neighboring and related tribes and for whom Burkhanism became a religious form of their ethnic identity.[6]
Burkhanism is the usual English-language scholarly name, which has its origin in the Russian academic usage. One of the Burkhanist deities is Ak-Burkhan, or "White Burkhan".Burkhan is theTurkified version of the nameBuddha —derived from Middle Chinese 佛 (MC bjut, “Buddha”) and Old Turkic 𐰴𐰣 (qan, “ruler, king”)— yet Burkhanism is not considered Buddhist, as the term is also used in shamanistic nomenclature. For example, inMongolian shamanism, the name of the most sacred mountain, the rumored birthplace and final resting spot ofGenghis Khan, is alsoBurkhan Khaldun. Ak-Burkhan is only one of apantheon of deities worshiped by Burkhanists (see list below), but Ak-Burkhan nevertheless provides the name of the religion inRussian, and hence into other languages.
The Altaian name for the religion isAk Jang "the White Faith". "White" refers to its emphasis on the upper world in the three-world cosmology ofTengrism. Alternatively, the name may also allude to Ak Jang's rejection of animal sacrifices in favor of offerings of horse milk or horse-milk alcohol.Jang means authority; faith; custom; law or principle; and canon or rules of ensemble. In more colloquial settings, the term may also be used as a "way of doing things" and is used in reference to religions as well as political systems.[7]
In April 1904 Chet Chelpan (or, Chot Chelpanov) and his adopted daughter Chugul Sarok Chandyk reported visions of a rider dressed in white, and riding a white horse. This figure, whom they called Ak-Burkhan ("White Burkhan"), announced the imminent arrival of the mythical messianic hero Oirat Khan who was actually a real historical figure—Khoit-Oirat princeAmursana.[8] The central figure in the research of Burkhanism in the past forty years, however, has demonstrated that Oirot-khan is a mythologized image of the Dzungar past of the people of Altai-kizhi.[9][10]Chet and Chugul gathered thousands of Altaians for prayer meetings, initially in the Tereng Valley. These were violently suppressed by mobs of Russians, instigated by the Altaian Spiritual Mission, who were afraid of the potential of the competing religion to decrease the Orthodox Christian flock in Altai.[11] Chet and Chugul were arrested, Chugul was released, and after a prolonged trial Chet was fully exonerated by court and released in 1906.[12]
ResearcherAndrei A. Znamenski compares the Burkanist movement to other indigenous revitalizing movements around the world, such as the Native AmericanGhost Dance or the MelanesianCargo Cult. An exhaustively detailed treatment of the comparisons and comparability of Burkhanism with the Melanesian Cargo Cult, the Mennonites, the Dukhobors of Georgia, the Mariitsy of Nizhnii Novgorod, and many other movements, is provided in Sherstova's dissertation from the 1980s.[8][13][14]
Znamenski says, the prime motivating factor was Altaians' fear of displacement by Russian colonists,Russification, and subjection totaxation andconscription on the same basis as Russian peasants.[13][15]
Andrei Vinogradov (thesis linked below) sees Burkhanism as a typical nomadic Turko-Mongolian mobilization pattern—aiming to link families and clans (seok) into a steppe empire (which in this case never materialized). The Burkhanists' veneration of heroes from oral epics, he says, serves much the same cultural centralizing function as the veneration of other divine heroes such asGesar,Manas, orGenghis Khan. As such it constitutes a major aspect of Turko-Mongolic religion, distinct from shamanism.
After the arrest of Chet and Chugul,Tyryi Akemchi arose to become the most prominentiarlikchi, and helped organize the movement. Having been exposed toBuddhism through his years as a translator in Mongolia, Tyryi added a number of Buddhist trappings to Burkhanist ritual, such as bells. Within a decade, most of the Altaian population had joined the new faith.
In 1918Gregorii Choros-Gurkin and other Altaian leaders declared the formation of something called the "Karakorum-Altaian Regional Government" (Karakorum-Altaiskaia Okruzhnaia Uprava), with the object of establishing an"Karakorum-Altai Republic". This was intended to include not only Altai but also neighboring republics of Tuva and Khakassia. It was forcibly dissolved with arrival ofBolshevik power in 1922.[13]
Burkhanism accepts the "three worlds" of Mongolic and Turkic tradition. (These are the upper, middle, and lower worlds—in other words heaven, earth, and the underworld.) However, it rejects worship of traditional deities associated with the underworld. In addition, it imports into worship many figures from Altaian oral epic lore, which were not worshipped in the "shamanic" part of the Altaian religion.
Uch Kurbustan—"Uch" means "three", while "Kurbustan" comes from the Soghdian "Khormazta" (and thence from the Avestan "Ahura Mazda"). Thus, a triune God. Though imported from oral epics, Uch Kurbustan is a generalized spirit rather than a hero of stories with a personality. He may be analogous with the Turko-Mongolian High GodTengri ("Heaven").
Rather than an import from Buddhism, Christianity, or Turkic Islam, this particular trinity is likely to have been inspired by other triune gods and heroes from Turkic culture (sometimes in the form of a god with three sons). Uch Kurbustan is connected with the following three messianic heroes, also from Altaian oral epic lore:
The gods of the upper world, oraru tos ("pure ancestors"), are considered fragments or emanations of Uch Kurbustan. Burkhanism calls theseBurkhans. Among them are:
Gods of the "middle world"—i.e. the familiar spheres of nature and human affairs—include numerous local spirits, such as spirits associated with mountains (taika-eezi) or springs (arzhans), or "masters of the game". They may also be associated with particular clans (seok). More generalized ones include:
Historically, Burkhanism rejected the traditional gods of the underworld, notablyErlik (Yerlik), its chief. This rejection is closely related to Burkhanism's rejection of Altaian shamanism, and corresponding elevation of oral epic singers (yarlikchi). (By "shaman" is here meantmanjaktu kams, i.e. the "costume-wearing" specialists who communicate with the underworld gods.) Both rejections are likely to have been inspired by oral epic lore, which regularly features shamans as villains.
Some sources speak of a list of "Twenty Commandments" for Burkhanism. The evidence for this is sparse. Alcohol and tobacco were proscribed in the early years.
Chugul came to be venerated as the main recipient of the original message. This was much less true of Chet, although both were addressed with honorific titles.
Russian painterNicholas Roerich and his wifeHelena Roerich passed through Altai in 1926. Nicholas paintedOirat—Messenger of the White Burkhan based on his understanding of the movement. (Note that the painting's title apparently gets the theology backward—it was rather White Burkhan who was the messenger for Oirat.) Followers ofAgni Yoga, anesoteric movement founded by the Roerichs, have encouraged a recent revival of interest in Burkhanism among non-Altaians. At the same time they have insisted on a link withTibetan Buddhism and a veneration of MountBelukha, elements not found in traditional Burkhanism.
A number of Burkhanist revival organizations emerged during the 1990s, mostly as attempts to formulate or preserve an Altaian ethno-nationalist identity. To that end many of them have been persuaded to reconsider earlier Burkhanism's vexed relationship with shamanism and/or Buddhism.
According to recent statistical studies, up to 70%[1] or 81% (data of the Research State Institute of Altaic Studies)[2] of the Altaians continue to profess the so-called "Altai Faith"—Burkhanism, shamanism and other folk spiritual cults and traditions.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
| Approaches |  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arts and institutions | |||||
| By country or region | |||||
| Movements (list) |
| ||||
| In society | |||||
| Related articles | |||||
