The Nomad’s Star of Bair Dugarov as the Guiding Light of Post-Soviet Buryatia
The Nomad’s Star of Bair Dugarov as the Guiding Light of Post-Soviet Buryatia

Author(s): Galina Dondukova
Subject(s): Anthropology, Sociology, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: ethnic identity; revival of historical memory; Buryat poetry; nomad; lineage continuation; ancestor’s cult; post-Soviet Buryatia
Summary/Abstract: "The Nomad’s Star" is undoubtedly the most prominent poem of Bair Dugarov. Having appeared in the critical time of post-Soviet searching of self-identification among the Buryats, the poem instantly gained popularity. In this article, I argue that the poem The Nomad’s Star becomes the guiding light for the modern generation of Buryats after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Dugarov calls upon his contemporaries not to forget the nomadic principles of the ancestors. He employs such motifs and artistic images which reproclaim the ideas of lineage continuation, the ancestors’ cult, and harmony in the family – values that are relevant and vital at all times. I close read the poem The Nomad’s Star and outline main cultural concepts depicted in it, such as “route,” “hearth,” “lineage,” and others, which promote the revival of ethnic consciousness in the memory of the Buryats. I support my argumentation with the words of the poet himself and literary critics’ opinions. The public discourse and social network materials devoted to "The Nomad’s Star" are also called upon, evidencing the poem’s role and significance in contemporary Buryatia.

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