SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The Mongol dalalya, 'beckoning of good-fortune', is a folk-religious ritual which also occurs in lamaized contexts. The different forms which the ritual takes are classified and analysed, reference being made to published accounts and to the author's fieldwork in Mongolia, and (to a limited extent) to comparative material for other Altaic areas and for Tibet. The relationship of the ritual to the sacrifice to the hearth-deity is examined. Mongol terminology specific to the ritual is analysed. Objects which appear as requisites in the ritual are described and illustrated, and their place in Mongol symbolic systems is analysed. All known texts of invocations to be recited at the ritual are listed and classified. Texts representative of each of the main categories identified are translated and edited. The study concludes that the ritual is a means of promoting the vital energy of men and herds; it has taken a number of different forms in different environments, under the influence of the contrasting ideologies of hunting and herding, of Mongol folk-religion and of lamaism. The ritual may be associated with earlier sacrifices to the ancestors.