Mother Deities across Eurasia : A Comparison of Latvian, Vietnamese, and Mongolian Traditions

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F22%3A00129082" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/22:00129082 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

—

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

—

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Mother Deities across Eurasia : A Comparison of Latvian, Vietnamese, and Mongolian Traditions

Original language description

An extraordinary rich tradition of mother goddesses (mātes) attested in the Latvian folklore calls for a direct comparison with its counterpart in the Vietnamese or Southeast Asian living cult of mother goddesses (thờ mẫu). Both geographically distant pantheons are characterized by a similarly universal coverage of all aspects of life and religiosity. Both systems are related to the economy relying on the importance of women. Modern densely populated Europe and Vietnam increased their social interactions and needs and enriched the systems by new strata where the already existing mother goddess became a general prototype for a new set of deities. We try to compare these two systems with a set of female deities in the less densely populated Mongolia with a rare continuity of spiritual approaches since the pre-collectivization period. With a highly syncretic and multilayered religion labelled as the Mongolian Buddhism and shamanic traditions, the Mongolian cultural area does not provide a selfstanding tradition of female deities, but many female deities can be found in local cults expressed through the Buddhism-shaped ritual texts and through the local oral tradition of extraordinary personal encounters with a deity, providing a structureless patchwork of deity-imageries, yet constantly reenchanted by personal experiences. On one side, the Mongolian oral tradition reveals spiritual concepts comparable to Latvia, where the pantheon of goddesses has rich structure and diversity of their specialized functional roles. On the other side, the role of mediums (with female shamans in Mongolia) is comparable to the practices in Vietnam (mostly lên đồng rituals). Our paper focused on the context, functions, similarities and differences in three distinct traditions.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

60206 - Specific literatures

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA19-07619S" target="_blank" >GA19-07619S: Mongolian ritual manuscripts in a Czech collection: their edition, history and Central Asian roots</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů