Storytelling traditions of olonkhosuts of Khangalassky district

Abstract

The study of regional traditions of olonkho is considered to be a relevant direction in Yakut folkloristics. According to the materials of S. D. Mukhopleva and N. A. Diakonova, research fellows of the Institute of Humanitarian Research and North Indigenous Peoples Problems, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, about 60 olonkhosuts (olonkho tellers) lived on the territory of Khangalassky district since the 17th century. This indicates that the art of storytelling was quite widespread in Khangalassky district. The study of the storytelling tradition of olonkhosuts of Khangalassky district belongs to the little-studied topics in Yakut folkloristics. Object of the study is the storytelling traditions of Khangalassky district olonkhos. The subject of the study is olonkhosuts of Khangalassky district, forms of performing olonkho, and the areal of existence. The aim of the work is to study the performing tradition of the Khangalassky district olonkho. The following research methods were used in the article: descriptive method - to characterise the forms of everyday life; the cartographic method with the use of geographic information systems - to determine the areal of the olonkho tradition in Khangalassky district. As a result of the research we identified the names of 78 olonkhosuts from different sources: the reference book "Olonkhosuts of Yakutia", the bibliographic guide of Khangalassky district library, the Olonkho website, the Digital Archive of the Olonkho Research Institute of the North-Eastern Federal University, and from the memories of local residents. We divided the storytelling traditions of Khangalass olonkhosuts into 4 local groups: Malzhagar olonkhosuts, Maltan olonkhosuts, olonkhosuts of Erkeni area and olonkhosuts of Samyrtai area.