Points of Transition: Ovoo and the Ritual Remaking of Religious, Ecological, and Historical Politics in Inner Asia Friday, February 22, 2019 9:30 AM – 6 PM 180 Doe Library UC Berkeley Sponsors: UC Berkeley Mongolia Initiative Institute of East Asian Studies Townsend Center for the Humanities Points of Transition Conference Participants Sam BASS, Indiana University Brian BAUMANN, UC Berkeley Isabelle CHARLEUX, National Centre for The organizers of this conference Scientific Research Bernard CHARLIER, Université Catholique de Louvain gratefully acknowledge the Jacob DALTON, UC Berkeley France-Berkeley Fund Devon DEAR, Harvard University Grégory DELAPLACE, Université Paris Nanterre for their support of this conference. Aurore DUMONT, Academia Sinica Kip HUTCHINS, University of Wisconsin-Madison Gaëlle LACAZE, Université Paris-Sorbonne Laurent LEGRAIN, Université de Toulouse Bolor LKHAAJAV, University of San Francisco Jessica MADISON, UC Santa Cruz Anne-Sophie PRATTE, Harvard University Marissa SMITH, De Anza College Sangseraima UJEED, UC Santa Barbara Rebecca WATTERS, The Wolverine Foundation Points of Transition “They call out to their dead devils!” Erküd and the Rejection of Communal Rituals in a Mongolian Banner Sam BASS, Indiana University Agenda 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch Break 9:30 AM – 9:45 AM Welcome and Opening Remarks 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM Panel 2: OVOO HISTORIES Jacob DALTON, UC Berkeley Isabelle CHARLEUX, National Centre for Scientific Research The Depiction and Naming of Oboos on Qing Dynasty Marissa SMITH, De Anza College Mongol Banner Maps (19th-Early 20th Century) Isabelle CHARLEUX, National Centre for Scientific Research 9:45 AM – 12:00 PM Panel 1: OVOO DIVERSITY Mapping Ovoos and Making Boundaries in 19th Century Khalkha Mongolia Community, Faith, and Politics: the Oboo Cairns and Rituals Anne-Sophie PRATTE, Harvard University th of the Shinehen Buryats throughout the 20 Century Aurore DUMONT, Academia Sinica Buddhist Origins of Ovoo Phenomena Sangseraima UJEED, UC Santa Barbara With Each Pass, Another Stone: Ovoo at the Heart of Heritage, Environment, and Conflict Rock-Pile Genius Kip HUTCHINS, University of Wisconsin-Madison Brian BAUMANN, UC Berkeley From Attachment to Detachment: Praying at the Ovoo and Ovoo on the Border Between the Qing and Russian Empires Finding One’s Place Far from the Homeland Devon DEAR, Harvard University Bernard CHARLIER, Université Catholique de Louvain 3:30 PM – 4:00 PM Dilemma of the Sacred Lands: Ovoo and Its Environment Break Bolor LKHAAJAV, University of San Francisco 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM Points of Transition Panel 3: OVOO PROCESSES Ovoos and Ovoo Practices of Erdenet Miners: Ethics of Abstracts Belonging and Generation Marissa SMITH, De Anza College Sam BASS, Indiana University Ovoos Worship in Mine-golia “They call out to their dead devils!” Erküd and the Rejection Gaëlle LACAZE, Université Paris-Sorbonne of Communal Rituals in a Mongolian Banner “You Dream of the Mountain and the Mountain Dreams of In Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, the banner was the basic You”: Mongolian Geo-Ethics and the Poetic Life of Altan level of social administration until the revolutionary Ovoo movements of the 20th century ushered in news forms of social Jessica MADISON, UC Santa Cruz and political organization. Representative members of banners were expected to attend communal rituals centered on ovoos. Being Skilled: The Virtue of Accurately Composing with the Scholars contend that these rituals were significant because Heterogeneity of the Cosmos in Mongolia they bound people to sacred landscapes that affirmed a sense of Grégory DELAPLACE, Université Paris Nanterre communal belonging through public participation in the rituals. Laurent LEGRAIN, Université de Toulouse These shared rituals, along with materials such as pasture and above-ground minerals shared amongst banner members, Ovoo and Human-Nature Interaction comprised the appanage community of Mongolian banners. Rebecca WATTERS, The Wolverine Foundation At the same time, there were groups of people within 6:00 PM Mongolian banners that rejected these rituals. These groups Closing Remarks and Adjourn distinguished themselves in opposition to the larger banner community by their loci of worship, which were not shared with the rest of the banner. The Erküd of Üüshin banner, Ordos league (located in today’s southwest Inner Mongolia), were one such group. They were notable because they did not participate in communal banner rituals, considered ancestor reverence to be heterodox, and neither created nor maintained purported “Mongolian Shamanism”? Is the Mongolian rock- ovoos. Antoine Mostaert, an eminent scholar who pioneered pile cult comparable to other traditions in the Buddhist world? modern Mongolian studies, became interested in the Erküd Is it comparable to traditions beyond Buddhism? What is the because he believed they were vestigial Christian clergy significance to a pile of rocks that one should venerate it in the leftover from the Mongol empire, and explained their rejection first place? My paper answers none of these questions of banner ritual life in those terms. The Erküd, however, were definitively but addresses them from the perspective of the just one example of a group that did not participate in each rock-pile’s stated source of potency—as a repository for banner’s communal, ovoo-centric rituals. genius. The paper will attempt to demonstrate that genius understood for what it is makes the rock-pile cult’s reason for This paper addresses the significance of these groups to our being comprehensible and that in being comprehensible the understanding of the ritual aspect of Mongolian banners cult’s history in Mongolian tradition comes into clearer focus centered around ovoos. Erküd and other non-normative ritual as well. groups fit into banner life in ways distinct from other members of the banner community. More than just exceptions that prove Isabelle CHARLEUX, National Centre for Scientific a rule about Mongolian socio-political communal structure, Research groups such as the Erküd challenge the appanage community model by their historical existence and practices. The Depiction and Naming of Oboos on Qing Dynasty Mongol Banner Maps (19th-Early 20th Century) Brian BAUMANN, UC Berkeley The “maps” (or “picture maps”) of the banners of Inner and Rock-Pile Genius Outer Mongolia, drawn to be sent to the central Qing government in the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, That the rock-pile (Mongolian ovoo) was worshipped in contain a great number of names and drawings of oboos— Mongolian tradition during the period of Gelugpa hegemony is about a quarter of the toponyms are oboos. Two types sure. Uncertain, however, is most every historical aspect to the of oboos are distinguished on the banner maps: nature of this veneration. How long has the cult existed in ritual oboos and border-markers oboos which punctuate the Mongolia? Does it originate only under the auspices of the border with the neighboring banners; in addition, many Mongolian Gelugpa high priest, Mergen Gegen, in the 18th mountains are also called oboo. This paper raises questions century? Does it predate Gelugpa 16th century ascendancy about the naming of oboos, their representation by drawings, among the Mongols? Did the cult exist in the time of Chinggis pictograms or symbols, and the accuracy of their location. Was Khan and the Great Mongol Empire? Does it belong to a the naming and/or depiction of oboos an important and useful information for mapmakers? Do ritual oboos mark and allow leave their homeland as the spirits would miss them and us to identify the main sacred mountains of a banner? Is the withdraw their protection. Through an analysis of the prayers hierarchy of ritual oboos, from the “prince”’ and recited at each encampment and during two ovoo ceremonies, banner oboos to the community oboos, made visible on banner the new year and the sub-district (bag) celebrations, I will first maps, and are “banner oboos” depicted in close relation to the show how these prayers are of paramount importance to seat of the banner administration? Can some border oboos also maintain a relationship with the spirits of the land and to attract serve as cult oboos, following Caroline Humphrey’s concept their protection. Second, in the context of important internal on “edge-based centricity” (a sacred mountain marking the migrations from the countryside to the city, I will analyse how border and at the same time linking different communities) in these prayers are at the same time reproduced and modified Buryatia? Are there less or no oboos in the Inner Mongol among herders who recently left their homeland to settle in a banners where agriculture was intensively practiced? By province near the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. Finally, I will focusing on a few banners and comparing their ancient maps mention the case of an elder who recently settled in with modern ones, this paper aims at understanding the place, Ulaanbaatar and who refuses to pray for the savdag at the ovoo categorization and inclusion of oboos in the representations of of the city. I will argue that the reproduction of the prayers and a territory. their modifications constitute one particular way to maintain the relationship of protection with the spirits of the land the Bernard CHARLIER, Université Catholique de Louvain herders have left as well as one particular way to create new relationships with the spirits of the land where the herders have From Attachment to Detachment: Praying at the Ovoo and settled. In some cases the refusal to participate at an ovoo Finding One’s Place Far from the Homeland ceremony accounts for the difficulties to get used to a particular territory, like those of new migrants who recently In Mongolia, the nomadic herders of sheep and goats entertain settled in the capital city. a strong attachment to their “homeland,” nutag. This attachment to the land and most precisely to the spirits Devon DEAR, Harvard University (savdag) which inhabit it is not only created at birth but has to be maintained and entertained throughout one’s life during Ovoo on the Border Between the Qing and Russian Empires daily rituals and seasonal ovoo ceremonies.