Tsagaan Ubgen ("The elder White", "White Old Man"; Mongolian: Buryat:

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ) is the Mongolian guardian of life and longevity, one of the symbols of fertility and prosperity in the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

pantheon. He is worshiped as a deity in what scholars have called "white shamanism", a subdivision of what scholars have called "Buryat

yellow shamanism Yellow shamanism is the term used to designate a particular version of shamanism practiced in Mongolia and Siberia which incorporates rituals and traditions from Buddhism. "Yellow" indicates Buddhism in Mongolia, since most Buddhists there belong ...

"—that is, a tradition of shamanism that "incorporate Buddhist rituals and beliefs" and is influenced specifically by

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

. Sagaan Ubgen originated in

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. In some versions of the mythology, Sagaan Ubgen the White Elder is the partner of Itügen, Mother Earth, also known as Etügen Eke.

Syncretic incorporation into the Buddhist pantheon

The modern Mongolian and Buryat Buddhist pantheons include Tsagaan Ubgen, like many other figures in those pantheons, as a result of

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in t ...

with the indigenous shamanism of the region. Before the introduction of Buddhism to Mongolia and Buryatia, he was the deity of longevity, wealth, and fertility. To account for his continued veneration as part of Buddhist practice, narratives have been added to his existing mythology, providing tales of how he was converted to Buddhism, and making him a patron of the latter religion, at the same time that he continues in his previous, more worldly, religious functions. One version of the story relates how, while the Buddha and his disciples were out walking one day, they met Tsagaan Ubgen, who so impressed the Buddha with his wisdom that he (Buddha) declared Tsagaan Ubgen to be a "saint". A different version of the tale has Tsagaan Ubgen as one of two hunters, the other being Hara Ubgen (), who, out hunting, encounter

Milarepa Jetsun Milarepa (, 1028/40–1111/23) was a Tibetan siddha, who was famously known as a murderer when he was a young man, before turning to Buddhism and becoming a highly accomplished Buddhist disciple. He is generally considered one of Tibet's m ...

in Milarepa's Cave. Milarepa persuades them to give up hunting and to take up the teaching of Buddhism.

Appearance and iconography

Tsagaan Ubgen is often depicted similarly to the Tibetan deity

Gyalpo Pehar According to Tibetan Buddhist myth, Gyalpo Pehar ( lso spelt: ''pe kar'' & ''dpe dkar'' is a spirit belonging to the gyalpo class. When Padmasambhava arrived in Tibet in the eighth century, he subdued all gyalpo spirits and put them under contro ...

, or to the Chinese god

Old Man of the South Pole The Old Man of the South Pole (in or ja, 南極老人) is the Taoist deification of Canopus, the brightest star of the constellation Carina. It is the symbol of happiness and longevity in Far Eastern culture. Description The Old Man of the S ...

, who like Tsagaan Ubgen is a patron deity of family longevity, wealth, and health. His conventional appearance is that of a bald old man with a white beard. He carries a dragon-headed staff and the book of destiny and is traditionally accompanied by a deer and a peach tree.

In Mongolian ''tsam'' and Tibetan ''cham'' dances

Tsagaan Ubgen has the same kindly bald old man with a white beard appearance in the Mongolian version of the Cham dance. There, he appears alongside other masked characters representing other syncretic Buddhist gods such as Begze,

Mahākāla Mahākāla is a deity common to Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism. In Buddhism, Mahākāla is regarded as the sacred '' Dharmapāla'' ("Protector of the Dharma"), while in Hinduism, Mahākāla is a fierce manifestation of the Hindu god Shiva and th ...

, and the

Garuda Garuda (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garuda is a ...

; and is one of the few characters in the dance who is able to speak. The Elder White character was imported from the Cham dance into the Tibetan Cham in the 20th century by order of the 13th Dalai Lama, who had a dream during his exile in Mongolia. He is named , or simply , in Tibetan, and was first introduced into the Cham dance as part of the New Year's dance of the

Potala Palace The Potala Palace is a ''dzong'' fortress in Lhasa, Tibet. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, has been a museum since then, and a World Heritage Site since 1994. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythica ...

Namgyal Monastery Namgyal Monastery () (also often referred to as "Dalai Lama's Temple") is currently located in Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, India. It is the personal monastery of the 14th Dalai Lama. Another name for this temple-complex is Namgyal Tantric Colleg ...

. From there, he spread to cham dance in other monasteries throughout Tibet. In the Cham dance, Tsagaan Ubgen, dressed all in white with a

snuff Snuff may refer to: Tobacco * Snuff (tobacco), fine-ground tobacco, sniffed into the nose ** Moist snuff or dipping tobacco ** Creamy snuff, an Indian tobacco paste Media and entertainment * Snuff film, a type of film that shows a murder Literat ...

bottle attached to his girdle, is the main character in the "Tiger Dance", which symbolizes the transition to the new year from the old. He enters the dance area weak and staggering, or even being carried. After symbolically killing a tiger by striking a tiger skin with a stick, his strength is renewed. In some variations of the dance, he then proceeds to pass among the audience seeking donations of money, sometimes offering a peck of snuff from his bottle in return. In other variations, he begins to drink alcohol and continue dancing until he is too drunk to dance.

Footnotes

Various alternative transliterations of the name into the English alphabet exist including Tsagaan Uvgun, Tsagaan Övgön (as used in ), Tsagaan Ebugen (as used in ), and Cagan Öbö (as used in ).

References

Bibliography