Homeland, nature, territory

Ties to the land, family practices and spiritual practices have been significant identity markers for the Buryat youth (Sartor, 2016). While studying in Chinese Inner Mongolia, young Buryat Mongolian students, who were born in Russia, had identity issues. Bakhtin’s theories of dialogism and ideological becoming were employed to analyze findings. Young Buryats identified with their ancestral homeland, the Republic of Buryatia and with their national homeland, the Russian Federation. They confirmed their Buryat identity by birth on the Buryat land when they identified themselves. On the other hand, Buryat teenagers called their nationality as Russian, because the Russian Federation had enormous political power in their eyes. Land was the major marker for the cultural identity of these Buryat boys, rather than language, cultural practices or religion.

3.3.2.1 Ancestral homeland

The emotional state of one of the Buryat girls, who lived in Inner Mongolia and was observed by Sartor (2016), had changed after coming back home to Buryatia. Thus, emotional ease significantly reflected her self-sense (as an Indigenous Buryat) linked to a sense of place

strongly into cultural dimensions and cultural identity. Linking Buryats to their ideologies of wisdom, history, spirituality and language, make them feel connected to the land (personal communication, January 2014, Sartor, 2016). By trying to understand how Buryats saw their land, it is more understandable how Buryats imagine themselves as people. In honoring the land, Buryats recognize the importance of the community and the family. They also reflect on their history as a people and their cultural standards. According to Bakhtin (1984) a place creates, influences and impacts human identity (as cited in Sartor, 2016).

Individuals are not only dependent on the personal way of development but also on the attributes of the historiography of the society they live in, including the geographical environment and the type of labor activity and economy typical of a certain stage of social evolution. The Great Steppe's landscape and climate influenced the development of the ideology and identity of nomadic cultures. The local nature or space (i.e. the vast plains and steppes) also have a certain ethno-cultural way of perception, defined by slowness, tranquility and balance, to a considerable extent. The Buryat nomads traveled from one place to another and learned how to save the land and protect the environment from depletion. They performed rituals to ask permission before hunting, to show respect and express admiration and gratefulness to the local gods of the mountains, rivers and forests. Since ancient times, the Buryats treated nature and the environment in a tactful manner, because they were sacred and required respect (Boldonova, 2016).

Figure 5. Lake Baikal (Olkhon Island)

Buryats perceive the land, especially Lake Baikal (see Fig.5), as a living and sacred ancestor. During fieldwork of Sartor (2016), each Buryat participant described Lake Baikal as

‘alive, sacred and powerful’. Focal children frequently visited the lake. Their sense of place is a way to build past and to share cultural and personal history. It was also used to maintain social traditions that generate personal and ethnic identities. In fact, a lot of writers called Lake Baikal a sacred lake, Buryatia's magnificent and unique diamond, Russia's pearl and the entire planet. Lake Baikal's stunning beauty has always been a subject of creative activity (Boldonova, 2013, as cited in Boldonova, 2016). Baikal integrates and serves as a symbol of the Buryats as ethnic groups and lands around it. The influence of Baikal on people's lives in the area is diverse:

it not only defines the particular characteristics of financial and business activities, yet also expands its spiritual power to the structures of reflection, self-knowledge and aesthetic experience in art and literature. At the lake, there is a moment of intimate connection with the sea, because Baikal is understood by those who live on its shores, a moment when one feels its energy – it is a moment of coexistence (Boldonova, 2016).

SU: I was born in Buryatia, my parents are Buryats.

VS: But Buryatia is Russian territory?

SU: “Those Russians think that all Siberia is their property - but it’s not. Buryatia is ours. Baikal belongs to Buryats, not Russians.”

(Personal communication, Sartor, 2016)

Now the participant represented herself clearly in terms of homeland. Additionally, she was clearly dissatisfied with Russian hegemonic practices — the occupation and colonization of Buryat ancestral lands. Another family identified themselves with Buryat lands. However, they preferred Russians to be on their land rather than Chinese. Indeed, the majority of Buryats said that local Russians respected Buryat land. While Chinese would harm and damage the nature and beauty of the land (Sartor, 2016).

3.3.2.2 National homeland

Buryat identity persists through their link with their land; it is more powerful today than their linguistic link. Buryat teenagers observed by Sartor (2016) identified themselves differently either to assert a powerful identity or to use it as a shield against discrimination. An interviewee said: “With the Outer Mongolians I can be Mongolian too, but with those Chinese

— I’m always Russian. I pretend I speak nothing but Russian. I tell them that I come from Russia — not Mongolia”. With Outer Mongolian peers, at times the Buryat boys attempted to speak in Khalkha; these Buryats wanted to associate and identify themselves with Mongolians who were “free” from hegemonic forces (Russia and China). But in China, Buryat children reported themselves as strangers, thus, feeling unsafe they identified their homeland as Russia, rather than Buryatia, because the children understood Russia was politically more powerful than Buryatia. Sartor (2016) also interviewed a mixed raced girl asking if she is Buryat or Russian. She answered: “I’m both. But in China, uh, I was born in Russia, you know? I can’t let them think I’m a Mongolian girl. Here they think Mongols are stupid.” Again, they

identified Russia as their birthplace, emphasizing it over her Buryat homeland. On the other hand, being ‘Russian’ in Russia was resented.