Ur(s) Sar

Ur Sar is celebrated when spring ends and summer begins. The celebration includes singing, dancing and various competitions, such as wrestling, horse racing, and catching horses with a pole. Ur Sar is also celebrated at home, but not as widely. This celebration is mentioned in Kalmyk heroic legends.

Lama Batyr talks about how people in his village of Orgakin perform various rituals to appease local deities. He describes three such rituals.

1. He says that our world consists of five elements: earth, water, air, fire, and space. Our physical and astral bodies also consist of these elements. The Kalmyks have always had an understanding that they should give something back to nature. The ritual of offering to the spiritual masters of water (lakes, ponds, rivers etc.) and land is performed in the spring, between April and May. In Orgakin this ritual is performed by the local pond which is believed to be the place where a local spiritual master – a snake – lives. Many locals have seen the snake. The offerings include goat’s milk, milk of a red cow, wool threads, sweets, flowers, coins, and candles. The offerings are put on small rafts and floated on the water. The ritual is accompanied by prayers dedicated to the spiritual masters of the pond. Sacred places like this, lama Batyr contends, are few in Kalmykia, because people have severed their links with such beings. In Orgakin this ritual is performed each year. Many local people have noticed that since they started performing this ritual, nature changed for the better: there is more rain, the grass grows better, and the livestock is on the rise.

2. In Orgakin people also perform a ritual of making offerings to earth. This ritual is performed on a small hill called Kermen Tolga where another local deity lives. It is only men who are allowed to go to the top of the hill. The ritual consists of putting stones on the hill and offering libations of milk and vodka to the deities so that they help the local people.

3. During Ur Sar people in Orgakin worship Tsagan Aav. Men make offerings to Tsagan Aav and other local deities by means of doing competitions, including a horse race, wrestling, and archery. Before the games, the representatives of all the local seven clans come to the temple one by one to listen to prayers and make offerings from 6 am to 9 pm. All in all, this part lasts for seven days. All the offerings are then put together and used as prizes in the competitions.

Ur Sar is celebrated in May. During this holiday we read prayers and perform a ritual for the spiritual masters of land and water in a designated place. We spread biscuits and sweets on the ground for insects and frogs to eat. After prayers we return home and have a celebration.

Also, we perform a ritual of offering to the spiritual masters of water (lakes, rivers) every year. We kill a sheep by putting it on a white cloth sprinkled with liquid butter. White and red coins should be spread on that cloth. The sacrificial sheep is to be killed in a traditional way. Then we make a small boat and put four candles on each corner, put vodka, fruits, vegetables, the head of the sacrificial sheep, its skin, white and red coins, and push this boat to float in the water. What is left from the ritual, including the sheep’s bones, candles (every family brings their own candles) etc. is put on the fire and burnt. When all participants go home, a boy is left behind to look after the fire and make sure it burns safely.

Ur Sar coincides with a time when plants grow and the nomads move their livestock to their summer pasture land. In the past, before the Bolshevik Revolution, four animals, including a camel, a horse, a sheep and a cow, were sprinkled with milk. Such animals were considered as sacred and blessed. According to one story, in the 1920s during the Civil War a Kalmyk woman was asked to boil the meat of such a blessed cow. In horror, the woman set about cooking the meat, periodically turning it in the boiling water. At some point the hot soup splashed and a soup droplet got into her eyes leaving her blind.

Garya says that in his childhood people who were fasting celebrated Ur Sar in a special way. Such fasting people, who were usually elderly, prepared a special dish from sour cream, flour, shuurmg, and khyurse, and gave it to children. It was considered that by doing this these people received a blessing. Ur Sar was celebrated in May. Besides private rituals, Ur Sar was celebrated widely by organizing public events.

Garya is a member of the Noynakhn tribe which consists of 8 clans. Every year the members of each clan travel to their ancestral land to perform a fire ritual for their ancestors. Garya is himself from the Barun clan whose ancestral land is called Nost. Garya himself was born in Nost. Every year on 2 May Garya with other members of his clan travel to Nost. Once in two to three years they take a Buddhist monk with them to lead the ritual and read prayers. In the absence of a monk, it is the elderly who lead the ritual. The food offered to ancestors consists of what the living eat, including sweets, butter, biscuits etc. In the place of worship, the pilgrims kill a sacrificial sheep by a traditional method of opening its belly and pulling a vein. All food offerings are set on a fire. It is believed that the ancestors hear and see what their descendants do. This ritual pleases the ancestors very much.

In May plants and trees grow. During Ur Sar which is celebrated in May people bless their land. They give fire offerings to their ancestors so that everyone lives happily. Kalmyk well-wishes uttered during Ur Sar include the following lines:

Let your land be blessed

Let your home be a palace

Let people who live on this land be wealthy and numerous.

Larisa talks about how the Kalmyks celebrated Ur Sar.

At the beginning of the month of Ur Sar the Kalmyks did the following. They separated their young sheep from the old ones, castrated the rams, stamped the young sheep and sheared their wool. Towards the end of the month the Kalmyks moved to their summer pasture land. On the first day of the holiday of Ur Sar every family lit candles, made traditional tea, prepared food, and made offerings to their gods, including Tsagan Aav who is considered not only one of the most important but the closest deity for the Kalmyks. It is believed that Tsagan Aav helps herders and protects their livestock. In the past, during the holiday of Ur Sar the Kalmyks decorated an image of Tsagan Aav with flowers and held it among their cattle. They also invited their elders and performed fire rituals. It was also customary for people to throw butter and fat into a fire symbolizing that their family members had plenty and lived in happiness and health. The smoke coming from the butter and fat was believed to feed gods. Following this ritual, all people in the nomadic settlement gathered in an auspicious place, usually at the local temple where monks read prayers for them. Also, four young animals (a cow, a sheep, a horse and a camel) were consecrated by smearing their foreheads with milk, smoking them with incenses and reading prayers for them. This ritual of consecration was also performed on children. During Ur Sar people performed rituals to appease their local spirits that were masters of land and water. A horse race, wrestling, singing and dancing were part of the Ur Sar celebration as well.

Larisa talks about how Ur Sar and Tsagan Sar are celebrated in her village.

Ur Sar is celebrated as follows. People come to the local Orgakinskiy temple in groups. All in all, there are 7 clans in that place. These clans come to the temple one by one on designated days to celebrate the holiday. At the temple the lama reads prayers for the ancestors of each clan. Then the elders of each clan perform fire rituals by putting food offerings (milk, yoghurt, pancakes, and red wine) on a fire. Then all the clans celebrate the holiday together in the village centre. The celebration includes competitions in wrestling, archery and a horse race. The winners are presented with sheep and other valuable prizes. People celebrate Ur Sar to mark the successful end of winter.

According to traditional understanding, spring starts when Tsagan Sar finishes. This is a time when the nomads move to new pasturelands. In the past when the Kalmyks lived in yurts, they disassembled their yurts and offered food to a fire before leaving their winter places. By driving their carts and livestock past that fire they purified their possessions.

Maria says that historically the Kalmyks celebrated Ur Sar at the end of May or at the beginning of June, a time when spring ends and summer begins. It is also when livestock multiplies. In Kalmyk the word ur has two meanings, (1) a friend, a comrade, and (2) an offspring.

Ur Sar is also a religious holiday. Early in the morning the Kalmyks make tea and biscuits and offer them to gods. It is a custom to tie colorful ribbons to trees and make wishes. During Ur Sar people pay visits to each other and hold public competitions (in archery, wrestling and horse racing) across Kalmykia.

Olzyata says that during Ur Sar people pray to gods and ask for various things, including happiness and prosperity for themselves and their relatives, forgiveness if someone committed a sin, health, peace on earth etc. Every family makes Kalmyk tea and prays for their children and ancestral lands.

During the holiday it is also customary for astrologists to choose a sheep with a yellow head or yellow ears in order to consecrate it. All the people present at the ritual are supposed to participate in the consecration of the chosen sheep. After this, it is forbidden to disturb this sheep let alone to kill it.

In the past, on the 15^th day of the month, people also performed fire rituals. Different clans performed this ritual differently. Some killed a sacrificial sheep, others did not. Today people ask Buddhist monks how to perform this ritual. People also performed other rituals as well, such as the one aimed at appeasing the spiritual masters of land and water. During Ur Sar monks read mantras.

Svetlana talks about Ur Sar and Zul. This is her story.

The tree that is put in the hearth was cut in June, in the month of the celebration of Urs Sar. Urs Sar is a time of prosperity, abundance, and continuation of life, when cattle graze on green pastures and there is a lot of milk to go around for nomads.

During the celebrations a  tree is placed in the center of the yurt to symbolize the binding of life. Ribbons are tied on the tree to worship the spirits of the earth and nature. The tree is a symbol of life and is connected with the centre of the world.

Kalmyk New Year is called Zul. It is a time when Tsagan Aav (Zhilin ezn), or the Master of Time, sets out on a journey.

Ubush says that people take vows during Ur Sar. He relays a story of a guy who took a vow to abstain from alcohol, but violated it by drinking beer. He started to have nightmares and went to see a monk. The monk said that he could not help him. That is why people should take responsibility for their actions themselves.

This video features a ritual of worshipping the land dedicated to the national holiday of Urs Sar in May 2017 which was performed by lamas at the sacred location of Single Poplar Tree situated near the village of Khar-Buluk. The ceremony was opened by Telo Tulku Rinpoche, after which the lamas from the Central Temple in Elista proceeded to chanting prayers. While the lamas were reading prayers, a fire was set alight to purify the land. The laity made circuits of the fire. The worship was concluded by a cultural programme where artists sang songs, played on the dombra and danced.

Zurgada reminisces how Ur Sar was celebrated in her childhood. On the eve of Ur Sar her family castrated lambs and marked their ears with special stamps. Each family had their own stamp. Then the ewes were separated from their lambs and milked. The lambs were kept on top of small hills where there was no grass.

Since a sheep gives little milk, its milk was mixed with cow’s milk to make cheese. It was done as follows. The milk was poured into a pot and boiled. Then it was cooled and fermented with a dried lamb’s gallbladder. The pot was covered with a lid and left until the next day when Ur Sar was celebrated.

On the day of Ur Sar, in the morning monks would come and set a fire in several places near the nomadic encampment, while feeding the fire with flour and salt. Then they blessed the livestock with incenses, milk and consecrated water. Four animals, including a camel, a horse, a sheep and a cow, were blessed. These blessed animals were meant to live their lives undisturbed and never get slaughtered for meat. While the monks blessed the animals, people from the nearby temple would bring the images of two Buddhist deities, Tsongkapa and Maitreya. These images were supposed to be brought on a white or a grey horse only. The images were put on the altar inside the household for the monks to read mantras. After blessing the four animals, the monks entered the household and read mantras. Then they were offered food, including the fresh cheese from the previous day, some meat, tea, dumplings etc. Then the monks would mount a cart sent from a neighboring encampment to perform the rituals there. In this way, the monks visited all the encampments.

Zurgada says that in her childhood her sister would ask, ‘Did Tsongkapa arrive yet?’ thinking that this deity was a living man. Others would tease her by saying, ‘Someone who looks like Tsongkapa is pissing outside’ and everyone would laugh.

Zurgada also says that during Ur Sar her family performed a ritual to appease the spiritual masters of land and water. The ritual was done on top of a small hill called Khar Tolga. There was a small hole where people set a fire, lit candles and incenses. Since she was not allowed to participate in this ritual nor to go up the hill, Zurgada does not know much about how this ritual was performed.