Kite and Hawk in Buryat Traditional Worldview

This study focuses on Southeastern Siberia, which includes ethnic Buryatia. The chronological framework spans the period from the late 1800s to early 1900s, which is the upper limit of the Buryat traditional culture. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the kite and hawk images in the traditional Buryat worldview on the basis of ethnographic, lexical, and folkloric sources. The main approaches used are structural-semiotic and comparative-historical. The role of kites and hawks in Buryat life is assessed with reference to linguistic data. The findings of a comparative cultural analysis reveal the ambivalence of those birds. Killing them was taboo because of the Buryats’ reverence for Garuda— the mythical ruler of birds, related to deities. Kites and hawks were celestial messengers, being at the same time associated with the idea of shapeshifting. In addition, the kite was connected with water symbolism, a messenger of deities, a celestial shaman, the originator of the tradition of female shamanism, and the shaman’s spiritual aid. The hawk had a solar nature, embodying the male element and the warrior. However, the attitude to those birds was negative because of the demonic beings’ propensity to turn into them.