Mangathais in Curtin’s Buryat accounts

Overview

The accounts give different origins and histories. Arhokoff’s account in Chapter X has Esege Malan’s exiled sons create hostile beings, including Mangathais. Gesir Bogdo No.III instead begins when the defeated Atai Ulan falls from heaven and becomes Mangathais and malicious Shalmos. No.II places them in a world preceding the present one, alongside the Marat and under Shalmo Khan. These are narrative classifications of supernatural opponents; they are not descriptions of a historical human population.

Individual opponents are distinguished by their powers and head-counts. In No.II the seventy-three-headed Danjin Shara leads three hundred and sixty Mangathais. Gesir encloses their dwelling in iron and enchantments, causing it to sink, and asks for an iron guardian to prevent escape. No.III includes ten-, seventeen-, twenty-seven-, fifty-three- and seventy-seven-headed adversaries, a ninety-nine-headed father confined in a split tree, and a hundred-and-nine-headed opponent who forces the transformed Gesir to plough. The different deaths and confinements should not be reduced to one standard vulnerability.

One young opponent in No.III keeps a life in a great bird’s feather and a second among thirteen woodcocks guarded by his grandmother beneath the Milk Sea. Gesir steals the feather and pursues the other life through successive bird, grain, goat and fish forms. After the final birds are caught and killed, the weakened adversary dies. Other Mangathais are defeated through arrows, wrestling, lightning or imprisonment without this sequence. Curtin’s notes compare external-life tales elsewhere and speculate about nature imagery; those comparisons do not establish common ancestry or turn these beings into scientific descriptions of natural forces.

The Varhan Tulai Hubun cycle adds a different external-life arrangement. A hundred-and-eight-headed captor gives the disguised hero a stone supposedly able to protect its bearer. Breaking it reveals a metal-covered box containing sixteen little birds. Varhan kills thirteen and retains three; after he kills the last three, he finds the Mangathai dead. This sequence is not the feather and woodcock arrangement in Gesir No.III, and the opening episode’s separate slain Mangathai should not automatically be merged with this captor.

The same cycle also makes vulnerability depend on the individual. An infant Mangathai survives the hero’s attempts to kill him and plays happily in an ordinary fire. The thousand Burkans prescribe a different, overwhelming heat, with an insulated shelter for the rescuers, and the child finally dies. A later Mangathai woman gains entry by posing as a neighbour and abducts the sleeping hero; his rapidly growing sons eventually help recover him. The narrative’s violent treatment of captive opponents is part of its plot, not an ethical instruction or evidence that all members share one appearance or response to fire.

Origins & earliest records

Historical English collection of Buryat religious narratives

Records & interpretation

Complete cited chapters and relevant comparative notes read with title, preface and collecting account; source versions distinguished.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   A Journey in Southern Siberia: The Mongols, Their Religion and Their Myths

   Jeremiah Curtin · 1909

   XI, Gesir Bogdo No.I pp.127–129, No.II pp.130–133, No.III pp.134–163; X pp.122–124; Notes pp.307–310. Boston: Little, Brown. Transcription pagination; original page images and Buryat language not independently collated.

2. 02

   A Journey in Southern Siberia

   Jeremiah Curtin · 1909

   XII, Varhan Tulai Hubun, complete pp.222–231; stone/birds225–226, child227, abduction/rescue229–231; English transcription, no original-language collation.

Family & connections

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Primary records and illustrations

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical English primary collectionCurtin1909 — XI, Gesir Bogdo No.I pp.127–129, No.II pp.130–133, No.III pp.134–163; X pp.122–124; Notes pp.307–310Research access: 2026-10-05
2. Historical English primary collectionCurtin, Gesir Bogdo No.IResearch access: 2026-10-05
3. Historical English primary collectionCurtin, Gesir Bogdo No.IIResearch access: 2026-10-05
4. Historical English primary collectionCurtin, complete Varhan Tulai Hubun cycleResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.