'AŁTARGANA'. STUDIUM KULTURY FESTIWALOWEJ

In the contemporary world we observe rising importance of festivals and other public events in the process of transmitting ethnic identity and forming a contemporary form of a nation. They gain an especially significant meaning in case of nations the development of which has been disturbed by external political circumstances and a colonial hierarchical order. This paper concerns an all-Buryatic festival "Altagrana", the tenth anniversary of which took place in July 2012. On one hand, the analysis discusses the contents of the on-line program of the festival, and on the other hand, all that has happened in Aginsk on July 21 and 22. The article shows the process of building and strengthening the Buryatic canon of culture, i.e. the standardisation of the culture's elements which constitute the core and emblem of Buryatness: images, symbols, and historical references. In the context of intensive globalization Buryatic cultural identity has to be built by modern means, understandable for all generations. Under such circumstances festivals and similar public events organized and designed by Buryatic elites appear to be an extremely effective tool for forming and strengthening ethnic identity. Thus I have used the term "festival culture" in the title of the text.