The article discusses the influence of the cult of Yanzhima, a family and motherhood goddess, who is originally a Vedic patroness of eloquence and music Saraswati, on the processes of religious self-identification formation of Buryat followers of Buddhism. The policy of the regional is aimed at constructing an ethnic and national Buryat idea and autocephaly of Buryat Buddhism, creation of national sacred objects by the Buryat Buddhist clergy, such a sanctuary of the goddess Yanzhima in the Barguzinsky District, which determines the search of the Buryat people for their own identity. The sanctuary of Yanzhima, which emerged as a Buddhist shrine, instinctively turns into a family place of worship. Changes in the cult of the goddess, her image, religious beliefs, rites and rituals associated with her can illustrate how Buddhist and pre-Buddhist beliefs are combined. They give evidence of the way the ethnic and religious identity of the Buryat Buddhists is formed.

Matushanskaya Yuliya Grigoryevna, Doctor of Sciences (Philosophy), Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, 18, Kremlyovskaya st., Kazan, 420111, Russian Federation, e-mail: jgm2007@yandex.ru 

Krinskaia Zoia Andreevna, Postgraduate Student, Department of Religious Studies, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, 18, Kremlyovskaya st., Kazan, 420111, Russian Federation, e-mail: glendevan@rambler.ru

Matushanskaya Y.G., Krinskaia Z.A. Yanzhima Goddess Cult in National Identity of the Buryats. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series Political Science and Religion Studies, 2020, vol. 33, pp. 130-139. https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2020.33.130 (in Russian)

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