The Rich Khan Badma is a Buryat folktale, first collected by Buryat ethnographer and folklorist . The tale is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".
These tales refer to stories where a girl promises a king she will bear a child or children with wonderful attributes, but her jealous relatives or the king's wives plot against the babies and their mother. Variants of the tale type are registered among other Mongolic peoples.
Source According to Russian scholarship, the tale was recorded in Balagansk.Бурчина, Дарима Афанасьевна. Героический эпос унгинских бурят: указатель произведений и их вариантов. Наука, 2007. p. 512. .
Summary Tsar/Khan Badma lives in a grand and splendid palace with three wives, the third named Намту-харакшин (Namtu Haraksin). On one occasion, Badma asks his three wives what they will give him when he returns from a journey; the elder wives promise to sew him a new coat, while the third wife saying she will bear him a son with golden chest and silver backside. Badma rides to the Altai Mountains and returns home. The jealous cowives replace the boy for a black puppy and cast him in the sea. Badma admonishes his third wife. The next time he has to go on a journey, Namtu Haraksin promises to give birth to another boy with golden chest and silver backside. Once again, the jealous cowives replace the boy for a black puppy and cast him in the sea. Badma has to go on another journey, and Namtu Haraksin gives birth to another boy with golden chest and silver backside who she "hides in her sleeve", while the cowives place a puppy in its place. After Badma sees the third puppy, he orders the wife to be sewn in a bull's hide, put in a barrel and for the barrel to be thrown in the sea.
Namtu Haraksin and her third child pray to the gods to be rescued and the gods make the barrel wash ashore in a beach. With magical powers, the boy creates a palace for him and his mother. Some time later, the "three riders of Tomo Ula" visit the city by ship on the way to Badma Khan and a little yellow dog (Namtu Haraksin's son in disguise) appears to them. The boy becomes a fly and follows the ship. The riders meet Badma Khan and tell him about the palace on the island, but Badma's cowives tell them about an evergreen birch tree with 70 nests of birds that sing all year; then about the king of boars, Хадарган (Hadargan), which ploughs the land with its tusks while his subjects harvest the grains to make alcoholic drinks; and lastly about two boys that live in an iron palace on the other side of the Black Sea who play with the mountains and are guarded by a black dog. Namtu Haraksin's son gets the birch tree and the boar, and decides to get the two boys. His mother prepares two cakes with her breastmilk for the journey. In the iron palace, the two boys eat the cakes with breastmilk and recognize it as their mother's. Their brother appears and takes them to Namtu Haraksin, their mother.
After the brothers are reunited with their mother, they decide to visit Khan Badma. On the way, they light a fire on the road. Khan Badma sees the light in the distance and sends a messenger to invite the strangers to his palace. The three brothers and Namty-Karaksin enter the palace and the brothers announce the intention of their visit: to know their father, Khan Badma. The khan rejoices that he found his sons and his wife, and punishes the elder co-wives for their evil deed.Хангаловъ М.Н. Балаганскій Сборникъ [Balanganskiy Collection]. Сказки, повѣрья и нѣкоторые обряды у сѣверныхъ бурятъ. Томскъ. Паровая типо-литографія П.И. Макушина, 1903. pp. 152–167.Karig Sára. Apagyilkos sámánfiak: Burját mesék és mondák. Budapest: Európa Könyvkiadó, 1973. pp. 198-209.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 707, The Three Golden Children.Бурчина, Дарима Афанасьевна. Героический эпос унгинских бурят: указатель произведений и их вариантов. Наука, 2007. p. 512. .
Folklorist listed "Богатый царь Бадма" as a Buryat variant of tale type 707."Бурятские волшебные сказки" [Buryat Wonder Tales]. Сост. Е.В. Баранникова, СС. Бардаханова, В.Ш. Гунгаров. Памятники фольклора народов Сибири и Дальнего Востока; Тom 5. Новосибирск: ВО "Наука". Сибирская издательская фирма, 1993. p. 309 (notes on tale nr. 4). In the same vein, European folklorists Johannes Bolte and Jiri Polívka listed Der reiche König Badma ("The Rich King Badma") as a Buryat variant of the German tale The Three Little Birds, collected by the Brothers Grimm.Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Zweiter Band (NR. 61–120). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1913. p. 390.
Hungarian orientalist László L. Lőrincz established the classification of the Mongolian tale corpus. In his system, the international type ATU 707 corresponds to types 138A and 138B, titled Die Gattin, die einen Welpen geboren hat ("The Queen who gave birth to puppies").Lörincz, Laszló. Mongolische Märchentypen. Budapest: Akadémiai kiadó; Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1979. pp. 81–83.Keller, Gabriele. Märchen aus Samarkand: Feldforschung an der Seidenstraße in Zentralasien; aus der mündlichen Überlieferung in Usbekistan. Druck und Werbestudio, 2004. p. 165. . Folklorist Erika Taube stated that the tale type was "widespread" in Turkic-Mongolian traditions.Сказки и предания алтайских тувинцев. Собраны Эрикой Таубе. Авторизованный перевод с немецкого Б.Е. Чистовой («Сказки и мифы народов Востока»). М.: Издательская фирма «Восточная литература» РАН, 1994. p. 326. .
Motifs According to Erika Taube, in Turkic-Mongolian variants of type 707, the number of the khan's wives may vary (none, at first; or 1, 2, 3, 12 and even 108). Also, the number of children (a son, two sons, a son and daughter pair or three sons), all born with special attributes (golden chest, silver backside, or legs of gold or silver), will vary, depending on the version.
According to Russian folklorist S. Y. Neklyudov, in tales from the Mongolic peoples, the promised wonder children are described to have a golden chest, often combined with a silver backside.Неклюдов, Сергей Юрьевич. "Вещественные объекты и их свойства в фольклорной картине мира". In: Признаковое пространство культуры. Moskva, 2002. p. 28.
Russian scholarship has noted that in Buryat tales and üligers, children born with golden breast and silver backside often show supernatural abilities and functions akin to a cultural hero. They appear in tales classified as type 707, as well in other unrelated types.Малышев А.Б. "К вопросу об интерпретации золотоордынской «поэмы» на бересте, найденной у села Подгорное". In: Археология Восточно-Европейской степи [ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE EAST EUROPEAN STEPPE]. Nº. 11. Межвуз. сб. науч. тр. / Под ред. доц. В.А. Лопатина. Saratov: Saratov State University named for N.G. Chernyshevsky, 2015. p. 54. .
Variants Buryat people In a tale from the Buryat titled "Младшая ханша и ее Златогрудый сын" or "Хаанай бага хатан Алтан сээжэтэй хубуун хоёр" ("The youngest princess and her golden-breasted son"), a khan with two wives decides to marry a third time. One day, before going to war, he asks what his wives will present him upon his return; the third promises to give birth to a boy with golden breast and silver backside. The jealous co-wives throw the boy to the dogs, but he returns later to his father's court and tells his mother's story."Бурятские волшебные сказки" [Buryat Tales of Magic] (Фольклор народов Сибири и Дальнего Востока). Сост. Е.В. Баранникова, СС. Бардаханова, В.Ш. Гунгаров (Памятники фольклора народов Сибири и Дальнего Востока; Т. 5). Новосибирск: ВО "Наука". Сибирская издательская фирма, 1993. pp. 84-93 (Buryat text and Russian translation), 309 (source).
In another tale, "Жагар Мэшэд хан" ("Jagar Meshed Khan"), a powerful khan has three wives. Before he goes to war, the third one promises him a son with golden breast and silver behind. The other two queens become jealous, replace the boy for a puppy and bury him under the palace doors. The khan returns and tries to open the door, so he announces he will beat the drums to summon his people, but the two queens dissuade him. That night, they exhume the boy's remains and throw it in a deep well. Some time later, the khan takes his gray horse to drink from the well. The man notices something wrong with the well and decides to summon workers to dig up the well. The queens dig up the bones, grind them to powder and feed to a cow. The animal gives birth to a calf with coral horns, golden chest and silver behind, which becomes the khan's pet. The jealous queens notice the calf and order a servant to take it to the mountains to kill it, but the animal escapes. Some time later, a young man in rags appears at the khan's court and tells him the whole story. Not believing the youth's words, the khan shoots an arrow at him. The arrow does not harm him, and the youth takes off his rags to show his golden breast, which confirms he is the khan's son.Дугаров Б.С. (сост.). "Бурятские народные сказки" [Buryat Folk Tales]. Moskva: Современник, 1990. Tale nr. 2. .
In a Buryat uliger collected in Ekhirit-Bulagatsky with the title Осодор-Мерген (Buryat: Осоодор Мэргэн), a mortal man named Osodor Mergen herds his cattle by Altai and Huhei. He reads in the "book of fates" his destined bride is the youngest of three maidens that bathe in the lake Salimta, the white lake. Osodor rides to mount Sakhyurta on his horse, revives some petrified people with the water of life, and meets the yellow Ashata, mother of the thirteen-headed mangadhai Asuri. He reaches lake Salimta and spies on the three maidens, daughters of celestial deity Esege Malan Tengeri ("Эсэгэ Малан Тэнгэри"), when they come to bathe in the shape of white birds. Osodor steals the clothes of the third daughter and makes her his wife. Osodor marries the bird maiden and gives her the name "Dere Sesen Bulad Khurai Altan Shebshuhei khatan" ("Дэрэ Сэсэн Булад Хурай Алтан Шэбшухэй хатан"). Later, Khartagai, son of khan Kharzha Buhe, organizes a hunt and Osodor attends. While he is away, the bird maiden gives birth to three sons, named Altan Shagay ("Алтан Шагай"), Mugen Shagay ("Мунгэн Шагай") and Khekherdei mergen ("Хөхөрдөй мэргэн"), one with iron body.