On November 26-28, 2012, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted the Roerich Readings on the topic "Text and Problems of the history and theory of Culture in Ancient and Medieval Times (India, Central Asia, Siberia)", dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian orientalist Yuri Roerich (1902-1960). Opening reading, zav. V. P. Androsov of the Department of Ancient Oriental Studies (IV RAS) reminded that the Roerich Readings are doubly commemorative, as they are not only associated with the round date of the birth of Yu. N. Roerich, but also are themselves the fiftieth in a row. text and cultural phenomena", published for the anniversary of Yu. N. Roerich. The articles included in it cover geographically and thematically the area of Yu. N. Roerich's research interests, while addressing a wide range of recent issues: they consider the phenomena of ancient and medieval culture with a focus on modern approaches to the concept of "text".

V. A. Rosov (State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow) also made a presentation of the anniversary editions prepared jointly by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Museum of Oriental Art. The first of them is the collection "Yuri Roerich: a Living Legacy" (2012), which includes scientific articles and interviews of Russian orientalists, including T. Ya. Elizarenkova, A.M. Pyatigorsky, K. N. Yankovskaya and others. Another book, the second volume of Yu. N. Roerich's works "Tibet and Central Asia" (2012), contains unknown articles and essays by the scientist that give an idea of the cultural past of the peoples of Tibet, Mongolia and China, unique diaries of two expeditions-the Tibetan (1927-1928) and Manchurian (1934-1935), reports on his work at the Institute of Oriental Studies (1957-1959).

I. N. Komarova (Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in her report "Yu. N. Roerich is an outstanding linguist and biologist" noted that the scientist made a major contribution to the study of the Tibetan language, its phonetics, grammar, lexicography and dialectology. He paid special attention to the study of the Lhasa dialect, the main one in modern Tibetan. He conducted a comparative study of the Tibetan language and Sanskrit, studied the history and religious thought of Tibet. The speaker called his unique eleven-volume "Tibetan-Russian-English dictionary with Sanskrit parallels" (Moscow, 1983-1993) a scientific feat. This is one of the few dictionaries whose semantic field is based on a deep understanding of the national peculiarities of thinking and language behavior of native Tibetan speakers.

In the report "Namtar (Life) Shakyamuni Buddhas in the Tibetan and Chinese (Peking) traditions (tanks from the collections of the Odessa and Kiev Museums of Ukraine) " E. D. Ogneva (Institute of Oriental Studies, Kiev) told about three tanks from the collections of museums of Ukraine (the Museum of Arts named after V. I. Abramovich). Bogdan and Varvara Khanenko, 484 ZHV, Kiev, and the Museum of Western and Eastern Art, no. VI-242, VI-243, Odessa). They were compared with literary sources, which made it possible to establish their belonging to different iconographic cycles. The plots of one tank (Kiev) and the inscription on the front side ("After staying [during] the summer fast on Trayastrimsha [Shakyamuni] went down to Dzambuling") allow us to attribute it to the cycle of "Ashtamahapratiharya". But, despite the established episodes and the given inscription, the speaker left open the question of whether the tank belongs to this iconographic cycle. In her opinion, tanka is most likely related to the cycle of fifteen miracles revealed by Shakyamuni Buddha, which are described in the Sutra of Wisdom and Stupidity. The other two books feature stories from the Twelve Acts of Shakyamuni Buddha (Odessa), which date back to the Tibetan literary tradition of the Life of Shakyamuni Buddha.

The report of V. V. Demenova (Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg) "Chronicle text and the phenomenon of" image" in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet "was devoted to the" Blue Chronicle " - one of the most famous works on the history of Buddhism in Tibet by Goy-lotsava Shonnupel (1392-1481). This monument was translated by Yu. N. Roerich into English and published in Calcutta in 1949, and in 2001 it was translated into Russian by O. V. Albedil and E. Y. Kharkova. In addition to basic information about the development of various schools of Buddhism in Tibet and detailed descriptions of the life of Buddhist teachers, the book contains unique historical details of life and relationships within Tibetan society and the Buddhist Sangha, including scattered references to the appearance, creation and existence of Buddhist images (sculptures and tanks). The report considered the phenomenon of "image" in the Buddhist tradition and interpreted information about the life of artists, legendary stories of the appearance of sculptures, the phenomenon of" self-manifestation", the ability of statues to move in space, etc., recorded on the pages of the chronicle.

S. F. Mazhitov (Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology, Kazakhstan) in his report "Actualization of the informative basis of the medieval text of Central Asia in the modern world (on the example of Mirza Haidar Duglat's Tarikh-i Rashidi) "noted that Yu. N. Roerich treated the sources of antiquity and the Middle Ages as a source of information. some kind of matrix that contains information about what will happen in the present and future. The speaker noted that a careful reading of the " Tarikh-i Rashidi "(XVI century) allows us to talk about its geopolitical significance for the modern world. The Tarikh-i Rashidi contains a lot of information about the peculiarities of the land route to India. The speaker drew attention to the importance of this source during the implementation of the North-South program, according to which safe transport routes from India to Kazakhstan are being worked out. In this regard, toponymic information and descriptions of specific localities are particularly valuable.

For understanding modern Central Asia, sections related to the description of the religious situation are relevant.

V. V. Vertogradova (IV RAS) in the report "Early Vedic text and ritual" based on the study of the etymology of the Vedas. sarad (in comparison with the Avest. sarad "winter solstice"," year", sogd. srd "year", arm. nava-sard" new year", etc.), as well as on the basis of studying a number of contexts of the Rig Veda, reconstructed the ritual of the annual Vedic winter solstice festival, which covered not only collective actions of establishing the time cycle, but also home rites of beating demons.

S. V. Kulland (IB RAS) in his report "Towards the etymology of the Vedic Sarama -" considered the Vedic name of the dog of the gods Sarama and the dog Silam (Silcem / Selcen)of the Ossetian Nart epic. The correspondence of ancient Indian s and Iranian s is irregular (it is possible only if the sibilant was followed by a glide, which is not observed in this case), while the words are clearly connected (in Ossetian / < ri/y), which suggests borrowing. According to the speaker, the source of borrowing could be the Avar-Andian form * sori " fox " - Avar seg, Andian sor, Ahvakh sari, Tindin sari, etc.

S. S. Tavastsherna (St. Petersburg)GU) in his report "Traditional Indian commentary as a source for studying the syntax of ancient Indian languages" noted that the Indian linguistic tradition, which originated in the 1st millennium BC, played a key role in the study of ancient Indian languages. Modern researchers have always been struck by the intuition of ancient Indian linguists in describing phonetics or morphology. According to the speaker, it is also obvious that Indian grammarians paid little attention to syntactic research. In particular, the tradition has not even developed a term that would relate to the concept of syntax. This situation also had implications for modern Sanskrit studies, which developed under the significant influence of Indian linguistics. All modern Sanskrit grammars, without exception, are devoted in general to phonetics and morphology. This is not to say that traditional grammars lack syntactic problems. Good enough in grammatical works (starting with Panini) the case syntax and syntax of non-personal forms are described, but this is not enough. In the speaker's opinion, the lexicographic tradition in India played an exceptional role in filling the "syntactic" gap. In such well-known dictionaries as Amarakosha, sections of" particles "with a description of their semantics were necessarily included, and comments on these sections actually became completely independent treatises on the syntax of various types of sentences (simple and complex) and idiomatics with corresponding examples from the literature. Similar "treatises" can be found in the Pali commentary literature.

M. S. Fomin (University of Ulster, North. Ireland) in the report "The image of India in Irish sources" on the example of Irish written monuments of the Carolingian Middle Ages (Dikuil, De mensura orbis terrae) and translations from European languages of literature of the Reformation era (The Book of John Maundeville) considered how the picture of the world was presented and what was the place of India in it. He showed how ideas about India were formed on the basis of information available from classical historiographers such as Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Diodorus Siculus, and others. Special attention was paid to the role of India in the concept of Gaelic settlement in Ireland, which was formed on the basis of the idea of India and Ireland as contiguous territories located on the border of the inhabited Christian world.

In the report of V. G. Lysenko (Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences) " Direct perception through the word. Dharmaraja's Vedanta-paribhasha explained the reasons why perception, formed in a conceptual-verbal form and therefore considered mediated knowledge in all other schools of Indian philosophy - savikalpaka (savikalpakajñana), is classified in this text as direct nirvikalpakajñana. It has been shown that this position fits into a certain philosophy of language developed by the Advaiti school of vivarana. The position of this school is that from words (first of all sruti - for Advaita it is mahavakyd - the great utterances of the Upanishads) one can get knowledge of the ultimate reality, i.e., Brahman, and it is immediate (aparoksa). The speaker showed the similarity of this type of perception and the concept of recognition (pratyabhijna) Bhartrihari and Kashmiri Shaivism.

Yu. M. Alikhanov (ISAA MSU) studied the classification of dramatic heroes of the Natyashastra, according to which the types of heroes who differed in social rank (gods, kings, generals, ministers, merchants and brahmins) were described. As the speaker showed,

the corresponding types were determined not by their internal qualities, but by the forms of stage behavior prescribed to them.

In his report "On the Tamil poetic genre of kalambaham", A.M. Dubyansky (MSU Institute of Literature) spoke about this form of anthology (literally, "mixture"), which was widespread in the Middle Ages in South India. It contains individual poems dedicated to some king, but most often to God. These poems, to which the Sanskrit term "muktaka" (small-format finished text) is quite applicable, are mostly situations of heroic-panegyric or love themes isolated from classical poetry, adapted to praise the main character of the anthology. Despite their genre diversity, they are compositionally articulated by various kinds of lexical connectives and roll calls. The speaker showed that in general, the kalambaham genre appears as a kind of synthesis of the Tamil poetic tradition (including Bhakti hymns) and the technique inherent in Sanskrit poetry. The report included examples from the earliest anthology "Nandi Kalambaham" (IX century), dedicated to the Pallava king Nandivarman Sh.

CO report. Tsvetkovoy (St. Petersburg.GU) "Song technique of preaching by Meera Bai: approaches to research" was dedicated to the song poetry of Meera Bai (1499-1547), a well-known follower and preacher of Bhakti of the Hare Krishna persuasion, created for performance to various ragas "About the Tamil poetic genre Kalambaham" and absorbed many folklore elements. The technique of poetic confession and sermon of the poetess can be analyzed based on the methodological developments of domestic and foreign verse scholars. We studied one poem-a sermon, which reveals a clear structure, as well as the alternation of" blocks " of half-verses connected by syntactic and lexical parallelism and occupying the same position in the verse. As a result of the analysis, a rhythmic and syntactic model for constructing the verse of this song was established, which sets semantic accents and determines the intonation movement in the phrase. The semantics of the poem are enhanced and especially expressive, which are facilitated not only by parallelism and repetitions at all levels of the text, but also to a large extent by the sustained rhythm of its parts and emphasized intonation.

In the report of E. N. Komarov (IV RAS) " God and man in Tagore's poetry. From the "Isha Upanishad" to "Letters about Russia", the author examined the religious views of Rabindranath Tagore, as well as his love lyrics, which often showed a kind of universal approach of the poet. It was shown how the writer reinterpreted the ancient concept of the all-encompassing divine essence (Atman or Brahman), introducing his own concepts of jibondebot (Deity life, or God Life), and later manushdebot (Deity man, or Man God). According to the speaker, Tagore not only followed the Indian religious universalism dating back to antiquity, taking the preaching of the equality of people before God from medieval religious reformers (in India, the Bhakti movement), but also went further, asserting the equality of man and God as creators and workers. In his report, he cited samples of Tagore's poetry in translations by prominent Russian poets.

K. P. Shrestha (IV RAS) in his report "Sacred protection of the valley space" noted that the Kathmandu Valley, known as the Nepalese Valley, is perceived by both Buddhists and Hindus as the embodiment of a sacred symbol. Buddhists believe that the Kathmandu Valley, with its sacred mountains on four sides and the Swayambhu Buddhist stupa in the center, symbolizes the "dharmachakra" - the "wheel of law". Followers of Hinduism perceive the Kathmandu Valley as an image of a mandala. In all directions of the cardinal directions, they erect temples in honor of the main deities, and in the eight corners of the valley they place shrines dedicated to the eight guardian deities and eight mother goddesses. The speaker emphasized the importance of traditions in Nepal - the ancient Indian vastuvidya (science of construction), according to which not only temples, fortresses, palaces, villages, cities, but also residential buildings were built in such a way as to protect them from the influence of undesirable supernatural forces. The structure of building traditional Nepalese cities is interesting in this respect. For example, Kathmandu is shaped like a sword (khadga), Bhaktapur is shaped like a conch shell (shankha) or an eight-petaled lotus (ashtapada-kamal), and Lalitpur is shaped like a circle (chakra), etc.D. These geometric shapes are symbols of the attributes of Hindu and Buddhist deities. The speaker spoke about how these traditions were formed and how they are preserved in modern Nepal.

E. V. Tyulina (Institute of Architecture of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in her report "Sacred "geology" in the system of knowledge of vastuvidya (construction and architecture sciences) in the Puranas" spoke about the study of some problems-

studied texts from medieval Indian treatises on vastuvidya (IV-IX centuries), devoted to the classification of stones. Her attention was drawn first of all to the information that stones with certain colors and properties were perceived as living beings of the male or female sex. In her opinion, such an attitude to stones is an echo of the oldest beliefs associated with the veneration of stones and earth. This also confirms the existence of special rites that sculptors or builders performed in order to neutralize some essence that was originally in the stone, if its influence did not correspond to their intentions. Special attention was paid to a group of stones, the so-called shalagrams. Such stones were not used in construction, they were considered manifestations and images of various forms of the god Vishnu and had a kind of "iconography". According to the speaker, the inclusion of shalagram stone classifications in vastuvidya texts is one of the examples that in India, nature and natural forms were included in the theory of fine arts and construction.

N. A. Korneeva's report "Snataka in Ancient Indian ritual and text" was devoted to one of the most incomprehensible and contradictory characters in Sanskrit dharmic literature - snataka, a disciple who completed the samavartan apprenticeship rite. Throughout history, the place and meaning of snataka and the samavartana rite in the texts has changed. The state of snataka was a transitional state between the ashrams of the disciple and the householder, but the rite of samavartana was not always associated with the ashram system and the rites that separate them, and has now almost completely disappeared. The report showed that the rite of samavartan and the directly related rite of receiving an honored guest - atithi-have very ancient roots. In their descriptions and prescriptions for snataka, there are archaic elements of ritual that gradually disappear during the transmission of texts.

D. N. Lelyukhin (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in his report "On the formularity of Indian gift inscriptions" noted that the information of inscriptions cannot be interpreted without a proper source-study complex analysis of the entire extant corpus of texts of a particular dynasty (or a number of dynasties), taking into account their formula structure. Texts of land grants are not acts or legal documents. They were created within the framework of a single textual Sanskrit tradition and have a number of features characteristic of other Sanskrit texts. According to the speaker, attempts to literally and uncritically use individual evidence of inscriptions taken out of the general context, and their modernization are erroneous.

N. V. Alexandrova's report "Sankrama motif in Buddhist narrative and image" considered one of the main motifs of the early Buddhist tradition - the "Buddha's walk" motif. The visual material of the great stupa in Sanchi was compared with the subjects of Buddhist literature: first of all, "the miracle in Shravasti" and "the Buddha's meeting with his father in Kapilavastu", as well as" walking by the bodhi tree "and"seven steps after birth". Comparison of these subjects reveals a stable connection of the motif of "walking" with the idea of preaching, which unites it with other motifs of the legend about the Buddha that have the same meaning ("turning the wheel", "conversion of gentiles", etc.). Embedding the image with the motif of "walking" in the sequence of other subjects present on the stambhas (pillars) The construction of the stupa in Sanchi is based on the duplication of the meaning of "sermon" and forms regular rows with them.

In his report "Elements of game Poetics in the Mahayana description of Bodhisattva stages in the texts of the Great Prajnaparamita", D. I. Zhutaev (IB RAS) touched upon some aspects of the structure of the text of this passage, which is repeated relatively unchanged in the" big " sutras of developed Prajnaparamita literature ("Shatasahasrika", "Panchavinshatisahasrika", etc.). A number of these structural aspects , such as the specific selection of terms in matrix lists, the peculiarities of composition, and deliberate terminological ambiguity, are due to the rhetorical strategies of the compilers of the text, when the components of the previous early Buddhist and Mahayana textual traditions themselves are placed in unexpected, "ironic" contexts, "played out" in order to legitimize and exalt the new Mahayana teaching. its new religious ideal-bodhisattva-mahasattva, as well as delegitimizing and belittling the "Hinayana" path and its followers.

The report of A. A. Mekhakyan (Yerevan) "Symbolism of the ten incarnations of Vishnu in the inner Kalachakra Tantra" was dedicated to the Kalachakra Tantra - one of the unique monuments of Buddhism. It appeared later than other Buddhist tantras and is a synthesis of all three Dharma vehicles, taking in many elements from non-Buddhist, heterodox

groups'. It is very syncretistic, and its mandala contains deities that are equally revered by Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains. Hindu mythologems and religious-philosophical categories occupy a significant place in this tantra, but are interpreted symbolically. The report showed how the ten incarnations of Vishnu are perceived in this monument and what their symbolism is.

A. K. Vasiliev (MSU) in his report "At the origins of the Prajnaparamita (the poetic core of the tradition)" examined the text " Arya-Prajnaparamita-Ratnaguna-Samchayagatha "("Stanzas on the collection of precious qualities of the noble Prajnaparamita"), which has come down to us in Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit, as well as in Tibetan and Chinese translations. The author of the report came to the conclusion that the first two chapters can be considered as close to the original core of this tradition. Their content consists in appeals to abandon the established conceptual apparatus of Buddhism and seek intuitive knowledge (prajna) beyond concepts and concepts.

In the report "Dreaming in Ancient Indian philosophical texts" E. S. Yuditskaya (MSU) highlighted a number of essential aspects of the functioning of the concept of "dreaming" in ancient Indian philosophical works. She examined the dream as part of a comprehensive analysis of erroneous perception (khyati-vadd). She also spoke about the symbolic content of dreams and showed how, in philosophical debates, an appeal to the content specifics of dreams could serve as an argument against the recognition of the illusory nature of dreams. She suggested looking at the dream as a paremia, since often in treatises the dream appears as a stylistic figure: life in the shackles of suffering is an analogy of sleep, and waking from sleep is liberation.

In the report "Once again about the subject: ""Ishvarapratyabhijnya-vimarshini" by Abhinavagupta S. C. Ofertas (IB RAS) on the basis of reading Abhinavagupta's commentaries" Ishvarapratyabhijnya-vrtti-vimarshini "and" Ishvarapratyabhijnya-vivriti-vimarshini "to Utpaladeva's karikas" Ishvarapratyabhijnya-karika "stated ways in which these philosophers refute rival Brahman and Buddhist beliefs views on the existence of a conscious subject and the external subject of the world. Thus, having shown how the ability to recall becomes the main argument in refuting ideas about instantaneous events of consciousness in the absence of a single subject, the speaker described the models of consciousness of the external world presented by Abhinavagupta in turn: the mirror model, the dream model and the model of "yogi creations". As a result, he came to the conclusion that there is a final model in which consciousness is an unnecessary element in the consideration of the subject's being and consciousness simply does not exist.

E. G. Vyrshchikov's report "Ideas about Aryavarta in Sanskrit sources in historical perspective" was based on the differentiation of the term Aryavarta and related concepts. As a result of a comparative analysis of these concepts and related terms (based on the material of early sutras, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Manusmriti, with reference to medieval parallels), the speaker received the following picture. There were three views: 1) the best place of residence of the best people ("aryas"), 2) a conglomerate of territories that differ in their properties depending on the properties of the people who inhabit them, 3) the territory-mandala, whose four faces are the East Sea, the West Sea, the Himalayas in the north, the Vindhya Mountains in the south. The speaker pointed out that the Manu-smriti combines all three representations into a single complex, although in other monuments they exist separately and are mostly not called Aryavarta. He emphasized the existence of the problem of the gap between the set of representations and the associated set of terms.

V. M. Yakovlev (Moscow) in the report " 12-year animal cycle. On the question of origins" noted that judging the 12-year animal cycle in the culture of a particular people (where it was noted or still exists, and when this cycle appeared), it is possible with a certain degree of certainty by the dates indicating its use. The most authoritative of them are the evidence of Chinese chronicles and Turkic epitaphs. Evidence for the existence of a 12-year animal cycle in China in the form of images of these animals can be traced only from the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) or from the middle of the Liang Dynasty (502-557). Since these evidences, as well as references to the animal cycle characteristic of the Turks in Chinese written documents, date back to an earlier time than the dates of Turkic inscriptions or translations of external sources, doubts remain about the place of the cycle's appearance. Its borrowing from or through China

very problematic. Borrowing from the Turks (Proto-Turks) or Xiongnu seems more likely, especially given the preservation of this tradition among the Danube Bulgarians.

E. S. Lepekhova (Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in her report "The theory of Dharma continuity in the Sangoku Mappo doctrine in Japanese Buddhism "touched upon the problem of eschatology and the theory of Dharma continuity in Japanese Buddhism of the Heian and Kamakura periods (1185-1333). The essence of the Mappo eschatological doctrine was that after the departure of Shakyamuni Buddha, the Dharma and the Buddhist world were in a state of decline. In Japanese Buddhism, the term "mappo "was often associated with the concept of" three countries "("sangoku"), which included India, the birthplace of Shakyamuni Buddha, China, the country where Buddhism flourished, and Japan, where the spread of Buddhism coincided with the period of the" end of the Law "("mappo"). However, in the Buddhist treatises of the Heian and Kamakura eras, especially in the writings of the prominent Buddhist monks Sito, Jokei and Eizon, along with descriptions of Japan as the periphery of the Buddhist world, there are statements that it is in Japan that the revival of Buddhism will occur due to the teachings of the "Lotus Sutra". Japan was no longer seen as a country of the decline of Buddhism, but as a country of its rebirth, where the future heir of Shakyamuni and savior of the world Bodhisattva Manjushri should appear.

In the report "Laughter in the tradition of ancient Indian theater (based on the materials of Natyashastra)" N. R. Lidova (IMLI RAS) considered the laughing emotion (hasya-rasa) described in "Natyashastra". Representing a rather rare example of reflection on this topic by the bearers of the tradition themselves, this treatise contains a kind of theory of laughter, according to which it distinguishes two main varieties (when a person laughs himself and makes another laugh) and six hierarchically ordered types, from a restrained, slightly detached smile to unrestrained laughter. These six types, in turn, are distributed among the characters of the higher, middle and lower types, who do not so much laugh in reality as skillfully imitate laughter, as a result of which the hasya-rasa is pictorial and obeys the conventional laws of the scene. The report analyzed various aspects of ancient Indian laughter from public and entertainment to ritual.

SI. Ryzhakova (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences) " Dancer and patron: the beginning and end of the eastern regions of India. Contexts of relationships" revealed some ethnographic features of the traditions of relationships between nachni (female dancers performing at festivals, fairs and sometimes other gatherings) and rasik (men, their patrons). The speaker spoke about inter-caste and inter-ethnic relations (most nachni belong to low social groups, often to different groups of the Bhumij ethnic community, which is settled mainly in the territory of modern Jharkhand, while rasik can even come from Brahmin families), as well as about the tender, professional, social and ritual interconnectedness of Nachni and rasik. simultaneously performing as a dancer and musician; student and teacher; mistress and lover; performing seva (service) and patronizing it; kept woman and keeper; maid performing work, and one who uses these fruits. The report is based on the author's field research conducted in January-February 2012 in West Bengal.

V. V. Tishin's report "On the problem of age categories among the ancient Turks of the VI-X centuries" was devoted to a poorly studied issue concerning the age stratification of nomadic societies. The speaker came to the conclusion that there is an age stratification of the male part of the population of ancient Turkic society. He was able to identify at least two age categories, oyul and eg, reflected in the phenomenon of naming (male and male). Depending on their age and social status, the Turk could have other names and titles. Parallels were drawn with the age stratification of other nomads, and the corresponding names and terms were analyzed.

Yu. I. Drobyshev (IB RAS) in his report "Nature management in the Tangut state of Xi Xia" noted that the Tanguts are descendants of the Daneyan tribes who lived on the north-western borders of China and created their own state in 982, which in Chinese sources appears under the name of Western Xia, or Xi Xia. In 1227. it was destroyed by Genghis Khan. The geographical position of the state allows us to refer it to the Central Asian historical and cultural region, but the peculiarities of its culture indicate the strongest influence of the Far Eastern cultural community, which tends to China. The speaker asked himself the following questions: what models of environmental management existed in Northern Siberia and which of them was dominant? Examining the preserved materials, he concluded: first, the Tangut nature management system is not fully developed.-

it evolved with the development of Tangut society. As a result, the Tanguts came to the integrated use of natural resources. Secondly, their entire economy cannot be attributed to the Central Asian or East Asian model. It was mixed, as a result of adaptation to a variety of natural conditions.

According to tradition, the final session of the readings included reports on the life and work of Yuri Roerich and his family members. A. N. Khokhlov (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in his report "The Roerichs in Beijing 1934-1935", based on materials he found in various archives, spoke about personal and written contacts of Nicholas Roerich. and Yu. N. Roerich with representatives of the Chinese intelligentsia, including participants of the future expedition to Inner Mongolia. The report paid special attention to Russian emigrants. One of them was the orientalist journalist A. P. Friedlander, who was sent to a Beijing prison for several years by a Chinese court on the basis of false information.

A. M. Shustova (Institute of Information Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in the report " Yu. Roerich on the role of Buddhism in the cultural unity of Asia " showed that Yu. N. Roerich, analyzing data on the general history of Central Asia, traced a certain unity in its development. He saw such unity in the geographical, historical, ethnological, economic fields, as well as in the sphere of languages. However, he considered cultural unity to be a priority, with Buddhism playing a key role in it. It was on the basis of Buddhism that many synthetic cultural trends emerged, such as Greek-Bactrian (Afghanistan), Iranian-Buddhist (Northern Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and the Tarim basin), Indo-Iranian-Buddhist (Khorezm), Indo-Chinese (Northwestern and Northern China), and later Indo - Tibetan (Tibet)., Tibeto-Mongolian (Mongolia). Noting the contribution of Buddhism to the development of cultural unity in Asia, Yu. N. Roerich set the task of comprehensive study of the Buddha's heritage before Oriental studies.

The reports presented at the readings relate to various branches of knowledge: philology, linguistics, history, art history, source studies, and archive research. However, they are united by the fact that they are all somehow connected with the cultural and scientific activities of Yu. N. Roerich. They not only continue the areas of research in which he was a pioneer, but also offer new problems and new approaches to the study of the cultures and history of the regions of the East that were in his field of interest.

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