Languages of Peoples of Russia: The Holy Bible is translated into the Buryat language

On September 28 2010 the National Library of the Republic of Buryatia held a presentation ceremony of the first book of the Bible – “The Book of Genesis” – translated into the Buryat language. The ceremony was organized by the Russian Bible Society (St. Petersburg) and the Committee on Interethnic Relations and Civil Initiatives Development of the Administration of the President and the Government of the Republic of Buryatia.

The British Bible Society was set up in Great Britain in 1804. Its mission consisted in translation of the Bible into all possible languages and its distribution worldwide. In December 1812 following the model of the British Society, the St. Petersburg Bible Society, with the Prince A.N. Golitsyn, the Minister of Spiritual Affairs and Public Education as its President, was set up in St. Petersburg. In 1840 the Academician Ya.V. Schmidt issued the first complete translation of the Holy Bible in the Mongolian language in several copies, which are now housed at the National Library of the Republic of Byryatia.

Translations of the Holy Bible into languages of peoples of Russia were launched by the Russian Bible Society with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All-Russia, and namely, into Chuvash, Yakut, Bashkir, Altai, Buryat, Lezghin and many others. The project of translation of the Old Testament into the Buryat language was started in 1999. Translation of the books of the Holy Scripture into the modern literary Buryat language appears to be well-grounded, because the translations into Mongolian language were carried out over a century ago, and their adaptation is complicated in the view of difference of dialects and scripts.