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| Go-hyaku Rakan / Japonya |
Turkic “Balbal” in Japan (1) By Mark A. Riddle
Pleasant Grove, Utah
At the Rakan-ji Temple in Houjou-chou, Kasai City, in western Hyougo Prefecture, are some unusual stone sculptures. The entire collection is called the “Go-hyaku Rakan,” (‘five hundred arhat’ — an arhat is an advanced disciple of Buddha), and some of the sculptures at Rakan-ji are very much like Buddhist statuary seen elsewhere throughout Japan.(2)
But others are very unusual — they are not typical “Rakan;” they are not like the stone images of Jizou found everywhere in Japan;(3) and they are unlike the douso-jin stone sculptures of Japan. (4)
They are very unlike the tolharubang (‘grandfather figures’) found on Cheju Island, Korea, and the very similar figures of Hayato-zuka, in Aira-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture. (5) Indeed, Japanese photographer–author Wakasugi Kei judged the unusual “rakan” sculptures of Houjou-chou to be unlike anything else seen anywhere in Japan, unlike any rakan statuary found anywhere else in the world, and questioned whether they were really rakan at all — and in that, he was right. (6)
So, what are they?
Actually, the unusual “rakan” sculptures of Houjou-chou are very similar to, indeed quite the same as, Turkic balbal found in Central Asia.(7)
The purpose of this essay is three-fold:
(1) to present the evidence supporting this identification of the unusual stone sculptures of the Rakan-ji of Houjou-chou as Turkic “balbal”;
(2) to offer additional evidence that shows the presence of ethnically non-Japanese people in the Kibi/Harima area of early Japan; and
(3) to explore the implications of this evidence.
What are “Turkic Balbal’?
“Balbal” have been described by archaeologists as “stylized anthropomorphic statues over graves [which serve] as a marker for the movement of Turkic-speaking peoples from east to west — from southern Siberia and eastern Central Asia across the Eurasian steppe all the way to Azerbaijan” and Iran. (8)
They are said to commemorate fallen warriors or their slain enemies, (9) but balbal are mute, and the evidence that they commemorate “slain enemies” may be limited to a single source: tenth-century Ahmad ibn Fadlan’s account of the Rus. (10)
There seems to be no doubt that balbal do mark the westward movement of Turkic peoples, but the assumption that the balbal concept has a Turkic origin is contradicted by important evidence. Prof. Victor Mair has suggested that balbal may be traceable to prehistoric stelae with similar features found in late Neolithic Europe and to similar figures found in the Ukraine, dated a millennium or two later. (11)
Evidence in support of Mair’s conjecture may be seen in a menhir stele dated second–first millennium B.C., found at Fivizzano, Italy, which shows a dagger shaped and positioned very much like those on anthropomorphic stelae dated much later. (12)
The best evidence for a non-Turkic origin of the balbal forms is found in the “standing stones” of Hakkari, in southeast Turkey, discovered in 1998 and dated to 1500–1000 B.C.
Archaeologists immediately connected these with the seventh-century B.C. Scythian stelae of the steppes north of the Black Sea and to the balbal of the Central Asian steppes on the basis of evidence such as incised depictions of yurt-style tents, weapons, etc. (13) Since the old Turkic tribes first appeared on the historical scene in the middle of the sixth century A.D., “Turkic” balbal are Turkic by adoption rather than origin.
Although they probably had a connection with even earlier forms, scholars agree the ancient balbal now found in Central Asia have been traced to an origin “in the Altai sometime between the 5th and 6th Centuries,” from which they spread throughout the Turkic tribes.
They “usually depicted a male warrior holding a vessel. The face was carved either in relief or in outline; sometimes both means were combined.” They often showed moustaches, beards, hair, earrings, clothing, belts, and weapons. Balbal “in varying degrees of skill of execution continued to be put up by the Turkic-speaking nomads of Tuva [Siberia], Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and other regions of Central Asia as late as the 11th century.” (14)
Describing the balbal of Central Asia, Russian archaeologist Gregoire Frumkin emphasized: “The schematic presentation is usually the same: a big head (frequently with a triangular face), tiny arms, the right arm bent at the waist, with a cup in the right hand, and the left hand resting on a sword.” (15)
We shall see below that many of the so-called “rakan” figures of Houjou-chou have these same features. The “Go-hyaku Rakan” of Rakan-ji, Houjou-chou, Kasai, Hyougo Prefecture The present author visited the Houjou Rakan-ji in August, 1999, and noted that there were about twenty-five clearly Buddhist images, typical of nyourai and bosatsu figures seen all over Japan placed apart from “the others,” with some of these dated to 1765.
“The others,” about 380 in number, appear very different even at first glance; they are obviously older, more weather-worn, and of a style very different from anything else the author has ever observed in Japan. (16) These stone figures are small, ranging from just 40 to over 120 cm, with an average height of about 85 cm. The author’s inspection in 1999 yielded the following observations:
The entire stone is sculpted but shows the human figure from just the waist up or, proportionately, from about the knees up, with legs not shown. Some twenty-five figures have conical head-gear of the Central Asian kind, also seen on haniwa (clay figurines) at Himezuka and other kofun (burial mounds) in Chiba Prefecture. (17)
Some have quite prominent noses; others have prominent brows.
Almost all have two hands or forearms clearly visible; of these, most show the right hand higher on the chest than the left (we will see later that this gesture is a key to their identity). Some have hands in front of chest, palms-together — the prayer gesture. Some hold objects of uncertain identification.
Many statues have been broken, then patched; all have been placed close together in neat rows. Facial expressions are impassive, in an over-all static pose. (This no doubt has permitted the identification of them as “Buddhist,” but elsewhere in Japan rakan statues are facially expressive.)
The Judgment of an Expert
Japanese photographer–author Wakasugi Kei published two full-length studies of Japan’s stone Buddhist sculptures, in 1963 and 1977. He judged the unusual “rakan” sculptures of Houjou-chou to be unlike anything else seen anywhere in Japan, unlike any rakan statuary found anywhere else in the world, and questioned whether they were really rakan, or even Buddhist, at all. He cited five specific reasons for this view: (18)
(1) First, the Houjou figures lack the expressions of “uninhibited flexibility” (honpou jizai) of the typical rakan figure.
(2) Whereas typical rakan are tonsured (bald), many of the Houjou sculptures have hair or headgear, and their arm gestures and the objects they are holding are inexplicable (setsumei no tsukanu).
(3) Although some of the Houjou figures appear elderly, there are also some which seem to portray the young, even children. (19)
(4) Whereas rakan figures are male, some of the Houjou sculptures seem to portray women. (20)
(5) Although typical rakan sculptures have no markings or inscriptions (shuji), some of the Houjou figures seem to have symbols inscribed on forehead or chest. (21)
But if the “500 Rakan” of Houjou are not rakan, then what are they? One key piece of evidence — a ritual gesture depicted on many of the Houjou figures — provides a convincing answer.
The Link — A Ritual Gesture
The present author has compared scores of images of Central Asian balbal from many sources, in four languages, including book-length studies in both Russian (22) and Chinese, (23) with the unusual
“rakan” figures of Houjou and concludes that there is ample reason for the identification of the Houjou figures as balbal.
Among the host of similarities obvious from even a cursory inspection, one key commonality ensures that the Houjou figures can be identified as Turkic balbal: a specific ritual gesture.
Many of our Houjou balbal show the left arm flexed forming an obtuse angle and resting on a sword or belt, with the right arm flexed at an acute angle and holding a cup, or other object, with both forearms roughly parallel diagonally across the chest. (24)
The same gesture is found on Central Asian balbal, (25) on the Scythian balbal of the Ukraine, dated 600 B.C. to 300 A.D., (26) and on the “Standing Stones” of Hakkari, Turkey.
Such a precise correspondence can be neither accidental nor a result of a natural archetype — it is conclusive evidence of an historical connection.
Interestingly, perhaps the oldest known example of this ritual gesture is to be found on a stone statue dated ca.1490 B.C. of King Idrimi of Alalakh, the capital of a Hurrian state on the Orontes River near Antioch, Turkey. (27)
This statue of the king seated on his throne further problematizes the question of the origin and provenance of the balbal form, but it provides
support for our assertion that the pose described is a ritual gesture, of central significance wherever it appears, including on our Japanese balbal.
Other Identifying Features of Balbal: Vessels, Belts and Helmets
The Central Asian balbal still found “all over Mongolia, southern Siberia and Kazakhstan” have been described as “cut to portray a man’s head and trunk. They wear earrings, carry a sword or dagger in their belt, and clasp a chalice.” (28)
Among the many chalice-clasping balbal is a remarkable figure found on the Barlyk steppe of Tuva, Russia, which grasps a vessel at the waist with both hands. (29) Miniature vessels, most often made of silver, were extensively known throughout the Turkic world and have been found in kurgan burials in the Altai, Tuva, and the Minusinsk Basin. They are often represented on balbal in these same areas. (30)
In addition to the large vessel held by both hands, as seen on the Barlyk steppe balbal, there are two other forms commonly seen — a smaller vessel of similar shape, (31) and a shallow libation cup (32) much like the almost-flat sake-sipping cup still used in Japan today.
Both of these latter two forms are held in the right hand. The latter form, the libation cup, is seen held in the right hand by two horsemen on an eighth-century painted wooden panel found at a temple in Dandan-Oilik, near Khotan, in Xinjiang.
This presentation, or holding, of a cup in the right hand, is regarded as part of a religious ceremony because the cups are similar in shape to those seen in seventh-century libation scenes of western Turkestan. (33)
Some of the Houjou balbal of Japan seem to be holding a vessel in the right hand. The Barlyk steppe figure also appears to be wearing a belt from which small objects of some kind are suspended. We know that a richly adorned belt was an indispensable item of attire for any member of the Turkic aristocracy, and various items of jewelry were worn suspended from the belt by strips of leather, including “lyre” plaques — bronze, with a heart-shaped opening. (34)
The heart-shaped plaque motif marks as Turkic in origin or inspiration gold girdles with heart-shaped pendants found in Korean tombs and recognized by Korean archaeologists as originating in the art of nomads of the northern steppe. (35)
As British art historian Roderick Whitfield has observed, the ancient Korean custom of wearing belts with small implements attached has its origins in the northern nomadic tradition. (36) Belts with attached items seem to be represented in the “Standing Stones” of Hakkari, Turkey, in the Scythian balbal of the Pontic steppe, and in our Japanese balbal, as well. (37)
Many of the Japanese balbal appear to be wearing on their heads a shape-fitting helmet.
The anonymous author(s) of the Wikipedia article “Kurgan Stelae,” citing Russian-language sources, say(s) of balbal headgear: “In some cases the male hat undoubtedly represents a small helmet,” and compares these to the medieval Russian misyurka, a flexible iron skullcap which protected only the upper part of the head.
This appears to be precisely what is depicted on many of the balbal of Houjou-chou. Most often the headgear of Central Asian balbal is “a small cap shaped like a truncated cone,” a form which has survived to modern times in places such as Afghanistan. “Much less frequent are tall, conical hats of a type that is known to have been widespread in Scythian times…. Some of the stone figures have tall hats with the tip bent forward; this type of headgear was common in Central Asia before the Turkic period.” (38)
The tall, conical hat is found among both the stone balbal of Houjou-chou, in western Japan, and the haniwa (clay figurines) of Himezuka and other places in Chiba Prefecture, in eastern Japan.
Implications of This Evidence
All this evidence reinforces the conclusion of Japanese archaeologist Okauchi Mitsuzane that “a relationship existed among East Asian countries at the beginning of the 5th century…
There was an international route of cultural diffusion from northern China, through [the Korean peninsula] to the country of Japan.” (39)
Okauchi cites, for example, the similarities between burial goods
found in the famous Mound 126 of the Niizawa Senzuka kofun of Nara Prefecture and those found in tombs of similar date in northern China. It is likely that these goods were brought to Japan by those with whom they were interred, but they could conceivably have been brought to Japan as items of trade or tribute, as international prestige goods.
But it is not conceivable that crude stone grave markers could have come to Japan as international prestige goods. The evidence of “Turkic” balbal in Japan indicates the presence of communities of Central Asian immigrants in proto-historic Japan, groups large enough to permit the social cohesion and identity maintenance necessary to enable them to continue traditional funerary customs, and close enough in time to their Central Asian origins to remember and practice the balbal custom.
The implication is clear — the existence of “Turkic” balbal in Japan means Central Asian (possibly Turkic) warriors were present in pre-historic and or proto-historic Japan.
The Central Asian Connection to Japan — More Evidence
In a previous essay we noted the considerable evidence that exists linking Japan with Central Asia. (40)
Still another of the many such links suggested by scholars is the hossu, a flywhisk made of horsehair. In Central Asia one of the insignia of a ruler was a flywhisk made of a yak’s tail, and this object found its way into Buddhist ceremonies as a symbol of mastery of esoteric knowledge.
The shintai (‘locus of divine presence’) of the Japanese deity Hachiman, favored by medieval samurai, is sometimes a hossu, indicating a possible Central Asian connection for Hachiman. (41) Perhaps, then, it is no mere coincidence that the crest of Hachiman is the mitsudomoe, equivalent to the Indo-European triskelion so prominent in the Celtic art of Late Iron Age Europe. (42)
An additional parallel between the Indo-Europeans and Japan is seen in the use of the colors red and white. The two colors betoken the Indo-European king because he combines the roles of warrior (whose color is red) and priest (whose color is white). (43)
In Japan, Shinto shrine ropes are often woven to show alternating strands of red and white, but the colors red and white have been particularly associated with the emperor, from the time of Emperor Shoumu (r.724-756), who ordered high officials in his capital, Nara, to paint their houses either red or white, (44) to the red and white obi (sash) worn by the Crown Princess in 2001, given to her by the Emperor as she prepared to give birth to a possible heir to the throne. (45)
The two trees that stand before the Sentou Palace at the Kyouto Imperial Palace (Go-sho) are a red plum and a white plum. (46) Like medieval England, medieval Japan saw a civil war with opposing parties fighting under either red or white colors. (47)
How did these ancient Indo-European symbols come to Japan? Could they have been brought by immigrants, perhaps by mercenaries with close ties to the imperial household?
Aliens in Old Japan
Oya ga mitakeiya [mitakereba],
Houjou no nishi no
Gohyaku Rakan no
Dou [堂] ni gozare.
“If you want to see your parents, you may go to the temple of the Five Hundred Arhats [in Houjou].”
These are the words of an old uta (poem, song) of the Houjou area of Hyougo Prefecture, according to the author’s Japanese informant, Shou Masae of Kyouto, who describes the Rakan Temple’s stone figures as “faces of foreigners, not Japanese. Their makers must have been immigrants or refugees.” (48)
Documentary evidence exists for the presence of ethically non-Japanese peoples in this part of "Harima", the name by which this part of western Japan was anciently known. The eight-century official court gazetteer Harima no Kuni no Fuudo-ki says of the Ohokafuchi area of Kamusaki (just north of modern-day Kasai) :
"There are about thirty families there whose customs differ (from ours)." (49)
Harima was one of five provinces to which ethnically non-Japanese Emishi peoples from eastern Japan were frocibly relocated in the time of "Emperor" Keikou (280-316 AD.,revised chronology) , according to the Nihon Shoki (official court history of 720 AD.) (50)
According to the eight-century gazetteer of Hizen (modern-day Saga and Nagasaki Prefectures), inhabitants of islands there had non-Japanese facial features, spoke a non-Japanese language and were "highly skilled at shooting on horseback", which was originally a skill developed in and spread from Central Asia. (51)
One possible key to the identity of these aliens in old Japan is the story of Kibi-tsu Hiko (Prince of Kibi, an old name for the Harima-Bizen area) and Kibi-tsu Kasha (a.k.a. Ura), "a prince (or oni, demon) of some foreign land" who had been exiled to Japan "on account of his misdeeds".
He built a castle near what is now Okayama, “and from this stronghold would descend upon and plunder any ships passing through the Inland Sea…” The hero prince subdues the villain pirate prince by magically changing himself into a hawk and then a cormorant in response to Ura’s becoming a pheasant and then a carp. (52)
In local Japanese legend, Ura is tall, with big eyes and red hair. (53)
Japanese ethnologist and comparative folklorist Oobayashi Taryou has pointed out the close parallels of the legend of the prince and pirate of Kibi with the Korean legend of Chong-wang-lang and Hapaek, who compete with each other by transforming themselves into various animals.
We must add to Oobayashi's comparison the observation that the basis for both Korean and Japanese myths is the shape-shifting chase motif, the prototype for which is the Celtic legend of Ceridwen and Gwion. (54)
Conclusion
It is commonplace to acknowledge Japan’s important historical ties with China and Korea, but an accumulating body of evidence now clearly reveals the cultural links between Japan and Central, and even West, Asia.
This essay has focused on one piece of the puzzle of Japanese origins — stone statuary wondered about by Japanese for generations and publicly identified by the present author in 1999 as “Turkic balbal” that are unexpectedly similar in so many ways to their counterparts still extant on the steppe lands of Central Asia.
Sino-platonic papers, April 2011
Turkic "Balbal" in Japan by Mark A.Riddle
for the links :
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania
NOTE :
- "the balbal of Houjou-chou, Japan, were not necessarily Turkic — they may have been Scythian..."....
- "Alalakh King İdrimi of Hurrian"...
N- Hurrians are agglutinative language !
N- Japanese language is agglutinative language !
N- Scythians are Turkic people , and Turkish language is in the family of agglutinative language !
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THE JAPANS AND TURANİAN RACE:
From this racial lens, Takayama was certain that the Triple Intervention, Russian designs on Korea, and even the 1875-78 war between Russia and Turkey and the 1897 war between Greece and Turkey (Takayama believed Turkey was part of the East, or "the Turanian race") were indicative of a "600 year old racial war between the Aryan race and the Turanian race.
Against Warase's argument that a modern state was able to withstand the challenges of a multiethnic populace. Takayama drew from Max Müller and Henry George to argue that a state cannot simply be a territorial administrative unit, but must be built on with and through a single people with a shared cultual identity.
Thus, even through the Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese and others were all part of the Turanian race, their distinctiveness resulted from the fact that this race, like all races, was divided into Naturvölker (shizen minzoku) and Kulturvölker (jinbun minzoku).
The Naturvölker were those peoples who had yet to develop an integral, shared culture that provided the dynamism for their own independent states; the Kulturvölker were those ethnic groups who had emerged out of the state of nature to built an independent state on the basis of their unique culture. Of course, among the Turanian race, only Japan met the requirements of a Kulturvölker. In one broad sweep of the pen. Takayam had sketched the conceptual foundations for modern Japanese imperalism as well as the grounds for cultualist attacks on Christianity as a foreign creed incompatible with the culture of the emperor-nation. Not surprisingly, his last work publisched ,n 1902, the year he died, was an exploration of the thinking of the medieval xenophobic Buddhist monk, Nichiren.
The annexation of Korea in 1910 renewed and sharpened the debate on weather Japan should be a homogeneous ethnic nation-state and whether the concept of minzoku was flexible enough to incorporate Koreans in the Japan minzoku. Again, Christian intellectuals played a leading role in asserting an optimistic, open reading of the potential limits of ethnic assimilation, while the Japanist and statist intellectuals like Takayama and Inoue Tetsujirö were slow to accept a sense of minzoku that was not thoroughly and exclusively racist. Yamaji Aizan had laid the foundations for his fellow Christians, arguing several years prior to annexation that the Japanese were a "composite" nation, historically formed through a combination of Ainu, Malay and the Yamato (a branch of the Turanian race).
page 224:
A History of Nationalism in Modern Japan: Placing the People by Kevin Doak copyright 2007,by Koninklijke Brill NV, The Netherlands
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ALL TURKISH PEOPLES, UIGHURS, KÖK-TURKS,OTTOMAN TURKS, BELONG TO THAT CENTRAL GROUP OF EURASIAN HUMANITY WHICH WE ARE CALLING SCYHTIAN.
THE EARLIEST SCYTHIAN AND THE EARLIEST INDO-EUROPEAN WERE MUTUALLY INTELLIGIBLE SISTER LANGUAGES.
THE AR AZ AS SA OR SU PEOPLES.... AZ WERE IN SOME WAY ANCESTRAL TO KASSITES AND KHAZARS.
WE MAY SUPPOSE THAT THIS SA POPULATION WAS THE LONG SOUGHT PRE-SUMERIAN. AFTER THE ARRIVAL OF THE SUMERIANS PROPER, THE SA PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE BEEN PUSHED TO THE NORTH, TO THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS, THE PART OF THE SUMERIAN WORLD DESIGNATED IN CUNEIFORM DOCUMENTS AS SABARTU. IN RECENT LITERATURE THESE PEOPLE ARE OFTEN CALLED SUBARAEANS.
SUMERIANS WERE THE CREATORS OF THE FIRST HIGH CIVILAZATION IN MESOPOTAMIA.
THE SUMERIANS WERE- THIS TRUTH EMERGES SLOWLY FROM THE RECENT PROGRESS OF ARCHEAOLOGY- THE PROBABLE BIOLOGICAL , AND CERTAINLY THE CULTURAL ANCESTORS OF ALL THE LATER PEOPLES CALLED SCYTHIAN.
* THE MEDES, ONE OF THE GREAT PEOPLES OF ANTIQUITY, WHO APPEAR AFTER THE ASSYRIANS AND BEFORE THE PERSIANS. THE ORIENTALIST JULES OPPERT ASSERTED (IN 1879) THAT THEY WERE A TURANIAN PEOPLE. THEY WERE PRESENT NOT ONLY IN CLASSIC MEDIA ; HERODOTOS WRITES ABOUT MEDES NORTH OF THE DANUBE.
THE DAHA PEOPLE (DACIANS) RULE IN CENTRAL EUROPE WAS DEFEATED BY THE ROMANS, BUT DACIANS SEEM TO HAVE SURVIVED IN RUMANIA AND IN SOUTHERN HUNGARY TOO, WHERE THEY ARE CALLED TAHO. EARLY GROUPS OF THE DAHAE MAY HAVE INFLUENCED MANY PEOPLES OF ASIA. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THEY WERE THE ANCESTORS OF THE THRACIANS AND THE TURKS.
THE HUNS IN THE WEST THEY WERE CALLED SCYTHIANS. SOVIET EXCAVATIONS HAVE SHED LIGHT ON THE SURPRISINGLY HIGH CULTURE OF THOSE HUNS (SCYHTIANS) WHO LIVED AND BURIED THEIR DEAD IN THE SIXTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES B.C. IN THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS.
THE AVARS MANY DIFFERENT NAMES LIKE OBORS, VARS, PARS, IN ROMAN TIMES AS PARTIANS. THEIR ETHNIC GROUP UNITED WITH SIMILAR SCYTHIAN ELEMENTS.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT CONQUERED THE AVAR LAND, BUT SOON AFTER HIS DEATH ARSACUS LIBERATED THE AVAR, WHO UNDER THE ARSACID DYNASTY FOUGHT THE ROMANS UNTIL 250 AD. , WHEN ROME PUSHED THEM BACK TO THE ARAL SEA. FROM THERE MENACED BY THE KÖK-TURKS PART OF THE AVARS MOVED WEST AND IN 568 SETTLED IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN.
THE TURKS; ALL TURKISH PEOPLES, UIGHURS, KÖK-TURKS, OTTOMAN TURKS, BELONG TO THAT CENTRAL GROUP OF EUROSIAN HUMANITY WHICH WE ARE CALLING SCYTHIAN.
Dr.IDA BOBULA (1900-1980)
ORIGIN of the HUNGARIAN
.
Ida Bobula was born in Budapest on February 27th, 1900. Her first work, Versek, [Poems] was published in 1920. She earned her Doctorate of History, her fist, at Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemen, Budapest, in 1923. From 1929(?) to 1933, she was a Ministerial Advisor of Religion and Education; 1933-1944, Director of Sarolta Kollégium [Boarding-School]; from 1939 also a private tutor at Debreceni Egyetem [University of Debrecen].
Dr. Bobula continued her studies in the United States until 1929, after which she returned to Budapest to teach. In 1947, political pressures forced her to permanently emigrate to the U. S. where she worked at the library of the New Jersey Women's College and the Library of Congress, and taught history and sociology at Limestone College in Gaffney, S.C. She was a member of the American Orientalist Society; and, from 1960, headed the information department of the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP). In 1956-1957, she was the director of the Hungarian Refugee program in Philadelphia.
Dr. Bobula spoke seven languages, and was an alumna of Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania. She was a scholar of exceptional talent but of modest (material) means. She passed away in Gaffney, S.C., on October 24th, 1980.
Ida Bobula wrote dozens of books and papers, her most popular works are: [The square-bracketted title translations to English are unofficial]
A nő a 18. század magyar társadalmában, Budapest, 1933 [The Woman in 18th century Hungarian Society]
Nők útja a matriarchatustól a mai társadalomig, Budapest, 1938 [The Course of Women from Matriarchy to Today's Society]
Sumerian Affiliations. A Plea for Reconsideration, Washington, 1951
The origin of the Hungarian Nation, Gainesville, 1966
A sumér–magyar rokonság kérdése, Buenos Aires, 1961, [The Question of the Sumerian-Hungarian Kinship]
Kétezer magyar név szumír eredete, Montreal, 1970 [The Sumerian Origin of 2000 Hungarian names]
Ida Bobula's works have been translated to other languages and are recommended in the curricula of several colleges and universities worldwide. She has been regularly quoted by several researchers and scholars. Professor Alfréd Tóth, author of the Etymological Dictionary of Hungarian (EDH), 9, Etruscan and Hungarian, also quotes Dr. Bobula:
"Spread the word and be not surprised if you are assailed, perhaps even by people who call themselves Hungarians."
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