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    <metadata>
        <dc:title> EN060101A </dc:title>
        <dc:subject> Ulaanbaatar; herding </dc:subject>
        <dc:description> Interview 1 with Interviewee 1 on the History of
            Ulaanbaatar; includes reminiscences on herding and military life as
            well </dc:description>
        <dc:creator> Choijamts </dc:creator>
        <dc:Contributor> Byambajav </dc:Contributor>
        <dc:publisher> The Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia </dc:publisher>
        <dc:date> 2006-01 </dc:date>
        <dc:language> en </dc:language>
        <dc:format> XML </dc:format>
        <Gender> Male </Gender>
        <YearOfBirth>1928</YearOfBirth>
        <IDNumber>060101</IDNumber>
    </metadata>

    <Title>EN060101A -- History of Ulaanbaatar 1; Interview 1-- English</Title>
    <QuestionSet id="001">
        <Interviewer>
            <I_Name>Byambajav</I_Name>
            <Question>
                <Paragraph> So, I’m grateful that you are participating in the
                    joint project by the Cambridge University, UK and the
                    International Association for Mongol Studies, “Oral
                    history”. So, there are several issues I need to ask you and
                    agree on before we proceed with our interview. First,
                    everything you say will be recorded on an audio tape and
                    kept in writing; after that copies will be made and archived
                    at Cambridge and in Mongolia. This interview will be a
                    resource for researchers and the material will be
                    broadcasted through mass media and published as a book.
                    Therefore, would you allow us to use the interview for those
                    purposes? </Paragraph>
            </Question>
        </Interviewer>

        <Respondent>
            <R_Name>Choijamts</R_Name>
            <Answer>
                <Paragraph> Yes, I would. </Paragraph>
            </Answer>
        </Respondent>
    </QuestionSet>

    <QuestionSet id="002">
        <Interviewer>
            <I_Name>Byambajav</I_Name>
            <Question>
                <Paragraph> OK. And there is one more issue. Would you keep you
                    name anonymous or not? </Paragraph>
            </Question>
        </Interviewer>

        <Respondent>
            <R_Name>Choijamts</R_Name>
            <Answer>
                <Paragraph> There is no point in doing that. </Paragraph>.
            </Answer>
        </Respondent>
    </QuestionSet>

    <QuestionSet id="003">
        <Interviewer>
            <I_Name>Byambajav</I_Name>
            <Question>
                <Paragraph> Well, let’s start our interview. Why don’t you start
                    from your recollections of your childhood, things that you
                    miss now? Please, be open and frank. </Paragraph>
            </Question>
        </Interviewer>

        <Respondent>
            <R_Name>Choijamts</R_Name>
            <Answer>
                <Paragraph> Ok. I was born in 1928 in Hilen Sartuul hoshuu of
                    Hantaishir aimag, currently Tudevtei soum of Zavhan aimag in
                    a family of herdsman Baljinnyam, as his third son. Since
                    childhood I grew in the care of my parents, hm, was taking
                    care of the livestock, was rather playing with calves, lams
                    and baby goats. A kid of an ordinary herdsman. My story does
                    not differ from those of that time, the same as any story of
                    any kid. From 1 to 7 years of age I grew in the care of
                    parents, when I was 6 I became a pupil of Sodov, a renowned
                    lama of that time in Galuut huree. I was there for about a
                    year to study Tibetan. Learning Tibetan… during my learning
                    Tibetan… when I was learning Tibetan… the Mongolian name is
                    one and when you read, read books or something they turn and
                    that’s why I didn’t learn Tibetan language or script. Then
                    one day I told the teacher. What I said is “I will never
                    learn the Tibetan. You teach me to pronounce them in
                    Mongolian as one thing. But when reading you teach me
                    different. And since you teach a different pronunciation, I
                    can not learn,” and also said “I quit,” and quit. After
                    that, there were two taij [trans: taij is a nobleman],
                    Gegdorj and Dashhuu, one of them, taij Dashhuu used to be
                    our neighbour during summer and taij Gegdorj – our neighbour
                    in gobi during winter. These were the two taijs. One of them
                    taught me Mongolian script, i.e. old Mongolian script and
                    four arithmetical functions during winter. While the other
                    taught me the same Mongolian script and arithmetic’s during
                    summer, this way I learnt reading and writing in Mongolian
                    script when I was 8. These two were truly good, masters of
                    Mongolian script of that time. Thanks to their efforts I
                    learnt my old Mongolian language. My homeland, is considered
                    to be the coldest in Mongolia, in our hoshuu, in hangai it
                    is impossible to stay in winter. Because it is cold. Lots of
                    snow, too. That’s why people somehow find transportation and
                    move to gobi. Then gobi is all right, if the winter is mild,
                    we move to Bayanhairga. Some difficult years we move down to
                    Bayanhongor aimag, i.e. nowadays Bayanhongor aimag, its
                    northern part, move almost 200 kms to spend a winter. What
                    this means is that to take care of the livestock, to protect
                    animal from hunger, this is the purpose of moving. Then
                    starting from March in the spring move back to Hangai. When
                    moving, we make around 10 – 20 kms a day and then break a
                    stop. Spend there 2-3 days, then move to the next stop.
                    Moving in this way, we come to a place on the border of
                    Hangai and Gobi where the new baby animals are born. The
                    same place we also castrate the male animal. What this means
                    is when we come to hangai later it saves from flies and
                    worms that’s why we castrate adult and baby sheep and goats,
                    after that in the end of May and beginning of June we come
                    to Hangai and go to summer place, this is the way we go.
                    Going to Hangai we come just with this very things. The way
                    for summer. What this means is that clothes and warm cover
                    layers for a ger that we used during winter are left in
                    zoovor in gobi. What zoovor is a hole dug in the ground or a
                    ravine in a rock where we bury boots, deel and other clothes
                    that were used during a winter, i.e. we come out light. When
                    come to Hangai, we dig out things for summer such as summer
                    clothes, milking utensils from Hangain zoovor and then we
                    are settled for Hangai. What we do after coming to Hangai
                    is, what is a job for us kids is to pasture lam and calves,
                    pasture sheep, here in Hangai we settle in a “khot ail” of
                    7-8 gers of mostly relatives or good acquaintances. So, we
                    make a khot ail to join the herds and to jointly shepherd
                    them. We take care and protect the herds. Also, there is a
                    herd shift, every ail (family) has a herd shift. In 7-8 days
                    you have your shift. You take the herd of sheep to pasture.
                    Well, [gets excited and the voice raises] during the
                    off-shift days what we do is we help the family, help mom
                    and dad. Fetch water. Wood, well, go to mountain to collect
                    and bring wood (for fire). Clean the stalls. Also pile
                    animal shit and prepare dugs for fence filling (used like a
                    mud to fill the space between fence logs). This goes on
                    until September and by tenth of September we move to gobi.
                    Because it snows and the cold starts in our land around 5th
                    of or early September. Then the moving goes on, her, and we
                    settle for a fall in a place on the border of Hangai and
                    Gobi. We settle for the fall and stay there for a while and
                    then when winter comes, in the midst of winter we come to
                    gobi, we move and come there. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> During winter, in a winter place there are 2 or 3
                    ails (families) only. 2 or 3 ails, all the same, turn shifts
                    to pasture sheep and herds. There we also have sheep shifts.
                    During winter, ok, her, take turns to pasture the sheep. It
                    is difficult in winter. It’s harsh. Real harsh. Then what we
                    can do then. It’s us to go after sheep. It’s us to pasture
                    the sheep. In the mornings we take the sheep to the pasture.
                    Our family used to have a dog. Each family used to have a
                    dog. Our dog was one, he was a great guard, a great hunter
                    dog. I used to take him with me, he would wake up and about
                    a time of a sun rise he would go around the stall and bark
                    one, two, three times. Then the sheep get up on their feet.
                    And pee. Then me the guy or my mom would give a meal to the
                    dog… When the dog is fed, me also eat my breakfast, put some
                    eezgii (fried curd) and a small round ball of white butter
                    wrapped in a newspaper into the chest pocket (in the front
                    of a dehl). You take a stick and go after the sheep. And you
                    take the sheep some (sighs) 10 kms far from home. In the
                    evening at a dusk you bring the sheep to the stall. The dog
                    leads the sheep, you go behind the sheep – this is the way
                    we come home. This was the job we did. This is the silly
                    thing. Well, there are not much fun. I will tell you
                    something that happened in my childhood that I never forget.
                    You ask what. Our family. (mm) It takes seven to eight times
                    of moving until we come to hangai from winter place in gobi.
                    As I said before, what we did on the way is castrate the
                    animal. Only after this castration we come to hangai. On the
                    way our family assembled the gher on a slope of a small
                    mountain called “Wild White Mount” on the border of gobi and
                    hangai. It was about 30 kms till hangai. Thirty kms is a
                    rather long way for one move. I herd the sheep, while my
                    parents go far ahead following the load of the gher, just
                    like the other families and herding the cattle of cows. I
                    together with the dog herd the sheep slowly, slowly-slowly
                    so, as prescribed by custom. I was probably in the middle of
                    the way when it got dark. That was time when days are quite
                    long. That’s what the time was, early June. I was following
                    the sheep when the night fell. Right on my way there is a
                    big ditch called “Ditch of Yellow Ridges.” The slopes are
                    very steep. No way any animal can get in from the upper
                    edge. Only on the right side there is a way to enter. Yeah.
                    So, at night with the dog we went around the sheep to make
                    then to the ditch. I went around from the right and led the
                    sheep to the ditch and stalled them in the inner end of the
                    ditch. But at that end there was a little pond of water.
                    Maybe it was a tiny spring. The dog and me shared some water
                    from the spring. There were also some cookies with me in my
                    chest pocket. I shared them with the dog. Then the dog and I
                    settled at the other end of the herd close to the ditch
                    entrance but both have fallen asleep. When I woke up the sun
                    was up. The dog, apparently awake since early morning, went
                    away barking. I got up and the sun was high up. Then we took
                    the herd out from the ditch and got on the road further when
                    a horseman apparently sent by my people and the neighbours
                    came. So we went on and came home around 4 o’clock in the
                    afternoon. Only then the both of us ate and treated our
                    hunger, that was our way. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> What I’m trying to say by this is that a dog in any
                    Mongolian family then is a herdsman. That’s what the dog
                    was. Our dog had a white heart, and the end of the tail was
                    also white. It was a black dog. He never got attached to
                    anyone. It went on like this, i.e. I was herding in the
                    countryside until 1939. In countryside people take care of
                    the livestock jointly, everyone from any family in the khot
                    ail used to be involved. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> My family was not a well off one with big herds of
                    animals. But we were not poor either. We had around 25-30
                    sheep and goats. Sartuuls, they don’t usually have ordinary
                    Mongolian cows. All yaks. There were around 23-24 yaks of
                    all age and sex. From among them, there were 13-14 cows for
                    milking. Those families with many herds, with many sheep and
                    goats usually gave a holboo, a rope full (a rope on which
                    approximately certain number of sheep can be tied together)
                    of sheep for milking to a family with a little herd during
                    summer. They milk and take the milk. But when in July the
                    wool loosens, we cut the wool and bring to the owner. As a
                    fee the owner gives us one, or two or three sacks of wool.
                    What my family did with the wool is we collect them for one
                    or two or three years and make a felt cover for the gher. So
                    with the support of each other people herd the livestocks,
                    milk and collect other things, that is how we used to be.
                    People used to be so helping, had such a nice attitude in
                    the whole khot ail. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> Well, khot ail in summer and winter would have two
                    or three, or seven or eight ghers. Nowadays people talk
                    about khot ail, that khot ail is formed in this and that
                    ways. It’s not like khot ail is formed only recently.
                    Mongolian people used to live in khot ails through its
                    entire history, for many centuries, cooperating, living
                    together to raise the animal in cooperation, this is our
                    history. But nowadays some historians, some politicians talk
                    as if it is only now that they created khot ail. That is not
                    true. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> Mongolians fit their natural environment, they are
                    products of the nature. The animal are also products of this
                    nature and that’s why they understood the use of such
                    cooperation and lived and cooperated on the basis of khot
                    ail, this is what I must specifically mention at this point. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> Well, what was that… the story. With the nature
                    Mongolian people, hm… used to care for the nature, to
                    benefit from the nature, to protect the wild life and to
                    benefit from the wild life. That is they used to worship the
                    nature and to benefit from the nature. At the same time,
                    they protected the nature. Benefit from the wild life while
                    protecting the wild life. If you ask based on what I’m
                    saying this, then the people themselves, Mongolian people
                    are products of the nature. This covers everything in the
                    nature on the Mongolian territory, animal, wild life,
                    including wolves. The latter is also a product of the
                    Mongolian nature. We call wolves as animal enemies. Yeah,
                    they prey on livestock. Prey on wild animal too. The same is
                    with men. They breed livestock, raise cattle, prey on
                    animal, eat livestock. This is something that has to happen.
                    But we should not be too biased. Because wolves like people
                    are also products of the nature. A wolf also has to live.
                    Has a right to live. Has a fate to live. What it has to live
                    on is, just like people, it has to prey on animal. Prey on
                    the wild life. People are like them. Moreover, people are
                    worse than animal. Sometimes. By hundreds of them.
                    Especially now, from remote places people load hundreds of
                    them on trucks, bring them here, and sell to people from the
                    capital during celebrations and holidays. Those people kill
                    and eat thousands of livestock. Not only that, in a few days
                    they catch sheep and kill and eat sheep again. In our times
                    it was not like this. Then we used to protect animal. We
                    used to use them too. With the same token, wolves also have
                    to eat that animal. People should be living on the
                    livestock. This is something not quite. Mongolian people are
                    very clever, a great nation. What I am going to prove this
                    with, is that they process skin and leather from the
                    livestock and make boots and clothes from that processed
                    skin. They themselves dress the skin. That’s what was the
                    time. There is no pair in the world to the Mongolian
                    technology of processing skin and leather, that’s what the
                    technology is. What technology was it, is that (we used
                    substances - BO) not only of animal origin… We use raw
                    materials of natural origin to treat (alkaline or acidify)
                    the skin, then to soften, to make it velvety, to …
                    (хянгардаад), to … (хэдрэгдээд), that is how we process it.
                    This technology does not exist anywhere else. What they do
                    in modern times to process it faster is they use chemical
                    substances. This use of chemical substances in great amounts
                    fastens the skin processing, true. This is a positive side.
                    On the other hand, this is very harmful to the nature. After
                    processing the skin, there is no other way than dispose
                    chemical products. None other. This has very harmful impact
                    on the nature. On the nature as well as to people, to
                    livestock, to wild life even, very harmful, this technology.
                    Whereas, the technology invented by Mongolians themselves
                    does not have any damaging effect on the nature. That’s what
                    our technology is. As for the technology for processing
                    skin, the same is with wool processing, by Mongolian
                    technology we wash wool with salt, that’s how we use it.
                    Then we also make felt. Felt… We make rugs of the produced
                    felt. We cover ghers with it. Cover ghers. Make cushion for
                    saddles. That’s how we used to process. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> The other issue is protection of the nature.
                    Mongolians are.. Truly protected the nature and treated is
                    very carefully, that is our custom. For instance, when
                    Mongolians go to mountains, they didn’t used to cut young
                    trees. Always use fallen branches of those trees or rotten
                    trees for firewood. This is one specifics of ours. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> The other specifics are herdsmen in countryside only
                    collect wood on lasso. This has its own reasoning. You don’t
                    just go and cut. There is something called Dulchin’s saa…,
                    well… Dulchin’s grey dirt. You come to the place and then …
                    You explain the purpose of getting the wood. Something like
                    asking a permission to cut a tree…, asking not to be angry.
                    To show your worship for the nature you toss the Dulchin’s
                    saa around the place. And then you cut the tree in one or
                    two swings. Then this is how you spray the Dulchin’s saa on
                    the remaining stump, then you take the wood, cut off the
                    branches and lay them on the spot, and then take the wood
                    and leave. There was no way to take more trees, no way to
                    take it otherwise. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> During the summer, there used to no such thing as
                    hunting. In the fall it’s ok, something like one deer or one
                    antelope, that is only one piece at a time of a need. There
                    was no such thing like in more numbers, never in two or
                    three. When hunting marmot, we didn’t used to hunt them in
                    hundreds as they do now. Always one or two. Two or three at
                    the most. No killing by shooting. Only traps. Then we cook
                    and eat it. That was it. Not like nowadays, like people now
                    riding huge and strong vehicles and shooting fast rifles to
                    kill tens, twenties, thirties and forties. Recently it was
                    written in a newspaper. That about hundred of wolves were
                    killed. No one kills wolves like that. Wolves are never easy
                    to find. Well,… But since wolves are also products of the
                    nature, their balance their own number by the laws of the
                    nature. That’s why it is very rare that they grow in
                    numbers. That’s what used to be. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> Then in 1939 I came to Ulaanbaatar and my mom and
                    dad… I came to Ulaanbaatar with my parents, and in 1940
                    entered the school #5 in Ulaanbaatar…, there used to be
                    primary school #10. there I went to the first grade.
                </Paragraph>
            </Answer>
        </Respondent>
    </QuestionSet>

    <QuestionSet id="004">
        <Interviewer>
            <I_Name>Byambajav</I_Name>
            <Question>
                <Paragraph> So, you said earlier that you had a dog.
                </Paragraph>
            </Question>
        </Interviewer>

        <Respondent>
            <R_Name>Choijamts</R_Name>
            <Answer>
                <Paragraph> Yes. </Paragraph>
            </Answer>
        </Respondent>
    </QuestionSet>

    <QuestionSet id="005">
        <Interviewer>
            <I_Name>Byambajav</I_Name>
            <Question>
                <Paragraph> Would you please tell me more about the dog,
                    anything you can remember? </Paragraph>
            </Question>
        </Interviewer>

        <Respondent>
            <R_Name>Choijamts</R_Name>
            <Answer>
                <Paragraph> That dog was in 1937... our was on a position of
                    fire keeper, typist, and messenger at the Tudevtei soum
                    administrator’s office. So, found a little puppy at that
                    time. So when we went to the soum administrator’s office,
                    soum center once a month to get our supply of flour and
                    rice, our father was taking care of that cute, black puppy.
                    Old. It was brought home. And we brought it home and … we
                    had it as a pet. It was an absolutely cute puppy. When the
                    puppy was little, my little brother and I used to sleep with
                    it. So one year passed. The dog was a huge one. A real
                    Mongolian Bankhar. “Taigan khaltar” was its name. It was a
                    black dog with black tail and white face. It was never
                    friendly to people. It was friendly to livestock. That is
                    how it was. Then in 1938. In the winter of 39 we were at our
                    winter camp … and we were preparing our winter food supply.
                    We had a neighbour called Batjav. The dog was not friendly,
                    so he gave it poison. At that we were not aware of that. One
                    morning we got up and saw it. Our dog was standing at the
                    door cold, shivering, and crying. That’s how it was. We
                    wondered what happened but it was cold and shivering. So our
                    dog died of poisoning. Then we according to Mongolian custom
                    … Father and I cut of the tail and incised its four paws and
                    … To discharge the poison we made incisions and had it
                    bleed. It was just to cure. It used to work. But this time
                    it was too much. It was over…. It was overdosed. So it died.
                    So the two of us there was a little knoll to the south of
                    our winter camp. Over the knoll there was a khamar –
                    nose-like hill, Mongolians call it that way. A grassy,
                    bloated hill. We put the dog on the hill and buried it under
                    Mongolian custom. That’s how I remember it was buried. And I
                    visited my birthplace in 1989. And I visited our camps,
                    winter, spring, summer, and autumn camps. Then all of a
                    sudden I remembered my dog. When I came to the place where
                    we buried it to the south of our winter camp, its skeleton
                    was all in place. And I cried a lot. It was such a nice dog.
                    My dog was so cute and so good. Mongolians call such dogs
                    “Taigan khaltar.” We shared with our dog … share our food.
                    We shared yoghourt with the dog. We shared curds with the
                    dog. Clean. We played with it. We tied its legs. We tied its
                    head and mouth. And children … (with agitated vioce) Like
                    the children of that time, we played with the dog and were
                    always together with our dog. We didn’t have toys like they
                    have now. As for toys, we used to play with mountain rocks
                    making gers. And we used horse dung … um … we used horse
                    dung as horses and count them. That’s how we used to play. I
                    always feel sorry for the dog. Even now I can see it in my
                    mind. (took a long breathe.) That’s how it was. What else
                    can I talk about? </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> My childhood was like this … um … my childhood until
                    1940, 40s, my childhood was spent like that until 39. At
                    that time Buddhism was banned because of the time changes
                    and social changes. Many of the lamas were kill … um .. were
                    persecuted and died. A lot of lamas were vanished. Many.
                    There were two lamas whose names were Gendenjav and Togoo.
                    They were arrested in 1938 and in 1939, when our family
                    moved here, they worked on the construction of School No 1
                    and as they were working so well that they were awarded the
                    Altan gadas (North Star) and went home. It was interesting.
                    By Altan gadas. Came as a convict and went back with Altan
                    gadas. Because they worked on the construction of School No
                    1, you know the engraving of Marshall Choibalsan, Lenin and
                    Sukhbaatar there. They worked on it, so they were awarded
                    the Altan gadas and went back. The two lamas, Gendenjav and
                    Togoo. Two good. Very good lamas. And they went back home.
                    What else shall we talk about? </Paragraph>
            </Answer>
        </Respondent>
    </QuestionSet>


    <QuestionSet id="006">
        <Interviewer>
            <I_Name>Byambajav</I_Name>
            <Question>
                <Paragraph> How much do you know about these two people?
                </Paragraph>
            </Question>
        </Interviewer>

        <Respondent>
            <R_Name>Choijamts</R_Name>
            <Answer>
                <Paragraph> What? About those two people? One of them was … They
                    used to belong to Galuutai monastery. One of them, I guess,
                    was unzad. And sometimes Galuutai monastery was one of the
                    biggest in the western region. It had over 10 temples. It
                    had Choijin temple, Chogchin temple, Sakhiusan temple,
                    Maidar temple, Sagai temple, Khungiin … um … no, Khungiin
                    temple. Um … Maidar temple … Janraisig temple, so on, it had
                    over ten temples. It was a big monastery that had 12, 13
                    temples. And it had one … over hundred lamas. It was such a
                    big monastery. And our soum had one um … monastery. The
                    neighbouring soum, Sangiin soum, was Khoid monastery, we
                    called it that way. Also called Tevsh monastery. It also had
                    several temples. Almost 10 temples. And in summers what the
                    two monasteries did was Ganjuur and Danjuur were to Khoid
                    monastery um … were chanted at the south monastery and sent
                    to the north monastery on camel cart, on white camels and
                    covered by something red. That’s how they brought it to the
                    north monastery. From the north monastery they were brought
                    on the same white camels to the south monastery. And early
                    August, around August 10th Maidar tsam dance was held. And …
                    Maidar was practiced at that time. Sor also took place.
                    Ganjuur and Danjuur were also chanted. And my parents. My
                    parents were a normal country lady. My father knew how to
                    write Mongolian script. Also knew Tibetan. Knew them quite
                    well. My family … Not only my family. The Sartuuls of our
                    region had jasaa chanted once a year, in summer, autumn.
                    Every family. 1, 2 or 3 lamas came to chant. They chanted to
                    the fireplace. And to the nature and world. And … I
                    mentioned earlier the hide processing technology. Our region
                    was told to have a good technology. What we did was when we
                    were settled in winter at our winter camp, we processed it
                    with elduur – special wooden tool. We processed the hide. We
                    processed the sheep and goat hides. And processed the hides
                    of kids. With the hide of cattle we um … cut, after we
                    slaughtered it we made leather ropes and cut the hide, put
                    it around the ger outside and had it frozen. After two or
                    three days it would be a bit weathered. Once it was
                    weathered, um … brought the frozen leather, shove the hair,
                    and put it outside on the hut. It would be there until
                    spring, until February and March or April and May it would
                    be weathered a lot. And then what we do was um … We put the
                    raw leather rope in a big bucket, had it distilled and
                    processed it. Beat the rope. Processed the rope. Then we put
                    the rope in the dairy product. Putting in the dairy means
                    putting the yellow rope. Or putting white rope. Or shimeldeg
                    ... That liquid um … stomach fat oil … Um cut the animal
                    stomach fat, heat and take the oil and what is left is
                    called shimeldeg. We oiled the rope with shimeldeg. That’s
                    how we made leather rope. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> And in summer we processed the wool. What we did
                    when we processed the wool was with felt … We made felt.
                    Seven or eight days before making the felt we beat the wool.
                    Washed the wool. Dried the wool. Beat the wool. With the
                    beaten wool um … wool, with hair and tail we Mongolians
                    braided them and made rope. We made ropes for ger. We made
                    ropes for canvas. That’s how we processed it. It didn’t
                    matter whether it was winter or summer. Generally, country
                    families always had something to do. And in winter they made
                    the summer clothes. In summer they also made the winter
                    clothes. And nowadays … Our … our um … when we were little,
                    we didn’t normally wear silk etc. Made clothes with cloth
                    exterior. We made deel from cloth. Covered the outside of
                    fur deels with cloth. Something like that. And (raised his
                    voice) but we made deels from yellowish, orange coloured,
                    yellow coloured and blue coloured cloth. Ladies used to make
                    deels from … more colourful cloth. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> And in summers we didn’t eat meat. Always um …
                    always had dairy products. And when children were in desire
                    for meat, they hunted groundhogs and the meat of it … take
                    the skin. Then opened the stomach, took out the intestines,
                    and secretly hiding in the mountain far from home, secretly
                    taking matches from home, cleaned the groundhog, and took
                    the skin. Then they heated some rock until it became red
                    hot, and put the meat between the rocks. And that took about
                    four or five minutes, I guess. It didn’t take ten minutes.
                    Four or five minutes. It is small. And it is cooked real
                    soon. Then the meat … Groundhog meat meant we caught by our
                    parents. (raised his voice) When we were caught by parents,
                    we were beaten to death. By leather rope (laughed). Then
                    they said “If I catch you killing and eating groundhog! I
                    swear …” Then, you know, we had not learnt the lesson, after
                    two, three days we hunted again and beaten again. And um …
                    the Sartuuls are rather interesting. Their children were
                    very affectionate. And pregnant … pregnant … women were
                    taken care of and respected a lot. Why, why I’m talking
                    about is during summer, they didn’t give marmot meat to
                    pregnant women. Meat of games was not given to them either.
                    And children did not normally eat marmot and other game
                    meat. Never gave them. Prohibited. The reason was to prevent
                    from various diseases and to prevent them from getting
                    scared of. Animal slaughtering was even not shown to
                    children and women. No sign of it. After the animal was
                    slaughtered, skinned, and took the intestines, women came
                    and clean the intestines, but women and children were not
                    present during slaughtering. Generally (raised his voice),
                    they didn’t show children animal slaughtering. At that time,
                    families asked lamas for a date to slaughter animals and on
                    that day they lit burner on the altar. I assume that these
                    were not actually religious rituals, rather they were
                    cultural issues. Cultural issues. To respect their
                    livestock. A cultural issue of respect. Mm … I distinguish
                    them as cultural issues. It was not a way of praying or
                    believing in Buddhism, but a way of showing respect to their
                    animals. In our region, people didn’t slaughter their own
                    animals for food. When they needed meat, they either
                    exchanged with other families or um … bought from other
                    families. At that time. A goat cost ten mungu. A sheep cost
                    fifteen mungu. A cattle cost ten, fifteen tugrug. Value of
                    tugrug was very (raised his voice) high. “And sold a … tiny
                    limb of a goat for twenty, twenty five mungu. Sold a very
                    expensive sheep. We wouldn’t buy from them. We’d buy it from
                    someone else.” From someone else meant parent went to a
                    different family and bought a sheep or goat for ten, fifteen
                    mungu and used it as winter food. That was interesting. And
                    they never consumed the animal they took care of and their
                    own animals. So interesting. That was a custom … at that
                    time. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> Um … We had such “spoiled” animals. In our region,
                    the sheep had such huge horns, like the ones that male
                    argali sheep had. And goats had long, sword-like horns like
                    those of ibexes. The reason was that during summer, autumn,
                    during summer argali sheep and ibexes cross-bred with sheep
                    and goats. Mongolian … In the pasture they came and
                    cross-bred with sheep and goats. During their reproducing
                    period, they cross-bred with um … domestic sheep and goats,
                    and they had horned lambs … Lambs and kids were left. When
                    we chose father-sheep and father-goat, we selected those
                    with big and long horns. And the offsprings of those sheep
                    and goat would be um … were huge. Sartuul breed. That
                    special breed, Sartuul, is very big. We had such huge sheep
                    and goats compared to other regions of Mongolia, central and
                    eastern regions. Your region was also the same. The same.
                    The custom is still kept. Your region is hopefully the same
                    (took a long sigh). I’ll tell you something interesting. Our
                    family was Sutai lake and a huge mountain called Sutai
                    mountain. In the foot of that mountain there is a gap called
                    Tsagaan gol (White river) that faces south. With a little
                    stream. There were seven, eight families. Dejeekhuu,
                    Dorjiikhuu, Saavan, Sereeter, Gurvan nuden, Galsan toin, our
                    family, Bat-Ochir um … And seven, eight families. And our
                    family had one, two white goats and one blue goat. With huge
                    horns. Me and my little brother trained them to collide with
                    their horns. It is extremely easy … um to rain animals to
                    collide with horns. When it’s a kid, a little kid, you use
                    your finger to its head like this. Just touch it. And that
                    little thing would always go like this, colliding at things.
                    And after few days, you would do this to its head um …
                    clutch your hand and do this to its forehead and it will
                    learn to collide. And then (raised his voice) with three,
                    four days interval, you do this with your hand seven, eight
                    times. Um … after this, that goat would become a real
                    collider. And one um … morning our neighbour at north
                    Dorjiihuu’s family. That was son-in-law of … a rich family.
                    It was a rich family. They were rather boasters. Shout … a
                    very noisy man he was. And the dog we had would attack at
                    people. And yaks would hate the dog. No way. If yaks were
                    around, it would never (raised his voice). Um … would lie in
                    the shadow of huge cliffs of the mountain in the north. And
                    one morning that Dorjiikhuu headed our ger, topless, with
                    huge Mongolian boot-socks flapping around. The two goats
                    would lie at the two sides of the door facing each other. At
                    that time gers didn’t have wooden doors. It had felt door.
                    The felt door would always be raised and placed on the ger.
                    And Dorjiikhuu came circling the ger from the west side. And
                    the blue goat was um … lying on the west side of the door.
                    When he passed the goat, he touched its mouth with his boot.
                    With … mm … um … the flappy part of his boot. Just touched
                    it. Then I guess the goat didn’t like it. Probably thought …
                    I don’t know. Maybe thought he defied it? It got up,
                    stretched. And when Dorjiikhuu entered the ger. When he was
                    trying to enter the ger and bowed, that goat “Bam!” from the
                    behind like this (collided his feasts and laughed) hit him.
                    And then my sister and my little brother were at the piled
                    dung putting … dung in the basket to take it to ger. And we
                    were looking at him like this when the goat collided him.
                    And the three of us … started to laugh our heads off. It was
                    such an incident. We laughed a lot. Since then Dorjiikhuu …
                    here … when he came to our ger … if there were the two
                    goats. He would say “Mr. Baljinnyam, take the two goats
                    away. Your two goats will hit me.” Since then he wouldn’t
                    come to our ger just like that. Our … um … I guess it’s
                    children’s habit. The calf of the yak was also trained to
                    collide. Interesting. It would hit other animals. Because we
                    trained it like this. Train like this. It was funny. </Paragraph>
                <Paragraph> It is almost ten now. Five to ten. That is all for
                    now. And tomorrow, from tomorrow starting from 1939 tomorrow
                    … </Paragraph>
            </Answer>
        </Respondent>
    </QuestionSet>

</Transcription>
