Ulambayar
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990026
Name: Ulambayar
Parent's name: Minjee
Ovog: Hatigan
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1936
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: tusgai dund
Notes on education:
Work: retired
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Shine Ider sum, Hövsgöl aimag
Lives in: Mörön sum (or part of UB), Hövsgöl aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: herder
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
work
education / cultural production
childhood
travel
life in wartime
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
childhood
schoolchildren's life
Chinese
student life
migration
Mörön
children's upbringing
To read a full interview with Ulambayar please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 080707A with Ulambayar
Ulambayar was born in 1936 in Shine-Ider sum of Hövsgöl aimag. In 1946 he went to the sum elementary school and in 1953 completed the seventh grade in Shine-Ider. He then studied in the first secondary school of the aimag centre and graduated in 1956.
When I was small, our family had the livestock that corresponded to our living condition. By the inflexible five-year plan we used to give away the wool, hair and other animal products from our livestock, and in that way, all the livestock was used up. Then my dad joined a cooperative in 1959 and worked as a fireman and construction worker and died at the age of 71.
In those days the parents tried not to send their children to school. My children all studied in the school. When I was a schoolchild I used to live in a dormitory that was a big ger with four pillars. The family of the dormitory children each gave 135 kg of meat annually. There was no flour, and they used to give us bran (animal feed) mixed with our meat. Dancing circles operated and I often used to go to a dancing circle. In the later days I went in for art after completing vocational school.
When I studied in the secondary school, the aimag centre was much smaller than today. Then there were a lot of Chinese working there. They used to play football a lot, and they seemed to be clean and neat people. Later the Chinese disappeared. After completing secondary school I had worked as an elementary class teacher for a period of a year. Then in 1957, I got the approval of the education department to go to teacher’s school and the order was issued, but due to lack of money I couldn’t go to study. In 1958, hearing that the exam was being given for the Arhangai agricultural vocational school I took the exam and I passed it. Over twenty students from Hövsgöl went, and they studied for 4 years, and in 1962 they graduated from the school. The vocational school students had monthly 200 tögrög stipend. Along with the academic classes, art and sports activities were organized a lot. When I was a student in Arhangai, I took part in the art brigade and used to visit sums playing an accordion.
After completing vocational school I went to Tsagaan-Uul sum to work as a zoo-technician. In the socialist period, the workers used to be rotated to work in places where there was a lack of professionals, therefore I worked in Rashaant sum, Chandmani-Erdene sum and Tsagaan-Uur sum. In my childhood I had a dream to become a military leader but I had never been in the military. I was a cadre with a rare agricultural specialisation and that’s why I was freed from the military service. I got married late at the age of 32. The most interesting and wonderful moment of my life was the birth of my first daughter.
From 1970 we came to the aimag centre for the children to study in the school there. Having come here, I worked as a zoo-technician at the slaughterhouse of the trade provision trust, but it was tough to see cattle slaughtered and I went to work as a dispatcher at the transportation management department. I worked there and I retired. My wife had been a cleaner with a salary of 120 tögrögs and I was a dispatcher getting around 350-500. We had many children and our life was poor.
