Tungalag
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990091
Name: Tungalag
Parent's name: Jadamba
Ovog: Borjigon
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1956
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education:
Work: retired
Belief: none
Born in: Tsetserleg sum, Arhangai aimag
Lives in: [None Given] sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: teacher
Father's profession: engineer
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
work
education / cultural production
travel
foreign relations
keepsakes / material culture
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
To read a full interview with Tungalag please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090113A with Tungalag
Tungalag was born in 1956 in Arhangai aimag. Her childhood was spent in kindergarten and school, the same as other children’s. She started dancing when she was 7 years old. As she hoped to, she graduated from dancing class at the Music and Dancing College in 1972. She dance and art related work since that time and has worked as a dance instructor for many schools. She has many students. Her husband is a musician and they have 5 children. Her family has a very busy life, since they are all art people. In the socialist period, they went to the countryside for 45-60 days for the spring and fall brigade. This was a way to supply art and cultural services to all the people of the country. The art brigade was a state activity, which had plans and graphics every year. Many people such as dancers, singers, and musicians were combined together to form a team and provided shows and performances in the aimags and sums. Sometimes, she would leave her infant baby at kindergarten for 45 days. When she recalled how the State supported arts very well during socialism, she said that “All institutions organized cultural events, all houses of culture were working, all libraries were active, all children went to the circles [education groups], all people tried to sing or play musical instruments, and all households had at least a guitar.” There were many difficulties to going with the art brigade. “During that time, there were the stoves in tge sum clubs, and we ourselves did prepared the material to be burned and lighted them. We used to play in warm and smoky clubs. If there was no hotel, we spent the nights with families. Loading everything in the truck, we would sit on top of the loads” she said. The art brigade had four programs in one day when they arrived; a performance for children, an adult concert, an evening play, and a public dancing.
Tungalag’s life was connected inevitably with dance because she was dancer. In 1972 when she graduated as a dance instructor, Mongolian dances were taught, but other dances such as sport dance or Latin American dance with different elements were forbidden as capitalist dances. Tungalag participated in plays in some socialist foreign countries for example, Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Cambodia, and Czechoslovakia. As she was traveling so much, she made it her hobby to collect souvenirs related to dance and she has a nice collection now. .
