Tsetsegmaa
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990217
Name: Tsetsegmaa
Parent's name: Tooroi
Ovog: Aralynhan
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1954
Ethnicity: Zahchin
Additional Information
Education: elementary
Notes on education:
Work: retired, herder
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Manhan sum, Hovd aimag
Lives in: Manhan sum (or part of UB), Hovd 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)
cultural campaigns
family
herding / livestock
privatization
education / cultural production
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
cultural campaigns
childhood
schoolchildren's life
children's upbringing
collective member
herder
single mother
To read a full interview with Tsetsegmaa please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090327A with Tsetsegmaa
I was born in 1954 in Manhan sum of Hovd aimag. After completing the fourth grade in1967, I went to the countryside to tend livestock. In 1970 got married and four years later my husband died leaving me with three children. I became a single mother. Later I delivered four more children and so I had seven.
The cultural campaign was conducted accurately in our homeland. We panicked when we saw the vehicles of the inspection people. The herders put lines around their courtyard and collected the stones. If the courtyard wasn’t cleaned up, people bore the responsibility. The inspection people checked the cleanliness of the furnishing by wiping them with a cotton cloth. They used to tell us to buy a radio set and listen to it and read newspapers. A special person visited the ails and read lectures. If the ails didn’t meet the requirements, a bell was hung, and a washing machine was sent to bathe the dirty people and wash their dirty things. The machine came every ten days. Little by little people became cultured and got used to clean and neat conditions.
My mother’s was poor, therefore she used to drive livestock. That’s why my granny took care of me. Though I studied well in the elementary school, my grandparents took me out of the school for me to do the household work and tend the livestock. We tended sheep and camels. We lived with a 5 tögrög salary and an allowance for the loss of the children’s breadwinner. After the death of my husband I followed my mother and my younger sisters and brothers assisting them in milking and shearing until 1990. From 1990 I had also been given some livestock according to the number of the children through privatization. I didn’t have a possibility to send my children to school, and most of my children quit their school to tend the livestock. Thanks to the privatization, of the elder children the daughter was sent off, and the other (my son) got married.
At present, they all have over a hundred head of cattle. With a plan to see that at least one child received an education, the two of us [whom this means is not clear] came to Ulaanbaatar, getting some help from his sisters and brothers. If he graduates from the school, I hope he’ll improve the conditions of all the children of his sisters and brothers.
With the privatization our food became sufficient for us. The price of the raw animal products is quite high. I think, privatization offered a lot of changes and improved my life.
