Pürevdorj
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990244
Name: Pürevdorj
Parent's name: Jamba
Ovog: Borjigon
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1925
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: secondary
Notes on education: büren dund
Work: retired
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Bugat sum, Bulgan aimag
Lives in: Bayangol sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: herder, farmer
Father's profession: herder, farmer
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
politics / politicians
democracy
privatization
funerals
environment
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
auto transportation
cultural campaigns
belief
nature and environment
men and women
privatization
funeral rituals
To read a full interview with Pürevdorj please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090704B with Pürevdorj
I encountered the Secretary of the Central Committee Tömör-Ochir when I was having a holiday in Hujirt resort. He said he’d build a monument to Chinggis Khan but then he was found guilty and he was exiled to countryside. When you think about it now, it was a grave time, to be prohibited from even talking about your own history. Tsegmid guai visited the United Nations Organizations in 1961 when our nation became its member and he said, “America is a wonderful country. Its development differs, the Soviet Union is nothing compared to it.” And he was said to be very much in error. In the socialist period the human rights issue was bad. It was prohibited to get rich, it was prohibited to see many things, it was prohibited to meet and talk with the foreigners.
In 1990 I went to the Square curious about Bat-Uul and the others who lay there in a hunger strike. I would come near to them and watch. I thought they were going through an ordeal themselves and that it was a needless thing to do. Then they started to organize big demonstrations and I though they were quarrelling over a rule. I thought this democracy was a needless thing. Later I realized it wasn’t a needless thing. There are its advantages like privatization and proclaiming human rights. I don’t know at all how the property had been distributed during privatization. All of a sudden private property flourished. I retired prior to privatization. During privatization the drivers got their vehicles they had been driving. Our family had given over 200 head of livestock to the collectives. But we didn’t get back even an orphaned young goat. One of my acquaintances had collectivized a thousand head of livestock and he wanted to get his share during the privatization but he was told, “Many years have passed since you had abandoned your cattle.” And he didn’t get anything. Then I thought it was a needless thing and I didn’t go there. Through privatization I didn’t get anything. The administrative offices were given to the dargas. They sold them and vanished. I think that property never came into the state fund. In this sense the upper-level people got rich through their acquaintances.
In the olden times the dead were taken in a camel cart if there were camels and in a cow cart if there were cows. One or two people buried the dead. It was put out in the open. It was a special place called ‘a place where humans were left’. My mom was left in the Behtreg valley. In childhood I was told ‘not to go near the places where humans were put’.
