Ambaselmaa
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990275
Name: Ambaselmaa
Parent's name: Banzan
Ovog: Düger
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1931
Ethnicity: Ard Halh
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education:
Work: teacher at Mongolia Radio and Television Institute
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Bayantsagaan sum, Töv aimag
Lives in: Bayangol sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: lama
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
work
keepsakes / material culture
herding / livestock
environment
travel
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 Ambaselmaa please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090723B with Ambaselmaa
Note: This summary is a combined summary of interviews 090723A and 090723B.
The life and the artistic pathway of Ambaselmaa, the Mongolian Honored Artist of culture, is a part of history of the Mongolian nation. Her childhood was spent in the tough and hard years of World War II and she still remembers very clearly her past. For instance, the schoolchildren of that time were taught patriotic and military topic classes in the following way. In 1941 the fascists came to Moscow and the bullet hit Moscow. Upon hearing this, the 8-9 year old child was fearful all night through and she though Hitler wasn't human. She drew a caricature of him with a paddle-like nose. In order for the Mongolian people’s red army soldiers to fight with unbending courage and protect the Mongolian nation, disregarding their horses the schoolchildren sang:
Cut under the right bottom
Find the brutal core
Let’s carry the cunning enemy
On an ax
Cut under the left bottom
Find the core of the heart
Thread the foul enemy
Through the left shoulder
The schoolchildren put on military caps carrying wooden swords on their shoulders and they lined up in a military way. It’s amazing that a senior journalist who is over eighty now has told the story alliteratively. She talked very extensively about the livestock dying in the disaster (zud) when she was still very little and the consequent lack of food, how she attended school, how she taught. Ambaselmaa was the bride of the former darga of the leaders of the People’s Great Hural, the late J.Sambuu in the socialist time. She has many remarkable memories of that wise old man and she also shared them. She graduated from the Party Institute in 1951 then she graduated the journalism faculty of the Moscow University named after Lomonosov.
She told how she used to produce many radio and television programs that have become the favorite of the audience. She lost her first husband in a plane crash and was left with her two little daughters. But she didn’t put away her work and studies and consistently strived for the sake of life. You can read about it very clearly. She has met with almost all the heroes of labour of that time and the gifted people of the nation. Along with making many programs about them she has also published materials about them in the newspaper. You can also read from here the adventures she has encountered while she visited all the aimags and sums of the vast territory of Mongolia. Producer Alya is the faithful and consistent partner of Ambaselmaa who constantly visits the countryside with her. They have made altogether 14 serial programs on zud (zud is when there’s much snow and the livestock cannot find grass to eat, when the land is completely covered with snow). She told an interesting story about the herders and their delicate sense of tending cattle, the nomadic culture. She has started her working career with teaching a ‘new script’ in the countryside. The great history of Ambaselmaa is a history of Radio and Television. She has been teaching at the Radio and Television Institute and by the end of August, 2012, she retired. I’m happy to present such an amazing person to you.
