Tsermaa
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990338
Name: Tsermaa
Parent's name: Sharav
Ovog: Borjigon
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1926
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: elementary
Notes on education:
Work: retired
Belief: none
Born in: Sühbaatar sum, Selenge aimag
Lives in: Shaamar sum (or part of UB), Selenge aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: partisan
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
repressions
collectivization
education / cultural production
foreign relations
herding / livestock
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To read a full interview with Tsermaa please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090916A with Tsermaa
Tsermaa guai was born in 1926. When she was 12, the monasteries and the temples were shut and burned and the gods and the relics of the ‘ails’ were confiscated. The ‘ails’ concealed their gods in the mountains and the rivers. When some people came to arrest Tsermaa guai’s older brother Nanjil, all their belongings in the ger were impounded. Later, 4-5 people came at night to impound all their belongings. The confiscated property was sold at auction or toorog. It was mostly confiscated livestock that was sold at toorog. Then, people were imprisoned in Altanbulag prison and many people were arrested so that the prison couldn’t fit them all. Although Tsermaa guai’s older brother had become a lay person, he was arrested under the pretext he had been a lama. The lamas who were arrested were divided into upper, middle and lower classes. The people of that time couldn’t fully comprehend the reason why they had been arrested as ‘counter-revolutionaries’. Tsermaa guai’s brother worked at logging during his imprisonment.
In the period of repression of the 1960s the people headed by Loohuuz, Nyambuu and Surmaajav were exiled and their families greatly persecuted.
In 1945 the norm of meat and milk (production) was imposed on the families. Ninety liters of milk was stipulated for one cow /regardless if there was a calf/. If the norms weren’t fulfilled, they were fined. The ‘ails’ with few cows outsourced some milk from the ‘ails’ who had a lot of milk and thus they fulfilled their norms.
When the collective was first established, everyone gave away their livestock voluntarily. Over 200 households formed one bag. When the socialist labor brigades started to be formed, the collective work started to become more equal. Agitation was often carried out to make the ‘ails’ join the collective. Grass, manure and firewood were provided to the herders from the collective. The collectives later were transformed into the state farms.
Before the collectives when the communes were formed, a certain number of cows were taken from every ‘ail’ and they tended them, so Tsermaa remembered.
When Tsermaa guai was about 14 years old, Cyrillic started to be used and she studied it for two years. At that time the children attended the first grade regardless of their age.
In the period of 1980-1990 the administrative offices cleaned the forests and they collected brushwood for firewood.
