Dashravdan
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990509
Name: Dashravdan
Parent's name: Oros
Ovog: Borjigon
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1935
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: elementary
Notes on education:
Work: retired
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Bayan-Ovoo sum, Bayanhongor aimag
Lives in: Bayanhongor sum (or part of UB), Bayanhongor 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)
repressions
collectivization
belief
funerals
democracy
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
group
caravan
official regulations tax
repression
collectivization
agricultural industry
belief
men and women
work - labor
funeral rituals
relay station
nature and environment
democracy
privatization
To read a full interview with Dashravdan please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 091209A with Dashravdan
Dashravdan was born in 1935 in Teeg, in Bayan Ovoo sum, Bayanhongor aimag. He became literate attending a 'group' [that is, not from formal schooling] in 1948. In 1960 he attended tractor’s and then driver’s training courses and from1963 drove trucks for a negdel plant and retired in 1992.
The cooperatives and collectives used to say that everyone should collectivize, and there shouldn't be private property. Though his family’s livestock had decreased, they still collectivized 450 head of livestock. If you didn’t pay the official tax regulations, a criminal case would be initiated. In order to finish with the first five-year plan tax, each ‘ail’ began to slaughter camels because of the 'technical' oil they had to give as a tax. At that time religion was strongly prohibited. They hid our Buddhas and relics and took the sutras and the Buddhas to the lamas that lived in the Erdene Tsogt monastery. Dashravdan's mother’s elder brother had been an important Gegeenii Shireen lama therefore he was the first to be killed. Was his name Luvsandanzanperenleijantsan or something? He used to be called the White Lama of the Centre. When Dashravdan's uncle had been shot, the next day he was seen walking, people said. He seemed to be a very supernatural person. The young men had been sentenced in order to make them work and the old people had been killed, it was said.
When Dashravdan was a child and a person had died, the lamas worshipped the land, buried the nine precious stones in the land, drew the words of a prayer, and recited sutras. The next day the dead were put out in the open with on their right side. A lamb skin was laid under the hip and a white stone under the head with a black stone at the feet. In recent years the dead have been wrapped in silk with cedar and incense sticks bound and put in a box. Then it was sealed with cement from the outside.
In our time the countryside people used to get an official permission in order to go to Ulaanbaatar. It took a week to get that certification. With the coming of democracy we became free.
