Tüvshinjargal
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990562
Name: Tüvshinjargal
Parent's name: Ochirbat
Ovog: Targuud
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1940
Ethnicity: Dörvöd
Additional Information
Education: some elementary
Notes on education: 4th grade
Work: retired
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Böhmörön sum, Uvs aimag
Lives in: Ulaangom sum (or part of UB), Uvs aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: herder
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work
education / cultural production
childhood
foreign relations
illness / health
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Summary of Interview 100917A with Tüvshinjargal
O. Tüvshinjargal was born in 1940 in Böhmörön sum of Uvs aimag. She grew up in a family of seven children. When she was a child her family was settled in Gurvan Jigertei and used to herd the negdel’s livestock. She and her sister Horloo went the Tsagaan nuur sum school in Bayan-Ölgii until fourth grade. Her father passed away at the age of 47 and she used to help her mother herd their cattle. She was never scared of horses or any other cattle and she used to often herd sheep. She was a very energetic and almost naughty child. Whenever she encountered a wolf or fox she couldn’t recognize which one is what. Her family used to live close to Urianhai (from Tuva) families and kept relations with them. The children would play with each other throughout the neighborhood. Around 1939, 1940 Sühbaatar’s Yanjmaa visited their province to initiate the process of marking the border. During one of her visits when Yanjmaa picked up piece of wool in her silk skirt our father asked why she did that, she responded “Such nice wool is getting wasted.” “Soon after her return to Ulaanbaatar she started buying sheep wool”, used to say her father. After 10 years since the border was set up the Urianhai families moved away. For many years they lived like relatives as if part of a big family. They used to receive goods instead of a salary. Our herders used to trade with them with sheep wool.
She got married when she was in the countryside after which they moved to the centre of sum to settle down. She finished the eighth grade while still working. She was a kindergarten cook when her husband got a job as an accountant in a trade unit and upon moving to the centre of aimag in 1973 she started working as sales assistant until she retired after 32 years of work. She has six children all of whom have moved out and have their own lives.
Soon after she arrived in the centre of the aimag she finished a course on sales job. She was one of 12 sales assistants and worked in the grocery department of a shop that operated during socialism in each aimag’s centre. When the shop was operated on self-service basis there used to be many shoplifting incidents. Since everyone was accountable for it we all ended up taking responsibility for it. We all had to bear responsibility if one of the sales assistants failed. In those days people used to have a different attitude towards their work, were more responsible and knew their tasks well. Because it was a top-down management period the product managers used to be intimidated by their superiors a lot. Democracy has benefits but in some ways it brought too much liberty. Before there was order but now the society acts as if it doesn’t know the limits of anything. It seems that people these days show no discipline. Alcoholism is on the rise, old and young, men and women drink without any limitation. I feel sensitive about it. The 1990s privatization was profitable for those who herded livestock and who owned apartments but for the rest of the population it wasn’t good.
