Tserendulam
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990582
Name: Tserendulam
Parent's name: Bidernee
Ovog: Oryas
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1946
Ethnicity: Urianhai
Additional Information
Education: secondary
Notes on education: büren dund
Work: retired
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Duut sum, Hovd aimag
Lives in: Jargalant sum (or part of UB), Hovd aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: herder
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Summary of Interview 101102A with Tserendulam
Tserendulam guai wore the Urianhai traditional clothes inherited from her mother when giving this interview. The outer robe is called a tsegdeg and the inner robe is called terleg. The hair-piece was sewn by her mother. The most important part of the Urianhai clothes is the edge stitch and there are also many colorful kerchiefs. The Urianhai deel’s sleeves are very loose. During the Kazakh war the Urianhai mothers concealed their babies in their sleeves and were able to escape. The footwear or ‘gosoo’ and the deel were all handmade. The cap or ‘toortsogo’ has been worn with shamlaga. Tserendulam guai called her earrings ‘siik’.
An unmarried woman’s lose hair was rolled up and the rest was put in ‘boodgo’ (name of a hair-piece). When Tserendulam guai was a child, every ‘ail’ had a tovshuur and ih hel (musical instruments). Every guest had to touch it and sing a song before leaving. They played the tovshuur and intoned an epic. Tserendulam guai talked about biyelgee dance and praised her tovshuur,
The tovshuur crafted from the wood called poplar
Made by taking hairs from the chestnut colt’s tail
The tovshuur made by shaving the wood called Siberian Larch
Made by taking hairs from the creamy chestnut
The tovshuur made sparingly from a wood called ‘altsan’
Made by taking hairs from the Lion Garuda
She created these words of praise. The tovshuur is kept respectfully in high places.
Tserendulam guai has participated in the Oirad Erih Höhsü festival. She has the awards of the ‘state leading artistic person’ and the ‘people’s leading gifted person’. She has talked about the bards like Choisüren, Avirmed and Urtnasan. To recite epics means similar like offering incense seeking fortune or luck and it is considered to be like awakening the luck of the family. If the tovshuur is played with dancing biyelgee and there are people sitting, the tovshuur is passed on clockwise to the next person and he plays or dances. If he cannot, he should sing.
Tserendulam guai and her forefathers are Urianhai people from Altai. There used to be seven Urianhai provinces. They are from Ah sum and they have the family name (ovog) Oviyos. Her father married in Inner Mongolia and then moved back to Mongolia. There were such ‘ails’ who had come over the mountains and they used to live in the mountains and rocks. There was a period when the Kazakhs disturbed the Urianhais, the Zahchin and the Torguuds. They were the Osman Kazakhs.
Tserendulam guai’s husband was a League cell darga. Her father-in-law Höhiin Namjil guai was the first deputy elected from Hovd.
Her father’s older brother Sengee loaded his Buddhist relics on two camels and concealed them near the river Tsenher. Religion was prohibited and it was very strict. There were fortunetellers who told the fortune with 41 stones and drawing coins. The people used to visit them secretly in order to know about their future. But the customs of fire worship, consecrating livestock, worshipping the mountains and the ovoos have been preserved. During tsagaan sar the people offered balin (sacrificial offering shaped out of dough) to the ovoos, burnt 13 incenses to Altai, offered livestock sternums, and tied zalam (willow sticks) upon the breast-bone according to the number of the people. Women were prohibited to take part in this ceremony and their husbands couldn’t attend the ceremony if they were party members.
