Doljin
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990584
Name: Doljin
Parent's name: Peljin
Ovog: Höhüürt
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1942
Ethnicity: Zahchin
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education:
Work: retired
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Manhan 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 101104A with Doljin
When Doljin guai first went to school, the boys wore blue and the girls green drill cloth terlegs (summer deels) carrying cloth bags. In the beginning they wrote with pencils and then started writing with dip pens. She lived in the ‘ails’ in the sum center. After completing the seventh grade she attended a nurse training course for a year and came back to Mönhhairhan sum to work as an obstetrician. Initially they assisted at childbirth by letting mothers hold a basket and later days the mothers were put on an iron bed. Mostly they visited the ‘ails’ by calls and step by step the people started visiting the hospitals. She often went on emergency calls by horse two or three times a shift. She also worked in Manhan and Buyant sums and meningitis and flu were wide-spread. In the mornings and the evenings the people did exercises. If the lecture or the circle [educational group] was skipped, they took measures, subtracting from the salary and it was strict.
The relatives of her parents were lamas therefore they used to conceal it during the socialist period. Her father-in-law was also a skilled man who compounded herbs and made medications. Her brother Songoruu has started to translate Tibetan books and write in Mongolian script since the rise of democracy. Since the 1990s the people have started worshipping religion widely. In 1993 she took many sutras that were in her brother’s suitcase to Gandan monastery.
Since 1977 Doljin guai has started consuming vegetables with her meals and since 1980 they have started growing them.
The Zahchin funeral custom doesn’t much differ from other nationalities’ customs. Until the 1960s the dead were buried in an open place and in the later days they were put in coffins. For 49 days it was prohibited to slaughter an animal.
In 1968, 1969 Tsagaan Sar was celebrated separately and before that it was celebrated during the New Year. During Tsagaan Sar the people visited ‘ails’ with tea kettles and a plate of refreshments. The newly wedded young people visited their uncle with the rump of a sheep. They offered refreshments to the Buddha’s relics on the chest. In the olden times the hadag was very rare and it cost the price of a horse. When greeting the old people, they took a thread from the hadag and then returned it. Each ‘ail’ had a separate ovoo and during Tsagaan Sar they went to the ovoo with dairy product offerings to pray.
On tiger and dog days the colts were branded and the goats were castrated, and there were refreshments and burning of incense. The female lambs were healed, smearing their heads with airag. When bringing out dairy products from the home, sutras were read. The days it was prohibited to slaughter animals and remove dairy products from the home were strictly adhered to.
Doljin guai greatly worships her Buddha and she offers tea and makes a ‘corrective ceremony’ for Tsagaan Sar without fail and she ignores other religions.
