Sambid
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990589
Name: Sambid
Parent's name: Tseden-Ish
Ovog: Toliton burguud
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1937
Ethnicity: Ööld
Additional Information
Education: elementary
Notes on education:
Work: retired / herder
Belief: none
Born in: Erdenebüren 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 101109A with Sambid
A native citizen of Erdenebüren sum of Hovd aimag Sambid who is of Ööld nationality was born in 1937. At the time of Sambid guai’s birth his father had gone to serve in the military in the Halh Gol army for five years. His mother died one month after his birth. The parents of Sambid guai’s uncle adopted him and raised him until he was 6 or 7 years old when his natural father came home after demobilization. But he didn’t take Sambid.
At the age of six he developed echinococcus on his stomach and it was like a pregnant woman’s stomach. His adopted parents secretly took him to an old man called Servant (barlag) Sharlag who cured people. The Russian doctors in the hospital of that time had Mongolian translators. He had an x-ray in Ulaanbaatar. At that time they didn’t take pictures like today when x-raying. They used to let you into a dark room and looked through. In order to have surgery Sambid guai had his rib cut off. He couldn’t attend school due to his illness since childhood.
In 1958 the ‘Socialism’ collective was established in Sambid guai’s sum and the collectivization movement flourished. Mostly the poor people joined the collectives. Each person who joined the collective raised 500 head of livestock. If he was short in the number of collective livestock he had to pay a fine. When he was young, the plants and the grass grew well and they didn’t use any livestock feed. In 1990 with the advent of democracy the collectives broke up.
Sambid guai got married and he has ten children. In the period of bureaucracy or the socialist period there was a very strict totalitarian regime, and if a goat had a miscarriage they had to pay a fine. Sambid guai’s ten children used to live in the school dormitory.
Though Sambid guai didn’t attend school he became literate on his own. There weren’t plenty of ABC books when he studied the ABC therefore he asked about the letters from the others. In this way he learned the ABC. There was no white paper then and there was a brown paper used to wrap tea on which they wrote with a pellet (collected from a mountain, with a nectar) and a match head.
They were rewarded with golden bag and cotton if they raised many young animals and worked well grazing the cooperative cattle. Sambid guai’s wife became a state leading milkmaid and she received an award. His wife’s father was a Manchu lama and then he became secular.
In the socialist period the party prohibited celebrating tsagaan sar and from 1990 it has approved of it. When joining the party, one was discussed at the all party members’ meeting and he was entrusted to one party member. He gave a promise and then he joined the party. In the socialist period there was no religion, but the people lit oil lamps, offered the best of tea and the meal, on 30th of each month fasted and ate a light meal like rice.
