Möngöntsetseg
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990908
Name: Möngöntsetseg
Parent's name: Natsagdorj
Ovog: [blank]
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1959
Ethnicity: [unknown]
Additional Information
Education: [unknown]
Notes on education:
Work:
Belief:
Born in: sum, Ulaanbaatar aimag
Lives in: sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession:
Father's profession:
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Translation:
Byambajav -
Well, I thank you very much for accepting my
invitation and coming to give an interview. Then, before
starting the interview there two issues to clarify with you.
First, information and facts contained in your interview
will be used as a basic research material by scholars and
researches after 10 years or 20 years. Second, it may be
used as reference material in preparation of broadcasts on
history on TV and radio, in publication of articles in
newspapers and journals as well other means of public media.
So would you give us the right to use your interview for
these purposes?
Möngöntsetseg -
I’ll give it.
Byambajav -
Thank you. If you wish in this interview you can keep
your name in secret or else you can use without concealing
it. What do you think?
Möngöntsetseg -
There is nothing to hide.
Byambajav -
Well, thank you. Let’s now start the interview, so
first of all introduce yourself and please tell us in detail
about childhood and about all the stages of your life as
well as the organization you work, the reason you work here,
how is work and life?
Möngöntsetseg -
Well, my name is Natsagdorjiin Munguntsetseg, I was
born in1959, in the 1st Maternity home of Ulaanbaatar, my
family has three children, I am the eldest one, I have a
younger brother and another younger sister so with my father
and mother 5 of together lived. My childhood was just like
the others I attended kindergarten and entered the 10 year
school, in 10 year school you become a member young
pioneer’s organization, I was the senior of my class and
apparently I was also a good student so when usually you
were enrolled in the rank of pioneer in third grade,
together with one other child I was made a member of young
pioneers in the second grade, the other one was a boy called
Battemer, after a year all students of my class became young
pioneers so it went like this and when we became members of
the league (of revolutionary youth), two children were
called to the Pioneers’ Palace, the neckties of those
selected from the schools were removed and the badge of the
league were pinned on their breast, so I also before my
classmates together with another child from of our grade had
become I had become a member of the league together with a
classmate of mine. After finishing the 10th grade I
participated in entrance exams just like the other children
of that period, it was an established practice that all give
these exams.
Byambajav -
Yes, it was.
Möngöntsetseg -
The entrance exams were a compulsory, everyone had
pass them, almost no one got unsatisfactory evaluation. All
graduates of the 10th grade had to give these entrance exams
those who collected the required amount of points in front
of others received the best assignments, assignments were
given according the points and when all the assignments were
distributed the rest who could not get an assignment would
remain without any assignment and had look for some
employment. I received an assignment, may by the account
points received, to study in Russian language faculty of the
Teacher training institute, the faculty of Russian language
and literature. When I now recall at that time we really did
not choose ourselves a profession and prepared specially for
the entrance exams for that very purpose. Since it was
socialist period every one was studying what we ought to and
probably the points I had collected were sufficient for
requirement of that very profession, however, I myself liked
Russian language very much and it suited me nicely, so I
received the assignment and in summer, went for the summer
labour…
Byambajav -
Was this a training pratice?
Möngöntsetseg -
No, it was labour. When you become a student you had
to go for autumn labour, that year when we finished 10 year
school, it was announced on radio: “Those who are entering
institutes and the University in the first year, those who
have passed entrance exams and have been registered as
students should come to their respective institutes on that
day of August”. So when we came to our institutes we were
sent to various places to summer labour. Actually autumn
labour started very early in August, so every year students
had the obligation to go for summer and autumn labour, we
never really anything about it and we went for the autumn
labour. Students of Russian language spend their fourth year
in Irkuts for language training, then in the fifth year when
we came back, Russian language faculties of the University
and the Teacher training institute were merged and those who
were studying linguistics had become what is now known as
the Humanitarian institute, at that time it was the
institute of Russian language, I graduated from that
institute. S I entered the Teacher training institute but
graduated from Institute of Russian language teachers of the
University, it was its exact name.
Byambajav -
Аа, yes, yes.
Möngöntsetseg -
(laughs) When I graduated it had become such an
institute. After the graduation, all the graduates were
usually sent on assignment to the rural areas, (0-06-35)
sent from the cities to rural areas. Then my classmates
issued an appeal addressed to all the graduates let’s work
in rural areas, the appeal was printed in newspapers. Since,
we were going voluntarily, we were given the opportunity to
some extent to choose the aimag we would like to work, so I
chose Dornod aimag, the reason I had chosen Dornod was that
I thought it was more or less like a town that it was what I
heard from people, so I decided to go to Dornod but did not
go there, (laughed) because it was very hard to live in
rural areas as for my 2 younger siblings, my mother and
father they had their work here, my mother was working in a
pharmacy, my father was working in the economic institute of
Academy (of sciences).
Byambajav -
Yes. yes.
Möngöntsetseg -
My father is an economist, he is a scientist and
researcher, he working on scientific research, so I staying
at my home, then someone from the Ministry of Education
called me at home and said that I must go otherwise there
could be problems. I agreed and said “yes”, “yes”. When the
school year started in September I did not go there so
almost in November, I went to Dornod accompanied by my
father and started teaching in the 1st 10 year school of
Dornod.
Byambajav -
So your father brought you there?
Möngöntsetseg -
He escorted me. So I arrived in company of my father
so I was led to the teachers’ …to a dormitory for the
children who arrived from the countryside on the back of the
10 year school, it was one story building, I had no
acquaintances there, that is why was directly led to a room
of the dormitory on the instruction of the Director of
school. My father brought me to the room and left. In the
evenings they took roll call of the students. this way they
took the account of students living in the dormitory. A boy
from the 10th grade was the mentor of the dormitory. He did
not know that I was a teacher(0-09-13) and thought I was a
student who transferred from the city and he compelled me to
stand in the line up of the evening roll call, oh no he did
not compel me but he told me that I should line up for
evening and morning roll calls, do exercises, run and march
etc, so he spoke with me for sometime and left, I did not
pay any attention to him. Then the next morning my first
lesson of Russian was in his class, the 10th grade, 10A, so
that child was astonished to see me, for he did not guess I
was a teacher. (0-09-52) So since then I taught Russian
language in 10th, 7th and 6th grades, later I also taught in
the evening ( not “авиан”, which does not make sense -
apparently “oroin” or evening classes which was popular)
schools and spent hours there, being busy with my teachings
perfectly suited me. When I was working there, I taught for
the first time in 6th grade, no 7th, yes, it was 6th grade
their class tutor, a teacher of Physics was ill so I was
acting as the class tutor temporarily. So when I started my
Russian language lesson, at that time countryside people
thought I was a Russian, they did not think that I was a
Mongol, the children talked among themselves “she is a
Russian, shall we ask what is her name. Certainly, I heard
it but I kept silence to see what they would do, then one
child said we would give her the book for class evaluation,
when she signs we’d know her name. There was such a book
where the class tutor put evaluation marks, did the children
behave orderly or not at the lesson and the teacher after
giving the lesson put the evaluation mark and signed, there
was such a practice. So I put the evaluation mark and signed
fast in an illegible manner they were saying oh its is
impossible to read.(laughed) They were confused for the
beginning after they knew, that class had a number of twins,
there were two twins so 4 of them then there was one twin
girls.
Byambajav -
Six
Möngöntsetseg -
Six children, all of them twins, it was a class with many twins. So things went on.
Byambajav -
Was impossible to distinguish them?
Möngöntsetseg -
How can one distinguish them, Tuvshinjargal and
Tumenjargal and all those twins, So nothing special, taught
in Dornod then afterwards I was transferred to the city
(Ulaanbaatar)...
Byambajav -
How many years did you teach there?
Möngöntsetseg -
Wait, I went there in October, November 1982 and came
back in 83 or 84, it was 1984 and then I taught in evening
courses of Russian languages (0-12-30) organised by the
Mongolian-Soviet friendship society which was very popular
among the people, it was an evening course for those who had
to work during the day or those not working but interested
in the course. After a while in 1985 I took up a job in
Party high school. I worked there then the year 90 arrived,
democratic revolution triumphed (laughs) everything was
terribly changed, lost all the meaning.
Byambajav -
Please tell about your impressions of that period.
Möngöntsetseg -
Yes, that that time everything was kept in certain
frame, everything had principles and procedures, once you
entered the mainstream, you had nothing else to think about
just followed the course. That time now this Ganbat was
working there, Ganbold, this bald Ganbold was teaching in
our economic chair, in general many of those who are now in
streets were in Party higher school. That time Party higher
school was under the control of Central Committee of the
Party, there was the CCPRP (Central committee of the
Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party), all the teachers
(lecturers and professors) were invited to the committee and
appointed by it, usually those who graduated with
distinction, with red diploma of distinction were chosen,
they were chosen on the basis of their (untarnished) high
morality and education and appointed as lecturers. So only
people with red diploma (of distinction) worked at the
school. They were taken good care in the morning the school
bus would pick up the teachers from one end to the other and
in the evening brought them back and they dismounted near
their home in groups. When thus we were travelling in the
bus this Ganbold, Da. Ganbold talked a lot about democracy.
He used to say that for us travel this way in a specially
provided bus is not very agreeable we are just like others,
we should not enjoy this kind of special privilege over
others. In the bus youth crowded the back seats, while
elderly professors sat in front seats, it was FAZ (medium
size Russian made bus) so Ganbold used to say that. Ganbold
rarely(0-15-11) sat in that bus, he mostly rode his bicycle
to his work and back home, he would change his clothes into
sports suits and rode the bicycle. Ganbat, who is now the
Director of the Academy of Public Administration, he also
used to ride bicycle.
Byambajav -
For the people of that socialist period making such
critical remarks probably sounded rather strange, what else
did he say?
Möngöntsetseg -
This was what he said and the most important thing is
that at that time we were extremely busy political
information in the morning, in evening there was some kind
study groups so many activities were going on such as old
Mongolian script study group (circle), we also attended
English language course. So I used to make morning political
information when gather early in the morning, I also spoke
at various seminars, people were given different subjects to
speak on, so you prepare your intervention on that subject
and delivered it before the teachers I remember that once
Ganbold criticized that the figures quoted were false, that
those figures did not correspond real life situation, they
were all abstract figures. But the people did not refute
him, probably it was difficult for the to prove him to be
wrong. Mat the issue was not researched…or may be was
researched but it was not discussed that way. At that time
they (those young people) were apparently meeting democrats
(to discuss various issues) among the teachers of the
University, Ganbold, I think, came from the University to
our school. So he knew them (the democrats) and at that time
they were already preparing their next moves. Well, then the
party higher school was removed from the control of the
Central committee and made high school of politics
(political studies) and organizational issues rose, teachers
were reshuffled, then came turn of streamlining and
elimination of some of the posts, ours was a chair of
foreign language, it was attached to some other chair,
(0-18-01) since there is no more independent chair its staff
were reduced in numbers, after this cutback I took a leave
saying “yes”, ”yes” and quit. So after the summer vacation I
did not come back, at that time my father was in Moscow to
defend his Doctor’s dissertation and my mother went after
him to Moscow. It was the time when peddler trading
activities were emerging, so I decided to go into trading
and I did not go to back to my work. So together with my
husband I went to Moscow, from Moscow to Poland, I left my
child at the care of my mother and father and proceeded to
Poland. From Poland we bought jeans and came back. At that
time we did not take direct international trains but always
rode on local trains, because we thought thus we would make
some savings but when we now think, it was not cheap at all,
so we traveled making transfers from train to train. We
arrived in Moscow and from Moscow we traveled further
through Lithuania to Poland, we always traveled by local
trains, thinking it was cheaper but it was not that cheap.
And once when we were traveling it happened either the
boarder of Lithuania or Latvia…
Byambajav -
Were there two countries Lithuania and Latvia?
Möngöntsetseg -
Yes. There are two countries Lithuania and Latvia.
Vilnius, which was the closest, is the capital of which of
the two? I think Vilnius is the capital of Latvia. These two
countries gained their independence and insisted that since
we were crossing its borders we should get the permission
from them. And they did not allow us to travel further, we
were travelling in local train, and they took us out of the
train. I don’t know what it was, probably it was a station,
after disembarking us they interrogated us one by one. It
was some sort of guards, they had guns and shot birds and
fired into the air apparently trying to frighten us. I was
the only female in our group. (0-20-45) I was travelling
with my husband, younger brother of my husband and a friend
of the younger brother were with us. So they were
interrogated for some time, they wanted to take a lot of
money from us. We did not give them the money and the next
day took a train to proceed further. So we brought jeans and
shoes for sale, got a stall at the Exhibition hall over
there. Then there were almost no specialized stall for the
sale of shoes, not so many at least. We brought only shoes
from Poland, specialized in its sale and were engaged in
that sale for a year. It was not easy, firstly, you need
quite a few people, one would be standing at the stall, the
other would have to travel back and forth in order to bring
fresh supplies, it is impossible to bring the supply sold it
and go back again, we had very a few people, my husband has
only one elder sister, except the lack of manpower we also
lacked the inborn talent of salesmanship. I, for instance,
have no talent of trading at all whenever some asked to
reduce the price could not refuse, so at the end we got rid
of the remains of the goods by giving away as present since
we stopped the sale. After that in 91, since 91 we went to
other places for trading, I went to Korea and worked there
for an year. After returning from Korea, I could not find a
suitable job for me (laughed) as they say I could not find a
place to settle down and work. As for my husband he has a
profession, an economist, finished the class of mathematics
of the first 10 year school and he graduated from an
institute in Leningrad. He was working at electric power
station, at the fourth electric power station. And since he
is a man he is more farsighted and looks a few steps ahead
so he said he would do a bigger thing and the thing to do
was also ready. I had really nothing much to do so looked
after the child prepared the meal, made shopping and till
came to work here I was living at my leisure. Since I had
been in trading business I had bought a car, so drove here
and there, haven’t done anything worthwhile, when now I
think I was a person with no place in the society, however,
there was nothing bad or wrong about it. Because when I was
sitting at home just like that I had done that to my child,
I had time to pay more attention to my kid. I would take him
to the kindergarten, afterwards when he entered the school I
had to help him to make his lessons, when the kid was in the
first grade if you could spare some time and helped him then
from the 2nd grade he himself can manage without your
assistance. So when my child was attending the school, when
he was in 2nd and 3rd grade I had almost nothing to do,
there was no need for him to ask something from me, he
understood the lessons and made his lessons without any
help, so my only job was to prepare the food. My
mother(0-24-40), on the whole, has always been a believer of
Buddhist religion, during the socialist period when
worshipping was prohibited, she took me with her to Gandan
in the evenings, she had a Tibetan teacher, a Tibetan lama,
she was a disciple of that lama so she frequently to visit
him. And though she worked in a pharmacy when we had colds
she would not give us any drug, she used sacred water,
juniper and cured us. My mother is such an awfully devoted
believer, so since 90 when worshipping became free, she has
become almost inseparable from Gandan and spent most of her
time there, it was over there that she saw an advertisement
that the teacher would give a discourse at Lamiran. So she
attended the very first lesson, then the teacher taught his
lessons on Saturdays and Sundays so my mother went out
saying that she has lessons. It was the usual manner of the
mother we did not pay much attention. Then later mother
would ask me the teacher wants to do this and my daughter
please give him a lift in your car. I, usually, said yes,
I’ll do. We, generally, obey whatever our mother or father
instruct us to do, we do not think anything about it. I
never said I am busy or gave any other excuses, if she asked
the answer was yes. Well, let’s go there I would say “yes”
and occasionally brought him to that place in my car. And
after that I came back but whenever he needs a car mother
would ask me my daughter please take them to such a location
etc, so it went like that for quite a while. Then later I
was told they got a plot of land somewhere, but the
permission had not yet been issued (document certifying the
ownership/possession of the land). I don’t know whether it
was true or not but the man who gave the plot received a
large sum of their money for getting the land for their use
and promised to give them the permission as soon as the
document was ready. An awfully long time has passed but the
document was not coming. So I decided to help the poor
teacher and went after that document to get that for the
teacher so I started running from one official to the other
asking about it and then one of them said the document was
with him, that it would now be presented at a meeting for
approval, so I did get that permission on land for the
teacher and when occasionally the teacher asked me for a
lift to go somewhere I would come to him so it was how we
get acquainted. Then one day the teacher said: We would like
to construct a building of this kind and I wanted to see a
person in this connection, would you help me so I came to
him. He showed me a painting (of a building) he had drawn
and said if we can have a building this kind this is will be
fine for us. We took that painting and decided to see
someone else, an architect, so a woman came to us. Her name
was Bujkhuu, we talked with her, teacher looks at some one
and knows who she or he is. He knows what kind a person he
or she is. So he said to me I think this woman is all right
what do you think. I said she is fine for me and we decided
to entrust the designing to Mrs. Bujkhuu. What I did was to
help the teacher, the teacher did not know the language that
well and the other person did not quite understand him so I
thought and was explaining what the teacher said in
Mongolian to the architect. So I helped the teacher to have
the design of the house drawn and when the time of
construction came the issue of finding a construction
company rose and I told him that if you want to go somewhere
and need a car please tell me, I’ll take you there (help
you). I was not working so whenever teacher asked, oh no, no
I had a job then I was working in “Ireidui”
institute(Future), working as a teacher. But at the
institute later I had very little to do, very few hours of
lesson, hours for Russian language were very limited and I
had a lot of free time, so I met with (representatives of)
many companies. Teacher and me saw many companies such as
Dornod and something, Company of prefabricated walls, we
have been to Bayankhoshuu, another company something called
Zam very far in Ulaan Khuaran (Military barracks) and many
other companies. And we met a young man called Badamdorj who
have a construction company and two us decided to entrust
him the task. Then we have chosen Mr. Badamdorj’s the
“Industr” (Industry) private company ltd. and the company
was to construct the building and it had constructed the
house, I was doing all this in order to help the teacher. At
first I thought if I could get (the permission) and give him
the land it would be an assistance but after that design of
blue print of the building (was drawn), for construction all
the technical details (solutions) were required such as
heating and other connections (electricity, water, sewage
etc)it was required to get the approval for all these
technical connections so I decided to get them for him. It
was difficult because to get an approval you had to give
substantial bribe. Since my husband was working at electric
power station I asked for his help and through his friends
obtained the permissions to connect to electricity and
heating networks, I tirelessly run after water supply and
managed to arrange it. When you get those approvals and meet
the necessary technical (conditions) requirements permission
to construct the building was granted. So the building was
constructed but when it was finished it was also difficult
to leave just like that because I was in charge of all these
matters from the very beginning, so when the time came to
receive heating and connection to the main line I had to
arrange it because teacher had no one to take care of it. So
I thought OK I’ll arrange the smooth running of the heating
system for this year and made contract for the year and thus
I was taking care of all minor details. So it went like
this, continued that way, my mother and father who are
always concerned about their children always asked to do
something for the teacher which further strengthened my
attachment. My father used to say to …your mother you always
attend lessons on every Saturday and Sunday, is there
anything like finishing her studies or does she remain for
years in the same class. He has no idea that there is no
such thing as completing of Buddhist (religious) studies. My
father will never say anything bad about Buddha nor any
words of praise about it, he is a true communist, but he
never utters a word of disapproval. If you read and study we
can understand (Buddhist teachings) but from the beginning
we learned to worship blindly. After working there and here
when I sometimes ponder about why and how these teachers
have become so compassionate, why they are born as human
beings who can abandon themselves and devote his life for
the good of others, I get extremely agitated and moved. My
teacher walks without food and rest begs for assistance on
behalf of others. Allowances and tuition fees of students
are big issues. There are students who are keen to continue
their studies but have no money to pay the tuition fee, my
teacher, who is not a businessman, has no money, so he asks
for money. Then you really feel pity for him and think if I
was rich I would give him that money. If you were beside him
and heard him to solicit that money you feel like crying and
feeling of extreme sorrow fills you. Then those students who
attend the lessons given by my teaches come from very far as
the Ulaan Khuaran and they have no money to pay the bus fee
so they are forced to leave the bus and take the other until
the conductor again expels them from the bus. If we don’t do
anything beneficial for these who’ll do that. Poverty will
be eradicated by supporting them giving them the opportunity
to study and get high education, it will not be eliminated
only by giving them today food and clothing. However, only
by obtaining a diploma one can not become a good person, by
being close to the teacher a person will understand that
education alone can not make you a good man, the most
important thing is to grow up as a righteous person, a
person who possesses qualities that distinguishes him from
animal can enjoy a happy life. Puujee (Bujee?) teacher and
my teacher concentrate their attention on infusing this view
in these students from now and educate them in this way. A
person with money may by different means graduate from an
institute of high learning and get a diploma, but if he or
she will not work sincerely what is the use of that person,
if the person do not love his father and mother, he will not
love his wife, he will not love his children and the people
around him. Instead of being such a man, if the students
could be brought up and educated to become a man without
diploma but as man who can work anywhere with all sincerity,
who respects people around him, he who dos not steal other’s
property then he can carry on his livelihood in right
direction. This purpose in mind the teacher’s lessons are
organised in three different categories. At 11 a.m. for
everyone interested, at 14 o’clock on Saturdays for
students, at 14 p.m. on Sundays for high school children,
the training is specially designed to suit this 3 age
groups. Lessons on the following subjects are taught in
different groups: how to live in peace and tranquillity in
the group of all ages, skills of right ways of living for
students, respecting one’s father and mother with filial
devotion for children. What will be the consequence of not
loving your parents, what bad things children should discard
and what goods things they can get through what means are
told to them. I myself haven’t studied the teachings of
Buddha, I found out about purpose of these lessons and
listened to my teacher’s discourses, there were many
questions to ask, however, engaged in other activities I had
no time to put those questions. After being acquainted with
purposes of the lessons I also came to understand one thing
exactly. The meaning of life, the essence of life of a human
being, I was unaware and did not understand that until now.
I came to understand it by being on the side of my teacher.
Teacher never tells us you should do, this should be done
this or that way, it should be like this and so on, he shows
personally how it should be done. He never looked down at us
he just told us do but never asked whether we can do that or
not. However, when there is the earnest desire and will to
do things you always succeed. One should not put a limit
this can not be done, this is beyond my capacity, the most
important thing is the sincere desire and determination to
succeed. If one has such a will the one can do anything.
Now, my co-workers do face difficulties, however, for us
money is not the main thing, for example I am not rich
person my child went to school (in a foreign country) we
need a lot of money and we are deeply in debt and have
problems, however, the main thing for us is not the money.
The most important thing is the feeling of kindness and
goodness at your heart, therefore, all of us here we don’t
really care for money and don’t take money for our work.
Otgoo’s life is hard, Tsevlee’s life is also hard but they
work here without any other thought out of their kind heart
and good intentions with no regard to the money so they are
apparently guided (by supernatural power) from somewhere. I
think that if you have such kind heart and good intentions
sooner or later you will be able to follow the right path. I
am just thinking this way, if I could attend the lessons of
my teacher then I’ll probably look on matters differently.
I’ll probably make my own conclusions, so I would like to
attend the lessons for a few hours and I should find some
time solely to devote to it. I don’t know why may be there
is some kind of unavoidable obstacle, whenever I want to
attend the lesson something usually comes up. I, generally,
did not attend those lessons but there is a need to be
there. listening to the talks of those who attended lessons
of my teacher from as an outsider I came to the conclusion
that a lama does not just convey findings of researchers of
the Buddhism but talk about the principles that an ordinary
man should follow in his life. The skill of correct living,
I don’t know how to express, probably it would be wrong to
call it the rules or code, may be the ways and means, if one
follows them relentlessly then that person changes to the
good direction. This is what I think lately, lately this is
the thought I have. I can state definitely on my behalf that
when you follow them it plays a very important role in
upbringing of children and in family education. A person
with right upbringing can work anywhere. The parents (father
and mother), in the first place, (0-42-16) should give this
right education (to their children). Educational background
provided by the parents assists a person to choose his
future path. If I did not take the words of my mother and
father or did not obey them, I would never have met my
teacher in this way.
Byambajav -
Yes, it is.
Möngöntsetseg -
If I was saying I have work to do or I am busy then I
could never spared sometime. Mother never called me
beforehand but when I had already agreed to see someone
somewhere, she would call and say oh dear, my teacher has no
car. So I had to say to the person whom I were to see I got
something to attend without delay and drove off to see my
mother. I abandoned everything I was doing and go to her
because my mother said so. That is why I came to the
conclusion, basing on my own life experience and that of my
two younger siblings, that how did your father and mother
rear you up, how they educate you at home basically have a
very important significance. This I have seen proved again
and I came to this very firm conclusion. Our mother and
father did not say much. If the child is doing something
wrong after a while my mother would give you a beating once
and while, father never hit nor say anything or nag you. So
a person does not learn to deceive or use various tricks.
There are people who does the work in one way when somebody
is overseeing him but when there is no control does it
differently. I was not reared that way. It is an education,
generally, that we received from our mother and father, it
is their upbringing. So I met this teacher of mine, being
aside the teacher I have learned a lot of things, it is
impossible to remunerate them, being beside him is a step by
step learning. My teacher is truly a very different person.
I knew about it only by working beside him. Our teacher
won’t scold us directly, he scolds his disciples, there is a
child lama Tsagaan Maidar he scolds him. But after scolding
he pities him awfully and even feels bad and sick. We may
think what a big problem why can’t you scold a small child
but he is so full of the conscience of forgiveness and can
not do otherwise. When we are in bad temper… as for me
previously I got angry easily and was very scornful but now
I don’t get angry and restrain myself, we are all humans and
human beings do commit mistake, probably this poor thing is
lost and confused is the thought that now comes to my mind.
I usually don’t get angry but once I am angry it takes time
to quell that anger, my husband is very frank and says
whatever is on his mind directly without thinking that his
words might put the other person in an awkward situation, he
speaks out without thinking then he gets angry very fast but
also calms down very quickly. I don’t get angry for long
time but once I get angry that what caused my anger lingers
on in my mind which is very bad indeed.
Byambajav -
Are there many examples of those who attended and
listened to the lessons (sermons)given by your teacher, who
had a hard life but now the pattern of life of whom has been
changed (0-46-36) and a result their livelihood had been
improved? What would be the percentage?
Möngöntsetseg -
Now our Asral centre has started its activities on
October 27, 2004. Today it is 2006, yeah. Improvement of
livelihood of children mentioned before during this period
is relative. The most important is the change they
themselves has experienced, change in their mind (head)
.
Byambajav -
When a change occurs in their mind and way thinking about life, a change of views on life comes next…
Möngöntsetseg -
Yes, there is a complete change. I noted down for
myself the writings of these children. According to what the
children and students told they were easily irritated and
got angry before, now they stopped to get angry. Father of
one child (a girl) was playing in betting games and because
of this girl was furious and strongly disliked her father
but now she understands her father and stopped to be angry
at her father so the conflict between them has gradually
subsided. Apparently as long as the child was angry at her
father he became more obstinate and tenacious by continuing
to bet, the girl was living with her mother separately from
her father but now when she stopped be angry at her father,
he reduced his betting. It is very interesting if people
like you could make a survey findings of your experiment
would be very interesting. This Tsevlee of ours was
completely different before, our last recruit receptionist
Naranchuluun came from rural community and it is said that
he was a very angry man. We did not know about him we hired
him when he was working as a guard at a construction. We
found out about it from his child. Since he started working
here he has changed completely, including the language he
uses speaking to people, serving as a guard at construction
he quarrelled with people all the time and was a very angry
person but now he is a totally different person this what
his daughter told us. Many awesome changes had taken place,
take Otgoo, she was blaming her husband, because of him
everything went wrong she thought, now when she started to
think that I was wrong and things have changed for the
better. She thought that if I understood and became aware of
this earlier then my life would have been much better than
now and stopped the quarrells and fighting with her husband
which caused further deterioration of their life. Since she
went to the studies of scriptures she stopped that quarrel.
We built their nice house last summer.
Byambajav -
Did you?
Möngöntsetseg -
Yes. It is a nice house, teacher visited with us and
at first gave assistance then afterwards also gave a loan my
poor teacher. If knowledgeable people like you were at the
side of the teacher you would become very nice (would learn
a lot). As we are concerned our mental capacity is too
meagre to comprehend him. Teacher at first gave grant aid
(assistance) then also a loan. When the construction began
they were short of 200,000 tugrugs, so he gave a loan of
200,000 tugrigs and asked when can you give it back. When he
found out that they are short of money he said I heard
building of your house is near to completion and asked how
much money they needed, they said if we have 200,000 tugrugs
it will be completed then that man (the teacher) gave 20,000
tugrugs. Then Othgoo said I’ll give it back to you on such
date of September. So they built a beautiful, new house
which was quite big, in one room her mother lived in the
other with her husband and daughter 3 of them, so they
started collecting money to repay back the loan. Once Otgoo
told us that she was thinking to rent the old house to
students and by saving that money they would pay back but
her younger brother occupied the old house so it was
difficult for her to charge her brother. And two of them
collected the necessary sum, including the money her husband
received as allowance for medical leave brought it to the
teacher (to pay the loan) the teacher received it and the
directly deposited the money into a savings account on the
name of their child. If the teacher said: “I’ll give you
200000 tugrug, build your house” then they will not collect
that sum. It is very easy for anyone to spend cash money,
you can spend on trifles, it is not that easy to save money.
So he opened a savings account for their child with 200000
tugrugs, they were not required to pay back the loan. There
are many savings account of children, they will need the
money to continue their studies, in the meanwhile the
interests will be growing. We can’t do it for our children,
even if think about it, if I continue to talk such instances
there are many of them.
Byambajav -
Why don’t you talk about it.
Möngöntsetseg -
I can only talk about my teacher only.
Byambajav -
What was the situation of sister Otgoo then?
Möngöntsetseg -
Right, at that time you were not here, she came
together with her husband to give the money, her husband had
a stroke (0-53-21), his hand and leg were numbed, however,
they saved money from his medical treatment, from the
allowance he received for being disabled and came to hand
the money over to the teacher what the teacher did almost
made me cry on behalf of them. I know how difficult it was
for Otgoo and the two of them, for them even 5000 meant a
lot if they were able to deposit that into the savings (of
the child) then when the time arrives and the girl finishes
11th grade, they would be reasonably well prepared
financially and will have no problem.
Byambajav -
Please tell me what else has occurred.
Möngöntsetseg -
As for the other stories, there was a woman called
Enkhtungalag who had two daughters, she was a single mother.
She was living near the junction of 4 roads in a 00 room
(stock room) of the Construction college, it was not a
toilet but probably used as washing room or something of
this sort when Rinbouchi teacher visited her. So he saw how
difficult it was and decided to help her for three months.
If he gave cash money at that time it would be not solve the
problem so he bought her a portable wireless telephone set,
he himself counted the daily earnings and gave her the money
for daily food and the rest was deposited in a savings
account. She has bought a fenced compound at Gandan paying
several million tugrugs and had a house built on the plot,
now she is living with her two daughters and has 5-6 million
tugrugs in her savings account which she earned by that
wireless phone. We opened last year for her daughter
Baasansuren, who is now in 10th or 11th grade a savings
account, most importantly the girl is a very good student,
two of us bought for her on November 30th computer and
printer, so she is now working on her computer, recently she
participated in TV contest AHA (Questions and Answers), won
the first place and was awarded by a crystal vase. Her
mother called me on phone to tell it. She now has her own
fences and house, and lives with her two daughters, so if
her children are attending the school scrupulously their
livelihood will improve. If not and if the children go into
the street she will die. And the children will follow her
foot steps, won’t they. Teacher had put forward the
following condition: “we’ll help you and give assistance,
but your children should not drop out from the school, if
you would allow your children to leave the school we can’t
help you. If your children continue to their studies in
school we’ll help you to best of our abilities”. Thus he
solved the main problem she was encountering, now she
continues to carry that wireless phone and spend the accrued
interest rates for their food, thus they are now in a far
better position. The daughter is very good at her studies
and I sometimes ask her to make English explanations to
photos this way teach her to learn writing in English. It
doesn’t matter whether she writes today with mistakes and
incorrectly I say just write it I’ll send them as it is.
This is also a trick so that she will try harder. Practice
is a good teacher and it never looks down at children. Since
he was in the 2nd grade I took my son with me, sometimes
even called him my interpreter and the child was very proud
and excited for that. So whenever English speaking
foreigners arrived he talked with them without any
embarrassment, it went on like this, he received 590 points
in TOFEL examination and went to study in Dickrensky(in the
text)? Dickens? University of USA. I can talk about it in
relation with teacher. When I first met the teacher my son
was in the second grade, we spent every summer aside the
teacher and later when foreigners arrived with my teacher I
used to take my son with me (to accompany them), and he
acted as interpreter. Volunteers from abroad who have
contacts with the teacher arrived and I am sure he must have
felt the spirit of them being together with them. There is a
stark difference between being told you should behave this
or that way, and being alongside and working with those
volunteers and get the feel of the spirit of them. I took
him with me to Undur shil, Undurshil of Dundgovi, to
Gachuurt and other places. Already grown up last year he was
saying why so many nice people gather around the teacher.
The clothes they wear are not that much different from those
who live in underground canalization systems but they are
extremely generous towards the poor. John who came this year
bought gers for two men by his own money, he frequently
visited them gave advise how to grow vegetables in their
fences, taught them vegetable growing starting from tilling
the land until he left for America in October after the
harvest. He showed himself everything from tilling the land,
planting the seeds, taking care of the planted seeds, what
do to after they start to sprout, how to grow and harvest
the vegetable. After harvesting how to eat the vegetables,
to how store and preserve the vegetables. By doing this he
educated the people how one should work, without such hard
work you can not achieve the desired result if you plant the
seeds and leave them without care and consume only that few
which grow as a result of the law of the survival of
fittest. A man learns by watching through his own eyes how
vegetables grow if you take care of them in such way, John
and he was working simultaneously in their fenced compounds
and the man saw him to work on the plot John was really a
very kind hearted man. Volunteers are guided by their
sincere desire to help others and does not pay much
attention to their appearances like we do, for them dressing
up or wearing beautiful dresses are of no interest. When
children come to the lectures on scriptures at 14 p.m., the
first thing they learn is how to sit, new comers at first
can not sit upright in cross-legged position, they almost
lie down but the children of the previous year are quite
different from the newcomers they sit in cross-legged lotus
position, they don’t move or change their position so at
least they learn to sit and listen to what the teacher is
telling, then they learn how to love and respect their
parents, their mother and father, so those children who
frequently attend the lessons have the opportunity during
the summer to learn English which is taught by volunteers
free of charge, at a time when there are so many others who
are so eager to learn English. The most important thing is
to educate and give some knowledge to the children so that
the children will be able to carry on further on their own.
Then English is taught for two month free of charge. After
that we close the training. A tour to a historical site in
Mongolia, such as Khari-Khorin, museums, Zaisan tolgoi, is
compulsory for the children and their teachers. This year we
arranged them to attend the performance of Folk dance and
song ensemble. We thought that it would be no good if the
children would not know the beautiful dances and songs of
our people, it would become an omission on their part. So we
took them to the performance, this is how we work. On 11
a.m. Saturday and Sunday grandmothers, grandpas and people
of various age groups attend the lesson. These people will
tell to those back at home what they have learned. Children
attending our lessons often tell us my mother and father
quarrel too much I‘ll bring them here to attend the lessons.
And we are proud to hear that. We are bent to continue our
activities further without disruption, if as many people as
possible, or at least one person, were to come to us and
leave with right intention, this is the most important thing
for our centre. And we think that we are carrying further
little by little the aspirations of our teacher, by sowing
right intention the minds of the people.
Interviews, transcriptions and translations provided by The Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia, University of Cambridge. Please acknowledge the source of materials in any publications or presentations that use them.
