This video features an interview with Purvya who talks about the Book of Predictions. Purvya: There is Aldkhl Zyarlg (The Book of Predictions). It contains the following predictions: livestock will arrive; people will understand what the state means; people will have vehicles; women will have more children; ordinary people will drink from a glass with a golden border; men will have big bellies; babies will bring a fire the day after they are born; whistling birds (i.e. planes) will appear. The Kalmyks will live long thanks to prayers. I pray every day. In the evening I wash my face, rinse my mouth and pray as follows: ‘Great gods, Master of Universe Tsagan Aav, Bogdo Gegyan, Buddha Shakyamuni, who are protectors of our ancestors and land, do bestow your protection on us/ All gods, Ochir Vaani and Okn Tengr, have pity on people and give us good harvests, young animals and ward off unhappiness/ Let all living beings live in plenty/ Tsongkapa do protect us so that we live in tranquility and happiness, without wars and diseases/ Let all our wishes be fulfilled!’ During the Siberian exile we were sent to the Far North to Surgutskiy rayon where we arrived on 12 January 1944. The Kalmyks had brought nothing with them. My paternal uncle was a lama. Every evening he read the Book of Predictions and said that it was important for people to have kind hearts. He also said that wars were calamitous events and that we all needed to live together, helping each other. After my uncle’s death, his son handed the Book over to a temple in the village of Khar Buluk. The Book is there now. (In Kalmykia) once I asked my uncle: ‘Uncle, give me your Book. I will gather our people and read it to them’. He asked me to find a dictionary, since in our temple there was no one who knew Tibetan. You can find everything in this Book. How did people know all about this? I don’t know. The Book says that in the future people will be as stubborn as cattle. Now, try to convince anyone. People just say okay and do nothing. Many people slipped off the right path and do not listen to advice. The Book also writes that ‘people will sink in the urine of evil forces’. My auntie asked my father: ‘Where will all these evil forces come from?’ To which he answered: ‘It is Russian vodka’. Everything turned out as he said. The Book also writes that ‘there will be 100 diseases and 99 doctors, people will fall out and be jealous of each other’. In order to save oneself from all this, people should go to the steppe, go up the hill, put a white and a red coin on the ground and pray by saying ‘O, gods, do protect me from diseases’. Tsagan: Evil forces exist, right? Purvya: It is obvious, they exist. The Book of Predictions writes that people themselves will become evil. Women will wear men’s trousers and challenge men. Today you see women wear trousers and shirts. It is impossible to know whether a certain person is a man or a woman. That is why we live like this (in trouble). Men are not men anymore. They drink vodka. Everything is the way it is, because we are destroying our culture and traditions.