Maria says that the terrain around the village of Bolshoi Tsaryn is flat, with no mounds or barrows. The nearest river is in a place called Yangal. Maria’s husband was from the Taltakhin clan whose patrons are the goddesses White and Green Tara. The patron of Maria’s mother’s clan is Anja Burkhn.Maria reminisces about her childhood when one day she saw papers flying on the steppe presumably from the nearby temples that had been ransacked by the Bolsheviks. She was warned by her mother not to touch any paper. In 1929 the local monks were arrested and sent into exile. Those who were spared hid their identity and stopped performing religious rituals.