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Family Relics, Inherited Skills and Gift

Kalmyks believe that skills and gifts are inherited along one's clan lines. Hence people with unusual skills and gifts are often described using the following expressions: 'he/she is repeating his/her clan/lineage' (tokhman durajana), 'characteristics of his/her clan/lineage are showing up' (tokhmn' tachana), or 'he/she is keeping up with his/her clan/lineage' (tokhmar kookh). It is also acknowledged that various skills - for example, singing, dancing, craftsmanship, healing, etc. - do not appear immediately, but have to be taught or awakened. Sometimes inherited skills, especially those possessed by folk healers - including bone-setting, healing, fortune-telling, and interpreting dreams - have to be 'teased out' with the help of special rituals.

Objects inherited from parents, grandparents, relatives, or spiritual teachers have not only sentimental value but are also believed to possess magical and protective powers. In particular religious objects such as sutras, statues, amulets, rosaries, and healing implements are usually kept in the most sacred place in the house - on the domestic altar. People use them during special rituals and in difficult moments in life.

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  • ItemOpen Access
    Zoya Moskina, Respect for kin
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2017-12-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Korneev, Gennadiy; Bembeev, Aleksandr
  • ItemOpen Access
    Viktor Vankaev, Family relics
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2018-01-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Sandzhiev, Artur; Korneev, Gennadiy; Bembeev, Aleksandr
  • ItemOpen Access
    Oleg Minaev, Family relics
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2017-10-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Koldaev, Tseren; Bembeev, Aleksandr
  • ItemOpen Access
    Ochir Tazaev, About my family relic
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2018-02-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Korneev, Gennadiy; Bembeev, Aleksandr; Sandzhiev, Artur
  • ItemOpen Access
    Larisa Bastinova, My family relics
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2017-09-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Korneev, Gennadiy; Bembeev, Aleksandr
  • ItemOpen Access
    Badma Koldaev, My relics, a rosary and an amulet
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2018-04-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Koldaev, Tseren; Korneev, Gennadiy; Churyumov, Anton
  • ItemOpen Access
    Anatoliy Kekeev, About my aunt's rosary
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2017-10-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Bembeev, Aleksandr; Bembeev, Aleksandr
  • ItemOpen Access
    Anatoliy Kekeev, About a family relic
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2017-10-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Bembeev, Aleksandr; Bembeev, Aleksandr
  • ItemOpen Access
    Danil and Sergei Orusovs, About our family relics
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2017-10-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Churyumov, Anton
    When the Kalmyks were sent into exile, Danil and Sergei’s father took with him a statue of Buddha, a rosary, and a sutra. In Siberia he kept these objects, hiding them carefully. Today these family relics are kept by Danil and Sergei’s sons.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Viktor Sandzhiev, about my family relics and folk healing methods
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2019-06-16) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Koldaev, Tseren; Churyumov, Anton
    Many Kalmyks use family relics as healing implements. Viktor says that in his family they have several relics, including a statue of Buddha, a gold coin, a rosary and a wooden cup with a silver rim. The statue is old, at least 100 years old. The family kept the statue in a corner and bowed to it even in Soviet times. The gold coin was used for healing people inside the family. The famous healer Namka, who was Viktor’s maternal relative, used the gold coin to cure sick members of Viktor’s family. Namka himself practiced Tibetan medicine and collected medicinal herbs in autumn. Viktor also says that Kalmyks cure frightened children with the help of a ritual whereby they pour hot lead into water to determine what the patient was scared by. In Viktor’s family they used hot wax instead of lead for this ritual. He says that his neighbors use dog meat in the treatment of tuberculosis. Viktor’s grandmother had a ‘snake’s horn’ to heal sick people.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Sanal Bovaev, about my family relic, a gold coin
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2019-05-04) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Koldaev, Tseren; Sandzhiev, Artur
    Sanal talks about a gold coin of 1847 coinage that his brother uses to cure skin rashes. Their mother also used the same coin to cure people. The coin was inherited from their grandmother who received it from her husband.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Rimma Badmaeva, about a family relic
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2019-04-22) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Korneev, Gennadiy; Bembeev, Aleksandr; Sandzhiev, Artur
    Rimma talks about a statue that she keeps at home as a relic: In our family we keep an old statue of Green Tara, which has the following history. One of our distant ancestors had no children. Wishing to have one, he went to a temple to be given a consecrated statue of Green Tara. After this, he had many children. In our lineage, each generation had one son only. My father was the only son in his family. In our family we also have one brother and the rest are girls.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Nadezhda Tarancheeva, about one’s paternal line
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2019-05-05) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Korneev, Gennadiy; Bembeev, Aleksandr; Sandzhiev, Artur
    Nadezhda says that Kalmyks treat their sons differently, for they are their heirs. Not only that, one’s sons’ sons are also cherished for what they are. It is important to know one’s paternal ancestors 7 generations back. Some people relay their genealogical knowledge by means of sons.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Dordzhi Barkhaev, about amulets
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2019-05-01) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Korneev, Gennadiy
    Dordzhi talks about two kinds of amulets: When twins were born, especially if they were a boy and a girl, people performed a ritual aimed at separating them. It was done as follows: A mantra was scribbled on a piece of paper. The paper was folded and sewn into a small cloth bag, which served as an amulet. There were other amulets called ‘mirde’. We have one at home. In the past, people tried not to show their mirde amulets to others. Mirde amulets were kept in small silver boxes and hung around the neck. Mirde were brought to Kalmykia from Tibet and distributed among the temples. Temples gave them away on certain occasions such as when men were sent off to war.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Dmitriy Mandzhiev, My Family Relics: The Diamond Sutra
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2018-10-28) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Korneev, Gennadiy; Bembeev, Aleksandr
    Dmitriy talks about his family relic, the Diamond Sutra, that his family inherited from their grandmother: We have at home an old sutra of Dorzh Zhodva (i.e. Diamond Sutra). It belonged to our grandmother. She took it with her to Siberia. Our grandmother, as far as I remember, received this sutra from her maternal uncle. She never let us to touch it, or to be near it. When she lit a candle, we would come to her to receive blessings from the sutra. Rarely, she invited a monk to have her sutra ‘aired’ (sal’k orulkh). The monk unwrapped its cover and turned the pages. Today we retain this tradition and invite lamas from time to time to have the sutra ‘aired’. Under no circumstance can anyone touch it with dirty hands. Ideally before touching it, one has to have a shower.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Antonina Kookueva, About My Family, Traditional Education and Family Relics
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2018-08-28) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumov, Anton; Korneev, Gennadiy; Bembeev, Aleksandr
    Antonina talks about her ancestors, parents, her childhood and family relics: My ancestors lived in a large Russian village called Chelyuskin in Tsaritsyn. My father was born in 1917, and my mother in 1915. Both of my parents had a 2-year education. My mother worked as a secretary of the village council. My aunt used to say that my mother rode a two-wheeled cart in the village and that she had long braids. She collected food tax in butter, milk and eggs. After finishing a course for tractor drivers, my father drove tractors and as he was one of the best workers he was awarded a ticket to a sanatorium in Crimea. The whole village saw him off, he was even given a sheepskin coat and a hat, although it turned out that Crimea was a hot place. In 1939, my father was drafted by the army and served in the Trans-Baikal District. In 1941, he was sent to the front, fought near Smolensk, and was taken prisoner. He ended up in Germany where local residents took prisoners as workers. The German who took my father was originally from the Volga region and spoke Russian. My father worked for him until the Red Army liberated the place. He was detained at the military office and allowed to join his family in the town of Tavda in Sverdlovsk oblast. When my father came to register, he was told that he would not survive there and was advised to take his family and go to another place. They moved to Novosibirsk oblast where I was born in 1947. From my childhood I remember that I dipped bread in a large kettle with bacon. We lived well and did not starve. Kalmyks survived thanks to their religion and those who helped them. I finished 2nd grade in school in the village of Buksir. It was spring time. My father read in the newspaper that the Kalmyks would be allowed to return to their homeland. The decree on the restoration of the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist republic came out in 1956. In 1954 we moved from Siberia to Abganerovo. In one hand I carried a gramophone, and with my other hand I helped an old man who was a monk and never got married. During exile, he stayed with the Kalmyks, moving from one family to another, and at that time it just happened that he was staying with us. We settled in the Abganerovo station in the Privolzhskiy state farm, Stalingrad oblast. There I graduated from school, which as I later learned, was built by the Kalmyk Prince Tundutov. My father, who was the eldest member and the only man in his family, helped his sisters. About my husband’s parents. At the beginning of the war, my husband’s father, Godzha Takhishevich Kookuev, served in the 110th Cavalry, and under Krasnodar he was seriously wounded in the leg and became disabled, after which he was allowed to return to his village of Ulan-Khol. In 1943, he was deported to the Altaiskiy krai where he worked as a chief accountant. In the evening he collected all the young Kalmyks around him to teach them book keeping so that they did not work in the taiga. Upon his return to Kalmykia, he worked as an accountant. He wanted his children to become teachers. His eldest son, my husband, became a teacher. My husband, an honorary worker of education, worked as director of a correctional school in Elista for 17 years. Godzha helped all his relatives and taught them to be honest. In Ulan-Khol he was nicknamed ‘the commandant’, as he resolved disputes between the villagers. Godzha died early. His younger brother, Ivan (Kalmyk name was Garya), was a soldier in the Red Army and even reached Berlin. I am proud that I married into the Kookuevs. When we lived in Siberia, children who were brought up in orphanages left these institutions at 16. One day my mother brought a girl to our house who stayed on to live with us. Later she got married and left for Kemerovo. She told me a story about her relative who went to Siberia in search of his mother. He traced her to a place where he was told that his mother had gone to the local military commander’s office. When he arrived there, he found his mother frozen dead under a tree. I was the only daughter in my family. My two brothers both died in Siberia. Although my grandmother and mother knew Russian proverbs and folklore, they observed Kalmyk traditions at home, and I only spoke Kalmyk until the age of 3. I got married at 19. In the family of Kookuevs, their father Godzha Takhishevich was respected very much. At that time, they lived with their grandmother who was 75. Godzha Takhishevich brought her home from Kazakhstan, and she died aged 101. She made tea separately for Godzha, women and children. They had this hierarchy in their family. During dinner, grandmother first poured tea for Godzha. Only after him were women allowed to drink, and lastly were children. During Zul, grandmother did not put out candles for herself. She used to say that if Godzha puts candles for himself, she would be alright. During holidays their relatives paid them a visit. When my son was born, we went to see all our relatives. For this, my mother-in-law prepared food and gifts. All my relatives revered my husband’s family. About relics of my family. On our domestic altar we have a statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, Manjushri, and a stupa of enlightenment. We also have an old thangka of Amitayus, Buddha of longevity. On the eve of Tsagan Sar and Zul, my mother used to take it out, hang it, and we put coins out and prayed. Once the holiday was over, she folded the thangka and hid it again. Today, this thangka is kept in my son’s family.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Alexandra Sangadzhieva, Family Relics
    (Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge, 2018-05-12) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Korneev, Gennadiy; Shovunov, Sanal; Sandzhiev, Artur
    Alexandra talks about the Diamond Sutra that she inherited from her great grandmother. The sutra was kept by Alexandra’s mother upon whose death it was given to Alexandra’s brother. Since he and his wife were keen on alcohol, and therefore could not look after the sutra properly, Alexandra decided to take it to a temple to have it purified. At the temple she was told that she could keep the sutra herself. For her son, who will eventually inherit the sutra, Alexandra consecrated a statue of Buddha and sent it via his friend to Moscow. The friend arrived in Moscow safe and sound. After he handed the statue over to the recipient and returned to his car, he found one of the wheels had gone flat. Alexandra interprets this story as follows. The statue must have protected the driver all the way to Moscow keeping the wheel pumped up.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Zurgan Lidzhieva, About a Maple Bowl
    (2018-03-31) Terbish, Baasanjav; Kovaeva, Bair; Babaev, Andrei; Churyumov, Anton
    Zurgan bemoans the loss of a maple bowl that belonged to her paternal grandmother. This is her story: Many years ago, when we had just returned from Siberia, we had a bowl made from the maple tree. What a shiny thing it was! You did not even need to wash it. I just drank tea, ate soup from it, and then wiped it with a cloth. It would shine with three different colors: red, brown and yellow. A maple bowl is useful everywhere. For example, when a person dies, his/her bowl is filled with candies and biscuits, and then given to the paternal relatives (of the diseased). Such bowls pass on from one generation to the next. Back in those days we did not have electric ovens. At home we used coal. My nephew Kostya put the bowl in the oven and burnt it! We only discovered it when smoke came from the oven. The bowl belonged to our paternal grandmother. She gave it to her eldest son, who in his turn passed it on to his son, who is my brother. My brother gave the bowl to his son who burnt it in the oven.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Tatyana Boskhomdzhieva, The Diamond Sutra
    (2018-03-31) Terbish, Baasanjav; Churyumova, Elvira; Churyumova, Elvira; Churyumova, Elvira; Boskhomdzhiev, Mergen
    Tatyana shows a book, the Diamond Sutra, that she inherited from her grandparents. The sutra is old and written in Tibetan. It is wrapped in green and red cloths. Tatyana says she keeps the sutra in cleanliness and lights a candle in front of it. According to her mother-in-law’s advice, Tatyana takes the sutra to the temple twice a year so that the lamas read from it.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Maria Lidzhigoryaeva, About the Diamond Sutra, a Rosary, and a Temple in Tsagan-Aman
    (2018-03-31) Terbish, Baasanjav; Babaev, Andrei; Kornyakova, Saglara; Babaev, Andrei
    Maria talks about the Diamond Sutra that was believed to be protecting her family and clan. When they lost the sutra, her family substituted it with a rosary. Maria also relays a story about a temple in Tsagan Aman village that was destroyed by the Bolsheviks. This is her story: My grandmother had the Diamond Sutra that was with us in Siberia. When we were in Siberia, my father invited a Mongolian lama to our house. The lama read from the sutra, prayed and gave us his blessings. My maternal uncle kept the sutra. After my uncle’s death, his wife gave the sutra away to an old man from Tsagan Aman. That is how we lost our clan’s protector (i.e. the sutra). People told us what we had done. We started to look for the sutra, and whenever we thought that we were about to recover it, it would disappear without a trace. Later we learnt that the sutra was kept by a man called Polyn. When his house was destroyed in a fire, Polyn moved somewhere, and we again lost trace of it. One wise person said to us: ‘If you cannot find your protector (i.e. sutra), take a rosary made from ivory instead (as a protecting object). Do not purchase it, but ask people to give it to you. When you find such a rosary, I will consecrate it for you’. We found a rosary, and showed it to that wise person. We had the rosary consecrated, and brought it to our house. In a place called Sumyan Bulg there stood a big temple. This year I went there to celebrate my friend’s 80th birthday with whom I lived in that place before. He told me about how the local temple had been destroyed. According to him, people came from Astrakhan, pulled the temple down, took out a golden statue of Buddha, threw it on their boat and set sail. In the middle of the river the boat capsized, and the Buddha drowned. It must now be somewhere at the bottom of the river. He told me this story. Who knows what really happened. Before World War II, people used to go to that place to light candles. Today some Russians have bought that land and built a house on it.