Sanal is from the Baga Chonos clan. He is the grandson of the famous Kalmyk monk and doctor Kheech Baburkiev, better known among the people as Maani bagshi. Sanal recounts the story of his grandfather as he heard it from his father Pel’dzhi Byurchiev. Maani bagshi studied in Tibet for 23 years. He was a Buddhist doctor of 7 different sciences, including medicine. Upon his return to Kalmykia he settled near the Godzhur river. In his settlement he had 4 yurts and 2 airbrick houses where he carried out Buddhist rituals. People from the neighboring places came to him for treatment. Among his patients was a boy called Anatoliy Sokirkin who was paralyzed. His parents brought him to Maani bagshi who asked the parents to leave the boy with him. In a week’s time the boy was already running. Anatoliy worships Maani bagshi to this day. In 1939, the NKVD people came to Maani bagshi’s settlement, confiscated all his precious possessions and sent him to the Butyrskaya prison. One day the commandant of the prison said to Maani, ‘If you really are a doctor, and not a charlatan, cure my paralyzed child. If you do so, I will release you’. When Maani bagshi cured the paralyzed child, the commandant kept his word and gave him a document with the signature of Kalinin (a member of the Politbyuro of the Communist Party) certifying that Maani bagshi can practice medicine in all parts of Russia. The document was kept in the house of Sanal until the 1970s when a group of scholars from the Kalmyk State University took it with them to study. Sanal has not heard of the documents since. After the interview Sanal shows the place where Maani bagshi was buried. This place was chosen by Maani bagshi himself. He died during Tsagan Sar in 1943 and he was buried in a sitting position according to a Buddhist canon. Later Maani bagshi’s descendants erected a family stupa in this place.