Badma Amulakova, Tulkh (Tripod)

Abstract

Badma talks about the hearth in the yurt and relays a legend about a man who carried a heavy tripod on his shoulders. Tulkh is a tripod that supports a metal ring on which sits a pot (khyasn to cook meal). In the past when the Kalmyks lived in yurts, every family had a tulkh tripod. There is a legend about the tulkh tripod. Once upon a time there lived a man who carried a heavy tripod wherever he went. After 7 years of wondering, he returned home with his shoulders bleeding from carrying the metal tripod. He went to a fortune teller to ask about why he was carrying the tripod. The fortune teller replied: ‘See, you are doing this to repay your debt you owe to your mother’. The man enquired whether he had managed to do so, to which the fortune teller answered, ‘No, you repaid the debt of only one night. Bear in mind, there were countless sleepless nights that your mother endured to feed you and look after you’. No person can ever fully repay their mothers’ kindness.