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Dzhidzha Araeva, About the Lama Kaaka


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Authors

Terbish, Baasanjav 
Churyumova, Elvira 

Abstract

Dzhidzha reminisces about a lama named Kaaka, who was a fortune-teller and could call rain, among his abilities: Lama Kaaka called me a cheeky girl, which I did not like and I was angry at him. One day, it was either Zul or Tsagan Sar, my mother told me, ‘Take this bottle of wine, bortsg biscuits and gifts and give them to lama Kaaka’. When I entered his house, lama Kaaka said to his wife, ‘Do you remember, there was a ginger puppy playing around? I also told you that a girl would come to us. Here she is!’. Lama Kaaka could call rain. In 1958 when I worked in the field with others, we used to make jokes, ‘Kaaka, the earth is dry, we need rain’. Kaaka would reply, ‘Go to bed, it will rain when it will rain’. We would go home and watch him from there. He read prayers and raised his hands to the sky. After he did it, it rained on our field, passing around the neighbouring fields. An old man from a neighbouring village complained to us, ‘How did it happen that it rained on your land only, while we did not get a single drop? Is it because lama Kaaka called the rain?’

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Keywords

Lama, Kaaka, fortune-teller, rain maker

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Publisher

Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge

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Sponsorship
Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin