Galina Mandzhieva, About Ur Sar

Abstract

Ur Sar coincides with a time when plants grow and the nomads move their livestock to their summer pasture land. In the past, before the Bolshevik Revolution, four animals, including a camel, a horse, a sheep and a cow, were sprinkled with milk. Such animals were considered as sacred and blessed. According to one story, in the 1920s during the Civil War a Kalmyk woman was asked to boil the meat of such a blessed cow. In horror, the woman set about cooking the meat, periodically turning it in the boiling water. At some point the hot soup splashed and a soup droplet got into her eyes leaving her blind.