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Life in Khar Us


Type

Video

Change log

Authors

Bulag, Uradyn E. 
Fuerwa, Dorjraa 

Abstract

This video explored the recent history of Khar Us through the lens of an individual family history. Tölei, born in 1951 in Salhit pasture, received six years of education from 1960 to1966, until the Cultural Revolution came. Her parents faced significant criticism during the Cultural Revolution, and she, as a child of aristocratic parents, was sent to countryside to be re-educating by herders and farmers. Thus, while other children secured jobs after graduation, Tölei remained unemployed and re-educated by various institutions and individuals. From 1974 to 1984, Tölei worked as a salesperson in a commune. In 1984 when privatisation policy was enforced, she switched to a cultural centre, where she worked until being laid off as the institution was closing. Her mother, originally came from Hobogsair, married a Torghut in Khar Us, and Tölei is the youngest of five daughters. Before Tölei was born, her parents sought help to have a son from the Shalivan Gegen who suggested that they would have a boy if they lived in a distant, unfamiliar place, promoting their move to Khar Us. Unfortunately, despite settling in Khar Us, they had Tölei, another daughter, and returned to hometown after giving her a male name Tsagaankhu and marrying to a family member here. Not only Tölei's father fluently read and wrote the clear script, classical Mongolian, Tibetan, Chinese and Kazakh, but he was also a member of the partisan of the Three District Revolution. After the establishment of the PRC, he served different institutions for his entire life despite being criticised during the critical period of the Cultural Revolution. He also recorded all the political history as a book manuscript, but he burnt it away before he passed away in 2002, claiming that it would be a problem for his descendants someday.

Description

Keywords

Family History, Khar Us, Memories, Shaliwan Gegem, Salhit Pasture, Cultural Revolution

Is Part Of

Publisher

Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge

Publisher DOI

Publisher URL

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