Quarantine lifted I took the fist MIAT (Mongolian
airline) flight to Khovd. We stopped off at
Gereltsogt had phoned his brother in law, Buriat from UB to
say when I was arriving and to look out for a long red haired man, of which I
was the only one on the plane. I waited
for a while, all the other passengers had been met. I then notice a man pacing
up and down in his
Buriat spoke absolutely no English, like most of the
Mongolians I met. He took my luggage and loaded with me on the back of his
motorbike. Buriat’s ger was not in khovd, but just by the
I was welcomed by his wife, Pagam (Gereltsogt’s sister) and
was sat in the honoured north west section of the Ger. Suutei tsai (milk tea)
with salt was prepared on the dung powered stove. This staple was odd at first,
after a while I acquired a taste for it. Then the Vodka toasts with blessing to
Khokh Tenger (Blue Sky), Gazariin Eej (Mother Earth), Gal Golomt (the spirit of
the fire) and to the Buddha, yourself, with other variations of the four directions
or to the people gathered in the ger.
Buriat wanted to introduce me to his relations and friends,
so off we went on the motorbike into Khovd city. The dusty streets were empty,
even when we got to the only traffic lights in the centre of the city. We would
enter compounds where gers and ram-shackled wooden, brick and concrete houses
were by shouting out what about the dog to the owner. These dogs are vicious
and must be held back by the owner the first time you come in. In the
countryside it is the same, once they have you scent then everything is usually
ok.
Each
time we met a friend it was more toasting and demonstrating my Anglii khöömii,
my flute and Jews Harp playing, this along with photos of my family, house and
Morris Dancing really broke the ice. That meant more Vodka!!.
My first breakfast was fried potatoes, lamb, raw onion,
noodles and tea. Very sustaining, but hard to eat on a hangover.
We visited a Buddhist monk who had recently put on his
robes again, my photos of H.H. the Dalai Lama proved very welcome and this was
an ideal present for him. He blessed us with incense, prayer and his damaru
(small pellet drum).
A new temple, Shar Sum had been build about 3 or 4
kilometres outside Khovd where the old monastery may have been. We travelled
there but it was deserted and locked up. Later we found out that the monks had
gone to UB for the summer.
In the late 1930’s most of the monasteries and temples,
maybe over 800 were destroyed by the Mongolian Communist Purges. Countless
monks were killed, others were put into prison, became herdsmen or escaped to
Inner Mongolia in
http://www.tibet-foundation.org/aid/bim/index.php?PHPSESSID=e98ccae2212a13437d4af5901166d6b2