‘Oral Histories’ in Ts. Damdinsüren’s Diaries

Abstract

Introduction. The oral tradition has figured largely in the literature of Mongols since ancient times. This is due to the nomadic way of life resulting in that sparse population gets scattered across vast territories forced to exchange news and knowledge by word of mouth. Such intensive functioning of the oral text transmission form can be witnessed even nowadays. Goals. The paper aims at introducing some data on ‘oral histories’ contained in Ts. Damdinsüren’s diaries into scientific circulation. Results. The tradition of using oral narratives in the functional sphere, in particular, to preserve and transmit historical facts — i.e. to somewhat ‘document’ the past — has given rise to such genres as ‘oral history’ (aman tuuh), ‘oral memoires’ (huuch yaria), and ‘folkloric accounts’ (yaria) that have become very popular in recent decades. And it is Academician Ts. Damdinsüren that can be viewed as initiator of this genre in Mongolian literature. The diaries of Ts. Damdinsüren dated from 1956 to 1986 contain materials used by him in his publications of ‘oral histories’. The latter can be somewhat provisionally classified into a few categories. First of all, it is evident enough that Ts. Damdinsüren was interested in funny stories, amusements, and anecdotes. Furthermore, he had been collecting narratives about supernatural entities for many years. The theme aroused the academician’s interest as manifested mythopoeia of the Mongols and as embodied living mythology of the people rather than as some mere object of curiosity, neither was he ever that enthusiastic about insights into esoteric practices of Mongolian Buddhist priests. The notebooks also contain quite a number of texts dealing with the Mongolian Revolution and the dramatic 1930s to have witnessed harsh repressions. The latter coupled with arrangements directed against the old culture did capture the scholar’s attention. The recorded ‘oral histories’ were articulating inconvenient and sometimes even hostile data for authorities on topics that remained banned up to the 1990s. So, the ‘oral histories’ not only introduce new historical and cultural facts, opinions of commoners on certain events, but also narrate about Mongolian household life of the past, peculiarities of ethnic worldviews and attitudes.