The Strange Story of Mangas

I'm not sure why I haven't posted this before, but this is a video that my friends and I did for a project in Mongolian class a few years back!  It's our cinematic version of a classic Mongolian folktale.  I was on narration, but you can see me with some pretty wicked hair from 6:50 to 7:10.  You can also see between 5:20 and 6:15 our excitement over the then-forthcoming legalization of certain a herbal medicinal product in our state. Here's the story in English.

TOLD BY BAT, BAATAR and SUKHBAATAR (our Mongolian names)

On one hot summer day, an old man was taking his red cattle down to the lake for a drink.  This old man's name was Dalantai.  As he was coming down to the lake, a huge, terrifying monster came out of the lake!  This terrible monster had a hideous face and walked on quick legs.  This was Mangas, the Monster!  For a long time, this monster had been taking away and eating Dalantai and his brothers' best cattle.  Mangas said:

"Hey, old man!  I'm hungry.  Give me your best cattle, that I may eat them."

"Strong Mangas!" Said Dalantai. "My red cattle sure are delicious.  I can even make them into some great khuushuur for you."

"Hmm...khuushuur.  Give them to me!" said Mangas.

"I will give them to you, Mangas, but there's one problem.  You need my brother Tontii's knife to eat them, as the khuushuur are very thick."

"You wait here," replied Mangas. "I'll go get Tontii's knife."

Mangas went from the lake to Tontii's ger (i.e. Mongolian yurt).

"Tontii!" Mangas cried. "Give me your knife!  I need it to eat Dalantai's khuushuur."

"Ok, Mangas," said Tontii. "But my knife's dull.  You need my brother's whetstone.  His name is Bintii.  Go get his stone and come back."

Mangas, dejected, went from that place to see Bintii.  Bintii was terrified, on hearing what Mangas said, pointed down the way--for the whetstone was very heavy, and could only be moved with his brother Tantii's carriage.

"My whetstone's over there." he said.  At this point in the video, you can hear Mangas singing "Ayani shuvuu"--that is, "Migrating Birds"--a very popular Mongolian song.

Mangas travelled to a distant ger, where he found Tantii, smoking his silver joint pipe.

"Awesome..." mumbled Tantii as Mangas approached, taking a long draft from his dooby pipe.

"Where's your wagon?  Give it to me now!" demanded Mangas.

"Sure, Mangas." he replied. "But...my wagon is made of heavy iron.  You'll need my brother's big white horse."

"I'll go get the horse." said Mangas. "You wait here."

Mangas therefore headed to Tantii's camp.  Tantii was gazing upon his horse, which Mangas promptly demanded.  Tantii said:

"Mangas, my horse is out grazing.  Head over to my brother Untii's camp by the lake.  He has an uurga, which you'll need."

--CUT--

VOCABULARY

A younger version of me with majestic long hair is standing in the library of Western Washington University holding an important looking book.  Below, the caption is supposed to say "Teacher--WWU".  Unfortunately, the word in Mongolian for teacher is "Bagsh", not "Baksh".  Whoops.

"'Uurga'--this is a long lasso made from a birch tree.  Mongolian herders, by means of the uurga, are able to capture their horses."

--CUT--

Mangas headed off and found Untii by a nearby lake.  He asked for the uurga, and Untii pointed to an island in the middle of the lake.

"My uurga is on an island in the middle of the lake."

"How am I going to get through the water to the uurga?" Asked Mangas.

"Tie the heaviest rock you can find around your neck." said Untii. "It has magical properties which will allow you to quickly reach the island." He indicated a nearby rock with a rope around it.  He and his brothers had come up with this plan to do Mangas in.

"Thanks!" said Mangas.  He jumped into the water and promptly drowned.

From that day on, Dalantai, Tantii, Bintii, Xantii, Tantii, Untii, would always laugh when they thought of how they tricked Mangas.  They lived happily ever after.

THE END.

Courtesy of Strangely Doesburg, the Accordianist Laureate of Washington state.

Rise and Fall of the Jie, Part 1!

A few months ago I made a video about the Jie, a possibly Yeniseic tribe who founded a short-lived dynasty in Northern China.  I’d like to tell their story today, one which I hope you’ll agree is as dramatic as anything you’d see on TV or in a movie.  So sit back and relax, and get ready for the epic story of the Jie!

China, third century CE--it was a time of chaos and savagery.  The great Han Dynasty, which for centuries had ruled all under heaven, had fallen to internal strife and outside invasions.  In its place emerged three kingdoms struggling for power.  In the south, stretching from the Yangtze river to modern Vietnam, was the kingdom of Wu, led by the patient, diplomatically gifted Sun Quan.  In the north, bordering the steppe tribes of the Xiongnu, was the kingdom of Wei.  Although nominally led by the Han Emperor, the reins of power were tightly gripped by the cruel and devilishly clever Prime Minister Cao Cao.  In the West—that is, modern-day Sichuan province—was the kingdom of Shu, led by the imperial scion Liu Bei, which struggled to rescue the emperor from his  captivity and restore the Han to its former glory.  After decades of civil war, a new dynasty—the Jin—rose from the ashes of Wei and conquered the other kingdoms.  This complex and incredibly intriguing period of history can be read about in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  I mention it because it forms the backdrop to our story today.

                

The Jin dynasty’s hegemony was not to last.  By the 4^th century, northern China had fallen to a succession of nomadic tribes—then known as the Xiongnu—who set up their own pseudo-Chinese dynasties.  These were not unlike the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, or the Manchu Qing dynasty of the second millennium.  Meanwhile the Jin had retreated south of the Yangtze, where they would remain another century.

                

One of these Xiongnu tribes referred to themselves as the “Han Zhao”—a name referring to the lineage of their leader, who claimed descent from the Han dynasty.  Going so far to change his family name to that of the Han emperors, he claimed the imperial throne, despite the reality of being a minor steppe warlord.  In order to expand his empire throughout China, the self-proclaimed emperor enlisted the help of his general, the ruthless Shi Le, who will become one of the main actors of our drama:

http://www.czxnews.com/czxnews/d/file/wenhua/lishimingren/2013-09-04/94db6b94416a71313c7eba5110c47f69.gif

Watch out for this guy, he’s a badass.  Even his name meant “Stone Strangler”.  You might even say he was a…stone cold killer.

                

Shi Le was very much a product of these warlike and chaotic times.  He was a man much in the vein of Conan the Barbarian—his greatest joy was to roam the earth, crushing his enemies, seeing them driven before him, and hearing the lamentations of their women.  He belonged to a unique tribe within the larger Xiongnu group, known in modern Chinese as the Jie—however, in the Chinese of this ancient period this word would have been pronounced as *kiaet, or something approximating it.  The Jie were a mysterious group that had emerged from the north, speaking a totally unique language and even having a different physical appearance from the other tribes around them.  Shi Le—just like Conan, come to think of it—had been sold into slavery as a boy, but had risen through society by the might of his sword and ruthless pillaging tactics.   By the year 310 or so, he was the most feared general in all of the Han Zhao army.  Underneath the Han Zhao emperors, his army of ragtag badasses had conquered most of Northern China, even extending to the Yellow river itself, the ancient heartland of Chinese civilization:

Image Source: http://history.sina.com.cn/bk/gds/2015-01-29/1002116024.shtml

But even this would not satisfy a man of Shi Le’s ambition.  He didn’t want to be a simple general—he wanted to be the emperor of China itself.  And so, in 319, he took up arms against the Han Zhao emperor and created his own state, the Later Zhao.  Han Zhao, having lost its best general, could not hold for long, and by 329 had conquered the last pockets of Han Zhao resistance, and murdered the emperor.

Thus was Shi Le made the uncontested ruler of North China, despite he himself being *kiaet.  The ethnically Chinese Jin dynasty continued in the south, but was really not much of a threat.   And so, in 330, he declared himself Emperor of the Later Zhao dynasty—the Son of Heaven and ruler of all under it…that is, the emperor of China.  But would his dynasty, won by the might of his sword, survive?  Stay tuned, and find out!

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Le

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jie_people

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Zhao  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Later_Zhao

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%9F%B3

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8B%92

Ene Noxojd Ta Xeregtej!

Here's a video of me speaking Mongolian, looking for a family for Bodon.  She has since found a nice home with an old couple in the countryside.

Don't Mess with the Hat!

The story of my encounter with the Hat Thief of Ulaanbaatar!

Yeniseic Speakers in China? An introduction to the "*Kiat" People

Did the Huns Speak a Yeniseic Language?

Let's get down to business...

I'm on Mongolian TV!

So I forgot to post this when it happened, but the other week my school had a TV commercial done.  I speak Mongolian in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M62Kg3t4KHU

Translation of what I'm saying: "Hello my friends!  I came to Mongolia from the states because I love Mongolia and Mongolian language.  Come study with us!"

Pretty standard stuff, but it was fun.