Education & Research

A Missing Stanza from Natsagdorj’s Poem, ‘My Native Land’

By W. Juna.

There has been a lot of recent discussion over the Chinese government’s new ‘bilingual’ education policy in Inner Mongolia. This new policy has reduced Mongolian language instruction in favour of instruction in Chinese (Also see a post by Prof. Christopher Atwood).

From September 2020, first year Mongolian school children are now required to learn in Chinese, along with their mother tongue. Mongolian textbooks of Morality and Law as well as History will also be replaced with textbooks written in Chinese from 2021 and 2022. The reform not only reduces Mongolian as a medium for teaching and learning, replacing social science subject textbooks, but will also alter the content of Mongolian textbooks. A quick perusal of the new Mongolian language and literacy textbooks reveal that well-known Mongolian authors’ works have been replaced with translated works of Chinese authors. The historical story of Chinggis Khan’s youth, ‘Temüjin’s Childhood’, for example, was replaced by Mao Zedong’s ‘Serve the People’, while the poem ‘Mongolian Language’, written by famous Mongolian writer and scholar B. Rinchin has been replaced by a translation of Chinese writer Weiwei`s ‘Who is the Dearest Person’, an essay paying homage to the Chinese Voluntary Army during the Korean War in the early 1950s. If such changes are conspicuous upon comparing the new textbooks with the old ones, other changes are not as immediately evident, such as the disappearance of the last stanza from Natsagdorj’s most famous poem ‘My Native Land’ (see poem below).

Borjgin Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj (1906-1937). Source: Wikipedia.

Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was a Mongolian poet, writer, playwright, and one of the founders of Mongolian modern literature. Within his short lifespan of 31 years, he produced a copious body of works. The poem ‘My Native Land’ was published in the early 1930s and is one of the classics of Mongolian literature. In this poem, the author praises the pristine nature of Mongolia and infuses the lines with pride in the heroic history of the past, the enjoyment of the present and hope for the future. Originally it consisted of 12 stanzas, but is known to Mongols with 13 stanzas. The last stanza reads:

The mother tongue we learn from childhood is a legacy we cannot forget

The homeland we live eternally is a place we cannot depart from

The name Mongol has glory in world history

The heart of all Mongols beats with our homeland Mongolia

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful.

According to Professor Kazuyuki Okada in 1955, the 13^th stanza, or last stanza, was added to the poem, which was taken from one of his later poems on history by the compilers of the collection of Natsagdorj’s work after his death. This expanded version has become well known across the Mongolian plateau, taught within schools both in Mongolia, as well as Inner Mongolia for decades. In Inner Mongolia, the poem has been included in the Mongolian high school Language and Literature textbook. Thus, hardly anyone remembers that the last stanza was from a different poem.

Natsagdorj’s beautiful rhymes delicately capture the nature of the Mongolian plateau and the Mongols love for their magnificent home and hence pulled at the heart strings of all Mongols. In particular, the 13^th or the last stanza of the poem, has been recontextualized in a variety of contexts, ranging from the cultural revitalization movement, to a calligraphy competition, to an online advertisement of Mongolian-themed products (see Figure 1 below). The last stanza, which centers on the mother tongue and a connection to the homeland, evokes pride in Mongolians’ and a love for their language, culture and nomadic pastoral lifestyle.

The last stanza of My Native Land with the image of Genghis Khan (Source: WeChat post.)

Not surprisingly the deletion of this part from the poem in the recently revised textbook caused resentment among Mongols. The editors of the new textbooks may have been unaware of the fact that the last stanza was not in the original part of the poem. Even if they were aware, however, removing this emotionally-loaded stanza, in the context of a highly controversial education reform, makes it an intellectual and political issue. Put in context of the removal of other pieces of Mongolian history and culture from other textbooks, it is clear that the editors of the textbooks aimed to discourage young Mongols’ from an attachment to their language and cultural heritage. This unscrupulous removal of text has further fuelled Mongolians’ dissatisfaction and anger with the proposed new model of education. By tampering with the poem, reformers, who seek to depoliticize ethnic culture and identity, perhaps unwittingly politicized the famous poetry text.

My Native Land (Translation by John Gombojab Hangin)

Magnificent are the ridges of the Khentei, Khangai and Sayan.

Forest-covered mountains are the beauty of the north

Vast are the Gobis of Menen, Sharga and Nomin

Seas of sand dunes, supreme in the south

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

Crystal-clear are the rivers of Kherlen, Onon and Tola

Health-giving fountains and hot springs abound

Deep-blue lakes of Kubsgul, Ubsa and Buir

Brooks and freshets quench the thirst of man and beast

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

Splendid are the rivers of Orkhon, Selenge and Khokhul

Abundant are the mountain passes rich in minerals

Ancient monuments, ruined cities galore

Broad are the highways that vanish into the distance

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

Snow-capped mountains gleam from afar

Clear blue skies over steppe, plain and field

Majestic glacial peaks are visible far off

Vast airy valleys which calm the mind of man

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

Between Khangai and Altai lies the Khalkha land

Where we galloped to and fro since childhood

The long low foothills where we hunted deer and game

The beautiful valleys and hollows we raced our swift steeds

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

Undulating sea of grass, when touched by the gentle breeze

Enchanting are the mirages of the wide open plains

Land with severe terrain that produces the best of men

Here are the sacred heights, worshipped since times of yore

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

Luxuriant pasturelands full of fine grass

Here is wide open country criss-crossed by our tracks

A land to move as we like in all the four seasons

Where the soil is rich for the five kinds of grains

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

The sacred mountains where our forefathers rest

The land where our children grew, and rear their children

The meadow and valleys filled with the five kinds of stock

Here is the land which entrances all us Mongols

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

In the winter’s tingly cold-a blanket of ice and snow

The land shines like a crystal mirror

In the warmth of summer season- flowers and leaves unfold

Land where distant birds come to sing their songs

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

The fertile virgin lands between Altai and Khangai

Land of our eternal destiny where ancestors lie

Land grown mellow under the golden rays of the sun

Land grown eternal under the silver moon

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

Homeland of our ancestors since the days of the Hsiung-nu

Land of great might in the days of the blue Mongols

Land we become more accustomed to with every passing year

Land where now the crimson flags flutter

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

Beloved country of us all who were born and die here

The enemy who dares invade our soil shall perish

Let us build our revolutionary state on the land ordained

Then let us march head high towards the brave future new world

This is my native land

Mongolia the beautiful

References:

Kazuyuki Okada, ‘D. Natshagdorjiin “Minii nutag“ ba “Tüühiin shüleg”-iin xarichaa’, in B. Mönhbayar eds, IIh Zoholch D. Natsagdorj Shine Sudalgaa II (Ulaanbaatar, 2017), pp.40-54.

John Gombojab Hangin, ‘Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj (1906-1937)’, in The Mongolia Socieity Bulletin Vol 6. No. 1(11), 1967, pp. 15-22.

Concerned Parents Opposed to Proposed Changes to Mongolian Language Texts, Inner Mongolia

By Prof. Li Narangoa

Mongolian schools in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China started from 31 August this year. The start of school, however, filled the hearts of parents, teachers and students with concerns, anxieties and resentment. On the 26 August, 2020, an announcement was made by the Inner Mongolian Bureau of Education, just a few days before the beginning of school. Most parents subsequently refused to send their children to school, as they were opposed to the newly announced proposal, particularly the introduction of Chinese language teaching from the first year of school and the replacement of Mongolian History and Politics textbooks with Chinese. Rumours about this change had been circulated on social media since late June 2020. No explanation was given by the local offices of education despite frequent requests from concerned parents. Even the Inner Mongolian Bureau of Education, which is the highest organisation managing education matters in Inner Mongolia, shocked both parents and teachers by remaining silent until the proposed changes were announced. Thousands of petitions with over tens of thousands of signatures were submitted to local governments and the Bureau of Education, as well as the government of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, in an effort to revoke the proposal.

Inner Mongolia is one of five Autonomous Regions founded in 1947 and became part of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The administrative language was decreed to be in both Chinese and Mongolian at the time, but Chinese has become the dominant language. Hence the broader language environment, especially for those living in urban areas, is Chinese. The main media outlets are in Chinese. Parents have been struggling to maintain Mongolian as the mother tongue of their children in urban areas. The Inner Mongolian school education system has been successful producing bilingual students fluent in both their mother tongue and in Chinese. Promoting Chinese as the ‘National common language’ was, therefore, viewed by Inner Mongolians as unexpected and unnecessary.

Parents’ protests have been based on three aspects, based on wellbeing, cultural and legal factors. First and foremost, parents and teachers have been concerned about the wellbeing of their children. Currently, Mongolian school children learn Mongolian, their mother tongue, from year one and Chinese and English from year two and three of their schooling. With the current curriculum, teachers were already struggling to finish all the content within the Mongolian language textbook. If Chinese were to be added to this, it would place a much larger workload on young children. Moreover, the newly proposed Chinese textbook is the same as the one used by their Han Chinese peers. In general, school children under the Chinese curriculum would have learned approximately 3000 characters by the time they enter their first year of schooling. Hence it would be an incredible pressure on Mongolian children, who would be starting with no knowledge of Chinese characters to learn in Chinese and be expected to achieve the same level of results.

Parents are apprehensive that bureaucrats do not understand the wellbeing of their children. They do not want their children to become learning machines, concerned about their childrens’ mental and physical wellbeing when pushed to such an extent. Reportedly, the contact hours for the first year of school will be extended from 26 to 33 hours per week. The proposal by some local school administrators to add after-hours tutorials in order to assist the Mongolian children to catch up, would further extend the learning hours and children would then have to complete their homework in the evening! Beyond immediate concerns, the parents are also apprehensive about their childrens’ futures and how this change of curriculum would effect results within the national university entrance exam. Previously, Mongolian high school children were able to answer the exam questions in Mongolian and the Mongolian language exam was one of the main subjects. If Mongolian students start to learn Chinese alongside their Han Chinese peers and have to take Chinese language as the main subject rather than Mongolian, they would be required to compete against millions of Han Chinese students. One or two marks of difference within an exam result can make a huge difference as to the university the student can attend. The higher the marks, the better the chance the student has to enter a good university, which is inevitably linked to a better career.

Second, parents are also concerned that their children won’t be able to learn their own language properly if the two main social science subject textbooks (history and politics/morality and law) will be in Chinese and taught in Chinese. These two subjects are important for learning academic vocabulary and developing analytical thinking in their own language. If these subjects are replaced with Chinese textbooks, there is the potential to not develop deep and precise modes of expression in either language. This would not only effect their children’s personal development but could also be detrimental for the future of the Mongolian language and script. Parents have been expressing a fear that if these two main subjects are initially changed then other subjects changes are likely to follow. They are concerned that if the proposal is implemented there will hardly be anyone writing and publishing books in Mongolian in the near future and that would be the end of the Mongolian language and script. Inner Mongolian protestors are not opposing the use of nationally unified textbooks but the plan to change the teaching delivery from Mongolian to Chinese and replacing the Mongolian with Chinese textbooks. Apart from the language textbooks, the Inner Mongolian schools have been using Mongolian textbooks translated from Chinese and parents are requesting to translate the new nationally unified textbooks into Mongolian. The change will also impact Mongolian teachers. They will have to be re-trained or removed from the position to do something other than teaching.

Third, parents argue that the proposal not only did not involve broader consultation with the Mongolian community, nor an official status as a lawful document: no numbers, no stamps, nor an official red letterhead (hongtou wenjian). Therefore, they pointed out that the document is against the Chinese Constitution (Article 4), as well as the self-rule law for ethnic regions of the Peoples Republic of China (Article 36). Both laws grant ethnic minorities the right to use their own language as a means of education. The Inner Mongolian protestors argue that this is not promoting ethnic harmony, as the proposal claims, but will cause social and ethnic conflict if implemented. Inner Mongolia has been a ‘model’ Autonomous Region without significant protests at this scale. Mongols are recognised for living in accordance with the Central Government and Communist Party, but Inner Mongols could lose their trust in the government if this proposal were not revoked.

Mongolian parents’ resistance has been a peaceful one, keeping their children at home and submitting petitions. They have been determined not to cause any unrest. The parents’ simple means of peaceful resistance, however, has faced huge pressure by the local authorities to send their children to school. Parents who went to pick up their children from schools but were prevented by local security guards in some places were mistakenly represented as demonstrators on the street and as trouble-makers by some media outlets, distributed further by Western social media. Most parents seem to think that these pressures have been carried out by some local corrupt officials who get used to bullying citizens and lying to the authorities above them, while acting unlawfully. They believe that the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Government and the Chinese Central Government will take appropriate measures to question these corrupt officials and they have been hoping that both level of government will listen to their petitions. Whether parents’ peaceful requests and petitions will be heard by the authorities remains to be seen.

Petition signed by Mongolian primary school class parents, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.

ANU Students in Mongolia: Post No. 3 ‘Kharkhorin or Karakorum’

Kharhorin or Karakorum

By Abhijeet Swami

Since the 1990’s there has been discussion to shift the capital of Mongolia to Kharkhorin from the current over-polluted capital of Ulaanbaatar. Historically, Kharkhorin was the centre of empires that had a significant impact across Eurasia.

The plain on which Kharkhorin (earlier Karakorum) is situated extends 30 kilometers or more between two east-west running ridges. No landform obstructs the sun as it travels along its length. The Orkhon river follows the base of mountains to the north. It is summer and the grass is plentiful. Availability of grass, water and space made the Orkhon valley an appropriate site for the encampment of an army, or for the establishment of a large city. It is not surprising that this valley is a place of ceremonial significance and that Mongols and nomadic leaders desired capital cities and empires to be built there.

Southern bank of the Orkhon and floodplain. Photo: Abhijeet Swami.

Turkic people first established a tradition of rule from this valley in the early 8^th Century. Mortuary monuments to the Turkic leader Bilge Khaghan and his younger brother and commander Kül Tegin were found about a ‘day’s ride on horseback’ north of the ruins of Karakorum’.[i] Uighurs established the next empire (744-840) in the region and their capital, Khar Balgas, was also less than a day’s ride on horseback from Kharkhorin.

Kharkhorin became an imperial city in the second half of the 13^th Century.[ii] Permanent buildings were established around 1235 and did not cease being built until the 1250’s. For longer than a decade, 1500 workers were building the city walls, until they were dismissed by Mongke Khan in 1251, who then ‘resettled’ 500 craftsmen families to build a palace.[iii] When Friar William arrived from France in 1254, although he was not impressed by the dimensions of the city or the palace, he saw twelve temples devoted to the faiths of different peoples, two mosques, and a church; as well as grain, sheep and goats, cattle and wagons, and horses being sold at the four gates of the city.[iv] The city became a centre of art production, where ceramic, metal, glass, wood, bone and birchbark objects were produced by artisans from around the empire for use and exchange.

But it was not easy to maintain the city in a place of savage winters and vast distances: freezing and thawing of the ground damaged infrastructure; raw material had to be imported from the far reaches of the empire; and the climate was not suitable for growing sufficient food. Indeed, Ogedei Khan issued a Yasa, which commanded that 500 wagonloads of food and drink should arrive at Kharkhorin every day.[v] This Yasa was a source of grief to generations of oxen, who pulled these big wagons from northern China.

Kharkhorin was destroyed by Ming troops in either 1380 or 1388 after lasting through violent sieges during the intervening years.[vi] Since then floods and rains have moved the earth so that the remnant city is now entirely under ground. When I visit, it is the time when the rains fall but I can see it is still possible to wade across the river. Widespread debris on the south bank and the high-water mark on the north bank indicate that the river can rapidly become deep and fast flowing. Four granite stone turtles, as foundation stones, used to face towards the cardinal directions. One of these turtles survives, as it was moved onto the mountain above Kharkhorin. An information board next to this turtle advises that the turtles were placed there to ensure a long and peaceful life for the city, to seek protection from floods and protection against invading enemies.

Turtle at Kharkhorin. Photo: Einalem (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Moving the capital from Ulaanabaatar to Kharkhorin would be an expression of Mongolian nationalism, while it would also relieve congestion and pollution in the current capital of Ulaanbaatar. Judging by the many permanent structures built on the floodplain, flooding may have become less of a problem today, perhaps due to climate change.[vii] From experience with the worsening conditions in Ulaanbaatar’s ger districts, the Mongolian government could plan to better accommodate future migrants in the city from the surrounding countryside. National debt and a small economy, however, may not allow construction of a socially-inclusive city. Development of Kharkhorin into the capital city at a future date is a possibility, given that it is a suitable place for settlement and connected to Ulaanbaatar by a sealed road. Yet Kharkhorin’s historic legacy alone may not be sufficient to draw migrants, or employment as infrastructure and maintenance will require significant government investment.

[i] Skaff, J.K. and Honeychurch, W. 2009. ‘Empire building before the Mongols: legacies of the Turks and Uyghurs’, In W.W. Fitzhugh, M. Rossabi & W. Honeychurch (eds.) Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire, The Mongolian Preservation Foundation and Smithsonian Institution, Seattle, pp. 84-89.

[ii] Erdenebat, U. and Pohl, E. 2009. ‘The crossroads in Khara Khorum: excavations at the center of the Mongol empire’, In W.W. Fitzhugh, M. Rossabi & W. Honeychurch (eds.) Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire, The Mongolian Preservation Foundation and Smithsonian Institution, Seattle, pp. 136-145.

[iii] Pohl, E. 2010. ‘The excavations in the craftsmen-quarter of Karakorum (KAR-2) between 2000 and 2005- stratigraphy and architecture’, In J. Bemmann, U. Erdenebat & E. Pohl (eds.), Mongolian-German Karakorum expedition, Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, pp. 63-136.

[iv] Rubruck, W. 1990. [13^th Century], The mission of Friar William of Rubruck: his journey to the court of the Great Khan Mongke 1253- 1255, trans. P. Jackson, The Hakluyt Society, London, p. 221.

[v] Al-Din, R 1971, The successors of Genghis Khan, trans. J A Boyle, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 62-63.

[vi] Pohl 2010, pp. 132-134.

[vii] Already Mongolia has warmed by 2.14 degrees Celcius, water bodies have become smaller or have disappeared and there were 57 days of dust storms in 2007, compared to 18 such days in 1960 (Ministry of Environment, nd, Climate change in Mongolia: outputs from GCM, Government of Japan, viewed 6 September 2018, https://www.env.go.jp/earth/ondanka/pamph_gcm/gcm_mongolia_en.pdf).

Changes in the Mongolian Countryside

This year I spent some valuable time filming in the countryside during the Mongolian spring, from March until May. Changes in the Mongolian countryside are not as immediately evident as the rapid development of infrastructure and the polluted and clogged roads of the capital, Ulaanbaatar. When we drove into the river valley I had come to know so well, there were still ger (yurts) dotted in the same sheltered locations, while herds still grazed near the icy riverbanks.

When I was conducting fieldwork in the Khangai Mountains of Mongolia during 2005 and again in the spring of 2007, it was complicated to get into and out of remote herding encampments. The occasional herder had access to Russian motorbikes but they relied primarily on horses to visit neighbouring encampments, to ride to local Naadam festivals during the summer, and to herd the sheep, goats, cattle (including yaks) and horses. I relied on one of the herders with a coveted Russian jeep to get in and out. Often as many as twelve people would pack into the jeep with me, alongside dairy products and animal hides. Upon my return, the driver of the jeep joked about how many people would come along with me for the ride. Now almost every encampment has some form of motorised transport, making them less reliant on their horses.

I felt a stab of nostalgia when I found that the hand-made wooden carts that were used for moving peoples’ belongings during seasonal migrations were now only used as drying racks for dairy products, or left discarded and broken. I was told that Ulaanaa was the last ox used by one of the families I lived with. Ulaanaa, a large red ox, was remarkably complacent (nomkhon) and I would often lead him, with the wooden cart and water barrel, to collect water from the river. Ancestors of the family would have worked with oxen, just like Ulaanaa, for such tasks for centuries, possibly even thousands of years.

With such marked changes within ten years, I realised it was important to record herders riding about on horseback. The communication of a person on horseback is remarkable, as the horse intuitively knows to respond to a herder’s body language but not to the lasso-pole (uurga) held in front of its head, or to vocalisations directed at the herd. For Mongolians that still predominantly herd on horseback, much of the day is spent with an individual horse, following the tracks, signs and occasional vocalisations of the roaming herds across the mountainous landscape.

Spring snowstorms can be lethal for newborn animals. It is important for herders to check the herds and to make sure none are snowbound, or too far away from shelter. The video segment above (see: https://vimeo.com/228131918) was filmed using a GoPro camera fixed onto a young herder’s hat. Monkho must have forgotten his uurga, so uses an improvised stick from a nearby tree to signal to the herd. The calls and whistles differ depending upon whether he is communicating with the yak or horse herd, whether he is vocalising to the herd as a whole, or an individual animal. He says ‘chu, chu’ softly to a young foal when trying to redirect it back to the rest of the herd.

Just as has occurred throughout much of the world, people turn to the ease of motorised transport in favour of working with horses. If Mongolian herders increasingly rely on motorbikes to herd in future, some of the unique modes of communication with their herd animals will inevitably change, and the depth of knowledge relating to such close daily contact with horses may be lost.

Dr Natasha Fijn

Fejos Fellow in Ethnographic Film, Wenner-Gren Foundation (2017)

Mongolia Institute, The Australian National University