Tribe oldest tells about her life

In the evening we visit the 77 year-old Puntsel. Tanja has put one bottle of vodka in her deel and we want to drink it with her. Puntsel loves vodka and has said if we bring her a bottle in this wilderness she is ready to sing for us and tell us about the old times. We go up the little hill to her small tepee. There sits Puntsel on the shining forest ground and warms her hands at her stove. Friendly she welcomes us and offers to us a place on a piece of ruined carpet. Bilgee who accompanies us involves the old lady in a conversation. After the welcoming phrases and usual questions, how it goes for the family and the reindeers, Tanja conjures up the bottle from her deel. Presently the eyes of the tribe oldest start to shine. Tanja gives me the bottle, I pass it to Bilgee so he blesses and opens it. However, he hands it over to Puntsel. She says “Tschin setgeleesee bajrlalaa”, (“many thanks”), squeezes the bottle from gratitude against her forehead and puts it away behind a bundle of dirty things. Because vodka presents are basically shared with the giver we are surprised. “I do not believe it”, says Tanja who was thinking of an amusing small celebration. “Now she has simply put away the bottle, I think. She has tricked us”?, considers Tanja. “Obviously she would like to empty the bottle with someone else,” I add. Bilgee who would also have taken a sip of vodka with pleasure passes her a stack of cigarette paper. Again she laughs and lays the paper to the sign of the thanks to the forehead to put it straight away in her deel. Then there speaks the experienced Mongol with the clever old lady. “We have heard you can sing so well? We wanted to sing with you together. But it would be nice if we could share the bottle”, he says and laughs. “Hi, hi, hi”, she answers his laughter and sings already a song. Tanja praises “Gojo, gojo”, (nicely, nicely) on which Puntsel begins to sing the next song. “Gojo, gojo!” we cheer and clap the hands. Puntsel warbles with her rough voice one song after the next. Then she reaches behind the things pile and brings out the vodka bottle again. She has difficulties to open the bottle with her old, skinny fingers. I help her. Immediately she pours out a little glass and empties it into her throat. “Hi, hi, hi!” She laughs loudly and looks at me challenging. She fills the little mug once more and passes it to me. I drink it. “Hi, hi, hi”, she laughs, and fills it once more to serve Tanja and Bilgee. The little glass circles continually and it turns a few unnoticed laps with her. Everybody is in a happy mood. We sit on the thin little piece of ancient carpet by which the soil moisture penetrates. The tepee is furnished even more minimal than in the winter camp. There is nothing except a few rolled up clothes and mattresses bundles. Over our heads dangle fat meat stripes. Looks like the stomach of an animal. A few straps and leather tapes stick between the tepee poles. In the middle of the small tent the stove stands on his place 15 years ago there was on this place an open fire. I listen to Puntsels song and see through the opening of the tepee out to the high mountains in the east. Because her tent stands a little higher than the others in the valley I can see many tepees. Reindeers walk around there and look for lichens.

During a song break Puntsel tells she was on the move and visited other tepees. “I have eaten the whole day meat. Hi, hi, hi.” I use the opportunity to question her a little about her life. Willingly she answers. “Now you are 77 years old and have lived many years in the taiga and have worked hard. Do you have, actually, some physical sufferings like back pains?” “Oh. Sometimes my back and joints hurt. But I can live with it.” “You are a happy woman,” says Tanja. “Hi, hi, hi. It makes no sense to be sad.” “Are there, actually, herbs in the forest the Tuwa use as medicine?” asks Tanja “Nowadays we get the most from the chemist’s shop. Hi, hi. But against stomach pains and digestive problems I eat soda. It is found in different provinces of Mongolia. It is a sort of rock. I mix it with tea or water. Mostly I make this if I have eaten too much bread to relieve my stomach pains. If I become ill I search for herbs in the forest and drink them as a tea. If I have high blood pressure I take a certain root. I dry it and mix it in my tobacco. Then I roll up a cigarette and smoke it. This helps.” “How do you know whether you have high blood pressure?” I would like to know. “If my neck becomes stiff and my feet become hot. If I have low blood pressure my feet get cold. Also I smoke the lichens the reindeers eat.” “What does this cause?” “This also helps against high blood pressure. I can take no western medicine. It does not work with me. Once I took western medicine against high blood pressure. As a result I had to vomit the whole day.” “Have you also gone to shamans if you were ill?” “No. I treat myself. Hi, hi, hi,” she laughs and rushes another little glass in the throat.

“Do you have, actually, a Tuwa name?” Tanja would like to know. “Oh. My Tuwa name is Jongnae.” “Does the name have a meaning?” “No, this is simply a name.” “Is this an old Tuwa name?” I ask. “As my older sister three or four years old was she gave me this name. She owned a favorite baby reindeer with the same name. And as the baby reindeer died she said I will call my younger sister Jongnae,” she explains. “Is your older sister still a live?” I ask. “She died in the age of five years.” “So young?” “Yes. I never understood why she so early has died.” “This is very sad”, believes Tanja and asks; “and you have born six children?” “All in all, I had nine births. Four died of it.” “It must be hard to bring five children through the life?” asks Tanja. “Oh no, I have six children, three boys and three girls. Hi, hi, hi,” she corrects her self. “Yes because I was alone I had to solve many difficulties.” “Why were you alone?” “Oh my partners have not fitted. My children come from different fathers. During those days I had a part-time work in the fish factory of Tsagaan Nuur. As Hadaa and the others still were small I bound them with strings to the bed, closed the door of the log cabin and went to work.” “This was a good idea. Like this you were certainly that they remained at home,” answers Tanja. “Tijmee, (Yes) during my lunch break I have hurried home to look whether everything is all right with them. When I came the children saw out of the window and waited for me.” “How have you tied them?” “Around the feet?” I ask. “Around the hip.” “And after the life in Tsgaan Nuur you have moved back in the taiga?” asks Tanja. “I love it in the taiga. I am used to the forest.”

“Can you remember how you have fled from the Russian Tuwa province to Mongolia,” I ask. “Tijmee”. “How was this?” “I was eight years old. I remember as my parents have packed.” “And some of your family members have remained there?” “Tijmee. But my parents and my two younger brothers fled.” “Do you still know why you have fled?” “Many of us wanted to go to Mongolia because it said it is a free country.” “But Mongolia was also ruled from communist government like in Russia?” I say. “The grandmother of my father was a Mongol and told us a lot of good things about the country. This was one of the reasons why we went. At this time we had no notion what will expect us in Mongolia. When we were in Mongolia and met my great-grandmother I could not talk to her because she spoke only Mongolian and not Tuwan. It was difficult to speak with her.” “How did it come that your great-grandmother a Mongol was?” “She was adopted by Mongols. My great-grandfather met her as he once came to Mongolia and married her. He brought her to Russia.” “And how long did it take you to travel from the Tuwa province to Mongolia?” “Three days.” “Only three days?” “Tijmee. It was not very far up to the border. We crossed a river and reached like that over the border.” “There was a concrete plan to leave Russia and to reach Mongolia?”, I ask once more. “We wanted to go anyhow. The Russians started to disadvantage the Tuwa nomads. Racism arose. This was also a reason why we not wanted to remain.” “Was it also an essential reason because the Russians wanted to send your young men in the second world war to fight against the Germans?” “Not with us. But other Tuwa tribes had this problem.” “Did you live at that time in the wilderness or beside a town?” “We lived not far away on Kysyl the capital of Tuwa. My mother was working in a bakery and baked bread for the Russians.” “Did you have many reindeers in that time?” I ask. “Yes, we had many. We held them in the taiga.” “And at that time the people also lived in tepees?” asks Tanja. “Tijmee. We lived in the mountains.” “When you came to Mongolia, have you liked it there?” “It was very nice.” “Why have you liked it?” “New country, new atmosphere. It was very interesting for a small child.”

“What do you like more? The old time or the today’s one?” I ask. “I like it today just as at that time I believe. If you are a child you do not know yet what the life means.” “Humph, okay, however, today you have electricity, at least a battery and the place Tsagaan Nuur which there was not at that time yet.
You have contact with foreign tourists. There is phone. Do you love this kind of civilization?” “Oh yes, I like it. Hi, hi, hi,” she laughs because she repairs her broken plastic cup with a sticking plaster. “How old is this mug?” “Ultsans mother brought it for me from Ulan Bator 22 years ago. Now, it breaks everywhere I hang on it. Just as on the water kettle. At that time she has also brought it to me,” she answers and indicates at the steaming kettle standing on the stove.

“Did you ever visit Ulan Bator?” I would like to know. “Yes. When I was 23 years old the government invited me, with 30 others to visit the town.” “Was it a shock to be the first time in a town?” I want to know. “It was really nice. We were one week there.” “What have you made at that time in Ulan Bator?” “They showed us a candy and biscuit factory. However, we could not see the Mongolian state circus because they had holidays.” “Have you been more often in Ulan Bator since?” “No, this was the only time. Oh this is a long time ago. I remember that I liked this so much that I not at all wanted to go home. When we came to Mˆrˆn I thought we would be in the countryside. There were at this time only log cabins. It was an exciting time. We had never seen before a town. Before we had come to Ulan Bator everybody had to have a shower. Hi, hi, hi. Till then I had never seen a shower. We also washed our clothes and underwear. I saw something white in my room and I thought it is a good place to lay my clothes on it to dry them. The next morning everything had burnt to ashes. I have laid the clothes unwittingly on a cooker. Hi, hi, hi. I was very stupid at this time. I remember well. When we reached the town we were everybody brought together in a hotel. In the morning the organizers of this excursion locked us in the rooms so we could not walk around and get lost. I suddenly felt big thirst and wanted absolutely to drink hot tea. Beside my door a hole was in the wall. I made it to slip through. I left the big house and saw a place where many people ate something ate. I hurried there. The people gave me tea and a biscuit with a hole in the middle. Then I went back to the hotel. Everybody asked me where I have eaten. I led the whole travel group to this place and everybody did get tea and biscuits”. “Everybody?” “Yes, we did get tea and the tasty biscuits with the hole in the middle. I was the cleverest of the group. Hi, hi, hi”, she laughs. “Later I found out I had led our people to a coach railway station”.“Nice people.” “Tijmee.” “Was this excursion one of your best times in the life?”, I ask. “Yes, yes, very nice.”

“Have you liked the time of the communism?” “During this time we owned all work. We got bread and different food and tea.” “So it was a good time?” “Tijmee, a nice time. The government gave us a salary for looking after our reindeers.” “Have you felt not free at this time?” “For me it was okay. I had no difficulties.”

“I think you have become so old because you are a very positive thinking persons.” “Hi, hi, hi. Whenever I leave Tsagaan Nuur to go again to the taiga, my friends and relatives say; oh we will miss you because you bring us always to the laughter.”. “Is there a time in your life you would like to repeat with pleasure?” I ask. “I do not know. I have so many recollections. For me it is important to laugh. This makes the life worth living. Then even pains pass. If somebody is always angry and constantly speaks about negative things he maybe gets heart problems, he becomes quickly ill. I think optimism and positively thinking is the key for a long and nice life. Nurses and doctors are amazed that I need no medicine. They ask me how I make it to remain so fit”. “For us this is wonderful to see. We will always remember these words. This is the prescription to stay healthy”, says Tanja. “Yes, you will stay always healthy when you are positive and laugh a lot.”

“Since when tourists come to your camp?” “Since 10 years.” “And how do you find this?”, I ask. “Oh this feels well. I hear from different places of this earth. See new faces.” “Are you more often interviewed like now?” “Yes, sometimes they ask so many questions to me that my head smokes. Then I say to them give me a bottle of vodka then I speak like a waterfall. And then they bring out a bottle and we speak the whole night”, she says and starts to sing a new song. Briefly before the bottle is empty Puntsel and Bilgee sing in the duet. It sounds foreign and nice.