American literature: Jack London

Ever since I learned how to read I started to read short stories and folk tales in Mongolian. Later I found short stories of American writers which was translated into Mongolian when I was 10. I was very addicted to read interesting, adventurous short stories which made me feel happy. 6 years later while I was sitting in world literature class, I found out those short stories were written by Jack London, Ernest Hemingway. So I've been familiar with those writers from American literature. My favorites of Jack London are White Fang, Call of the wind and I also like The Old man and the sea, Lost Generation, Farewell to Arms from Ernest Hemingway's works.

Jack London was born in January 12, 1876 San Francisco,CA and graduated high school in Oakland. In 1886 he admitted to University of California at Berkeley but he gave up his school in 1897 to start his writing career but he didn't succeed. In fall of 1897 he sailed to join Klondike Gold rush but he got sick and while he going back to home he was told that his father died. His short stories gained success between 1898-1903 and were published under Houghton Mifflin company. He wrote his famous novel The Call of the wind in 1903. He married Bessie Maddern on April 7, 1900, the same day The Son of the Wolf was published. But in 1904 he divorced from Maddern. After divorcing Maddern, London married Chairman Kittredge in 1905. Their time together included numerous trips, including a 1907 cruise on the yacht Snark to Hawaii and on to Australia. Many of London's stories are based on his visits to Hawaii, the last one for 10 months beginning in December 1915. London wrote from a socialist viewpoint, which is evident in his novel The Iron Heel. Neither a theorist nor an intellectual socialist, London's socialism grew out of his life experience.

Jack London wrote 43 novels for 16 years and after his death 7 novels were published in 1933. All of his works are about past and future, sailor, dog, Gold rusher, Indian, proletarian those are very easy, simple to understand. His idea shows mostly things that he had seen or been part of this. His works are considered one of the best adventurous and action. He was very kind one who always took responsible of many people and helped them.

Many older sources describe his death as a suicide, and some still do. However, this appears to be at best a rumor, or speculation based on incidents in his fiction writings. His death certificate gives the cause as uremia, which means he had kidney disease that caused poisoning. He died November 22, 1916, in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his ranch. But his novels and short stories are still in many people's mind.

Mongolian music

Music is very important part of Mongolian culture. Mongolian music is varied in many genres like Folk /Traditional/, Classic /Opera/, Modern /Pop, Rock, Hip Hop, R&B, other/. Today I will focus on traditional music. Especially throat singing /overtone singing/ which is called Khoomii in Mongolian. Among the unique contributions of Mongolia to the world's musical culture are the long songs, one of the greatest features of the Mongolian music, throat singing (overtone singing) and morin khuur (tradtional musical instrument), the horse-headed fiddle. The music of Mongolia is also rich with varieties related to the various ethnic groups of the country: Oirats, Hotogoid, Tuvans, Darhad, Buryats, Tsaatan, Dariganga, Uzemchins, Barga, Kazakhs and Khalha.

Overtone singing, also known as throat singing , is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the formats created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocals folds, and out the lips to produce a melody.

In Mongolia, throat singing is found mostly in the western part of the country. Khöömii (throat singing) (written in Cyrillic as Хөөмий) can be divided up into the following categories.

• uruulyn / labial Khöömii
• tagnain / palatal Khöömii
• khamryn / nasal Khöömii
• bagalzuuryn, khooloin / glottal, throat Khöömii
• tseejiin khondiin, khevliin / chest cavity, stomach Khöömii
• turlegt or khosmoljin Khöömii / Khöömii combined with long song

Mongolians also sing in a style known as "karkhiraa" (literally "growling").

Here I included video of Mongolian famous performer from Youtube:

Here is some Monglian throat singer's songs:

Siilen boor - Zulsar

14 The mirare of roush rocks.wma - Zulsar

18 Altain magtaal.wma - Zulsar

The Secret history of Mongols

We can't think without reading. Literature makes us feel the fortune of reading and gives us all kind of knowledge. Everything has beginning and history. I want to start writing history of Mongolian literature especially the earliest and the most famous book of Mongolia. Mongolian literature had been developing orally especially those song, fairy tale, shaman's worship word, proverb, words of war and hunting until 13th century by nomads. Fairy tales and legends those have been told for centuries are similar to American-Indian's and ancient Greek philosopher Ezop's tale, some legends of the Bible's old testament. The most of oral folk tales and legends were written in 'The secret history of Mongolia' in 1240. This book is one of the most studied and popular of Nomad people was translated to many languages. The author of the book is still unknown.

The book is about the life of Genghis khan, early history of Mongol empire which was written highly organized and understandable to modern readers. The Secret History is regarded as a piece of classic literature in both Mongolia and the rest of the world.

Like many texts during the period, it contains elements of folklore and poetry, and is not really as factual as some historians would have wanted. It is also at times inconsistent. The work sets out with a rather mythical genealogy of Genghis Khan's family. The description of Genghis Khan (Temüjin)'s life begins with the kidnapping of his mother Oulen by his father Yesugei. It then covers Genghis Khan ( Temüjin)'s early life, the difficult times after the murder of his father, the many conflicts, wars, and plots before he gains the title of Genghis Khan in 1206. The later parts of the work deal with Genghis' and Ögödei'(his son)s campaigns, and the text ends with Ögödei's reflections on what he did well and what he did wrong. Several passages of the Secret History appear in slightly different versions in the 17th century Mongolian chronicle Altan Tobchi.

If you want to know more about early Mongolia and Genghis Khan you definitely should read "the Secret history of Mongol". It is sold on amazon.com.

What is culture?

I believe the culture is the most powerful human tool to differ from other wild animals. Since human had lived as a group or family, the culture started from there. They used to hunt for eating, build shelter for living safely, wear furs for keeping warm, interact for understand each other. Those are the basics of culture. That is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists in our mind. Our government, building, clothes, written language and other man-made things are actually product of the culture. But they are not culture in themselves. For example archeologists dig up for remainder of ancient people's stuffs from underground. They can't find culture directly from there, things that were found are only materials. People learn and inherit the culture from generation to generation. As a result without human there is no culture at all.

I am totally agree with the quote "Never judge a culture by one man and never judge a man by popular culture." The culture is not about one man (individual), there must be at least ethnicity or nation. One man can't tell all about culture from his appearance, talk and behavior. I think the best thing to get know more about the culture is live inside the culture. I mean live in Japan if you want to know more about Japanese culture. I am experiencing now that I am living in Oxford to have better knowledge of American culture. When I am generalizing American culture, I have to meet a lot of people, associate with mass media of US, read a lot. I shouldn't depend on only stereotypes or rumors.

I want people to perceive my culture optimistically. There are many negative stereotypes about my country. Such as: people in Mongolia don't live in city, they don't have computer or internet, everybody still rides a horse. I want to correct some misunderstood ideas about Mongolia when I talk or meet people from the U.S. It seems like no Mongolian in Oxford area, so I am the one who represent my county here. Likewise, I am the sole ambassador here in Ole Miss, Oxford,MS.

A cultural tradition that I have shared with other students

When I first met other students from the Philippines, China, Laos, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica and the U.S.A, they didn't know much about our country. They know where is it located and probably some of them heard of Genghis (Chinggis) Khan who established the Mongol Empire in 13th century. All I had to do was to tell them about my country such as culture, history, dress, food, lifestyle and climate.

Today I wanted to focus on our traditional nomadic yurt which is called 'Ger' means 'Home'. Because I haven't shared it yet with other students.

The population of Mongolia is 2.951.000 (2007) and over 60 percent of citizen live in town, city. Around 40 percent still lives nomadic life. But more than 80% live in Ger rather than house, apartment, building. Ger is a portable, felt-covered, wood-lattice framed dwelling structure traditionally used by nomads in central Asia.

Traditional ger consist of a circular wooden frame carrying a felt cover. The felt is made from the wool of the flocks of sheep that accompany the pastoralists. The timber to make the external structure is not to be found on the treeless steppes, and must be obtained by trade in the valleys below. The frame consists of one or more lattice wall-sections, a door-frame, roof poles and a crown. Some styles of Ger have one or more columns to support the crown. The (self-supporting) wood frame is covered with pieces of felt. Depending on availability, the felt is additionally covered with canvas and/or sun-covers. The frame is held together with one or more ropes or ribbons. The structure is kept under compression by the weight of the covers, sometimes supplemented by a heavy weight hung from the center of the roof. They vary regionally, with straight or bent roof-poles, different sizes, and relative weight.

Below shown how Ger is being built:

China and Mongolia relations

When we look back to our history Mongolia and China have waged many wars. China's Great Wall was constructed to ward off invading hordes from Mongolia and Central Asia. Mongols under Kublai (Khubilai) Khan successfully conquered much of China and established the Yuan Dynasty, and Mongolia later fell under control of the Qing dynasty of China. With the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared its independence after almost 300 years of Chinese rule. Although many peoples of Inner Mongolia sought to accede to the new state, China retained its control over the area and invaded Mongolia in 1919. Consequently, Mongolia sought Soviet Russian support to reclaim its independence. In 1921, Chinese and White Russian forces were driven out by the Red Army of the Soviet Union and pro-Soviet Mongolian forces. In 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was formed.

In early 20th century relation of China and Mongolia led to hopeful situation. The People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations with Mongolia on October 16, 1949 and both nations signed a border treaty in 1962. As a result, bilateral ties remained tense until 1984, when a high-level Chinese delegation visited Mongolia and both nations began to survey and demarcate their borders. In 1986, a series of agreements to bolster trade and establishing transport and air links were signed. Mongolia also began asserting a more independent policy and pursued more friendly ties with China.

In the Post-Cold war era, China has taken major steps to normalize its relationship with Mongolia, emphasizing its respect for Mongolia's sovereignty and independence. In 1994, Chinese premier Li Peng signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation. China has become Mongolia's biggest trade partner and source of foreign investment. China offered to allow the use of its Tianjin port to give Mongolia and its goods access to trade with the Asia Pacific region. China also expanded its investments in Mongolia's mining industries, seeking to exploit the country's natural resources. China is likely to support Mongolia's membership in to the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and granting it observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

What I thought about when I read Ladda's blog

I didn't know much about Laos before I met Ladda. I remember 1 or 2 years ago Lao president visited to Mongolia. I know it's a country located in Asia next to Thailand. I found that Lao national food and American food are totally different in case of Ladda's impression about it. Because since she arrived here she don't like the food so much. People who live in Laos usually eat rices tastes much more spicier than food here. Also I knew Mongolia and Laos have a many similarities. In both countries most of the people are Buddhist and there are a lot of temples.
It's very proud that people wear their traditional clothes often in Laos while we do not. I imagine countries like Thailand and Laos like prestigious architecture building which looks like golden. Language spoken in Laos in very similar to Thailand is very intersting because we don't have similar lanuage. Finally I am happy that I have friend from Laos.