Note from the field

Mette High, MIASU PhD student in the field with her husband Casey 'with our new herding family in a region called Ovorkhangai, about 14 rough hours drive west of Ulaanbaatar'

'We've been lucky to end up with incredibly nice and hospitable people in the most beautiful valley between forested mountains.... and plenty of herding tasks to learn. So before long we found ourselves milking yaks, herding sheep & goats, collecting dung and firewood, and fetching water from a nearby frozen stream. There is no shortage of work to do this time of year as the springtime has brought many newborn animals to be looked after.'

Visitors

In May the Unit welcomed 5 visitors from Inner Mongolia:
The Head of Mergen Monastery, Chorji Mengkebatu visited for two weeks.

Dr Erdenibayar from Inner Mongolia University is visiting Cambridge for 2 months to work
on the project 'Contested Landscapes and Oboo Rituals'

A delegation from Inner Mongolia Normal University came to renew links and strengthen collaboration:
President of the University, Chen Zhongyong, Professor Zhageer and Chen Yue

President Chen Zhongyong presenting Dr David Sneath
with an Honorary Professorship of Inner Mongolia University

A dinner was held on 12th May to welcome these visitors

Back Row: Dr Hürelbaatar, Chen Yue, Dr David Sneath, Libby Peachey, Dr Hildegard Diemberger, Uranchimeg,
Dr Erdenibayar
Front Row:
Professor Zhageer, President Chen Zhongyong, Professor Caroline Humphrey, Chorji Mengkebatu

New Research Project

The Unit has just received funding for a new project under the British Library Endangered Archive Project (supported by The Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund).
The project, entitled 'The Treasures of Danzan Ravjaa', aims to digitally photograph a rare privately-owned cache of Mongolian and Tibetan manuscripts that were spared from the communist repression, and recently unearthed from caves in the Outer Mongolian province of Dorngobi.
These manuscripts belonged to the person of Danzan Ravjaa (Tib. Bstan ‘dzin rab gyas/ 1803-1857), the 5th incarnation in the lineage of the Gobi Noyons, whose monastery was the centre of a political and artistic renaissance at the crossroads of Tibet, Mongolia and China in the 19th century. Danzan Ravjaa is significant for his eclectic religious outlook that combined both the reformed ‘Yellow Hat’ and the unreformed ‘Red Hat’ sects of Tibetan Buddhism. Besides his eclectic religious orientation, he was an artist and polymath who left behind scores of operas, poems and prophecies

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