My Mongolian World

The distinguished Mongolian scholar Urgunge Onon's reminiscences offer a rare insight into the culture and lifestyle of a Daur Mongol in the first half of the twentieth century. Covering the years from his youth to middle age, the author offers a wide spectrum of experiences from a disappearing world, including everyday family life, shamanist customs, the role of the bonesetter, wolf hunting, falconry, folklore and some of the great legends of the past, including the story of 'The Black Old Man'. He also recalls at length how he was kidnapped and held to ransom, his association with Prince Demchugdongrob and Mongolia's fight for independence, as well as his relationship with the Japanese Imperial Army and wartime experiences in Japan. In 1948 he took his family off to the US and studied at Johns Hopkins University - the first Mongol to do so - and acquired US citizenship in 1957. In 1963 he moved his family to England and taught at the University of Leeds until his retirement in 1985, when he became a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and helped to found the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU). Onon's reminiscences have deepened over time and will be welcomed by students of Mongolian history and culture as well as those familiar with his earlier writings on shamanism and his childhood.