In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • The Tamyrs:A Tale of Two Peoples
  • Galsan Tschinag (bio)
    Translated by Katharina Rout (bio)

Translator's Note

"The Tamyrs" (Die Tamyr) was published in 2002 in a German-language collection of short fiction called Dew and Grass (Tau und Gras). Written in oral narrative style, the story begins in 1922, after the Mongolian revolution and the overthrow—with the aid of the Soviets—of the Chinese occupation. Tribal warfare within Mongolia was intense. In the mountains separating China and Mongolia, two groups of refugees—Tuvans and Kazakhs, as the reader learns at the end of the story—engage each other in a battle. While the setting is historical, the story's theme is also topical: the relationship is precarious between the minority Tuvans and majority Kazakhs in the high Altai range of the western Mongolian province of Bayan-O¨lgiy, which is the traditional homeland of the Tuvans. The province borders on the Russian Federation to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south.

As the chieftain of the Tuvans, Galsan Tschinag works tirelessly to promote interethnic understanding and foster economic opportunities for both the Tuvans and the Kazakhs.

1

The story I want to tell you took place in the year that those on the outside call 1922. But here in our small corner of the world, it was again the Year of the Black Dog. As you know, that did not bode well for us. The land was in turmoil. Small tribal feuds were flaring up into all-out war, and more and more tribes were drawn into the fighting that spilled over the borders. Traditional ties between tribes were severed as some took one side and others took another. Rumors of war and invasion were rampant, causing suspicion and fear in everyone. The most vulnerable were the first to flee their homelands in panic; others followed, and soon mass migrations had begun in all directions.

In midsummer of that year, during the early hours of the morning, fighting broke out on the Mongolian side of the precipitous peak of the O¨rmegejti glacier, separating China from Mongolia. At dawn, members of [End Page 215] two tribes—or rather, two peoples—stumbled into each other in the dim light. Neither group could tell who the other was. The night before, each must have taken a different route up the glacier, and now in the half-light of dawn, they met on the descent. Men, women, and children were all alarmed, and in the panic each group decided that to defend itself, it should be the first to attack. So in a flash, everyone charged at one another. Nobody was prepared or armed for a fight, and because the people had only their bare hands, stones, and knives, it made the battle longer and more brutal. These people were poor, peaceful refugees trying to flee the bloodshed in their homeland, and suddenly they were in the midst of a life-or-death struggle with an unknown adversary. Such slaughter…

Someone was strangled here; another was clubbed to death over there. Many who became locked in battle tumbled off the side of the glacier, their arms and legs intertwined as though gripping one another in a final embrace. Their deaths were certain, as once they began sliding down the smooth, steep ice face, nothing could save them. Soon, many people were slaughtered. But still the dying called to those remaining, imploring them to continue the massacre and not to cease, even though the jaws of death were engorged.

A father called out to his two sons, placing on them the burden of his dying words: "Revenge! Get blood for blood. Destroy their tribe—destroy them all." Huddled behind a rock that jutted from the ice, his ten-year-old and twelve-year-old sons had been shaking in terror. But when they heard their father's dying words, their fear no longer held them back. The boys bolted from their mother's arms and charged, screaming. Their mother barely managed to restrain the younger one. His older brother entered the fray, and immediately two boys about his age rushed out of a trembling group of...

pdf

Share