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Names and places inAmong the Mongols

James Gilmour

Who and where you hear about in James Gilmour's account: 15 places, 5 people, 3 peoples and 19 terms, each with the name it goes by today, in the order the narration reaches them.

Places

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  1. Siberia

    Сибирь

    Russia's vast Asian territory north of Mongolia. Gilmour entered it at Kiachta, wintered among the Buriats learning Mongolian, and retraced the graves and ruins of the mission expelled by the Emperor Nicholas.

    First heard in Chapter 1, PrefaceWikipedia

  2. Kalgan

    ZhangjiakouХаалганIn 5 other books ›

    The gate-town in the Great Wall on the north frontier of China, base of Gilmour's summer itinerations and starting point of the camel journey across the desert to Kiachta. The tea trade funnelled through it: brick tea came up from Tientsin and was distributed north by camel, mule, and donkey.

    First heard in Chapter 1, PrefaceWikipedia

  3. Peking

    BeijingБээжинIn 6 other books ›

    Gilmour's winter headquarters. Mongols from nearly all the tribes came to the capital on Government duty, and he met them at the Mongol lodging-places, the Halha Kuan outside the north wall and the Li Kuan behind the British Legation.

    First heard in Chapter 1, PrefaceWikipedia

  4. Kiachta

    KyakhtaХиагт

    The Russian tea-trade town on the Siberian frontier, terminus of Gilmour's first eight-hundred-and-forty-mile camel journey from Kalgan. Its most prominent feature from the desert side is the dazzling white dome of its church.

    First heard in Chapter 2, First Acquaintance with MongoliaWikipedia

  5. Urga

    UlaanbaatarӨргөөIn 6 other books ›

    The lama-city on the north bank of the Tola, roughly midway on Gilmour's Kalgan-to-Kiachta road and the subject of its own chapter. The Mongols of the book call it Hure, 'the enclosure,' in full 'Bogda Lama en Hure,' the encampment of the supreme lama.

    First heard in Chapter 2, First Acquaintance with MongoliaWikipedia

  6. The Baikal

    Lake BaikalБайгал нуур

    The great Siberian lake Gilmour crossed on the winter ice, the subject of the chapter 'The Baikal in Winter.'

    First heard in Chapter 4, The Baikal in WinterWikipedia

  7. Irkutsk

    ЭрхүүIn 1 other book ›

    The Siberian capital beyond Lake Baikal, on Gilmour's winter route through the old Buriat mission field.

    First heard in Chapter 4, The Baikal in WinterWikipedia

  8. Selenginsk

    The Siberian town where the Buriat mission was first established in 1817-18. Gilmour finds the mission house still standing, occupied by a Russian official, and a stone-built enclosure holding the missionaries' graves.

    First heard in Chapter 5, Traces of the Old Buriat MissionWikipedia

  9. Onagen Dome

    The Buriat mission's second station, 'on the Ona,' about three days' journey from Selenginsk in the Khori Buriat country. Gilmour finds two missionary tombs there; the mission house itself had been sold and carted off to another locality.

    First heard in Chapter 5, Traces of the Old Buriat Mission

  10. Tola River

    Tuul RiverТуул голIn 3 other books ›

    The river at Urga; the lama-city stands on its north bank.

    First heard in Chapter 6, Learning to RideWikipedia

  11. Gobi

    ГовьIn 5 other books ›

    The 'great plain destitute of water' that Gilmour crossed by camel between Kalgan and Urga; much of the book's tent life, night watches, and caravan travel happens on it.

    First heard in Chapter 6, Learning to RideWikipedia

  12. Wu T'ai Shan

    Mount WutaiУтай

    'As Jerusalem to the Jews, as Mecca to the Mahometans, so is Wu T'ai to the Mongols': the sacred Buddhist mountain in Shansi (Shanxi), the great pilgrimage of the book. Mongols walked, rode, and even measured their length along the road to worship at its shrines.

    First heard in Chapter 9, How to Travel in MongoliaWikipedia

  13. Lama Miao

    Duolun (Dolon Nor)Долоннуур

    A great trading settlement about a hundred and fifty English miles north-east of Kalgan; Lama Miao ('The Lama Temple') to the Chinese, Dolon Nor to the Mongols, named for its two large lama temples. Today it is Duolun in Inner Mongolia.

    First heard in Chapter 12, Lama MiaoWikipedia

  14. Tientsin

    Tianjin

    The treaty port through which the brick tea of the Mongolian trade arrived by sea, travelling on by river boat and pack-saddle to Kalgan.

    First heard in Chapter 15, KalganWikipedia

  15. Li Kuan

    The Mongol lodging-places of Peking: the Halha Kuan (or Wai Kuan, 'outside lodging') a mile beyond the north wall, and the Li Kuan ('inside lodging') close behind the British Legation. 'If any one wants to see Mongol life without going to Mongolia, the Li Kuan is the place to see it.'

    First heard in Chapter 32, The Mongols in Peking

People

  1. Rev. Edward Stallybrass

    London Missionary Society missionary who, with William Swan, left England in 1817-18 to found the Buriat mission in Siberia, working at Selenginsk and on the Ona and translating the Scriptures into Buriat. Two of his wives lie buried at the mission stations Gilmour visits.

    First heard in Chapter 3, Picking Up MongolianWikipedia

  2. Rev. William Swan

    Stallybrass's colleague in the Siberian Buriat mission and co-translator of the Buriat Scriptures. Gilmour quotes his account of the mission's aims and its end: they 'had come to preach the gospel of salvation,' and when that was forbidden they could not stay.

    First heard in Chapter 3, Picking Up MongolianWikipedia

  3. The Emperor Nicholas

    Nicholas I of RussiaНиколай I

    The Russian tsar who broke up the Buriat mission in 1841, ending a quarter century of Protestant work in Siberia; the missionaries retired from the field at his command.

    First heard in Chapter 5, Traces of the Old Buriat MissionWikipedia

  4. Robert Yuille

    The third missionary connected with the old Buriat mission. At Selenginsk Gilmour finds the graves of Mrs. Yuille and her son inside the mission's stone enclosure, and a monument so weathered he cannot tell whether it marks Mr. Yuille's resting place or only commemorates his erecting it.

    First heard in Chapter 5, Traces of the Old Buriat Mission

  5. Genghis Khan

    Чингис хаанIn 7 other books ›

    The conqueror whose lineal descendants, the book notes, still claimed the right to feast with the emperor in Peking. Gilmour finds it 'scarcely possible to believe' that the placid herdsmen he knows descend from the riders of that 'wild career of bloodshed.'

    First heard in Chapter 19, Mongolian BuddhismWikipedia

Peoples

  1. Buriat

    BuryatsБуриадIn 3 other books ›

    The Mongol people of Siberia, living under Russian rule around Lake Baikal. Gilmour's winter journey retraces the old London Missionary Society mission to them, whose missionaries translated the Scriptures into Buriat before the Emperor Nicholas closed the work in 1841.

    First heard in Chapter 3, Picking Up MongolianWikipedia

  2. Manchu

    МанжIn 1 other book ›

    The people of China's ruling Qing dynasty. Their garrisons held the frontier towns of the book, and the Buriat New Testament was printed with adapted Manchu type, the vertical script being close kin to written Mongol.

    First heard in Chapter 5, Traces of the Old Buriat MissionWikipedia

  3. Halha

    Khalkha MongolsХалх

    The Mongols of the northern plateau, the largest Mongol people; Peking's outer Mongol lodging, the Halha Kuan, is named for them. Their descendants form the majority population of today's Mongolia.

    First heard in Chapter 24, A Mongol Court of JusticeWikipedia

Terms

  1. Lama

    лам

    A Mongol Buddhist monk. Lamas are everywhere in the book: a huge share of the male population, serving as priests, doctors, diviners, and hosts, and forming the backbone of the religious system Gilmour spent his life contending with.

    First heard in Chapter 2, First Acquaintance with Mongolia

  2. Brick tea

    шахмал цай

    Tea compressed into hard bricks: the universal drink of the plain and a currency in its own right, carried north by camel caravan from Kalgan toward Kiachta and Russia.

    First heard in Chapter 3, Picking Up MongolianWikipedia

  3. Argol

    Argalаргал

    Dried cattle-dung, the universal fuel of the treeless plain; gathering it is a daily chore of tent life.

    First heard in Chapter 3, Picking Up Mongolian

  4. Yamen

    The office and court of a Chinese official; in Mongolia, likewise the seat of the local mandarin's administration and justice.

    First heard in Chapter 3, Picking Up MongolianWikipedia

  5. London Missionary Society

    The society behind both the old Buriat mission of Stallybrass and Swan and Gilmour's own work; it sent him to reopen the Mongolian field in 1870.

    First heard in Chapter 5, Traces of the Old Buriat MissionWikipedia

  6. Greek Church

    Russian Orthodox Church

    Gilmour's name for the state church of Russia, into which many Buriats had been nominally baptised; he weighs its methods against the Protestant mission's throughout the Siberian chapters.

    First heard in Chapter 5, Traces of the Old Buriat MissionWikipedia

  7. Tael

    лан

    The Chinese ounce of silver, the money of account of the frontier trade; payment was weighed, not counted.

    First heard in Chapter 8, Buying ExperienceWikipedia

  8. Mandarin

    An official of the Chinese empire; in this book usually a Mongol noble or banner officer wearing the button of rank, like the dinner-giving host of 'Appeal to a Mongol Mandarin.'

    First heard in Chapter 10, Dining with a Mongol

  9. Whisky

    архи

    Gilmour's word for the distilled spirit of the country: Chinese grain-spirit sold by traders and the Mongols' own milk-spirit (arkhi). The chapter 'Whisky in Mongolia' argues drink hurts Mongolia about as much as opium hurts China.

    First heard in Chapter 10, Dining with a Mongol

  10. Praying-wheel

    Prayer wheelхүрд

    A cylinder packed with written prayers, spun by hand or by wind and water; each turn counts as uttering them all. One of the mechanical devotions of Mongol Buddhism that struck Gilmour most.

    First heard in Chapter 13, UrgaWikipedia

  11. Gegen

    Gegeenгэгээн

    A 'living Buddha': a lama held to be the reincarnation of his predecessor, proving his identity as a child by recognising the dead man's belongings. They abound in Mongolia, Peking alone boasting three, and Gilmour describes the system bluntly as a hoax arranged by the head lamas.

    First heard in Chapter 16, Doctoring the Mongols

  12. Zabsar

    завсар

    'A split, crack, little opening — an interval of space or time.' The five 'Zabsar ugwei' (завсаргүй, 'without interval') sins are worse than the ten black sins, punished by a hell of unbroken suffering: Buddhism's five sins of immediate retribution.

    First heard in Chapter 19, Mongolian Buddhism

  13. The White Month

    Tsagaan SarЦагаан сар

    The Mongol New Year, still celebrated as Tsagaan Sar. Gilmour spends its first day with a friendly lama: mutual embracing with 'Sain O?', feasting, and the escorting of the Sawr.

    First heard in Chapter 20, The First of the White MonthWikipedia

  14. Gilling

    Gelongгэлэн

    'A kind of doctor of medicine and divinity all in one': a learned lama consulted for medicine, divination, and each visitor's 'lucky airt' for the year. Gilmour's rendering of gelong (гэлэн), a fully ordained lama.

    First heard in Chapter 20, The First of the White Month

  15. Snuff-bottle

    хөөрөг

    The little stone bottle exchanged between host and guest in formal Mongol greeting, still a fixture of Mongolian etiquette (khöörög).

    First heard in Chapter 22, Friendly MongolsWikipedia

  16. Airak

    Airagайраг

    Fermented mare's milk, the drink of the summer encampments and the base from which Mongol milk-spirit is distilled.

    First heard in Chapter 26, Whisky in MongoliaWikipedia

  17. Sawr

    сор

    The 'great finishing solemnity' of the New Year's Day Gilmour witnessed: a triangular pyramid of coloured dough on a wooden frame, escorted out in procession with young and old trooping after it. Evidently the sor offering still burned at Mongolian monastery rituals.

    First heard in Chapter 27, The Midsummer Festival

  18. Maitreya

    Майдар

    The future Buddha, Maidar to the Mongols. The Midsummer Festival chapter describes his image carried in state around the temple grounds, the Mongol Maidari procession still held today.

    First heard in Chapter 27, The Midsummer FestivalWikipedia

  19. Borhan

    Burkhanбурхан

    The Mongol word for a Buddha, god, or sacred image; the idols of tent and temple. In one story a seeker is granted an apparition of 'Maitreya Borhan' after years of devotion.

    First heard in Chapter 30, Mongol Stories

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