HUMPHREY RitualsDeathMongolia 1999

Rituals of Death in Mongolia: Their Implications for Understanding the Mutual
Constitution of Persons and Objects and Certain Concepts of Property

Author(s): CAROLINE HUMPHREY
Source: Inner Asia , 1999, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1999), pp. 59-86
Published by: Brill
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23615479
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Rituals of Death in Mongolia: Their Implications for
Understanding the Mutual Constitution of Persons and
Objects and Certain Concepts of Property
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit

do Faculty of Oriental Studies
Cambridge CB2 9DA, UK
ABSTRACT
This article provides an ethnographic description of burial rituals in Ulaanba

in the 1980s. The ceremonies surrounding death indicate the presence o
amalgam of Buddhist, folk-religious and socialist ideas, and they notably
use of material objects as representations of such ideas. The article disc
what such rituals might tell us about Mongolian concepts of the person,
and character. The further aim of the paper is to explore the wider signific
of relations between persons and material objects as revealed in the fune
rituals, especially as regards ideas of 'property'. It is argued that Mong
in this period gave little prominence to the idea of 'private property', bu
tained a strong notion of joint, familial property; at the same time, the b
rituals reveal a significant concern with personal property. Socialist regi
which emphasise communal forms of property, may often be associated
the parallel counter-significance of intimate and personal relations betw
persons and things.
INTRODUCTION
The materials for this paper were gathered in the mid-1980s in Ulaanbaat
surrounding areas. The present tense is sometimes used, however, in ord
convey the nature of the information used by the author, which was the nar
of Mongolians talking about their own contemporary beliefs and practice
the long history of Mongolia the rituals of death have changed in many res
especially with the advent of Buddhism from the 17th century;2 possibl
have also changed since the 1980s. What is certain is that Mongolian people
be developing new ideas about property with the upheaval of socialist po
and economics since 1990. So this article concerns a specific historical
now in the past, yet it aims to raise issues that may be of more general i
for understanding relations between persons, material objects and society
Mongolians in the 1980s3 said that death should not be regarded as su
Inner Asia 1 (1999): 59-86

Reprinted 2008 © Global Oriental Ltd

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60
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
terrible event. In Buddhist thinking it is a reprise of earlier deaths, and fo

ows those of the future. For a religious person it is one of 'three eternal
(gurban mônx iinen). The others are birth and life. To die in the right way
separating oneself from this life in order that one may be reborn, and for t
should prepare by distancing oneself from material objects. In fact, even t
in old age a Mongol man or woman is expected to have few goods left
possessions having already passed to the younger generation, this sepa
from the last remaining objects is felt to be a hard one, not altogether und
control of the individual. As soon as death occurs, in a number of furth
als, the living give other objects to the dead person, placing them in gre
lesser proximity to the corpse, in the shroud, inside the coffin, and in the
It is suggested here that this whole sequence provides insights into th
Mongolians conceptualise the various relations of persons with material t
and this also allows the anthropologist to think about ways in which the
of 'property ' could be broadened to encompass new ideas.4 The Euro-Am
notion of 'private property' has been criticised both as an institution an
historically developed concept since the early 19th century,5 and yet it
with all its inadequacies, which is currently being spread in Mongolia.
Looking at Mongolia in a long historical frame we can see that ther
been a major change of emphasis in the relation of the person to possess
relation which is brought to the fore at a death: in recent centuries Buddh
socialist ideologies have maintained that one should die without posses
whereas in the pre-Buddhist past Mongols were buried with them (in th
of the wealthy, with concubines, retainers, horses, armour and clothin
so forth).6 The actual practices of recent times, however, suggest that t
a complex variety of ideas about both the person and his or her relation
material objects.
Let us start with two, apparently similiar but interestingly different, i
tions from the mid-1980s. ' When a person lies mortally ill', I was told, ' va
things, such as rings, watches or necklaces, are removed from them, or bett
the dying person herself asks for them to be taken off. These glistening
are favourites, which people keep in mind and like too much. In the pre
of these precious things, it is said, a person cannot die. They are too att
So taking away the objects of attachment is held to pacify the dying, t
them to die'. Now these objects are clearly possessions of the dying pe
but they are also part of the inheritance (ov) of the family, and normally
time of death the members will long ago have come to an agreement abo
will possess them next.
The pious action of giving up valuables, which is clearly influenced b
dhist ideology, coexists with another idea which seems to combine Bud
with folk religious concepts. It is thought that the spirit or 'soul' (siins
after death, remains attached to one particular object which was much
the person's lifetime, the xorgodoson yum , literally the thing in which on

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RITUALS OF DEATH IN MONGOLIA
taken shelter, an object which provides protection. I shall call this the '
thing'. No-one knows what this thing is, not even the dying person, bec
is the 'soul' which has found shelter in it. Unlike the close relation in Christian
cultures between the soul and the conscious mind or conscience, in Mongolian
thinking the existence of the siins is known mainly from altered states of con
sciousness, such as dreaming, 'possession' by external spirits, or the mental
vacancy associated with temporary loss of the siins. In other words, one's soul
may have attachments of which one is unaware. So after a death, the relatives
must immediately go to an astrologer (zurxaich) to find out what the 'refuge
thing' is. It might be anything, valuable or not, perhaps a pair of spectacles,
or a snuff-bottle, a pin, or a flint used for making fire. The astrologer gives a
hint, indicating the kind of thing, and the family then usually has no problem
to guess what it is. This object is then speedily given away, or sold, or even
buried with the body; anyway it is got rid of, because to keep it in the family
would be to risk continuous plaguing by the soul and this would be manifest as
bad luck for the family.7 Here we see that individual intention, so paramount
in European concepts of 'property', does not in Mongolian thinking altogether
break the link of person and thing.
Clearly, the 'refuge thing' is excised from the family inheritance. Paradoxi
cally, it has to be given away because the link with the deceased was too strong;
in other words, the object was too close to the person for it to be ordinary prop
erty (ôv xôrôngô) and form part of the heritage of goods passed as shares (dv
xnv'Jthrough the generations. In constituting the link with the 'refuge thing' as
graspable only through zurxai astrology, the Mongols are differentiating it from
the relations of intention and desire which pertain to the glittering valuables
noted in the first example.
Yet it is significant that in both cases, the tie between person and thing is
established through constant use. The feeling that certain lived-with things are
particularly evocative of a person who has died may be universal, but the precise
forms and import of such an idea in different societies are not. I was told that
tradition-minded Mongols in general prefer old things, well-worn, with a patina
of use, with a deep, long-lasting, inherent smell. Rather than buy a new bowl,
for example, such a person might prefer one with cracks and signs of mend
ing, showing that such a bowl had been cared for and used. For such a bowl to
become 'his' he would have to use it too, but the relation is hardly exclusive
since part of the value of the bowl lies in the patina of its handling by others.
Mongols keep the clothes of close relatives who have died, the patina and smell
of them reminding them of the loved one. In the case of prominent heroes such
clothes are worshipped (for example, the shirt of Chinggis Khan at the Ordos
mausoleum, or the complete set of clothing of a 16th century general called
Jargal Zaxiragch now worshipped at the Mergen Siim in Inner Mongolia).
In the industrial West, the link between a person and a thing does not depend
primarily on use. One thinks, for example, of the case recently described in a

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62
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
British newspaper of a small boy given a train-set for Christmas. Bu

he unwrapped the present, the box was empty. This prompted many
go to great trouble, obtaining a key and opening up the closed depart
Boots department store, in order to get him 'his' train-set. This case i
to the Euro-American concept of property rights which homogenise r
between people and things in a way which is foreign to traditional thi
Mongolia. When Mr. Brown dies, all of his things, his car, his house, h
his money, are legally 'his' to the same degree and disposable accordin
As Miller writes:
Unfortunately, the particular division most often invoked in contemporary political

rhetoric concerning public and private property is misleading [...], since the concept
of private property suggests a close relationship between person and thing, whilst
in practice private property is an institution which works to produce precisely the
opposite effect. Private property as an institution conflates the direct relationship
between the individual and those objects with which he or she is associated in
self-construction with those over which he or she has legal rights. As an institution,
private property is the foundation of abstract relationships between anonymous
people and postulated objects, an extreme example of which is relationship between
shareholder and investment.8
Miller goes on to make a distinction between private property and what he

calls 'personal property'. He argues that the latter is associated with communal
property, such as state or kin-held property, rather than private property, since
personal property 'is a statement of relative inalienability'.
The Mongolian case can illuminate Miller's brief suggestion. Ordinary
people did not in the 1980s consider it proper to make written wills (gereelel)
disposing of their possessions after death by their own choice ,9 It was considered
appropriate for religious people to decree (zaxi-) that some part be given to the
monastery for prayers to be said for their soul, but apart from this all property
simply went to the rightful heirs, the immediate family.10 In recent centuries
wills were exceptional acts, made when there was a question of dispossessing
these heirs,11 and still in the 1980s a person's things were in general allocated
to the children some time before death, with the parental part remaining to be
taken over by the youngest son when the father died. The allocation was dif
ferent, however, in its cultural-historical resonances from legal ownership as
understood in Euro-American traditions.
The Mongol word for 'property' (xôrôngô) conveys an idea of transforma
tion and multiplication, since the same word is used for the ferment used to
make alcohol, for yeast, for seeds, and more generally for a source or origin. In
Mongol ideology, xôrôngô in the sense of bacterial ferment should continue for
ever, like the family's hearth fire (in practice, of course, both sometimes gave out
and would have to be 'asked' from neighbours and started anew.12 Ideologically
therefore we can perhaps see xôrôngô in the sense of property as conveying the
idea of a series of growing, transforming things, parallel to the self-productive

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63
human kin relations created over generations, and probably associated

the fact that people and livestock used to be the major kind of property
the Mongols in pre-modern times (see note 7). In the past such an inher
was (and continued to be in the 1980s) divided among heirs by the not
shares (xuv'), an idea of proportions of a whole as distinct from the allo
of particular objects.131 was told that the disposal of xôrôngô property b
exchange, and so forth, follows the form of decision relations in the house
normally, it would be by agreement or negotiation inside the household,
autocratically constituted family might concede the power of disposal t
person. This organic, familially-negotiated, share-based aspect of the Mo
ideology of property differentiates it from systems in which 'property' is m
thought of as fixed items acquired by externally-derived legal rules of
inheritance, mortgage, etc. and which need not be in personal use.
It would be incorrect to say that there was no idea of private, as distinct
personal, property in Mongolia in the 1980s. It was common, for examp
families to lend privately-owned livestock to kin and friends. In such
however, the private property right of the owners was moderated by t
rowers' rights acquired by usage and labour (mainly the right to consum
or all of the milk and wool) and the carers would often talk about such live
as in some sense 'theirs'.
The seventy years of socialist government in Mongolia may curiously have
preserved such Mongolian ideas, since private property was little developed:
the Constitution forbade individual ownership of land,14 strictly limited private
ownership of livestock, and made trade for profit illegal. Nevertheless, I was
told in the 1980s that the tendency for the family to quarrel over the impending
inheritance (ômch xuv') was greater than it used to be. This might be difficult
to believe, since in socialist society inherited property was relatively minor and
easily replaced in value by earnings, but in fact the issue for my respondents
seemed to be not how much was inherited but the perception that modern city life
had brought about a decline in filial respect and the emergence of consumerist
attitudes. For religious people these were both indices of the current 'calamitous
time' (tsôviin tsag) in which we live. The tsôviin tsag is a Buddhist concept,
the declining era of ever increasing impurity of minds before the emergence of
the next Buddha, Maitreya. This religious sense of a crumbling society was of
course in dynamic tension with the socialist ideology of increasing prosperity
and success. In the mid-1980s the latter was still a prevalent idea, which hid
processes of individualism, differentiation and competitiveness that have more
recently become apparent in Mongolia. The funerary rituals, as will be shown,
although generally religious in spirit, actually sustained certain Mongolian
cultural forms that accorded well with the Mongolian variant of socialism, in
defiance as it were of the disturbing contemporary social trends.
This observation leads to a wider consideration of the relation between people
and things than that of 'property ' and indeed to the question of how the Mongols
conceive of the person and the self. The socialist ideology did not counter, and

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64
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
in some ways supported, Mongolian notions of socially generic perso

What I mean by this is notions of personhood tied to the characteristic a
of types of people in society (as distinct from 'biologically ' generic per
an idea also prevalent in Mongolia, i.e. the person as bearer of the bl
bone of particular lines of descent). Social concepts of characteristic a
were highly gendered, as well as pertaining to age and rank. It seems t
easily transferred to new jobs (caravaneer to driver, seamstress at hom
tile worker) and this enabled the continuation of notions of the 'ideal m
the 'ideal woman', which were also supported by socialist stereotypes
Lattimore once remarked in a lecture that the absence of a period of
exploitation in Mongolia's twentieth century history, meant that it was
for young Mongols to think of themselves as the masters, not the s
the machine. Be this as it may, ideal-typical activities are still represe
characteristic material objects in the funerary rituals, and these consist
culturally long-standing and new material things. For a man these are
the saddle-cloth, the sash (bits, 'that which encircles'), which differ
males from females (a common, though now old-fashioned term for w
biisgüi, 'without sash'), and even a bow and arrow. Recently a model tr
motorcyle might be included. For a woman the equivalent ideal-typica
in the 1980s were still her scissors and a needle and thread (ziiii utas).
The idea here has little to do with ownership but rather consists of
material objects the representations of types of social person. Putting suc
in the grave with the deceased, I was told, is like a statement that the
lived a good life as a man or woman should. There also seemed to be
idea, that these representative objects would accompany the soul in its
existence, supporting symbolically an appropriate future life.
There is yet another idea of the person that appears in the rituals of
the 'cosmological person'. This is represented above all by the corpse
deceased (a body born at a particular cosmological instant and place),
by material objects. In the 1980s Mongols knew very well the main co
cal facts pertaining to themselves and people close to them (chiefly the
time of birth in the 12-animal cycle), and they could consult widely p
booklets about how their own circumstances would be affected by the
teristics of the days of the current year. But for deeper knowledge the
consult an expert, the zurxaich. The zurxai consists of a book, or bun
books, containing lists and tables of signs: the elements (fire, air, wate
metal), the twelve animal cycle of years, the planets, constellations, th
of the Zodiac, the thirty-eight 'symbols' (jewel, dagger, blue lake, re
razor, etc), the 'lords' of the days, the 'black dog of the sky', and so o
are Chinese, Tibetan and Indian influences here, but also some possibly
Mongol sections, such as the squared tables indicating which day is g
bringing in a son-in-law for bride-service (requiring one to count rou
quence of squares marked 'son-in-law', 'mother', 'younger brother', 'f

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65
'gate', 'hearth', 'pasture', and 'door' and if one lands on any of the latter fo
this is a good omen,15). In general the relations among the objects in the zur
are quite complex, since they consist not just of difference/similarity, sequenc
addition, etc. but also of concepts such as domination, being full, guarding,
ing stable, absorbing, or closing off.16 The relations between astrological sig
are conventions which stand for relations between the objects themselves, e
that fire and air combine to produce force, while water and air produce discor
What is crucial here is that the relations are simultaneous, not 'discursive'. The
are synchronic because they represent the way the universe truly is, has be
and will be. This is what enables the zurxai to be used to discover what mus
be the case in some situation of time or place which is otherwise unknowable
So, despite the complexity of the internal organisation among the astrolog
objects, the relation with the client's question is quite simple, since it alwa
consists of finding out what is the right way to act to accord with the conditi
of the universe at that time.
A very important part of astrology is decisions about direction. Zurxai he
is in accord with the general Mongolian consciousness of direction and the f
that grid-like constructions, such as the ger (yurt, round tent) which defined
own internal spaces, are always placed in relation to the four cardinal direction
and to 'above' and 'below' in respect of the sky and the earth. Still in the 198
a journey for Mongols was not just a movement to a given place but was al
a journey in a direction related to the cosmos (usually related to the movem
of the sun). On a significant journey, taking the 'wrong' direction, as defined
respect of one's own astrological characteristics, results in prolonged misfortu
At the same time, one's way is criss-crossed by the movements of other cr
tures and unseen powers travelling along their paths. Hence the extraordina
importance given to the correct directional placing of people and things in
funerary rituals, and the significance of rites of 'drawing in' or alternatively
'repelling' spiritual powers encountered on the way.
Objects belonging to people also had this cosmological aspect. They not
only had their own intrinsic qualities (the sash which 'encircles', the cookin
pot which is 'upward-looking', the collar which is the highest, senior part
the coat,18 but they also stood for the people who used them. Thus to step o
a hat was to pollute it, since a hat was a symbolically 'high' thing, and to s
over a particular person's hat was to insult and harm that very person.
If the hat was an extension of the person in this sense, the person consider
cosmologically also 'extended' in a way to the astrologically-given charact
People in the 1980s were identified by others, and even identified themsel
with the supposed character of 'their' animal in the cycle by their year of bir
I met parents who were surprised when their young children did not show
temperament of for example the horse, or the chicken. People born in the h
year are supposed to be suggestible and vulnerable, those born in the sna
year malicious and temperamental, and so on. There are sayings about peo

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CAROLINE HUMPHREY
in general, e.g. 'Xon'toi xiin nomxon dolgoon' ('A person born in the s
year is calm and gentle') but people may also say of themselves, 'Bi tu
xün, yumand ortoj magadgui" ('I'm a hare-year person and I may be (b
affected by something'). As we shall see, this astrological aspect of the
is also recognised in the funeral ritual.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE MONGOL RITUALS OF DEATH
The laying-out
When someone dies (iixe-)19 everything is taken out of the yurt except for the
dead person and the deity-statues. The body (biirleech)20 is laid on a white felt
in the northern part, between the hearth and the altar, a man somewhat to the
north-west and a woman to the north-east.21 The face is covered with a xadag
(ritual silk scarf). The body should lie on its right side, with head to the north,
the face to the west, and the right hand under the cheek. The left arm is laid
across the chest and the knees are bent.This is called the 'lion position',roughly
imitating the crouching of a lion.22 Sometimes the altar with the deity (burxan)
is moved, so that it is to the north-west of the body. The idea is that the body
should face the way the soul must go, to the north, to be received by the god,
and that the left side should be left free for the soul to escape.
If the dead person was religious, he or she would have had a 'bosom book'
(ôbôrôn sudar), a favourite religious text carried constantly in the breast of the
gown. This book is placed under the head. All other belongings are removed.
Oil lamps (zula) are lit and incense (xuj) and juniper-powder (arts) are burnt.
Lights burn day and night till the funeral. The smoke-hole of the yurt is closed
over, chinks at the bottom of the walls filled in with earth, and the door is shut.
People are afraid of corpses. No-one stays with the body, except perhaps a
lama to see to the lamp and read prayers. The door is barred from outside, and
a special sign (tseer) indicating 'forbidden' is erected. This is a hair-rope, tied
from the top right (east) corner of the door to a stone lying to the side. Red rags
are tied to the rope.
If the family is living in a city apartment, one room is designated for the
dead person and red and black strips of cloth are hung on the closed door, the
black colour being a Russian influence. The family moves to live in another
room. Frequently a temporary ger is erected outside the house to act as a kitchen.
Sometimes the body is removed to a morgue for some days and it is brought back
on the eve of the funeral day. The relatives often wear red and black armbands
as a sign of mourning. This again is said to be a Russian influence; one of my
informants said that the first time he had seen such a sign was in the mid- 1930s
at the death of Marshal Demid.

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'Returning back'
Now the family goes to consult a lama, so that he may 'open the golden v
{altan sav nee), that is, he will explain to them the reason for the death a
relation to the fate (zaya) of the deceased. He will say whether the dead p
had a proper life, whether he or she lived their destined lifespan or died
and where the next life will be found. The 'next life' is always a human
and the lama predicts quite firmly what kind of family it will be in, the k
occupation, and whether the life will be happy or not. The place of the nex
is sometimes declared to be a holy land, either India or Tibet, but somet
it is close at hand, in a family whose features are described in such a way
it may be guessed at. Indeed, the next life may even be in one's own fam
in a younger generation. A woman can be born again as a man, and vice
although it is thought not a good destiny to change sex.
The lama's prediction may be made more definite in the following w
An old person taking a nap may have a dream. They see the dead one com
towards them, and get ready to give a welcome, but the person who died
past and goes on, until they enter another yurt. This is the family in whic
will be re-bom (ergej ire-, 'return back'). Children bom to that family
one year has elapsed are eagerly scrutinised for a likeness. However, it m
generations before a re-birth actually occurs. If a baby is recognised as a re
this is a very joyful event, and that child is loved and respected as though
were the one who died. Identity is accepted without question. If, as in on
I was told about, a grandmother 'returns back' in her grandchild, that baby
of ten children, is the only one which can never be physically punished
would be as if the mother had punished her own mother.
The soul (siins)
The soul usually leaves the body before death. Indeed, the soul may have
and returned several times before a person dies. When someone is sudd
very frightened, or extremely ill, it is thought that the soul escapes the
{siins zaila-).Some people say it leaves through the fourth finger of the left
- for this reason Mongols often wear a silver vachir (thunderbolt, signif
immutability) ring on this finger. Without a soul, the person becomes un
nate, fails in everything, and may die unless the soul is recalled {siins du
If this cannot be done, the soul wanders and roams until the person dies an
proper rituals are conducted to free it from the body and the attractions o
world. In Buddhist theory, the soul of a pious person may then go to pa
{burxadyn orori), or if very wicked then to a horrible variety of hells (torn
real life, however, as noted above, lamas do not say that people are due
to hell, and in any case there is a period of uncertainty immediately afte
death. Many people say that the soul in this period 'possesses' or 'penet
{orshi-) some living being. This might be an insect at worst, or a fish, or a

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CAROLINE HUMPHREY
Only after some time will the soul be freed from this animal life, in any
before 49 days have elapsed. After 49 days, the soul will find the path
its future place. This place (own) may be a womb. There are many st
the bereaved recognising the dead person in dreams during this period
always indicates that the dead one requires merit be made (buyan xii-) to
soul to a better future life. The family is in duty bound to order lama
or at the very least ask a devout layperson to chant the mani prayer (r
the minimum to 'om mani padma hum'). Even now in socialist times
people usually invite a lama to pray at home, though this is done priva
at night, so that neighbours will not know.
After the lama has opened the 'golden vessel', the family must con
astrologer (zurxaich), to get information about the 'refuge thing' (xor
yum) mentioned earlier. The verb xorgodo- means literally 'to sit in the s
to take refuge in', but this is not the same as the propensity of the soul
the body and penetrate some other living-being either before or after de
which the verbs orshi- (to be in, or penetrate), buu- (to descend), or su
inhabit) are used. There is no attempt at consistency here. What the M
say is that the soul wanders after death and enters various animal creatu
they also say that the soul is attracted back to its 'refuge thing'.
Requesting land (gazar guyu-)
The zurxaich must also give the family directions for finding an au
place for disposal of the corpse. Until the 1950s or so, despite a law en
burial, Mongols, especially country people, were generally not buried
on the open ground,23 called il xaila- (openly dissipate), while those
infectious diseases were cremated. Digging the ground with metal inst
and the burial of corpses was thought to be an insult to the 'lords of t
(gazaryn ezed, sabdag, luus). Now, however, all bodies are buried or cr
The final resting-place should be on the sunny slope of a hill, with a rive
south, and a road in the vicinity (uul deerliiiilj, us oshigliiiilj , 'with m
as pillow and water underfoot'). Two or three elders, often with a lam
immediately to 'survey the land' (gazar iize-). Having found the spot t
begs permission of the lords of the earth for a burial, or the lay mast
ritual says, 'My mountain and earth deign to give me some land to b
beloved...[kinship term]', and with an antelope horn24 the lama draw
rectangle for the grave. He digs a token spadeful at the north-western
or leaves some stones as a mark, and then requests for the grave to b
strong young men. A folded ritual scarf (xadag) is put in the grave (f
it was laid on the ground), weighted down at the four comers with
libation is made of milk, some grains of rice or millet are scattered
place is purified with incense and juniper smoke. All of this is to pl
spirits of the earth.

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69
In Ulaanbaatar, Mongols are buried in five cemeteries, three large ones t

north of the city and two near the airport. The Russians have their own se
cemetery, and the Kazakhs and Chinese are also buried separately from
gols. Each burial is given a number by the city Burial Registration Offi
the cemetery is allotted according to the town district where the family
Nevertheless the 'surveying the land' ritual always takes place, even thou
choice only amounts to one spot or another in the close-packed cemetery
means that people usually cannot be buried adjacent to their relatives. B
the countryside where there is more space kin are often buried according t
seniority, with sons 'below', i.e. to the south of their fathers. The Mongols
never had a cult of burial sites. Rather, these are places to be avoided. T
of graveyard custodian is therefore not a respected one ('they are all drunk
I was told) and the gravediggers in Ulaanbaatar are commonly prisoner
have committed small offences and do this work in lieu of other punishm
The family prepares for the funeral some three to five days later. D
this period, the family is host to relatives and friends who come from f
near. City-dwellers erect a yurt, or even two, near their apartment to serv
kitchen, and tea and food are prepared continuously. This hospitality is reg
as a meritorious act {buyan xii-).
Joining and separation
On the day before the funeral there is the sad ritual of the 'touching by
{gar xüre-). One of the close relatives who was born in the same astrol
cally-defined year as that of the deceased {eveel jiltei xiin) should go to
the body, usually at the right elbow. No words are said. This is said to be a
religious and private act. Even a child can do it, as long as they have the
year of birth. Otherwise extreme bad luck is likely to befall the family.
this anyone can touch the body to prepare it for burial.
Next a lama should be called to 'separate the seats' {suudal saiga-)
'seats' are astrological correlations of a person's birth date with the fi
ments, wood, air, earth, fire, and water. If any member of the family h
same 'seat' as the deceased they must be separated from him or her. People
the same 'seat' are not necessarily like one another, nor especially emoti
close, but it is thought that their destinies are the same, almost as though
lives were one. Separation is done ritually, by placing a cloth under the p
say a daughter, while the lama chants in Tibetan. The cloth is then taken
torn up, and burnt. If this is not done, the person with the same suudal wi
an unhappy fate. Among the Derbet Mongols, according to Vyatkina, an
in the family who 'earned the particular attention' of the deceased must
subject of a ritual of detachment performed by lamas.25
It has already been noted that attachment to a particular thing, both bec
it is a favourite and because it is astrologically connected to the deceased
be broken after a death (the practice of getting rid of the 'refuge thing').

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CAROLINE HUMPHREY
Preparation of the corpse
One of the preparatory rites is the marking of the body. One of the family
mark a cross or another shape (temdeg tavi - to place a sign) somewhere
body with soot from the underside of the cooking-pot (nowadays a b
may be used). The aim of this is to be able to recognise the person whe
'return back', since it is believed that the sign will reappear as a birth-m
a baby is born with a distinct birth-mark (not the so-called 'Mongol spot
is common to all children and disappears after a time) then he or she is a
to be a 'returned one'. If astrological predictions have already led peop
believe that a baby is a re-birth then its marks are also called signs {te
but an unlooked-for birthmark is called menge, and in this case people wil
to think hard about who the predecessor can possibly be. Such a birth-m
also be used in divination later in life: it is examined {menge shinji-) by
to foretell the future.
Then a male elder with one or two helpers enters the ger to prepare the
for burial. These people should wear their gowns and hats back to fro
roll up their sleeves, all actions contrary to Mongol custom for everyda
The dead person's hair and finger-nails are cut, and moustaches and bea
removed.26 In general, it is felt that the person should be naked at deat
even good if the teeth have fallen out, as this indicates that the person ha
a sufficiently long life, will eat no more, and was destined to die at thi
The naked body is wrapped round in cloth, if possible in silk, up to the
like swaddling. The colour of the silk is dictated by the astrologer acc
to the birth details of the dead. The body is placed on two undecorated
felts and then the whole is sewn up in a loose white cloth. The sewing
anti-clockwise, contrary to everyday Mongol custom. Finally, over the
placed a nomyn xunjil ('sacred blanket'), consisting of a paper stamped
various Buddhas and prayers. This is removed before the final burial an
be used again.
In the 1950s and 60s, when Russian cultural influence was particularly st
in Mongolia, city people used to dress the body up in new clothes. Rin
other expensive jewellery were put on, and money (coins not banknotes)
in. Such lavish funerals came to be disapproved of by the authorities an
(1980s) are rare, I was told. One relic of the Russian influence has surviv
use of a ritual scarf {xadag) to cover the face, rather than a complete m
like wrapping up with silk. The point of this is that the face can be rev
the funeral. Formerly, no-one saw the face after death because 'the face
deceased should not be shown to the sky' {taliigaaciin niiiiriig tengert
ulaxgui gedeg), and even today old people object to the revealing of th
and the use of the auspicious xadag in conjunction with an inauspicious
like a dead body.
These days the body is also placed in a coffin (though this again is di
by old people and often not done in the countryside). The body, if that of

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71
should lie on a saddle-cloth, an object characteristic of the ideal male (er

and therefore essential for the future life of the soul. Under the head is put a
of tea as an offering to the earth-spirits. A further series of objects is put
coffin, according both to custom and people's own choice. First there mu
bowl of food, placed beside the head, which should not be whole milk pr
nor meat, but rather fruit (apples, sultanas), berries, rice, and tiny pieces o
cheese. The cheese should be crumbled up so it is Tike seeds'. Actually
this is not regarded as food but as 'things which will grow'. I was told th
idea is to make an offering which is inexhaustible, but we could also pe
see these growing things as the parallel after death for the xôrôngô i
ance in life. The 'bosom book' is also put inside, and occasionally the 'r
thing'. For a man the belt must be included, and for a woman her need
thread. Sometimes a model bow and arrow is put in for a man. For a baby
put toys. A small model of a walking-stick is sometimes put in for eithe
In the 1980s people sometimes also add other things the person liked, su
tobacco or vodka, money or jewellery, though this is disapproved of by
Buddhists. These latter goods are said to be sent following (daguuldag) th
and make it comfortable.
Most people also put into the coffin a model animal cut out of paper, the
kind of animal being determined by the instructions of the astrologer. Signifi
cantly, this is not the animal of the birth-year, nor does it represent any animal
the deceased kept or was fond of. In one recent case in Ulaanbaatar it was an
elephant, but sheep and horses also occur (an old woman I knew was given a
horse, even though she was not born in the horse year and did not have a horse).
The idea is that each kind of animal has a typical character. The one chosen
should mirror the actual personality of the dead person, and act as a correction
(zasal) to the character given by the year of birth. I have heard people say that
the horse is fast, intelligent and courageous; the sheep is innocent; the elephant
is strong and calm, although there is a certain amount of variation in these char
acterisations. This custom seems to be a recognition that there may be a tension
between the 'astrological person' and the self, or the real personality, and that
this may be corrected by giving the soul a harmonising animal character for is
existence after death.
The coffin is made of wood and in recent decades often has been covered with
black or red cloth, a European influence. Some old people dislike this custom,
since black is an 'evil' colour, and red is also felt to be inappropriate because it
is not a 'natural' colour found in the world and signifies only revolution. Since
the burial of the great Mongol scholar and writer, B. Rinchen, in early 1978, a
new 'tradition' has been established which is rapidly spreading from the city
to the countryside. This is to line the coffin in white, and cover its lower part
in green silk, and its lid in blue, representing the earth and the sky. To the blue
'sky' are sewn a sun, moon and flame in golden cloth, using the iconographie
signs of the soyombo, the Mongolian national emblem.27 The soyombo consists

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CAROLINE HUMPHREY
of a series of emblems each of which has a separate meaning. The sun an

denote 'mother' and 'father' respectively, hence jointly 'the Mongol peop
the triple flame indicates resurgence, in the past, present, and future. All
together mean, according to Rinchen, 'May the Mongol people flouris
times', and when put on a coffin indicate that the dead person gave his
this cause.28 In some recent burials, a white arrow has been added too, to
that the life-path of the deceased was straight and always prospering
symbols can be understood and used by very many Mongols, since Ri
book explaining his interpretation of the soyombo is a text-book used in s
Such new burial customs can spread quickly in the city and surroundin
because there are certain people who make a speciality of organising fu
and are widely asked to give advice to families about procedure.
The 'carrying-out'
The corpse is 'put out to the countryside' (gargax xôdôôliiiile-), an exp

which is still used even in the city. This rite takes place only on Mon
Wednesdays and Fridays for astrological reasons. The date, precise tim
'direction' of carrying out the corpse are calculated by the astrologer. T
used to be very early in the morning, well before sunrise, but these d
often later, around 7 o'clock, because it is difficult to get transport to
etery earlier. One male elder is designated as the 'bone carrying perso
barix xiiri), which is an honour.
The coffin is taken out of the ger or the room in an anti-clockwise pat
buruu 'against the sun') round the hearth or centre. In some regions it
be removed by a side opening, made by lifting up one of the walls of th
When the coffin is taken through the door, it is obligatory that the th
or a stick representing it, should be in some way broken, even sawn in
the city today a thin stick is laid across the doorway, and the 'bone car
person' makes sure to tread on it so it snaps. All of this is the antithesis of
everyday behaviour. The coffin must be taken a little way in the astrol
correct direction (ziig garga-), even if the cemetery lies in a different dire
Then it is placed on a lorry for the final journey.
Just as the coffin sets out, the close family must perform the ritual of ' in
prosperity' (dalalga ava-). One of the children of the deceased, male or
takes a platter containing food (milk products, sweets, sugar, cakes) an
it on the inner flap of their gown (dotood xormoi) which is considered
(buyan xeshigt) because fatty hands are wiped on it after eating. Liftin
hem and platter, the child makes three clockwise circles in the air, call
the dead soul, 'Leave your blessing/fortune with us! (Buyan xeshigee
Xurai! Xurai! Xurai!' This food must then be eaten by the family and
account be given to outsiders.

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Setting out on the lorry to the cemetery, the 'bone carrying person', weari
his clothes back to front or inside out and his hat bent inwards,31 sits up in fr
with a basket containing rice, millet, loose tea, and a few coins. Whenever t
cortege (gashuudlyn tsuv) comes to a stream or crosses a road, handfuls of the
things are sprinkled. I was told by some people that this action is to prevent t
soul escaping down these paths, and by others that it is to debar evil spirits fr
coming in by them. The mourners, who are mainly men, follow by bus (in
countryside on horseback). It is thought inappropriate for the mother to atten
as the burial will certainly be too painful for her. According to Ar'yaasüren an
Nyambuu, describing approved socialist custom,32 music may be played at t
time; the cortege should be headed by people carrying the portrait (photograp
of the deceased, followed by flowers, then the honours and medals, the coff
and finally the mourners.
At the grave
Arriving at the grave-site the coffin is placed in the ground. In the grave,
sometimes also in the coffin, are placed the powder of 'nine precious thing
(yoson erdeni:, gold, silver, coral, pearl, turquoise, lapis lazuli, steel, copper
mother-of-pearl). Also added is a small amount of earth, sand, holy water
shan), utlag (a powder made of sweet-smelling grasses and juniper), and gra
of millet, rice or barley. All these things are 'magically empowered' (tarind
by special mantra-like formulas by the lamas and obtained in tiny quantiti
from the monastery. They are offerings to the spirits of the earth.33
These days, the ritual scarf is removed from the face and farewell word
are read out, though old people disapprove of this custom. The children a
close family members make up their own farewell words, describing the meri
birthplace, study, work and achievements of the deceased. Finally, an elder say
'May you sleep eternally in the sun-warmed soft earth where you were born' (
tôrson ex nutgiinxaa naran eever zôôlôn xôrsônd iiürd mônx noirsdoó).
The space around the coffin is filled with gravel or sand, and the top is c
ered with a large, horizontal concrete slab, some 15-20 cms thick. A gravest
is erected, either a natural rock with one side smoothed for the engraving of
name, or in the case of a religious person it is carved in the shape of a Buddhi
symbol. The Burial Office provides mechanically cut stones, but many peop
prefer a natural stone even if they have to hire a crane to have it lifted in. The
was a period in the 1950s and 60s when Russian influence promoted such thi
as photos or porcelain busts of the deceased. But this became less popular w
it was seen how such images were spoiled by weather, children and anima
Now, graves in the countryside often have Russian-type railings (to keep peo
and animals from defiling the grave by walking over it, it is said), but in
city cemeteries railings are not so common. For important people, wreaths
flowers are laid by institutions, but this is felt to be a foreign custom. Drinkin

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CAROLINE HUMPHREY
FIGURE 1. City graves, showing the flat concrete slab, headstone, and
model ger
the graveside was also copied from the Russians but is now much discouraged.
'What an absurdity', people say, 'to drink to the health of a corpse!'
Anew custom, wholly Mongol in origin, has developed in the last ten years.
Very many city graves now have a tiny model of the Mongol ger, usually made
of painted metal, placed on the concrete slab in front of the gravestone (see
Figure 1). An oil-lamp may be lit inside, and grains, juniper-dust, or a few coins
inserted, but most of the yurts are empty, with the doors open. Sometimes, one
also sees a small model table (shiree) and chair or stool (sandal) at the side of
a grave. I was told that all of these are places for the soul to rest in.34
Before the 1950s funerary customs were rather different, and many old people
still do not like the practices described above. Only a lama with one or two help
ers went to the disposal place in the countryside. The body was not buried but
placed on the ground in the 'lion position' and it was wrapped in cloth without
a coffin. A flat stone was the pillow. Near the head a thin pole (jodor) was stuck
in the ground with a prayer in Tibetan attached to it requesting a future life and
Nirvana for the soul. The face was not opened, no farewell words were said,
and the lama read prayers. Today (1980s), some people still try to approximate
to this tradition. To follow the law that bodies must be buried a grave is made,
but it is shallow, some 40-50 cm deep, and the body is covered with thin planks
and a scattering of earth. The idea is that all of this should quickly disintegrate.
There is no gravestone. Nothing should be left.35 Grass should cover the place
soon, so it becomes indistinguishable from the open steppe. 'We are born from

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75
land', said one man, 'and we want to fade away into the land'. It is good if w
animals and birds quickly come to devour the body. In fact, any place associa
with animals is considered auspicious for burial. So if, at the 'surveying of
land', the elders see a cow at some place, or a hare lying, they will choose t
one. It is an especially good omen if a spot can be found where a cow gave bi
to a calf, or a mare to a foal.
If it rains or snows during the burial that is considered a good omen, sin
precipitation brings growth, fertility and prosperity . The dead person in t
case is said to have been meritorious, since he brings such good things by
death. This saying in fact neatly expresses the ambiguity of all the actions
the burial ritual which seem to denote removal of the body into 'nature'. If
transformation of the body into some fertile energy is a theme from the shaman
aspect of Mongolian culture, there is also an alternative Buddhist explanati
what is 'sown' is merit and what is signified by 'growth' is the unquenchab
nature of this merit.
Conceptually, the place of disposal of the dead is not just 'nature' or 'country
side ' considered as different from the place of living (the town, the settlement, the
camp), but it also establishes, by the fact of corpses being left there, an entrance
to the 'other' world of the dead. This world is full of unseen beings, spirits, de
mons, ghosts, saints and Buddhas. Reaching this world seems to be connected
with lack of consciousness or non-intentionality.36 This is perhaps indicated by
an unceremonious custom whereby the bodies of young children were disposed
of before the law about burial. An older male relative (not the father) put the
body into a sack and tied it rather loosely to his saddle. He would gallop madly
off, and not look back when the sack fell. A similar method was, perhaps still is,
used by the Buryats of North-East Mongolia even for adults. The body was put
on a horse-cart. At the chosen place for disposal, the driver would suddenly set
off alone, whipping his horse to a frenzy, and at some point, preferably near a
cross-road, the body fell off. When the driver got home, the family would ask
him, 'What did you do with our father?' And the driver should reply, 'Gee, gee,
geesh' ('Lost, lost, lost him'). The verb gee- means to lose unintentionally or
unconsciously, as opposed to numerous terms for intentional disposal.
The return home
After a Mongolian burial there is always a circumambulation round the grave

three times in a clockwise direction. Returning home the mourners should on
no account look backwards, nor should they talk to anyone. If they are rid
ing, they spur their horses to a wild gallop. They are said to 'come back with
a black load' i.e. with nothing (xar acaa). It is good luck for other people to
meet returning mourners. According to tradition mourners would be purified
by going between two large dung-fuel fires before re-entering the encampment.
Now, even in the city, they should hold their hands over a fire, and then should

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76
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
wash their hands and face before going into the yurt. They may also use
alcohol to cleanse their hands.
At home a lavish feast is organised with as many milk products as possible.37

Fat and cream are served, but drinking much alcohol is not appropriate. The
family 'whiten their hands' (gar tsaila-) by giving little presents. Every guest
is given something, matches, needle and thread, soap, towels, notebooks, pens,
candles, tea, sweets. This is a kind of merit-making and purification combined.
Those who touched the body, who carried the corpse, and particularly the lorry
driver are given more substantial presents in money, though my informants
emphasised that these tasks are done as meritorious acts and never for money.
At the feast, the 'bone carrying person' and the lorry-driver sit at the honour
able head of the table.38
Forty-nine days after the funeral, merit is again made by 'giving alms to
children and dogs' {buyan uildex xiiiixed noxoi xoolla-). This is usually done
on the nearest Sunday to the 49th day. The children of friends, distant rela
tives and neighbours are invited round and special food is prepared for them
consisting of steamed rice with sugar, sultanas and butter. Then they are given
a normal meal. Plates of food are set out in the street for roaming dogs, with
boiled millet and giblets.
In the old days no-one would go to see the grave. It was avoided for at least
three years, as people did not want to see mangled remains. Now people do
visit on occasion, and scatter milk, grains and juniper-dust. On the seventh,
twenty-first and forty-ninth days a lama at the monastery should be asked to read
prayers for the soul of the dead. Sometimes these are very long, and therefore
expensive to pay for. The bowl with 'food' is something that is often repeatedly
given. Even many years after a death, one can see such bowls recently left at
the grave, with a lamp lit within the small model ger.
DISCUSSION
The Mongolian burial ritual - more exactly the process of 'putting out to
wilderness' - occurs almost without 'discursive' language. Barring mode
additions, such as the eulogies at the graveside, the spoken part of the r
consists either of prayers or conjurations, both of which are essentially
discursive' in nature. (Prayers are in Tibetan, which the ordinary partici
do not understand, and tarni conjurations are also unintelligible to non-initi
their performative aspect being emphasised by the action of blowing or spit
('tfuu!') which accompanies them.) Mongols are hard put to it to give a
ing to words such as xurai! (used in the 'calling in of prosperity' ritual) e
to say that this sound itself has the effect of bringing in to oneself some
that is desired. The fundamental parts of the ritual are actions involving
disposition of material things.

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77
This understanding allows us to make some points of more general int

about the relationships between people as social beings and material thin
the beginning of this paper it was suggested that a death allows us to se
relations of attachment are severed and made. Now it is clear that such relati
are not simple. The present paper has been concerned primarily with rit
death, i.e. with situations that are already subject to cultural sorting-out, a
this context the idea of processes of 'objectification' seems useful. The co
of 'objectification' as used by various authors has been analysed at leng
Miller (1987) and will not be rehearsed again here. In brief, I accept M
rejection of a dualistic distinction between objectivity and subjectivity as a
for this concept.39 In other words, it is not possible to define a subject -
as subjective individual or as a person in society - as prior to the proc
objectification. The understanding that representations, even dreams and
ries, are forms of objectification enables us to see how notions of the p
as well as those of things, are constructed by means of culture. The proc
objectification is reciprocal in that just as the social self is not understa
other than through its extemalisations, the ways in which material objects
depends on their relation to actors.
The Mongolian material allows us to explore these ideas in a particul
context, but one which may have some wider implications. The rituals of
bring to the fore some important ways in which persons and things are m
constituted by processes of objectification in this culture. Below I briefly r
six ways in which the rituals activate relations between persons and things
that a given object might participate in more than one of these relations
1. Human life in social groups is sustained by the jointly-held property

persists over generations. A dying person is divested of the last remains of
xôrôngô (familial property), especially those personal valuables he or s
become fond of. Yet, as it were in the place of this real-life xôrôngô the de
is given a symbolic equivalent, the bowl of milk products and fruits whi
seen as growing 'seeds', like xôrôngô itself. The food symbolic of 'seed
repeatedly given to the soul for years after the death. The person here is no
as a fixed, bounded entity, and the discarding of the physical body is one a
many discardings that take place while the person persists. Rather, the per
a continuous, changeable entity, sustained by other fertile flows.
2. Everyday objects used by a person, associated with the subject by pr

quity and suffused with his or her smell, are now normally abandoned at
(though the dog-eared 'bosom book' put in the shroud to accompany the
in future existence is an exception, perhaps because it is a religious text)
objects transform to become 'relics' for the living. They keep alive a s
cally personal memory of the deceased by their physical presence. In th
of a great reincarnated lama recognition of personal items of the prede
is one of the main criteria for establishing credentials as the next incarn

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CAROLINE HUMPHREY
'Why, that is my bowl', the Dilowa Khutagt remembers saying, when h

shown as a toddler the bowl of the previous incarnation, whereupon th
senger burst into tears and bowed to the ground three times before him
emphasis here is just as much on the emotional closeness of this momen
the magical suprisingness of the recognition.
3. Valuables are transformed by Buddhist ideology into representation

enchainment to this world (e.g. the glittering things which must be re
before death). Objects of desire embody weakness of character, in the
of dependence on self-gratification. In this respect, giving-up things act
and improves the self, and giving-away becomes a positively meritori
(buyan uilde-). Each time, as something is given away and simultan
benefits another, the action adds merit and thereby changes the person
are several examples of this in the burial ritual (e.g. donations to the mo
by a dying person, or 'feeding children and dogs' by the grieving family
archetypal representation of this idea is telling the rosary, which has 10
representing the 108 human attachments. It is thought that telling the
affects the state of the self, and after an enormous number of prayers the
becomes 'powerful', able to perform miracles.
The objects of attachment which are sometimes placed in the grave
as tobacco and vodka, represent the same kind of objectification, that as
the personality which takes pleasure in worldly things. The loving ones
the surviving family put them in the grave, despite the disapproval of
Buddhists, because they realise that the dead person did not achieve perf
and because to give them is an expression of the wish to give pleasure t
loved one even after death.
4. More complex is the idea that through actions in life and some kind of astro
logical conjunction an essential and involuntary relation may be created between
a person and a thing. The 'refuge thing' is an object that is not just well-used (2)
and not necessarily desirable as such (3). Yet it is not altogether detachable from
the person, and therefore it is also an object that also 'goes beyond' the category
of familiar property (1) held in stewardship. The Mongols describe this thing,
humble as it is, as simultaneously providing a shelter and is a refuge. People
are in some sense dependent on what they habitually do, they say. This is why
every soul after death has a 'refuge thing',which we might see as representing
human need. It is possible for us to understand the surviving family's rejection
of the 'refuge thing' when we see that people in kinship relations are dependent.
The ambiguity this creates, where love and duty confront need and demanding
ness, is represented in the notion of the plaguing soul, which will home in on
the 'refuge thing' as long as it remains in the ambit of the family.
The 'refuge thing' is identified with the person, but I think we can be more
precise than Lévy-Bruhl's 'mystic participation'41 of persons and objects here,
if only a little. Material things and living beings have surfaces, but they also
have interiors, which are mysterious. The soul can in theory penetrate (orshi-)

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79
an object or animal and be inside it, as noted above. The objects of use and
objects of desire both concern the surface. In the former, a patina-smell is giv
by the process of use, and the person gradually transforms the thing. In the lat
it is the glitter or some other attraction in the object which fascinates, and th
process of either giving-up or becoming more attached gradually transfor
the person. The present case of the 'refuge thing' seems to combine these
movements between person and thing, and also linguistically to imply so
sense of being inside. After all, one takes refuge or shelter in something.
truth, Mongols did not tell me that the soul penetrates the 'refuge thing',
when asked what they did think were at a loss to explain.
5. The animals cut out of paper and put in the coffin represent another asp
of the person, which we might term social characterisation. The chosen ani
symbolises the positive traits of the personality. This objectification is a r
resentation by the zurxaich astrologer on behalf of the mourners of the d
person and it contrasts with the idea of the character as given by destiny, wh
is represented in another animal, the birth-sign. In both cases Mongols say t
the dead person is Tike' (shig) the animal, but in the case of the paper mod
the character is something that has been built up by deeds. It is thus not ea
grasped as an idea about oneself, but rather is summed up (socially) by oth
as characterising the career or achievements of the dead person. This ani
model is a 'correction' (zasal) that acts upon the astrologically-given person
counterposing it with the real nature of the deceased as they lived their liv
The emblems which have very recently begun to appear on the coffin-l
of certain people are objectifications of the same type. I was told that the f
sun and moon, and arrow are symbolic characterisations of the life which
just been lived (for example, a modest scholar, devoted to his hard and mo
unsupported work of translating Manchu documents, was given an arrow o
his coffin 'because he lived his life straightly').
6. The representation of the ideal aspects of gendered activities, for examp

by the sash and saddle-cloth for a man, or the needle and thread for a wom
differs from objectification by likeness. The sash is not the equivalent of a ma
character, but rather what is essential to being a man in society. A man m
be buried with a sash, I was told. The sash as a girdle encircles the man, ho
him together, and sustains his autonomy. Women do not have this autonom
To wear a sash is to say 'I am my own person and worthy of respect'. For t
reason the sash was taken off when addressing shamanistic prayers to the S
(even by Chinggis Khan, as described in the Secret History of the Mongo
Not wearing a sash is to open oneself to penetration, not just for women,
also in the case of the shaman who calls down spirits into his body, and wh
professional costume must not have a sash. The sash is consciously given respec
always put in a high place, never laid down all unwound and anyhow, but alwa
neatly coiled up. This is like giving respect to an aspect of oneself.
The humble needle and thread which must be buried with a woman wou

82.8.73.218 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 21:46:20 +00:00
80
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
seem to have no such momentous implications. But it is a way neverthe

objectifying the whole being of a female person through a characteristic a
There is evidence of this from Western Mongolia in the way people spea
their new-born babies. Neither parents nor outsider should indicate the sex
new-born in case this information should identify the child to spirits which
harm it. So they use expressions such as 'hunting the stag', 'sewing cl
'milking the goat'.42 Putting the needle and thread in the grave is not s
meant to suggest, 'Let her sew in the next world.' (these days she may n
even sewn much in this one). Rather it is more a conventional expressio
she was a woman, and may she go on being one in the uncertain afterlif
The six kinds of mutually-constitutive relations between humans and

mentioned here certainly do not exhaust all such relations found in Mo
culture, yet they are sufficient to show that there are various distinctive n
of associations that change the content of 'persons' and 'objects' throu
tion. I have discussed ritual action here, because it is a way in which the
has sorted out and 'objectified' for itself relations that otherwise often
indistinct. This is therefore one (but of course not the only one) scenar
the understanding of the narrower, more particular relations for which th
'property' might be used.
Property is tied up with particular political and economic situation
Mongols in the early 20th century moved from a society based on theocrat
aristocratic rule, with dispersed hierarchical control of people, land and liv
to a socialist one, in which the Party and government assumed more cen
control while retaining - in completely different language - some im
aspects of the previous system (notably, communal proprietorship of la
obligatory provision of products by lower divisions to higher ones). Ar
individual and household rights in 'property' were considerably reduced
the socialist period: from the beginning it was no longer possible to bu
sell people (see note 7), it was not possible to buy or rent land,43 and tr
general was gradually taken over by cooperative and state organisations
collectivisation in the 1950s-60s herders were tied to communal organis
as firmly as they had ever been to the Banners, the vast majority of liv
were taken out of household ownership, leaving only a few animals as '
property'. With the exception of gers virtually no housing was privately
In brief we see an increased communalisation of property, and yet I arg
during the same period the changes in the rituals of death show a paralle
towards personalisation of the relations between people and material ob
To establish this point I briefly review the evidence of changes in the
rituals. At the beginning of the century, great attention was paid to be
permission for a burial from the spirit 'lords of the earth' and to the ex
of sins and impurities on the day after the funeral. The 'requesting land
for a respected lama44 involved a particularly fantastic display, including

82.8.73.218 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 21:46:20 +00:00
81
scarfs, sheep and goat skins, rosaries, tapers, coins, silk, blocks of tea,
buttons, a boar's tooth, wooden arrows, precious stones, a set of workin
patches of tiger's and bear's skin, boar and wild goat hair, conical and othe
shapes made of dough, a model tortoise and hare, and a series of five a
sculpted out of dough. All of these were intended as offerings or expia
dressed to the spirits of the land, the sky, and the four quarters. The onl
placed in the grave designated for the lama as a person was a small bag
(dried cheese, etc.). In the case of a death of an ordinary person,45 empha
given to lama's deathbed instructions about the cosmology of existence
death, to various visions the dead-one might see indicating a future re-bir
driving away of evil spirits from the corpse, the request for land, the dir
and hour of the funeral journey, the horse on which the soul would ride
lama's prayers that the soul would not be too heavily punished by exis
an animal, the dalalga ritual, and the purification rites for those returnin
In this account, there is no mention of the 'bosom book', the 'refuge th
anything put in the shroud or coffin apart from incense. Items of the de
possessions were given to the lamas in payment for their services. No mem
the family could touch or prepare the corpse (this was done by lamas),
was no rite of separation. The face was not shown at the burial and the
no eulogies, no portraits, and no gravestone. The 'yas barix"(bone car
role was shared - everyone at least touched the coffin if they did not carry
ill-effects of a death were not focussed, as in the notion of the 'refuge
but dispersed astrologically (e.g. if the dead person was born in the yea
dog or pig, it would be bad for people of the dragon or ox years). In gen
compared with the 1980s, there was more concern with a cosmological a
and a more definite rejection of the corpse as a mere polluted shell.
By contrast, the rites of the 1980s show very much greater concern fo
specific person and character of the deceased, and for the continuing a
relations with particular people among those left to mourn. At the sam
the rites demonstrate a new social recognition of a variety of personal r
with things (relations of handling and use, of desire and attachment, of ha
dependence, and so forth). Perceiving these relations enables us to und
more fully the coexistence of personal possession with communal prop
is not that notions of communal kinds of property are altogether absen
rites of death: familial property is there as something that should be g
handed on, or donated for merit to the monastery, and the deceased's r
to collective institutions is referred to in the eulogies and the flowers pre
by the work-place. The individual's link with institutional communal
is evidently seen as a passing one ceasing at death, but the familial x
property is symbolically 'replaced' by the plates of seed-like food give
death. However, looking at the whole complex of rites we see that mos
sis is given to a range of personal ties with things, links long ago made
deceased. These personal ties are not exactly opposed to communal pr

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82
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
since the intimacy between person and thing is gradually established w

objects themselves are in the category of familial property to be hande
jewellery, snuff-bottles, or indeed the funeral horse of earlier times).
less, it seems that the funeral rites themselves serve to pick out certain
standing for super-personal possessions (the 'bosom book', 'the refuge
the intimate appurtenances put in the grave, the preserved clothes), a
are one way or another taken out of the familial stock by being buried,
from further use, or given away to outsiders. It should not be supposed,
that the 'personal property' I am describing here is some bounded categ
a distinctive set of rights like 'private property'. Personal property see
an idea of gradual intensification, and many objects within familial p
are still redolent of the previous possessor.
Relations with objects are two-way, however, and I conclude with
speculations about the kinds of person produced by objectivised aspects
relations in that Mongolian world of the 1980s. There was still an im
sense of being caught up by fate47 ('Üiliin iir n' bolson bol myangan
tiisheed ch nemergiii'- 'Once fate has been set in train, the support of a
deities will not help you') and by the shifting concatenation of cosm
signs under which one was born. Fate and character were not separa
different conceptual frames48 and if astrologically-given character so
fell short of the real personality, the idea was still not discarded but r
sign was rectified by a further addition in the same animal-charact
denoted by the paper cut-out put in the grave. The astrological charac
be treated with a certain playfulness (for example, a sheep-year man m
flirtatiously to a woman, 'Bi xonio xon'- 'I'm more sheep-like than a
meaning that she should not be afraid of him), but the idea was still t
people are part of a vast network of interacting, moving elements and th
best strategy is to subordinate important decisions to its imperatives. In
of thinking, the cosmically-defined person had a more fundamental b
the socially-defined one, and consequently both communal and private
relations were in a sense encompassed and denied the kind of autonom
have in some capitalist societies (decisions about taking a new job, m
a different appartment, marriage, giving a dowry, handing over an inh
and buying and selling important items were all typical occasions for c
the zurxaich). In the funeral rituals cosmic persons were prominent (
specified that there had to be public separation of the deceased from e
and same suudal people). Yet this idea co-existed with the differently c
ties of intimacy and sentiment created in living together - it was also pa
ritual that the mother should not come to the grave because she loved to
This range between the abstractly-given relation and the intimately-p
relation is the wider sphere in which we can perceive that non-Europe
of 'property relations ', distinctive configurations of the communal and
were also created.

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83
NOTES
1 The author visited graveyards together with Mongolian friends, but did not participate
in any funeral. I am particularly grateful to B. Damdin and Choi Lubsanjav for their
explanations of the rituals and to Ernest Gellner, now sadly deceased, and U. E. Bulag
for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.
2 See Bawden 1963; 1977; 1984; Jagchid and Hyer 1979: 96-109; A. D. Kornakova,
1904; B.Rinchen, 1955
3 This information came from educated people of middle-age and of both sexes living
in the city of Ulaanbaatar. Most of them had grown up in the countryside. Although
several of them were members of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, they all
also adhered to Buddhist ideas to a greater or lesser extent.
4 See Strathern's (1997) discussion of how non-European ideas about rights, such as
those of Papua New Guinea, can illuminate discussions of property.
5Hann, 1997
6 The Buddhist missionaries among the Mongols insisted that such burial goods should
be given to the monastery instead (thus earning merit for the deceased). See Jagchid and
Hyer (1979: 103) citing the description of Hsiao Ta-heng, writing in 1594, a time when
Mongol funeral customs were beginning to change under the influence of Buddhism.
7 No such ill-fortune comes to the person who acquires it without knowing of its his
tory.
8 Miller 1987: 120
9 In the Mongol law code of 1815 wills were only allowed in the absence of direct heirs and
no heir could be appointed outside the deceased's clan. The sanction of the Banner leader
was required for all wills (Riasanovsky 1965: 134). The law of Autonomous Mongolia
in the 1920s allowed wills, oral or written, but according to Riasanovsky ( 1965:141 ) the
content 'could not run counter to custom' (inheritance by direct descendants).
10 The wife or wives, the sons, daughters, and adopted and illegitimate children. Historical
changes in the customs of allocation between these different kin positions are discussed
by Riasanovsky (1965: 134-147) and by Jagchid and Hyer (1979: 253-5).
11 Natsagdorj ( 1971 ) provides a number of example of such wills, consisting of documents
in which a household head declared to the authorities a particular disposition precisely
because it was feared that after his death the disposition would be challenged by the
heirs. For example (1971: 96-7), 'The reason for this note to you, Beise Noyon, is as
follows: I, Donorov, bought from Taiji Gomchig from Demchigjav Banner in the Dog
Year [1778] a small boy called Mônx, paying one 3-year old horse, one lang of silver,
and one adult sheep. After I bought (xudaldaj avsari) this boy he was very kind and
helpful to me compared with my own sons (tôrsôn ach) , so I offer both the boy Monx
and my sons to the administrative Noyon Damiran as 'white albat"[white subjects, i.e.
with a certain type of freedom]. Since my present body is not eternal, I am afraid that
after my death my sons will think that he is just our boy, and so this should not happen
I make this record to my Noyon. Written on the 18th day of the middle summer month
of the 46th tengeriin tetgesnii year [ 1781]' The idea here is that Donorov wants to raise
the status of Mônx from that of a bought person, the property of the family, to that of a
'white subject', the same as Donorov's own sons. The document was necessary because
the general understanding was that the sons would inherit Mônx as a family serf.
12 Asking forxôrôngô' was done with some ceremony (Ar'yaasüren and Nyambuu ( 1990:
95). A ritual scarf would be offered to the giver.

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84
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
13 This idea is very old and documented from the 13 th century Secret History o
gols, which records how Chinggis Khan divided his property (in this case app
people) by shares among his family. Jagchid and Hyer (1979: 252-3) discuss th
of shares through Mongolian history.
14 Riasanovsky 1965: 139
15 Mostaert, 1969: 59
16 Mostaert, 1969: 21
17 For the comparable Tibetan system see Ekvall, 1964: 251-82
18 A well-known Mongol saying is, Xiin axtai, deel zaxtai (people have seniors
have collars).
19 Other more euphemistic or honorific terms current in the 1980s were: nas
finish age), nas nôgchix (to pass age), odd bolox (to rise up), burxan bolox (
a deity).
20 Also called taliigaach (the one who has gone) and, honorifically, sharil, a word which
refers usually to the sacred remains of highly respected people such as lamas.
21 According to Ar'yaasüren and Nyambuu (1990: 65) a very powerful person (ix erxem
xiin) is laid neither in the position of a man nor that or a women but across the centre. This
seems to be an innovation of the socialist era, since it removes the possibility of placing
the body directionally towards the north, to be received by the gods in the north.
22 The exact disposition of the body in the lion position may vary from place to place.
For a detailed description, see Kornakova 1904 and Smolev 1900.
23 See Bawden 1977: 31 for a brief description of this practice. In Ulaanbaatar in the
1920s and 30s people were laid to rest in the way at the area behind the present Pioneer
Palace.
24 The use of the antelope horn and other elaborate rites to propitiate the lords of the earth
at the beginning of the century are described in Kornakova (1904).
25 Vyatkina, 1960:256
26 To be buried with abundant hair is considered ' bad ' (muu gedeg). People gave me various
reasons for this idea: that hair might impede the soul leaving, that hair grows after death,
and that without hair a body is easier for wild animals to eat. The idea also seems to be
associated with Buddhist relinquishment of the material world, since I was told that B.
Rinchen, the well-known scholar, requested to be buried with his moustache intact and
that this was because he was a believer in shamanism rather than Buddhism.
27 The soyombo is said to have been invented in the 17th century by Ôndôr Gegeen
Dzanabazar, the first head of the Buddhist Church in Halh Mongolia, and he is also said
to have made up an entire alphabet from its signs.
28 Rinchen, 1958
29 Kornakova 1904; Smolev 1900
30 In the city this may be only a few steps, but in the countryside the cortege may go a
considerable distance in the 'right' direction.
31 According to Ar'yaasüren and Nyambuu (1990: 128) the 'bone carrying person' wore
his clothes in this fashion (i.e. contrary to the normal cosmological orientation for this
objects) because it was thought that he would meet the deceased in the 'other world'.
32 Ar'yaasüren and Nyambuu, 1990: 67
33 It is possible to buy juniper powder from the Burial Registration Office, but this is
not empowered.
34 Some people, who perhaps felt uneasy with the idea of a returning soul in the socialist
age, said that the small model ger is put on the grave only to provide protection from
the wind for a burning lamp.

82.8.73.218 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 21:46:20 +00:00
85
33 Several sources (see Ar'yaasiiren and Nyambuu 1990: 85) document the cus
previous centuries whereby Mongols rode horses backwards and forwards over
site to flatten it so that it would soon appear no different from the surrounding st
36 For discussion see Vasilewski, 1980
37 According to Ar'yaasiiren and Nyambuu (1990: 68) this feast is called gashuu
budaalga, the feast to assuage the grief.
38 According to Ar'yaasiiren and Nyambuu (1990: 68) a photo of the deceased m
set up with a lamp burning before it, and this is 'as if the loved person's bright
were alive'.
39 Miller, 1987:65
40 Lattimore and Isono, 1982: 146
41 Levy Bruhl, 1966
42 Szynkiewicz, 1982, 236
43 In the 1920s land could be rented, but only to foreigners (Riasanovsky 1965: 139).
44 Kornakova (1904) and Smolev (1900) both describe funerary rites among the south
ernmost Buryats living just north of the Mongolian border. Unfortunately I have been
unable to find accounts in comparable detail of Halh Mongolian rituals of the period,
but the two cultures at that time were very similar. Kornakov's description is particularly
valuable, as she knew the people involved, herself participated herself in the rites, and
provides dozens of illustrations of the ritual paraphernalia.
45 Smolev, 1900
46 This horse belonged to the deceased. It was not killed, as had been the earlier custom
in Mongol regions. It was saddled and tied to a post near the yurt with its face towards
the southwest, where the land of the dead was said to be. As soon as the coffin was taken
out of the ger for its journey to the grave, the horse was unsaddled (perhaps a soul rides
bareback?) and the saddle was given to the lama as payment. The horse was driven off,
taking the soul away far into the steppes. After the 49th day the horse was retreived and
given to the monastery (Smolev, 1900).
47 The term for 'fate' in this expression, üiliin ür, literally means the fruits of action, a
Mongolian translation of the idea of karma. The 'fruits' (ür) in this case are also the
'seeds' of future happenings.
48 See the discussion by Benjamin ([ 1919] 1979) of the relation between fate and character
in European thought. Benjamin writes that we (Europeans) regard fate and character
as causally connected, character being the cause of fate. Or rather, since we no longer
believe in fate (or if we do, we think it is not knowable), character and fate coincide.
As Nietzche said, 'If a man has character, he has an experience that constantly recurs',
which means that if he has character his fate is essentially constant. This implies that he
has no fate (1979: 125-6). In Mongolian thought, such a line of argument accords with
the concept of üiliin ür, see note 29, but it is subverted by the simultaneous presence of
the zurxai astrology.
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a Mongol Buddhist Reincarnation in Religion and Revolution, Otto Harra
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Press, Cambridge, Mass.
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Rinchen, B. 1955, 'Les échecs et le deuil chez les Mongols', Archiv Orientalni, tome
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Rituals of Death in Mongolia: Their Implications for Understanding the Mutual

Constitution of Persons and Objects and Certain Concepts of Property

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23615479

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Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit

This article provides an ethnographic description of burial rituals in Ulaanba

Inner Asia 1 (1999): 59-86

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terrible event. In Buddhist thinking it is a reprise of earlier deaths, and fo

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British newspaper of a small boy given a train-set for Christmas. Bu

Unfortunately, the particular division most often invoked in contemporary political

Miller goes on to make a distinction between private property and what he

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human kin relations created over generations, and probably associated

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in some ways supported, Mongolian notions of socially generic perso

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A DESCRIPTION OF THE MONGOL RITUALS OF DEATH

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The soul (siins)

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Requesting land (gazar guyu-)

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In Ulaanbaatar, Mongols are buried in five cemeteries, three large ones t

Joining and separation

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Preparation of the corpse

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should lie on a saddle-cloth, an object characteristic of the ideal male (er

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of a series of emblems each of which has a separate meaning. The sun an

The corpse is 'put out to the countryside' (gargax xôdôôliiiile-), an exp

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The return home

After a Mongolian burial there is always a circumambulation round the grave

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At home a lavish feast is organised with as many milk products as possible.37

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This understanding allows us to make some points of more general int

1. Human life in social groups is sustained by the jointly-held property

2. Everyday objects used by a person, associated with the subject by pr

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'Why, that is my bowl', the Dilowa Khutagt remembers saying, when h

3. Valuables are transformed by Buddhist ideology into representation

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6. The representation of the ideal aspects of gendered activities, for examp

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seem to have no such momentous implications. But it is a way neverthe

The six kinds of mutually-constitutive relations between humans and

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This content downloaded from

since the intimacy between person and thing is gradually established w

This content downloaded from

This content downloaded from

This content downloaded from

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Bawden,C.R. 1977, 'A note on a Mongolian burial rituals' ,Studia Orientalia (

Mostaert, A. \969, Manual of Mongolian Astrology and Divination,Harvard University