The Land of the Camel - Tents and Temples of Inner Mongolia

Schuyler Cammann

• Publisher: Garnsey Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781406728194
  9781443724333
• eBook ISBN:
  9781473381834
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

This book describes western Inner Mongolia in 1945. For almost nine years this region had been cut off by hostilities with the Japanese, which began there in 1936, and it will probably be a very long time before any American can get there again. Even before the war it was little known, as the distance from the China coast had prevented foreign contacts, except for a handful of missionaries. The war years had brought marked changes to Inner Mongolia, accelerating the exploitation, terrorization, and dispossession of the Mongols which the Chinese had begun some forty years before. Enough Mongols were still living there, however, to enable us to see and share their life in tents and temples, after the end of the war brought us leisure from other activities. It seemed important to write down what we saw of their strange customs and complex religion, as well as to describe the forces that were undermining their old traditions and their way of life. Thus this is primarily an account of the Mongols we met, and their opponents among the immigrant settlers and border officials. But it would not present a complete picture of the region if it did not also describe the semifeudal realm of the Belgian missionary fathers, which has now passed into history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Contents
• Illustrations
• 1 First Impressions of Mongolia
• 2 Crossing the Ordos
• 3 The Great Plain
• 4 Camp Life and Recreation
• 5 Farmers of the Great Plain
• 6 The Victory in Shanpa
• 7 Our First Lamasery
• 8 The Mongols at Home
• 9 Meeting Dunguerbo
• 10 The Living Buddha of Shandagu
• 11 Ch’ien-li Temple, Pride of the Oirats
• 12 More Lama Personalities
• 13 Mongol Festival
• 14 Down the Range to Dabatu Pass
• 15 Temple in the Gobi
• 16 Dunguerbo and His Family
• 17 The Journey to Ago-in Sume
• 18 Temple of the Antelope Cave
• 19 Last Days in Shanpa
• 20 Lo-pei Chao
• 21 South by Camel
• 22 Ninghsia Interlude
• 23 The Second Camel Trip
• 24 Leaving the Ordos
• Index