Dulduityn Rawjaah

Dulduityn Rawdschaa ( Mongolian Дулдуйтын Равжаа ; also: Danzanrawdschaa , Данзанравжаа ; * 1803 ; † January 1856 ) was a Mongolian writer and is considered a national poet of the Mongols .

Life

Ravjaa was born the son of an impoverished and begging cattle herder. He lost his mother early, so that his father had to raise him alone at first. At the age of six he gave the boy to a monastery as a novice , where he was soon distinguished by his quick comprehension and versatile talents.

As a red-cap lama , he belonged to the older, unreformed Lamaism, which was not very widespread in Mongolia. Less out of touch with life than the newer school of Lamaism, it was not bound by celibacy. Despite some restrictions, Rawdschaa led a very secular life, which not only earned him friends in the clergy and the nickname “drinker of the Gobi”.

As an adolescent he received the high spiritual dignity as a born again and the title of 5th Nojon Chutagt of the Gobi. In addition to a thorough theological training, he acquired excellent knowledge of Indian and Tibetan poetics as well as Mongolian literature. The unsteady Rawdschaa, not an unworldly clergyman and poet, traveled almost all of Mongolia. He founded and visited numerous monasteries to teach there.

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What makes Rawdschaa's extensive poetic work, some of which he wrote in the Tibetan language , stand out from that of his predecessors is, on the one hand, the closeness to the popular, especially in his songs, which spread quickly and are still popular today, and, on the other hand, the secular, often quite personal tone in many of his didactic poems ( Surgaal ), in which he overcame the rigid didactic trajectory of religious poetry (including the paper bird ). He became the first outstanding lyric poet of Mongolian literature, especially with his love poetry and nature poetry, which is characterized by a deep love of his homeland.

Living in a time of still solid social and religious structures, his sometimes accusatory criticism was not directed against the basic pillars of the feudal system , but against the " bad qualities " of human beings, including members of the secular and spiritual nobility and himself (including "Schande, Schande", excerpt German 1972). His didactic poems reach philosophical depth and often have a resigned tone (including "The course of the woman's world", excerpt from German 1972).

Rawdschaa can be described as an enlightener under the conditions of Mongolian nomad feudalism . He propagated humanistic values ​​such as tolerance and respect for national traditions. In order to promote education, he opened a school for boys and girls under the name “Temple of the Children”, which had not existed in Mongolia before. There they received extensive practical training. On his travels, Rawdschaa distributed donations and medicine, examined patients and performed at festivals.

Aftermath

Rawdschaa owned a unique collection of manuscripts and relics , which he showed at exhibitions and which can now be viewed in part in the main monastery of Rawdschaas in the East Gobi Aimag of Mongolia, which was rebuilt after 1990.

Not only the high level of oral and written tradition speaks for the rapid spread of his secular poems and especially the songs among the common people. There were also numerous anecdotes about the personality of the clergyman and his unusual life.

It was not until 1962 that an edition of Rawdschaa's works could be published by Tsendiin Damdinsüren . It was also he and his team who rediscovered the first Mongolian play, Rawdschaa's “History of the Moon Cuckoo” (1832). Based on the material of an old Indian legend, Rawdschaa created the Singspiel vom Mondkuckuck, for which he also wrote the music and which he had performed himself. With this play a first step on the way to a national theater was taken, which was only continued a hundred years later.

Today, Rawdschaa is regarded as a classic and, alongside Daschdordschiin Natsagdordsch, as the national poet of the Mongols .

Translations

• in: Walther Heissig, History of Mongolian Literature, Vol. 1 / 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Wiesbaden 1972
• in: Klaus Oehmichen, Mongolische Lyrik, Mongolische Notizen, issue 18/2009
• in: The times move under the Eternal Sky. A pearl necklace from Mongolian poetry, Leipzig 2014

literature

• Walther Heissig, ibid.
• Walther Heissig, Qutugtu Rabjai (Rawdschaa), Der Papierdrache, in: Kindlers new Literature Lexicon (study edition), Vol. 13, Munich 1996
• in: Klaus Oehmichen, Thoughts on five central figures in Mongolian history and culture, Mongolian Notes, issue 16/2007

Web links

• In the footsteps of the Fifth Wild Holy Gobi Prince (PDF; 375 kB)

Mongolian name: As is customary in Mongolia, in this article the patronymic is in the genitive case before the proper name. Thus Dulduit is the patronymic , Rawdschaa the proper name. The person is addressed with their proper name.