20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

486 Alicia Campislept on kang 20 beds holding fifteen to twenty people, although they didretain their Mongol national hairstyle of long braids. 21 He also witnessedthe evangelizing of foreign Roman Catholic missions among the Chahars.Further into his travels he met Djungarian Ordos Mongols who alsowere very sinified, did not live in gers, dressed like Chinese, and yetstill preserved their Mongol hairstyles and ornaments. These people, heclaimed, were “much less demoralized than the Chahar.” In this region theMongols drank milk tea and ate millet, but not Tibetan tsambe [tsampa] 22(as he saw Koko-nor Mongols eat on his first journey), cheese and sourmilk. Despite their sinification, ROCKHILL reported that these Mongolsresented being called “Ta-Tzu” by the Chinese, and called themselves inChinese “Meng-gu”. 23ROCKHILL described the seven clans – Djungar, Talat, Wang, Ottok,Djassak, Wushun, and Hangkin – making up the Ordos Mongols, the tribewhich had the special duty to protect the camp or ordu of Chinggis Khan andwere led by a chief called Djungar Ta. The Hangkin was the westernmostOrdos clan on the territory of Prince Alashan. ROCKHILL saw there wereChristians among the Ottok Mongols in the area, as well as some Mongolswho were Muslim. He visited the tomb of Monsignor de Voos [de Vos] 24 ,the First Catholic Bishop of Ordos, who had died in 1888. ROCKHILL’sDiary includes many colorful vignettes, such as passing a group of Mongolswarming themselves with lit dry dung on the end of a pointed stick oneJanuary day 25 and coming upon drunken Mongols riding camels! 26ROCKHILL visited the village of T’eng-k’ou (Tungor), which some(although not ROCKHILL) have supposed to be Prester John’s capital. 2720A kang is a long (2 meters or more) sleeping platform made of bricks or otherforms of fired clay. Its interior cavity, leading to a flue, channels the exhaust from a woodor coal stove used in Chinese and Inner Mongolian homes.21ROCKHILL, Diary, 9-10.22Tsambe or tsampa, the Tibetan staple of travelers and nomads, consists of roastedflour usually mixed with Tibetan salted butter tea. The doughy paste is broken off androlled in small balls for consumption.23That is “Mongols,” Diary, 19.24Alphonse De Vos, a Belgian Roman Catholic Missionary (Congr. Imm. CordisB.M.V. de Scheutveld) in the Western-Southern Mongolia Vicariate, who died July21, 1888. Henri Cordier, New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume X, “Mongolia”(New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911). See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10479b.htm.25ROCKHILL, Diary, 35.26Ibidem, 37-38.27A legendary Christian king, descendant of the Three Magi, said to rule over aChristian people in the Asian heartland. This story was popular in 12-17 th century Europe.