The Dog of Heaven

Hatagim Gotovin AKIM

Trutbs and Myths of Blue Mongolia’s Blue Wolf

Translated from the Mongolian by Hargana G.Dashdavaa

Edited by Ming Holden

In loving memory of the precious life of my son Hatagin Baasandorj

All photos Hatagin Go.Akim

ISBN 978-99929-879-5-2

Ulaanbaatar 2008

Author’s Note

This book is the joint work of Mongols. I dared call myself the writer because I collected all accessible stories, myths and legends about wolves and composed one manuscript of the compilation. I pay tribute to all of scientists, researchers, herders and hunters who contributed to this book.

I would like to pay tribute to the translator G.Dashdavaa and to Ming Holden, a poet and editor, for translating my book into English, thus making it accessible to Western readers.

Also I would like to pay tribute to Mr William S.Infante, Mongolia’s Country Representative of the Asia Foundation, for the publication of my book in English.

Hatagin Go.Akim

The creation of this book is a result of contemplation, search for the reasons behind the argument, the reconciliation, the revenge, and the forgiveness harbored in the interdependence of nature-and between existence and non-existence.

I wonder at the genius of my ancestors, who knew to attribute animals to the eart white extolling them as heavenly. The heavenly animals called wolf, unable to tolerate the chain even with a bowl of ready food at the end of it, but instead determined to risk free life, has an inborn willpower, a laste for blood, and passion for milk. This is a prodigious trilogy, which makes the search for solution undridled.

I wonder at the genius of my ancestors, who knew to attribute animals to the earth white extolling them as heavenly. I am envious of the wolf’s skill and courage, either adroitly escaping or bravely dying in challenges to the dangers that await it at every step.

A man, the King of Earth, who follows the way of the Dog of Heaven might Learn a useful lesson.

Akim has written a book of revelation.

No Animal Conquers Its Female With As Much Courage As The Wolf

Like a wolf possessing its bitch

/common Mongolian simile/

As begin fairy tales

Before going to sleep,

Before beginning a new chapter,

Let’s hear another tale about the wolf.

Once upon a time there were two brothers. They had one wife between them. When one of the brothers was having intercourse with the wife, he would leave a boot outside the ger as a signal to the other brother. One night the younger brother was having intercourse with the wife, and the wolf who terrorized their livestock absconded with the boot left outside the ger. The older brother also desired the wife that night, and be approached the ger, where there was no boot. He came in, where his brother was copulating with their wife, and all three of them panicked in shame. The two brothers came to the god and told the gad their story. The god decided that since the wolf had tormented the brothers during copulation that the wolf should be tormented during copulation that the wolf should be tormented during copulation as punishment. Thus began the suffering of wolves during copulation.