Documentary Description
During Spring, a family of nomadic shepherds assists the births of
their camel herd. The last camel to calve this season has a protracted
labor that persists for two days. With the assistance and intervention
of the family, a rare white calf is born. This is her first calving.
Despite the efforts of the shepherds, the mother rejects the newborn,
refusing it her milk and fails to establish a care-bond with it.
To restore harmony between the mother and calf, the nomadic family
call upon the services of group of lamas who perform a ritual with bread
or dough ‘effigies’ (Tibetan: torma) of the mother, the calf and the
individual members of the family. The rite opens with the sound of a
sacred conchshell horn followed by bells in the hands of lamas, some of
whom wield ‘vajra’ (Sanskrit). The rite takes place with members of the
extended nomadic community and a number of lama at a sacred place that
consists of one end of a log, or wooden pole, set in the earth, with the
other end raised to the sky: a stylized ‘victory banner’ (Sanskrit:
Dhvaja) with a piece of blue fabric entwined around it, functioning as a
prayer flag (darchor-style). The log is supported by a cairn of rocks
at its base as foundation. The ritual does not re-establish harmony
between the mother and calf.
The family then resolve to secure the services of an indigenous
‘violinist’ to play the music for a Mongolian ‘Hoos’ ritual. They send
their two young boys on a journey through the desert to the community
marketplace to locate a musician. The ‘violinist’ –who plays more
precisely, a Morin Khuur– is summoned to the camp and a ritual of folk
music and chanting is enacted. The musician first drapes the morin khuur
on the first hump of the camel to establish a sympathetic magical
linkage between the mother and the state of harmony represented by the
instrument. Then once this is done removes the instrument and commences
to play. As the musician sounds the Mongolian ‘violin’, the female
family member who lulled her child to sleep with a lullaby earlier in
the documentary, repeatedly entones the calming sounds and beautiful
melody of the ‘hoos’. At this point, the mother camel starts to weep,
tears visibly streaming from her eyes. Immediately after the rite the
mother and calf are reconciled and the calf draws milk from her teat.
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