Chapter 32: Doyod
Doyod is a fifteen year old herder boy with tanned brown skin and black hair. He was born in the Tuvan tribe which is located at the north side of lake Buir.
When he was three years old he learned how to ride a horse. And when he was eight years old, he learned how to read from his uncle who is the tribe leader.
At that time when Doyod learned how to ride, many of his tribesmen praised him as a genius. Unfortunately for nomads, books are rare as phoenix feathers. For a long journey, books take a huge load therefore nomads avoid creating many books. Instead they pass their knowledge from father to son verbally. Therefore, learning how to read is not an important skill for the nomads.
For Mongolias, how to ride a horse and how to shoot arrows accurately is the best skill you should attain while you are young. If you are a good archer, if you have your own family then you would have the skill to hunt animals and bring food back.
But for Doyod instead of hunting and riding a horse reading was a joyful thing he would cherish. On his tenth birthday, Doyod's father has given him a new book that he purchased from a passing merchant. The book is named Heart Sutra a Buddhist scripture about stories about the Buddha and his disciples. At first, Doyod didn't understand the true meaning of the book, but when he read it again and again he would somehow understand the underlying meaning of what the Buddha was about to say.
Usually children at Doyod's age plays as becoming archers and shoot arrows at a dried and rolled sheep skin target. Occasionally, Doyod would join his comrades and shoot arrows to find who is the best archer. But deep in his heart, Doyod knows that becoming a warrior is not his true dream. Instead, secretly he wishes to find another book to read and immerse into the story.
Days passed, seasons changed. It was just an ordinary day, just like the other years. Compared to the previous year, this winter is a bit warmer. For Doyod, he didn't know that his long awaited source of books was coming. One fateful day, it all started when a group of Khereit soldiers passed through their settlement. A self acclaimed Messenger of Tenger forced us to succumb and yield. My parents reminded me to keep a low profile again and again. If we offend the Messenger of Tenger, we would be punished by the tenger and be struck by lightning. At night, my father was worried that the Khereit tribesmen would rob our living stocks and take away our women. He stood awake all night to guard the ger and protect me and my mother. Different than my father's expectation, the expected robbery and rape never happened. Instead the Messenger of Tenger's troops were as calm as a river and loyal as a dog. The only thing they urged us was to migrate to a new location. Whenever we pass through a new settlement, they would subdue the people.
Finally, when we reached the basin of river Shilka, all children under the age of 16 were forced to learn from teacher Bator. My comrades who know nothing but fight all had a harsh reprimands from teacher Bator. After a few days they resisted and nagged their parents to not let them go to teacher Bator. Some would fake to have fever and stay at their ger. But when teacher Bator found out they have faked to be ill, they were beaten almost to death and soon they would never miss a session anymore.
At first teacher Bator would check our literature level and give us assignments based on our level. But today is a bit different.
"Doyod, after the session, please head to Messenger of Tenger's ger. He asked me to send a children who is literate." inquired teacher Bator from me.
'What? The Messenger of Tenger wants to meet me?' I was terrified. Even though the Messenger of Tenger is young and not many years older than me, he commands almost fix hundred troops and is a holy deity.
My heart pumped blood rapidly. I didn't know how I reached the door of his ger, but I am standing in front of his ger at the moment.
Two guards looked down at me with a bit mockery.
"Boy, do you know whose ger this is?" asked a Guard with a bit of mockery.
With a weak voice I replied. "Um. Teacher Bator.. Teacher Bator..." nothing could come out from my throat. Damn. If I knew i was this timid, I should have done hunting with my comrades before.
"Let the boy enter the ger." said a young man from inside the ger.
"Yes my lord." replied the previous guard who was mocking me. With shaking hands I pulled the door and opened it.
When I entered the ger, I kneeled down and said. "Doyod, I pay greetings to the Messenger of Tenger"
'At least, this was a decent greeting. I believe the messenger of Tenger had a good first impression about me' I thought inwardly.
"Oh you may get up. Don't be too polite.Please sit in front of me" instructed the messenger of Tenger.
'Argh! Of course, who would like a bootlicker! I was too obvious and too respectful to him. Of course, he noticed that I was trying to make a good impression to him. He is the Messenger of tenger' I thought with intense regret and bit of a shame. With stiff body movements I stood up and sat down in front of the Messenger of Tenger.
In front of me, the Messenger of Tenger was a young man with white teeth and a big smile.
"Ah! That should be more comfortable. Would you like to drink some tea?" asked the messenger of Tenger and poured me some black tea.
"Thank you messenger of Tenger!" I replied and took the cup with black tea. With a deep breath I blowed to the cup and took a sip from the tea.
"You must be wondering why I summoned you here." said the Messenger of Tenger with calm tone.
"Ah. Yes. Teacher Bator asked me to come here after the session but he didn't tell me why you have summoned me my lord" I replied with a weak voice.
"I heard that you liked to read books. Is it corerct?" asked the Messenger of tenger while he raised one of his brows.
"Yes My lord." I replied.
"Good! Then I this is my question. What is your dream? What would you like to become?" asked the messenger of Tenger from me.
'What is my dream? What would I like to become? What a strange question. The answer is obvious. To have a beautiful wife and have many livingstock are all Mongolians dream...' I thought with a sense of surprise and was about to reply.
Upon seeing the gaze of the Messenger of Tenger, however I realized that having a beautiful wife and having many living stock is not my dream but the dream or must to be status which was installed into my mind by my tribesmen.
'Wait!' I should not hurry. What is my true dream?' I thought, I thought about my yearning of books, my thirst of knowledge that I had so many years. The nights I dreamed about having a new book and only to find it was a dream in the morning.
"My lord. My dream is to read new books." I replied.
"Reading new books? What a simple dream. Then who would you like to become?" asked the Messenger of Tenger with a hint of curiousity in his tone.
"My father once told me a story about a passing merchant to me. In the story, there is a country called Western Xia and there is a place called Palace. In the Palace there is the king and many beautiful women. The king has many knowledgeable officials and they are loyal to them. If I have the chance, I want to become an official at the Palace of the Western Xia."I replied without thinking much. I truly had a dream to become an official at the Western Xia kingdom.
"Hahahaha! Becoming an government official at the Western Xia? That is a truly absurd dream. If I create a government, then would you become my government official?" asked the Messenger of Tenger from me.
'Damn. Why am I this stupid! Ofcourse, the Messenger of Tenger should be able to know where Western Xia is and is testing my loyalty. I should have answered differently.' I wanted to hit my stupid head for answering like an idiot.
"My lord. I apologize, but. I you create a palace I would definetely become your official" I lowered my head and bowed.
"Then. It is decided. From now on, I will teach you. When other batch of students learn literature, I will make a group of students and teach them various topics from Mathematics, Social science, Physics and Chemistry. Depending on your talent, I will appoint you at a position at my Tengeriin Uls in the future. So from now on, you are freed from the sessions at Bator, but you are only to attend my sessions." instructed the Messenger of Tenger.
"Mathematics, Social Science, Physics and Chemistry...." I mumbled in my mouth.
'The words flowed out from the Messenger of Tenger was in Mongolian, but somehow I couldn't understand the meaning of what he has said if I make the words into a sentence.
'Idiot! He said something about he wants to teach me! Hurry up! Stand up and pay respect to the Messenger of the Tenger!' lightning alike nerve struck my body. I hurriedly stood up and took my position.
"I bow to you deity, I bow to your wisdom, and I bow to you as my teacher!" I stood up and kowtowed to the Messenger of Tenger three times.
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