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A Goat AS BUDDHA’S THRONE: THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE IN MONGOLIAN RIDDLES cause Buddha is sitting upon it). The ‘bandy legs’ refers to the goat and to the throne with the shape of the legs, how they curve in and then out.'4 The association ofa lowly livestock animal, a goat, with the deity-realm may at first seem like the collusion of two completely unrelated categories, but in the cosmology of the Mongolian nomad, is anything but. In the following riddle, the role of offering bowls placed upon an altar is compared to the camel caravan of a lama: I aBbok JIAMBIH T3M33 TaHnuxan 3aMaap NyBHa — Taxum epex!? The camels of Lama Gaw’j Proceed in a single straight line — offerings arranged [on altar] The title 2aebac is a misspelling or variant of zaexc, a monk who has obtained the equivalent of a PhD (having passed the examination of Tib. dka”bcu, ‘the ten difficult things’). The plural has clearly been elided in the singular use of maum33 (camel). The ‘single straight line’ refers to the row of offering bowls. (The verb epex designates arranging objects in a line.) Placing the offering bowls (usually containing water or fresh grains), or oil lamps before the Buddha (bypxanoı emne) in a single row creates a visual effect similar to that of the camel caravan. The rounded bumps of the grain offerings (as each bowl must be as full as possible to symbolize the abundance of the offerings) also visually allude to the humps of the Bactrian camels that were often used for transport in Mongolia. The reference to the animals as ‘Lama Gaw’j’s camels’ is quite affectionate and humorous. What is also interesting in the riddle is the manner in which movement is superimposed onto a static situation, a quality which characteristic of many of these riddles — the inversion of movement and motionlessness.'” Goats are often associated with noble bearing and dignity in the imagination of nomads. Lubsandorj, for example, recalled a legend about the s#eup (mountain goat): There is an old goat, and the time has come to die. The goat wonders how it should die. It stands on a high cliff, and then falls into the valley below. There is also a very well-known poem related to this theme by AsxyyxysaH entitled Taxutin 302coon (‘The Mountain Goat’s Station’). Consultation 2014. Jlozop, I. — Oxsuiixytar, L.: Moneon apdvin onBcoeo masaap, p. 252. 16 Kara, György: Mongol-Magyar szötär. Terebess Kiadö, Budapest 1998, p. 95; Chandra-Das, S.: A Tibetan-English Dictionary. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 2004, p. 50. For an analysis of movement in Mongolian folkloric story-telling within the Deleuzian context of ‘nomadic narrative,’ see Mulzet, O. (Mikos, R.): Introduction to the Legend of Mother Green Tara. In: http:// www.almostisland.com/spring 2014/special issue the past/introduction to the legend of mother_ green_tara.html. Retrieved November 11, 2017. 153
