Namdag: The Prince’s Astrologer/Nojony dzurchajč Namdag

The monograph describes the traces of recollection in local oral memory left by the life and work of a significant figure in northwestern Mongolia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Toǰin Namdag (1893–1938). T. Namdag was a Buddhist monk, mathematician, astrologer, and counsellor to Prince Sodnomǰamtsoi, one of the most influential representatives of the Dörwöd Mongolian nobility. The author draws on ancestral oral tradition recorded during fieldwork, as well as upon in-depth research of documents found in local and central archives. Namdag’s life was tragically cut short due to the political show trials and the anti-religious repression of the late 1930s, and as such, echoes many other similar fates that were forgotten or neglected by official history.