Premier children’s writer from Mongolia to attend U.S. writers’ conference

Tales of early success, communism and an ox cart

By TOM KANE

NARROWSBURG, NY — Dashdondog Jamba, besides being Mongolia’s most renowned writer of children’s stories, has to like his job more than anyone else, not only in Mongolia, but in the world.

I learned about this extraordinary man in an interview—conducted in Russian—last week at the Main Street Café in Narrowsburg.

The Mongolian author has been brought to the United States by Highlights For Children, a national publisher of children’s literature with headquarters in Honesdale, PA to attend the publisher’s annual writers’ conference held in Chautauqua, NY.

Barry Rubin of Beach Lake, who is fluent in Russian, acted as interpreter since the author had learned Russian during the Russian Communist era. During the period of subjugation, all books in the country were written in Russian. Even though the Russian communists are gone, books in the country are written in Mongolian, using the Russian alphabet.

When he was 17, Dashdondog had his book of children’s stories published by the Communist authorities. The publication of a book by one so young was a first in that country. Since the appearance of this first work, he went on to write 50 books for children, along with 60 verses.

But that’s not the end of the story. The exciting part of the story began after the overthrow of the Communist government.

“I realized that there were no books for children anywhere in the country that were free of Communist propaganda,” he said. “Also, there were no schools or libraries that possessed good children’s literature. So, I decided to publish as many of my books as I could afford and began to take them around the country. I also translated other author’s books and added them to the mobile library.”

It’s important to know that Mongolia is a very rural, mountainous country with only one major city?Ulan Bator. The rest of the country is made up of small towns, hamlets and villages amid high mountains.

“I bought an ox cart and began taking my books out into the country where most of the children lived,” he said. Since the books were short, the children could read them quickly. “I couldn’t leave the book behind because I had only a limited supply, so I would spend a few days where there were a lot of children.”

This was his routine for a number of years and when he married, his wife, a librarian, accompanied him on his treks.

When a Japanese television network learned of his efforts, they came to Mongolia and did a story for the nightly news. Some Japanese viewers were so impressed that they bought a Japanese minibus and sent it to him to help him make his rounds in more comfort.

“I gave up the ox and the camel, which I also used,” he said. One problem, however, persisted. The minibus would get stuck in the snow, which rarely happened with the ox or the camel.

“Now, I have a tractor to pull me when we get stuck,” he said.

His fame spread far and wide, even to America where, he brags, First Lady Laura Bush read one of his stories and was reputed to have cried after reading it.

Many of his stories and poems have been put to song and even made into movies and plays that have been staged in the main theaters of Mongolia.

At the moment, Dashdondog is concerned with communicating with his English-speaking counterparts at the upcoming writers’ conference.

“I hope they can find a Russian,” he said.