The Mongolian Dog as an Intimate ‘Other’

Abstract

For Mongols their dogs are the most intimate and loveable animals. Dogs also have an important symbolic significance for their owners. Therefore, beating or killing dogs is considered a sin. As a dog’s feeding bowl is considered to be a ‘circle of abundance’, (hishgiin hüree), it is forbidden to step over it. However, dogs are also believed to be a source of pollution and danger. Hence they are kept out of the Mongolian tent (ger) and treated as inferiors. Their feeding bowls see only leftovers. In this article, I examine the reasons for this apparently contradictory treatment of dogs in Mongolia by appealing to traditional cosmology.