Thursday, May 10, 2012

G.Mend-Ooyo's new novel, The Holy One



G.Mend-Ooyo's new novel, The Holy One, tells the story of the nineteenth century poet, educator and spiritual teacher, the Noton Hutagt Danzanravjaa (1803-1856), and of his realisation of, and how he expressed, the secret wisdom in the teaching and practise of the historical Buddha and his descendents.
The novel also deals with the extremely difficult period during the late 1930s when, with the Mongol government persecuting monastics and intellectuals, the man who was in charge of protecting Danzanravjaa's memory and his cultural and material possessions, O.Tüdev, sought to protect this heritage against its destruction by the state.
The Holy One also reveals how Danzanravjaa's life speaks to Mongol intellectual culture and the nomadic tradition of the Gobi area in which he lived, and how this tradition is an expression of the land and the environment in which he lived.

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G.Mend-Ooyo has written many books of poetry, narrative fiction, articles and academic papers, and these have been translated into some forty languages.  One of his most important volumes, Altan Ovoo, has gone through four editions, being published in 1993, 2002, 2007 and 2010, and is now available in English translation.
Mend-Ooyo has also written several books which, like his latest, The Holy One, deal with spiritual themes, including The One Who Opens the Eye of Wisdom (1996)  and The Golden Annals of Altan Ovoo (2008).  Working with the French author Patrick Fischmann, Mend-Ooyo has produced a book of Mongol folk stories, now available in French translation, and published in Paris.

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