What is the ‘coaxing ritual for camel calves?’ Well, for those of you who haven’t seen the Tale of the Weeping Camel …

Spring in Mongolia is a hard time of year – especially in the Gobi. Mother animals give birth to their young in a harsh and dusty environment and there is a big risk of losing a mother or a calf.

Mongols have a variety of rituals relating to husbandry in traditional Mongolian society. One of them is a chanting ritual for a new-born baby animal and its mother. To chant is to stimulate, through the use of special words and melody, the adopting of a baby animal to its mother. 

There are different gestures, melodies and chanting techniques for the five types of livestock in Mongolia. 

 Coaxing (Ингэнд Ботго Авахуулах – commonly known as khuuslukh) a camel is a ritual for a mother who rejects her baby; or for adopting an orphan baby to another female who has lost her baby, because only a suckling mother will have milk. 

 Most herdswomen engage in techniques and methods of coaxing, but these techniques and methods aren’t enough sometimes.  A specialist musician is brought in (often with a Morin Khuur – horse head fiddle). The mother is tied close to the calf, and the musician will begin their monotone song ‘khuus’ or lullaby. 

 A mother camel will typically bite, savage or spit at her calf at the beginning of the ritual. The coaxer can change their melody, depending on the mother’s behavioural reaction. When a mother camel is being coaxed into accepting a rejected or orphan calf, it is said to break into tears at the gentle sound of  the ‘khuus’ and this is when they start to accept the calf. Hence the name of the documentary The Tale Of The Weeping Camel.