Nomadic People�fs Wish for their Children (Transferred from the web) Mongol�fs Unique Customs - 1 Each country is blessed with a long history of culture and tradition. Things are likely to go wrong if we think with a Japanese mind. For example, in Korea women take their meals sitting on the floor with one knee raised. One should be careful not to pick up one�fs bowl or to touch a dish containing food that is to be shared because it is a sign that you are about to monopolize all the food in it. Metallic utensils and chopsticks are used in Korea as a legacy of using silver in the old days to avoid poisoning. Ethnologist Kunio Yanagida says, that the Japanese love of incorporating �gbeauty in utility�h is a unique culture, we should be proud of. There is a campaign to register Japanese food to UNESCO�fs intangible world cultural heritage, and I hope that this effort will succeed. My main thought for writing this blog is to discuss Mongolian customs. Mongol has challenging climate where winter temperature registers minus 30 degrees Celsius and it is not rare for goats and sheep left in the field to die en masse. This gave rise to deity respecting and devil fearing custom which remains strong even to this day. Mongolians believe in a unique relationship between their children and the devil, and as a result they intentionally give ugly names to discourage devils from snatching their sweet children away to death. Some examples of ugly names: �gBurst (shit)�h, �gFunbishi (wretch)�h, �gTerubishi (not there)�h, �gEnebishi (not this)�h, �gNerugui (nameless)�h, etc. Mongolian equivalent of �gbad dog�h can also be found among their devil-chasing list of names. A great deal of commotion was caused in Japan when a parent named her child �gAkuma�h, meaning devil. That has not happened in Mongolia. It must be because the child with a devilish name might attract the devil to snatch it first. In complimenting or praising a child, the Mongolian way is to say, �gOh dear, what a clumsy child you are!�h or �gOh, how dirty you are!�h Mongolian mothers appear to seriously believe that saying �gWhat a sweet child�h would be a sure invitation to lose the child to the devil. As it is the custom in lesser vehicle, Hinayana Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Myammar and Sri Lanka, we should not touch a child�fs head as we do in Japan, as they believe that the Buddha resides there. In cross-cultural exchange, the first step is to get to know the other culture and custom.