Ob odnoi traditsii mongol’skikh narodov

Abstract

The article examines the archaic ideas of winter time measurement at nine day intervals among the Oirats (the Western Mongols) and similar views among the Khalkha-Mongols, Buryats, Tuvans, and Chinese. The author argues that the earliest time measurement goes back to the common Mongolian tradition of measuring only the cold winter time, while leaving the rest of the year unmeasured. This is further confirmed by a Kalmyk legend of the calendar origin. The author relates such time measurement to Mongolian people’s notions of countable and uncountable objects.