Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Friday, November 6, 2009
One of the great things about my job is the Mongolian colleague with whom I share an office. He is an endless source of interesting information about Mongolia--and of course we have mathematics in common, as well.
This morning he mentioned that his daughter had just lost her first tooth. In a moment of "cultural sharing" I decided to tell him about our tradition of putting the tooth under ones pillow and waking the next morning to some money. He thought that sounded like an excellent idea --and then proceeded to tell me this story:
"When I was young we would put our 'lost' baby teeth in a piece of fat and feed it to the dog. We would tell the dog 'Ok, here is my tooth. In exchange, I want some strong teeth later on.'"
At first I thought he was joking, but when I realized he was serious, it was one of those wonderful moments when I find myself marvelling at this thing called "cultural difference." Here was an example of something completely outside my experience.
When I got home this afternoon, I mentioned the story to Frank, and off he went to the Web. Sure enough, dogs are considered guardian angels here, and this is exactly the tradition for baby teeth.
The world is a wonderful place.
