Ruth I. Meserve
Indiana University
The Bactrian Camel: Two Mongolian Manuscripts In The Royal Library (Copenhagen)
35th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, 1992
At a 1979 conference in Khartoum, it was noted that the camelids (the dromedary and Bactrian camels, alpaca, guanaco, llama, and vicuna) still remain among the least studied of mamman families. The Bactrian camel of the steppes of Mongolia is among the most neglected. When attention is focused on this animal, it is usually directed toward preservation of the so-called wild camel (Camelus ferus Przewalski 1883), one of the Inner Asian mammals on the endangered species list. This is true, for example, of the work by Bannikov, Geptner, Montagu, Tsevegmid. Other than the work by Schafer on “The Camel in China down to the Mongol Dynasty”, little has been done from an historical perspective.
There are, however, two neo-Classical Chakhar Mongolian manuscripts in the Royal Library (Copenhagen) that deal in part with the Bactrian camel, including its care, management, diseases and medical treatment. Dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, these two manuscripts offer detailed descriptions of indigenous Mongolian practices in animal husbandry and add considerably to the ecological history of the Bactrian camel in Mongolia.