Ch.BILIGSAIHAN
Ph.D, literary scholar

Gegeenten shows, for the first time, the truth regarding Mongolian Buddhism's history of respect for women. Düinhor Gegeen, who had taught Ravjaa the secret mantra practise, said to him, "I grant you the rare and secret tantra which sharpens your physical powers and leads you onto the path of secret tantra practise, it is the quick path to the teaching of the Düinhor lineage.
Gegeenten is a beautifully-written and powerful song of truth. May good deeds support us Mongolians, and may we go deeper into the path of righteous truth.

B MAGSARJAV, Ph.D

Mend-Ooyo once wrote that “a gentle melody is my poetic nature,” and it should be understood that this “gentle melody” is what we might call a patient heart, or a virtuous activity. Mend-Ooyo’s poetry, in fact, takes pleasure in the loveliness of this earth, it strives to endure wickedness, to add the light of the mind to the light of the sun, to shine in the darkness. This is the great wisdom of the east. In order to help the six classes of beings, our teacher the Buddha initially taught his students how they should live. So how might one do this without a patient heart, without virtuous activity? This “gentle melody” is like the manifestation of the teaching, its rebirth perhaps.

 Lyn Coffin
         
The very title of Quickwit alerts us to the fact that something challenging is (pun intended) afoot. MendOyoo’s protagonist is an extraordinary camel. We in the West are not used to having camels as protagonists; we are not used to thinking of camels at all. The tales we think of as titled with the name of an animal are for children—e.g., Winnie the Pooh or Bessie the Cow. But children’s authors offer us friendly, funny, transparent names. “Quickwit the Camel” is rather like calling a story “Winnie the Philosopher” or “Bessie the Ambivalent.” We are embroiled in an inner dialogue concerning the mind of a beast of burden. We ask ourselves: how can a beast of burden have “wit” at all?

MARIA PETROVA
Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia

G.Mend-Ooyo’s literary career begun with publication of his first book of poems “Bird of Thoughts” («Бодлын шувуу» ) in 1980. In 1993 the most popular book by Mend-Ooyo “Golden Hill” («Алтан Овоо» ) was published. It will have two more editions and be translated into English by Simon Wikham Smith in 2007. The author’s main idea, by his own words was to create a stupa – book, dedicated to his native land Dariganga in Sukhe-Bator aimak, Mongolia. Stupa or chaitja is a sacral Buddhist construction, with manuscripts, books and herbs put inside. And almost like such a sacral stupa G.Mend-Ooyo filled his book with different folklore genres: local legends, fairy and heroic tales, songs, ballades and hymn poems in both prosaic and poetical forms.

In his book Altan Ovoo, G. Mend-Oyoo takes us on a trip through his
birth land: the steppes, the hills and the sands of Dariganga in
eastern Mongolia. His writings are a magical, dreamlike journey
through folklore, history, wisdom and Mongolian Buddhism. It is
impossible to read this book as an account of his life and the world
he grew up in; and thankfully so. The Mongolian nomadic life is a
mixture of harsh reality, unbending truth, fluid ideas, boundless
time, vast distances, fast horses, compassionate religion, frightful
spirits and superstitious lore. Mend-Oyoo is masterful in capturing
this essence of the Mongolian nomad.

Remy M Lang
2007.11.11
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Prof. Imre P.Zsoldos
You have such a sharp eagle eye to notice this and express it in such a way that it irradiates all the optimism of your heart. Your “Golden Hill” is a loud shrill to us all that we can be still feel optimistic and never should go downhill into a morass or a chaotic overkill of the beauty, goodness and other treasures we can find around us in the world, especially in our native country but everywhere where we look and try to understand deeper the idyll of God’s creation. Your “Golden Hill” gives me such a joy of thrill.

By Prof. Ernesto Kahan MD MPH.
Poet and physician, March 2008[1]
 
G Mend Ooyo, is a superb writer, essentially is a poet who inscribes his lyric in both, poets and prose. His book entitled “Golden Hill” is a master piece which transports the readers into the steppes, people, history, and mystery of Mongolia. In the book nature and mind are united and presented in a poetic suggestive symbiosis.
 

Altan Ovoo (Golden Hill) represents Mongolian poet G Mend-Ooyo’s greatest literary achievement to date. He refers to it as an almanac, relating his own experience growing up in the Dariganga region of Mongolia, presenting the history and customs of his homeland through the focus of the topographical Golden Hill of the title.

Mongolian critics have expressed their difficulty in understanding precisely what Mend-Ooyo’s text is offering the reader. It is true that his use of language is sometimes complex and rather opaque, that his images are visionary rather than literal, that his metaphors reflect more his own inner life than the apparent reality of the world he inhabits, but it is precisely this personal and intimate approach which makes Golden Hill so extraordinary.