Felt and “Tent Carts” in The Secret History of the Mongols

Bibliographic Data

ID11865327
AuthorsMichael Gervers (0000-0003-2381-7964, corresponding author), Wayne Schlepp, Wayne A Schlepp
Year1997
Volume7
Issue1
Pages93-116
Publication date1997-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1356-1863 • E-ISSN: 1474-0591
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1356186300008336
OpenAlexW2076803066
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited21

In the final chapter of his novel, The First Circle , Alexander Solzhenitsyn extols the virtues of the felt boot: “A pair of felt boots are the two best friends a prisoner will ever have ... Woe then to anyone whose feet are not shod in felt boots! ... But the prisoner wearing his own felt boots has not a care in the world.” Solzhenitsyn writes for those unfamiliar with the extremes faced by the society he is describing. Similarly, but far removed in time, we are accustomed to learning a great deal more about the uses of felt among nomadic peoples from travellers who have purportedly visited them than we do from such rare accounts as The Secret History of the Mongols ( SH ) which emanate from sources close to the nomads themselves

Aesthetics · Art · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Linguistics and language evolution