Mongolian swan songs

Mongolian people have a rich cultural heritage including music and dance, but some of these skills are disappearing. Zhao Tingting / Xinhua

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As early as the 1940s, Narantogos' mother was already occasionally performing in an arts troupe. She herself made her debut on the professional stage in 1965 in Hohhot, capital of the autonomous region.

She jokingly notes that among her vast family, she is the only one to have inherited her mother's vocal talents.

According to Liu Bin, curator of the Urad Middle Banner Museum, Tibetan Buddhism was once popular among Urad tribe members. About 80 percent of the ballads still being sung today were composed by the lamas in the 17th and 18th century.

Urad ballads were included as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011 as an extension of the Mongolian ballad.

Narantogos is officially one of three cultural inheritors of the Urad ballads, but she did not seem aware of this until we interviewed her.

Compared to the music of other Mongolian tribes, Urad melodies are more soothing, exemplified by the ballad of the Swan Goose.

"I guess that's probably because we ride camels more, while Mongolians in the east are always galloping on horses," she says with a smile.