Travel Mongolia - Is the Dalai Lama promoting mayonnaise?

 

 

I thought I didn't see correctly when I looked at the portrait of the Dalai Lama on a plastic container among the condiments in a grocery store (Хүнсний дэлгүүр - Khünsnii delgüür) a few days ago in Mongolia. Did the Dalai Lama advertise mayonnaise? I asked myself very shortly - only for my own amusement, because even I wouldn't expect that from the Dalai Lama.

But what is Зулын тос (Zulyn tos [3])? If you try to translate Зулын тос by automatic translation, you will get Christmas oil. This is of course a very stupid translation. Better ones may may have Dochtöl in German or even kerosene in English, though there is of course wick oil [1]. I could think of trying kerosene for the first time, because we had kerosene lamps in my grandparents' garden. But all these translations miss the point. It is an oil/fat for sacred use, to be offered. Therefore it should be sinless, i.e. rather not from slaughtered animals but fat obtained from milk (butter) or oil obtained from seeds. And petroleum products are to be considered as too impure.

The oil (or yak butter in Tibet) is offered in the form of oil lights (hence the name Dochtöl from Docht (wick) in German). When this oil is sacrificed, one should not touch the wick with an unclean hand or breathe out on it. A mantra is also recited in this type of sacrifice: um aa hum, which could be the mantra om ah hum in India.

Perhaps the best translation for Зулын тос (Zulyn tos [2]) is sacrificial oil.

... and on the shelf.

No Links but useless Annotations [4]:
[1] Docht is wick in English, so wick oil and Dochtöl are the same. Strangely Vicks VapoRub® has been marketed in Germany as WICK VapoRub®. I guess nobody would see a link in Germany from  Wick to wick oil, but Vick would have been to near to the f-word in German. Maybe I'm interested in wick because I've just seen „John Wick Chapter 4“ on my flight from Mongolia back to Germany via Istanbul. On this flight I asked myself, why not via Addis Abeba and Buenos Aires?
[2] Tos in Spanish/Castellano means cough. The reason for this useless annotation is just to have another annotation.

[3] I've just seen, that there even is room for a third annotation: note that у and ү are different letters! I guess աշխատանքով հաստատուեցան is even more confusing, but this is Armenian.
[4] Sometimes I use the euphemism "Links and Annotations".
 

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