In The Great Khan's Tent Presents: Tales from the Far East Episode 1

08/03/24 • 42 min

1 Listener

Welcome to a new special series In The Great Khan’s Tent! In The Great Khan’s Tent Presents: Tales for the Far East focuses on the tales from the Far East, also known as the Russian Colonized Far East, from the region of Siberia all the way east to the Pacific Ocean.

In this episode we focus on the tales from the Yakut ethnic group with three stories, “The Fern Girl”, “How the Birds Flew North”, and “The Obedient Daughter in Law”.

The first story “The Fern Girl” is in a similar vein to those that we encountered in the Tales from Central Asia series. Our hero, Kharzhit Bergen meets and falls in love with a girl who has magically appeared in the pasture of an old woman, first as a horsetail fern, and then when taken home turns to a beautiful girl whom she adopts as a daughter.

In the second story “How the Birds Flew North” is a story in a similar vein to traditional tales which feature animals as main characters which tend to explain how they do the things that they do. In this case the question is how the birds migrated northward. Though to be honest I have never seen a Crane carry a Duck before.

The last story “The Obedient Daughter in Law” is a short story which focuses on why it is important to think for oneself even when obeying commands.

In the next episode, we will continue our exploration of the One Thousand and One Nights.

On a side note, I would like to formally apologize to when these episodes are being released. Our release day is usually on Thursday every two weeks but the month of July has tested our technological limitations and I aim to improve the flow process to get episodes out sooner! Thank you with your patience as we sort this out!

In this episode we focus on the tales from the Yakut ethnic group with three stories, “The Fern Girl”, “How the Birds Flew North”, and “The Obedient Daughter in Law”.

The last story “The Obedient Daughter in Law” is a short story which focuses on why it is important to think for oneself even when obeying commands.

In the next episode, we will continue our exploration of the One Thousand and One Nights.

Previous Episode

In The Great Khan's Tent Episode 34: The Arabian Nights Part 32

In The episode, we continue the epic tale of “The Story of Sultan Umar ibn al-Nu’man and his sons Sharkhan and Dau’ al-Makan and the strange and remarkable things that happened to them” with Nights 49 and 50.

We continue with our exploration of the adventure of Sharkhan, our heroic prince, who in previous episodes met the Greek princess, who in this episode is revealed to be Abrizah, in the convent and wrestled with her and failed and has now spent a number of days enjoying her company.

While the Princess Abrizah has continually shown that she triumphs over Sharkhan in many different formats, in this episode it is Chess, the reasons for her triumphs are also reviled as we go further in this episode when both are interrupted by soldiers from her father’s kingdom and Sharkhan is shown as the heroic and warlike personality that he is.

This episode celebrates reaching the 50th night a tremendous achievement to have met. This is all thanks to the listeners, supporters, and well-wishers who continue to support this podcast series. Thank you!

In our next episode, we will begin a new special series bringing you once again tales of wonder, joy, and fancy as we explore the world of literature and folk literature from underserved parts of the world!

Next Episode

In The Great Khan's Tent Episode 35: The Arabian Nights Part 33

In this episode, we continue our exploration of the One Thousand and One Nights with the continuation of the story of “The Story of Sultan ‘Umar ibn al-Nu’man and his sons Sharkhan and Dau’ al-Makan and the strange and remarkable things that happened to them” with the continuation of Night 50 and the beginning of Night 51.

We continue with the adventure that Sharkhan and the princess Abrizah are on and learn her backstory of why she was in the monastery and why Sultan ‘Umar was asked by the King of Constantinople to help wage war against the King of Caesarea, the father of Abrizah.

Furthermore, we also learn the backstory of Sufiyeh, the concubine of Sultan ‘Umar and mother of Dau' al-Makan and Nuzhat al-Zaman and how she was given to him.

Stay tuned as this epic story continues to be an exciting and fascinating listen!

In other news, we are fast approaching our 2nd year anniversary on the 15th of September! I would like to ask all of our listeners to let me know what you’d like me to talk about in celebration of the 2nd year of In The Great Khan’s Tent! Like before I have special episodes planned to celebrate!

Thank you all for journeying with me as we continue to explore the rich history and texts of the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa, Mongolia, and the Russian Far East!