The Mongol 12-year calendar was assigned its animal names long ago by the Buddha. He had no problem assigning the first 11 animals, but he could not decide the animal who should represent the first year of the cycle. Both the camel and the mouse had submitted their names, and the Buddha was reluctant to chose between them for fear of upsetting one of the two. Therefore, at the Buddha's prompting, it was decided that they should resolve the issue between themselves. The animal who would represent the first year of the calendar cycle, they decided, would be the one who saw the first light of the morning sun.
Whereas the camel faced the east to await the sunrise, the mouse, climbing up onto the camel's hump, fixed his eyes steadily toward the west on a mountain top. So it was that when the time came for the appearance of the first rays of the sun and the beam fell upon the top of the western mountain, the mouse cried out that he had seen the light first and was therefore the winner. The camel became furious at losing the bet and attempted to kill the mouse by trampling him underfoot. Fearing for his life, the mouse scurried away and hid him. self under a pile of ashes.
It is for this reason that whenever a camel sees a pile of ashes, he stamps his feet or lies down in order to completely flatten his detested enemy, the mouse who came to represent the first year of the calendar cycle. However, even though the camel was left out of the 12-year animal cycle, in fact it was discovered that he was present in each of the 12 years. The camel possesses characteristics of each of the 12 animals in individual body parts so that the camel in this way also became present in the cycle.
These body parts that the camel possesses are as follows:
1. The ears of a mouse.
2. The stomach of a cow.
3. The paws of a tiger.
4. The nose of a hare.
5. The body of a dragon.
6. The eyes of a snake.
7. The mane of a horse (the long hair under his neck).
8. The wool of a sheep.
9. The hump of an ape,
10. The head crest of a chicken.
11. The legs of a dog,
12. The tail of a pig,
World History
