Shavadai

Shavadai

Summary

The Shavadai were descendants of a Mongolian population taken to the planet Simarka introduced in the episode, 1.04 "Emancipation".

Stargate References

Abu	Moughal
Nya	Turghan

The people who live on the planet are the Shavadai, a collection of nomadic tribes Daniel Jackson suspected were the descendants of Mongols on Earth. The Goa'uld apparently brought the Mongols to Simarka.

The Shavadai began to shelter their women to protect them from the Goa'ulds purposes and ensure the survival of their people. After the Goa'uld left, this sheltering continued to the point of being subjugation. Women were considered property, to be traded as wives or concubines. Men valued their importance by how many wives they had. Women were traded between tribes and/or intermarried to shore up alliances between rival tribes. Their faces had to be covered in the presence of men not their husband, and unless serving the men, they were segregated in a covered area of the camp where they conducted domestic duties. If a woman wore the clothes of a man, she would be executed.

The leader of one tribe, Moughal, was considered weak by his people because he had a monogamous marriage. His reasoning was that he loved his wife. He hated the subjugation of the women and was slowly working to convince his people that the treatment of women should be changed. After SG-1 saved his son, Abu from a pack of wild dogs, Moughal was very interested in trade with these strangers, although Capt. Carter was not allowed to remain in her uniform, she had to wear the covered clothing of the Shavadai.

Change came about abruptly to the Shavadai when Capt. Carter was kidnapped by Abu to use as trade with a rival tribe so that Abu could be united with his love, the leader Turghan's daughter, Nya. Moughal helped the rest of SG-1 track the pair, and they entered negotiations with Turghan to retrieve Carter, able to win her back by trading O'Neill's pistol, a technology never before seen on that planet. O'Neill had never reloaded the gun after the encounter with the dogs, so only a few bullets remained.

Nya and Abu tried to run off together after Carter had helped arrange her escape during her captivity, but Nya was recaptured and was to be executed. The team returned and Carter engaged in hand to hand combat with Turghan as challenge to the sentence. She won and her bravery altered the culture of the Shavadai. Now women in Moughal's tribe would be free and independent, like they were before the Goa'uld.

Notable Characters

• Abu was the son of tribal leader Moughal. SG-1 saved him from wild dogs. In love with Nya, Abu saw Samantha Carter as a way to trade and get his love, so he kidnapped her and brought her to Turghan's tribe.
• Moughal leader of a tribe of Shavadai, Moughal believed in changes for his society, including equality for women. He could only do so much, such as taking only one wife because his society was unwilling to drastically change their traditions. He was very interested in trade with SG-1, and took personal responsibility to return Capt. Carter to the team.
• Nya daughter of tribal leader Turghan, Nya was in love with Abu and wished to be with him, not the marriage arranged by her father. Carter befriended Nya during her captivity and helped Nya escape, and later fought Turghan herself to save Nya's life.
• Turghan was a violent tribal leader allied with twenty-two tribes and willing to kill just for pleasure. He was beaten by Capt. Carter in hand-to-hand combat and forced to allow both Carter and Nya to go free.

Alliances

• The Shavadai were a group of tribes that had both alliances and adversaries amongst themselves
• Stargate Command (SGC) was interested in an alliance for the medicine provided.

Enemies

• The Shavadai were a group of tribes that had both alliances and adversaries amongst themselves
• Goa'uld the Goa'uld used to subjugate the people, but had not returned to Simarka for generations

Episodes

• 1.04 "Emancipation"

Related Articles

Related Characters

• Col. Jack O'Neill
• Dr. Daniel Jackson
• Capt. Samantha Carter

Keywords

• Goa'uld
• SG-1
• Simarka

Actors

• Crystal Lo as Nya
• Soon-Tek Oh as Moughal
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Turghan
• Jorge Vargas as Abu

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--Aurora 13:51, 2 December 2006 (PST)