Hi! It's me again, hanging out with my pal Chinggis, here at a gigantic (taller than the Statue of Liberty) stainless steel sculpture erected on the spot where legend claims he found a golden whip.
Chingiss and Janice again
This may be one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" things. The brainchild of some wealthy businessman, this statue, which is about an hour from town, originally included plans for 800 gers (there are about 10) and 10,000 larger-than-life bronze Mongolian war statues--think Terra Cotta Warriors--(there are a half-dozen). For a donation, a warrior's face will be sculpted with your features. The more money you give, the closer to the Chinggis Khan statue your warrior will be!
In these few days, the one thing I've leaned about Mongolia is that it is hard to fully comprehend life in this country. That probably holds true for any tourist visiting any country. But Mongolia does seem particularly complicated. To describe Mongolian life is to try to describe a country that only emerged from Soviet rule 25 years ago and still remembers the purges. It is to describe a country that is growing and modernizing before your eyes, yet is confronting huge economic and cultural challenges. It is to describe a culture which respects its ancient stories and legends.
Two-thirds of the country is nomadic and totally dependent on their livestock for subsistence and livelihood. The livestock provides shelter, food, transportation, income. Today, an average family has 300 head of livestock (predominantly goats, sheep, horses) versus 75 during the socialist era. There are 50 million goats in a country of three million people! But as livestock has increased, so has over-grazing, resulting in weaker herds. Climate change means hot dry summers which inhibit regrowth of grasses on the steppe. Climate change has brought colder winters which the weak stock can not withstand. The result: nomads seeking livelihood move to the city to take up an unfamiliar life.
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Goats crossing
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Horses crossing
Nomads move two to four times a year. Mongolia is what, in the American West, we would call "open range." No fences. Cattle, yaks, and sheep wander everywhere. Even though the animals are branded, they can roam across the open step for miles and miles. Cattle and goats return to be milked. However, wide-ranging horses may take weeks to find and people typically rely on inquiries at neighboring gers: "have you seen my horse?" That they would wander for weeks trying to find their horses says so much: Time has no meaning and there is no rush. You can sense this embedded in the culture and daily life of, even, city dwellers. They are in no rush and schedules are...flexible.
Diets have traditionally been boiled meat and fresh milk or cheese. Russia introduced vegetables to Mongolia, but only potatoes, cabbage and carrots can grow in the poor soil and this 90 day growing season. After relying only on livestock for food, cheap eggs and chicken are now available just over the Russian border.
Mongolia was traditionally Buddhist. During the socialist era when religion was prohibited and so many monks executed, people returned to shamanistic beliefs of their ancestors. Now that people can worship freely, shamans are relied on less but their continued role is still evident at ovoos.
Ovoos are sacred piles of rocks where people offer up wishes and prayers to spirits. When approaching, one must walk counter clockwise (same in monasteries) three times around and then leave a small offering. It may be a small pebble....or a sandal or box of matches or an empty vodka bottle. Ovoos are adorned with blue prayer scarves... Blue representing the sky which has been worshipped since the time of Genghis Kahn. This ovoo, near where Ghengis was born, is unique for having nine Spirit Banners (horse hair on the shaft of a spear). But shamans have been here. There is a snake coiled around one banner and nearby sits a table shaped like a cow's backbone for preparing offerings.
The weather extremes dictate so much of this life. In town, you don't see the typical bicycles or motor bikes found throughout Asia. The frigid temperatures of winter make them impractical. You don't see soccer fields or kids playing soccer. Again, it would be a 3 month sport. Basketball courts, however, are everywhere!
In Ulaanbaatar, UB, streets are clogged with cars. New construction is rampant, but there are many construction sites apparently halted due to financial problems. The huge drop in commodity prices has drastically impacted this country that - only five years ago - had an annual growth rate of 18 percent. Despite the start of urban sprawl, locals do not use street names for addresses, although there are street signs (Peace Avenue, Tourist Avenue, Unesco Avenue). Instead they refer to landmarks. For example, the website for last night's restaurant noted the address as "behind the wresting center." Life in a ger (yurt) warrants its own posting and so I will save it for another post.
As I leave the steppe and depart for Lake Hovsgol among the pristine Northern forest, I leave you with a couple of my favorite photos. One, sunrise over a ger camp. And two of Aryabal Monastery, a meditation center perched high up a mountainside and built on the site of an older monastery destroyed in the 1930s. We were told the 14th Dalai Lama comes here annually. If you can, view these two photos on an iPad or PC to appreciate the colors and detail.
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Sunrise over ger camp
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