Mongolian Summary

Chinggis still revered.

An animation of the extent of the Mongol Empire in the 1200's.

Statues of his horsemen.

Not this one!

 The modern Mongolian nomad.

The horse guides demonstrating Mongolian wrestling.

A marmoset, the favourite food of all the raptors.

One of many species of spring flowers.

Beauty and the beast...

It looks like something out of a horror movie: a yak shedding his winter coat.

 Two incredibly well travelled eccentric ger mates.

 Beautiful wide open spaces.

  

Summary

Who knew? I did no research before going to Mongolia, but in my head, I thought dry, warm and clear skies. I was wrong. It was the rainy season and for some reason, the Mongolian summer this year was much cooler than last year. Apparently for Naadam last year it was 35 degrees and sunny. This year 13 degrees with a fine misty rain. Buhuu said it felt like autumn. I also thought high altitude, but that was wrong too as the average altitude of Mongolia is 1580 metres, much lower than Bhutan at 2500 to 3000 metres or Tibet at 4000 to 5000 metres. Even the GAdventures website talks about the starry nights, but most nights were cloudy and the couple that were clear it was too cold to hang around outside. I saw a few stars on middle of the night pee jaunts.

When I was planning this trip, I was interested in Mongolia but picked this specific time to see the Naadam Festival. I wasn’t really sure what it would be like, but I knew it was basically the Olympics in the Chinggis Khaan tradition. It turned out to be a more modern event than I anticipated. I didn’t expect it to be in a stadium with a running track around a soccer pitch. And I certainly did not expect the opening ceremonies to be as elaborate as they were. It was very much like an Olympic opening ceremonies event, although with less spectacular technology and in a stadium with no toilets. The horse race on day two even had about two dozen parasailers float down and land near the finish line well before the riders got there. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the horse race but was amazed by the distance of 25 kilometres and the age of the jockeys. The Naadam Festival is held every year on the 11^th and 12^th of July. It is our Canada Day, or the Fourth of July. This year it commemorates the 2227^th anniversary of the Mongolian statehood, the 812^th anniversary of the Great Mongol Empire and the 97^th anniversary of the Mongolian people’s revolution.

The whole event was more modern and upscale than the Timket Festival in Ethiopia. I think the Timket has been less affected by the modern world and remains much like it was throughout history. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the Naadam Festival, especially the pageantry and the traditional costumes of the participants, and many of the spectators. It was exciting to be in the midst of people celebrating their very proud heritage.

It is interesting that, at least from the eyes of an outsider, most of Mongolian sense of identity dates back to the Mongol Empire of the 12^th to 14^th centuries. Images of Chinggis Khaan are everywhere. Chinggis or Genghis, it is the same man. It is spelt differently by different cultures depending on what they find easier to pronounce or based on the letters their alphabet has. For example Arabian and Persian have no CH so they pronounce it Jinggis, and in English it is written as Genghis.

His huge statue is the central of focus in the main square of Ulaanbaatar and is flanked by his two famous descendants: Ogedei Khaan and Kublai Khaan, and as recently as 2008 they constructed the 40-metre tall statue of his likeness on a horse commanding the land or defending it. Their culture is reflected in their clothing, their sports and even the Naadam Festival which commemorates, in part, the 812^th anniversary of the Mongol Empire. They see themselves in the past and seem to worship the past. How does a great empire arise? And then how does it collapse? And if they were powerful enough to conquer huge areas of the world and become world leaders, how do they slip back to becoming internationally insignificant? The Mongolians, the Romans, the Greeks and many others have done it. Where did the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans go? 

This tidbit from Wikipedia:

‘In 2003 a ground breaking historical genetics paper reported results which indicated that a substantial proportion of men in the world are direct line descendants of Genghis Khan. By direct line, I mean that they carry Y chromosomes which seem to have come down from an individual who lived approximately 1,000 years ago. As Y chromosomes are only passed from father to son, that would mean that the Y is a record of one’s patrilineage. Genghis Khan died about 750 years ago, so assuming 25 years per generation, you get about 30 men between the present and that period. In more quantitative terms, approximately 10% of the men who reside within the borders of the Mongol Empire as it was at the death of Genghis Khan may carry his Y chromosome, and so approximately 0.5% of men in the world, about 16 million individuals alive today, do so.’ All of which means: 1 in 200 men are direct descendants of Chinggis Khaan. 

Mongolian history: 

In 1189, 27-year old Chinggis Khan became leader. He spent 16 years unifying the nomadic tribes of the area. Then he turned his attention to the countries surrounding Mongolia. 

In 1206 Chinggis Khaan was able to unite and conquer the Mongols, forging them into a fighting force on horseback which went on to establish the largest contiguous empire in world history, the Mongol Empire (1206-1368). They invaded and conquered large parts of what are now China, Russia, Korea, Persia, Tibet and western Europe. They travelled swiftly on horseback and overwhelmed their enemies. Seeing what they looked like at the Chinggis statue in their armour and on their horses they must have been terrifying to the vanquished. The battles were ferocious and the Mongols often slaughtered thousands of their victims. They raped and pillaged the lands in order to supply their troops.

In August 1227, Chinggis Khan died at the age of 60. The reason remains unsolved, with theories ranging from internal injuries after a hunting accident, to malaria, to prophecies of the Tanguts. At his death, the Mongol Empire stretched from the Yellow Sea to the Caspian Sea. No other empire in history has seen such an extraordinary expansion in the lifetime of one man. Although Chinggis Khan brought much destruction in his conquests, it is clear that he did not intend to commit mass genocide like that of Hitler, even though the death tolls far exceeded anything in history. Chinggis's dream was conquest, and whenever surrender was seen, bloodshed was avoided. If he was welcomed and not challenged he did not try to crush their culture or religions. Instead he let the people maintain both, but under his rule. This created more good will and less animosity than an invader like communist Russia or China which attempts to totally change the country and crush the culture and religion after the takeover. He was exceptionally respectful to those who supported him, and it was not uncommon for him to befriend defected enemies. In any case, Chinggis was a brilliant military strategist and an exceptionally gifted leader, making him one of the most intriguing figures in history. This from a short history of Mongolia I bought:

‘If Napoleon and Alexander the Great are national heroes and the pride of the French and the Greek, Chinggis Khaan is something more than that for Mongols: their lodestar, spiritual force and the object of not only national but of personal pride.’

The history of Mongolia is violent and turbulent and had many leaders that we have never heard of, other than Chinggis Khaan and his grandson Kublai Khaan. Over the period of the 1200’s and 1300’s they came to have control of almost half of the known world, including much of China including Beijing. Even the original Great Wall of China built around 200BC to stop the Mongol marauders failed to stop the Mongolians. They learned from other cultures (like Persia, China and Arabia) the techniques of siege warfare and the use of catapults. At the time they were virtually unstoppable. With the fall of Kiev, the Mongols were victorious in Russia. Interestingly, this was the only successful large-scale winter invasion of Russia in history. Under Kablia Khaan, they conquered much of China and created the Yuan Dynasty. Then they moved the capital from Karakorum to Beijing. He even attempted to invade Japan, twice, using hundreds of boats and thousands of soldiers, but they ran into rough seas and fierce Japanese resistance and both attempts were squelched. 

The Mongol Empire was a gigantic political force, bringing almost the entire continent of Asia under the control of one Great Khaan. The Mongol government was a superior one, and thus the whole continent became interconnected. During the Mongol Empire, one was guaranteed safety in travel throughout the entire empire. Thus, the Empire created a huge economic boom and a great exchange of culture and knowledge throughout the entire world. As a result of the Mongol conquests, the Silk Road was reopened and the route from Europe to Asia was no longer thought to be impassable. Marco Polo made use of that and arrived in Karakorum (the capital of Mongolia) in 1235. A great deal of knowledge reached Europe, including art, science, and gunpowder; which greatly contributed in bringing Western Europe out of the dark ages. Likewise, in Asia, there was an exchange of ideas between Persia and China.

The Mongols obviously had a direct influence on the political situation of the world. China was once again united under a single ruler. Russia was separated from the rest of Europe but was no longer a disunited feudalistic society. Although the Mongols did indeed cause mass destruction and death the economic boom that followed was not to be overlooked. In conclusion, the Mongol Empire is one of great significance; for the better or worse of the world, it is not one that is to be forgotten.

As for modern history:

At the end of the 17th century, present-day Mongolia became part of the area ruled by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. During the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence but shortly after they came under control of the Russians. In 1924 the Mongolian People’s Republic was declared, and Mongolian politics began to follow the same patterns as Soviet politics of the time for the next 68 years. Then the world changed. In early and mid-1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had until 1990 had sheltered and provided significant economic aid to Mongolia's state budget, the country experienced harsh economic problems as early as the 1980s. Foreign trade broke down, economic and technical aid from the former socialist countries ended, and domestic economy was struggling with privatization. Inflation rose, stores' shelves were depleted, ration cards for food were issued for a period of time. A thriving black market arose in Ulaanbaatar by 1988 to accommodate the needs of the populace. There was civil unrest in and around that time and eventually there was a pair of revolutions in 1989 and 1990 that led to a mulit-party system, a new constitution in 1992, and a transition to a market economy. The country is growing and developing but still struggling with finances and infrastructure. 

Traffic in Ulaanbaatar is crazy. Granted we were there at the National Holiday period of the Naadam Festival, but the congestion was insane. The roads simply cannot accommodate all the traffic and they are not wide enough or maintained well enough. Apparently, they usually have alternate driving days depending on your license plate, but for the holidays everyone was allowed on the roads. Many were trying to escape the city to go back to the rural areas, while others were coming in to the city to see the Naadam in the capital city. I described earlier how the desperate and frustrated drivers will use lanes going in the opposite direction if they are clear and drive on the dirt shoulders on either side of the road or drive off road through fields on two-wheel tracks to get around congestion. The roads themselves are very poor and most of the roads we used were one lane in each direction with sharp or narrow shoulders. They were often broken up and pothole filled from the weather extremes. This makes driving at a highway speed very difficult. We saw very few speed limit signs.

It was amazing to see the nomadic life of the country people. Watching the people riding horses to move herds of animals; watching the nomad and Buhuu butcher the sheep; seeing their living conditions; sharing their meals; trying their yak milk and butter and the fermented mare’s milk, were all unique experiences. As was getting to see a nomadic reindeer family living in a tepee. Riding horses and camels through the varied countryside gave us a small inkling of the freedom of being a nomadic Mongolian. It was interesting to see how happy the people seemed to be and how little they needed in the way of personal possessions in order to live their lives. We did notice the number of motorcycles that are replacing horses, and we saw other things of obvious western influence like basketball nets, volleyball nets, satellite dishes, TV’s and mobile phones. The nomads no longer use oxen driven carts to move their gers, now they use trucks. Seemingly everyone (except Buhuu) in Mongolia smokes.

Buhuu and the Mongolian government are concerned about the future of the nomadic lifestyle in the country. Most families are sending their girl children to the big cities or towns for education and keeping the boys, or some of them, in the country. Buhuu himself was born to a nomadic family and lived in the country raising animals until he was 17. Then he went to school in Ulaabaatar. He talked about the culture shock he went through and the adjustments he had to make. He still goes back to the family ger after the tourist season and lives with and helps his parents all winter. His girlfriend is currently studying abroad. Like many developing countries there is a migration of people from the country to the city. Over half of the population already lives in Ulaanbaatar and the average age of people in the countryside is climbing as the younger generation makes other career choices. As a result, Buhuu is worried and thinks the nomadic life will disappear in a couple of decades. There will still be farmers and the herders will probably live on fenced land. As a side bar, many Mongolian people apparently preferred the Soviet era than the present times, because there was full employment, whereas today the unemployment rate hoovers around ten percent.

I didn’t find the people in Mongolia overly friendly and noticed that they didn’t show much in the way of facial expression. We surmised that this was a result of the decades of emotionless Russian rule and the obvious language problem. Very few people spoke enough English for us to have a conversation. Thankfully Buhuu was able to translate for us at the homestays and the ger camps. Although the local Mongolian language to the untrained ear sound like Russian, apparently the languages are quite different even though they share a common alphabet.

Pee breaks on route were problematic and could not be called bush toilets as often there were no bushes or anything else substantial for the women to squat behind. Sometimes they could disappear behind a small hill or into a gully, if not they quickly figured out a way to shield each other. One or two would hold a large scarf and another would squat behind, or they would form a wall facing the trucks while another squatted behind. The toilets where we did stop at filling stations or at viewpoints, were usually of the squatter or long drop variety, often very dirty, offensive and lacked the necessities. The women graded the toilets but were basically pretty stoic about them as really there was no other choice. In the homestay campground we all experienced bush toilets as there were no facilities there at all.

Buhuu is an incredible young man. For someone who was a child living in a nomadic family up until he was seventeen, he has adapted to modern Mongolian life quickly and seemingly with ease. He is only 28 but has a good job with lots of responsibility guiding a varied group of older tourists around his country. He revels in the fact that he is able to travel around his country and has probably seen more of it than most Mongolians. His family’s lifestyle has given him a wealth of insight and knowledge that he was able to pass on to us. His passion for his country was evident at all times. He interacted with ease with all of the nomadic people we met, and they obviously respected him. He has such an easy-going manner that put us all at our ease. Although some people found things to complain about, the food, the toilets, the accommodation; no one ever complained about him.

Buhuu was an excellent guide and Mongolia was a fascinating relaxing rural experience for what was my last trip on this year long journey.