MONGOLIA MYSTERIES REVEALED
But there’s much more to the country, according to Palmerston North Mongolian settler Ariunaa Mendtsoo, who was recently guest speaker at the City Library’s monthly Know Your Neighbour lunchtime talk, organised by Settlement Support Manawatu.
Mrs Mendtsoo described a vast, thinly-populated country, about the size of Alaska with three million people – one person for every 2 kilometres.
The landscape is split fairly equally between the sterile, rocky Gobi Desert in the south, high snowy mountains in the north, and steppe-like plains to the east.
Temperatures range from an unbelievably (to Kiwis) icy -50 degrees Celsius in winter to up to 40C in summer.
Traditionally, life was lived nomadically in gers, big felt-layered tents heated by a central stove.
In the old days, families stopped their horses and camels at a grazing area, and up went the tent.
“My mother’s mother, she could put up her family’s ger by herself in about 40 minutes,” Mrs Mendtsoo said.
The tall central support went up first, then the lattice walls. Then more lattices, depending on the size of the ger. Lengths of wood for rafters supported felt and canvas roof and wall layers. More layers were used in cold weather. In hot weather, the ger’s felt skirts were lifted, creating cooling draughts.
In a ger, the altar was on the north side (the predominant religion is Buddhism), the door on the south. Men lived on the west side, women on the east. Animals and poor guests were next to the door. Cooking and eating happened in the middle, round the stove.
Rich people displayed wealth by carving ger rafters and decorating them with gems and silver inlays.
Women adorned themselves with jewellery on special occasions. Men carried a knife, fire strikers and a personal cup of silver or bronze.
Mongolia’s main festival is Naadam, or the Three Men’s Games festival. Mongolia’s top sports are wrestling, archery and horse riding.
Mongolians celebrated Zagaan Sur, or new year, to mark spring, bringing relief from savage winter cold.
Boiled mutton, bread, dumplings, meat pies, milky tea with salt, mares’ milk, cookies and cakes were served with warming Schnapps.
Another traditional way to cook meat involved heating stones in a fire, then layering in a covered pot the meat and hot stones.
“And the stones . . . very soothing to painful parts on the body when still warm. They are thought to be beneficial to health,” Mrs Mendtsoo says.
Mongolia was Chinese-ruled from the 16th century until 1911, when it declared itself independent. It became a buffer state, sandwiched between China and Russia, and in 1924 it became a republic and with Russian help, finally pushed the Chinese out. Russian influence in the communist years was huge. Huge communist block-style apartments were built in the capital Ulan Bator.
Mrs Mendtsoo said children learned Russian, used Cyrillic script and excellent education and health systems saw 100 per cent literacy achieved in the 1960s.
Then communism collapsed, the Russians withdrew in 1990 with Mongolia’s democratic revolution, and Mongolia had been developing a modern economy ever since.
The next Know Your Neighbour session is on September 6, when speakers will talk about Japan. It starts at noon at the Sound and Vision Zone, City Library.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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