While Mongolia today has many settled cities and towns, their nomadic roots play a huge role in Mongolian customs and culture, and roughly 30% of the population is still nomadic (or somewhat so).
Looking for greener pastures
The countryside in Mongolia is remote and sparsely populated, although a ger with a family of nomads is never too far off. Combined with the renowned Mongolian hospitality, it’s a little comforting knowing that you’re not likely to succumb to the elements in some freak scrape, accident, or from just plain getting lost. It seems apt that in such a harsh landscape, survival means being able to pop in on any ger for a meal and a warm place to sleep, and this is still the case today. Even western wayfarers can knock on the door of any ger in the countryside and enjoy snacks, hot tea, and awkward silences, unless, of course, you speak Mongolian or have a translator. And yes, if you’re really in a fix, they will even put together another ger (if a spare is not already in tact) and give you a bed.
This is pretty common even so close to the larger cities. This is just outside of Erdenet.
So what is life like for a Mongolian nomad? It mostly centers around the care and maintenance of the livestock and, in the winter months, keeping warm. Wake up, chop wood, graze the livestock, milk the cows etc etc. A self sustaining herd is usually around 300 heads, so most Mongolian nomad families have at least a few hundred head of livestock in any variety of goats, sheep, horses, camels, yak or cows. Wealthier families will have upward of 1000 heads of livestock.
This is our home stay father, cooking.
Inside the ger, both the husband and wife (at least at our home stay) spend time preparing the milk into tea, yogurt, dried milk curds, cheese and airag, a fermented milk drink that’s lightly alcoholic. The children go to school during the winter months at the nearest town, where they stay, and visit home over the summer months and holidays.
During down time, they read, listen to radios, play Shagai (a game where they throw the ankle bones of a sheep or goat) and now even watch TV thanks to an entrepreneur that went ger to ger selling a combination satellite dish and solar panel package for an affordable price. This led to us sharing a chuckle with our Mongolian home stay family after watching the dance scene in Little Miss Sunshine (dubbed in Mongolian). I was wondering how they would feel about A) toting around a dead family member in a van and B) a little girl doing a provocative dance; it didn’t seem to offend and they thought it was hysterical. It’s funny how you would think you couldn’t be more different than a Mongolian nomad only to realize when it comes down to it, we’re all quite the same.
The idyllic countryside, complete with livestock and everything.
