Mongolia has many faces, from the sweeping boundless sands of the Gobi Desert, where nomadic herders still practice an ancient way of life … to the green plains of Kharkhorin, where Genghis Khan once rode ... and the modern capital city of Ulaanbaatar, where contemporary buildings stand side-by-side with Buddhist monasteries and traditional ger tents.  This is the place were Marco Polo made his name on the old Silk Road.  Nestled between Russia and China, the windswept steppes and cobalt blue sky seem to go on forever.  We spent a week here in August 2013 with fellow travelers Dennis and Vicky Shepard.

Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, is a curious blend of ancient culture, vestiges of the 20^th century communist regime, and new construction.  Located on the banks of the Tuul River, high in the Bogd Mountain range, Ulaanbaatar was founded in 1639 as a nomadic encampment; it was not permanently settled until 1778.  Today, it is a traffic-clogged, somewhat depressing metropolis of nearly one million people.    

 

The Zaisan Memorial is a tall, thin landmark on top of a hill south of the city.  Built by the Russians to commemorate Soviet soldiers killed in World War II, the memorial includes a circular painting depicting scenes of friendship between Mongolia and the Soviet Union.  It’s a long climb, but a nice view of the city.

 

In the city center, a statue of Damdin Sukhbaatar, the hero of the revolution, stands in the center of Sukhbaatar Square.  It was on this spot that Mongolia declared independence from China in 1921.  Less than 70 years later, in 1989, this square was also the site of the first protests against Soviet oppression; rallies and ceremonies are still held here.   

At one end of the square there is a temporary exhibit about Mongolia’s favorite dinosaur, Tarbosaurus bataar.  This nearly-complete skeleton was returned from an American collector after a long period of negotiation.  He usually resides in the national museum, which is now being renovated.  

 

Facing the square is the Government House, the state parliament building.  This huge marble structure was built for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the coronation of Chinggis Khan.  At the center of the building is a seated bronze statue of Chinggis Khan, flanked by his son, Ogedei, and his grandson, Kublai.  

Today, the Khans are lording it over a wedding ceremony.  The bride and groom, as well as many of the older guests, were wearing traditional Mongolian dress.  

The Gandan Monastery, a Tibetan-style monastery built in 1835, is one of the few in Mongolia to have escaped destruction under Stalin’s regime.  During the communist purges from 1930-1940, over 700 monasteries and temples were destroyed and nearly 20,000 monks were murdered.  It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the people of Mongolia were able to openly practice Buddhism again.  Today Gandan is Mongolia’s biggest and most important monasteries, revered as a source of national pride.  

 

Entering the monastery complex, our first sight is a huge prayer wheel.  A prayer wheel is a hollow cylinder, mounted on a rod and containing a tightly wound scroll printed with a mantra, or sacred text.  According to Buddhist belief, spinning a prayer wheel is just as effective as reciting the sacred words aloud.  

A path leads to a courtyard containing two temples, one of which is hosting a wedding, while the other is reserved for chanting monks.  It’s a busy place, with many local people visiting today… feeding pigeons, burning incense, getting married, checking messages, worshiping or just enjoying the beautiful day.   

 

 

All around the temple complex, there are many prayer wheels.  We saw many people walking the entire circuit, turning each wheel as they passed.  Lots of prayers going up and out today.  

As we walked along the main path through the monastery, we saw stupas, statues, people dressed in their finest clothes.  

 

 

 

At the end of the path stands a white temple that houses the magnificent Migjid Janraisig, a 90-foot tall statue of the standing Buddha.  Lining the walls of the temple are hundreds of images of the Buddha, as well as various protectors of the faith.  

A note about religion in Mongolia today:  Buddhism (53%) and Shamanism (39%) are the most common religions. Shamanism is the Mongolian native and traditional religion – the worship of the blue, mighty and eternal heaven.  Today many people practice both Shamanism and Buddhism.   

The Zanabazar Fine Arts Museum, housed in an old Russian-style mansion, contains over 10,000 exhibits including paintings, bronzes, textiles, sculptures, costumes and prehistoric artifacts.  The museum takes its name from the Mongolian monk, sculptor and artist, Zanabazar; many of his works are included in the collection here. 

Zanabazar is sometimes called the Michelangelo of the Steppes.  He was an artist, statesman and living Buddha; today he is considered one of the greatest Renaissance artists in all of Asia.   His sculptures and paintings adorn monasteries all over the country.   

 

Egshiglen Magnai is a family-owned company that makes traditional Mongolian folk music instruments – including the traditional horse-head fiddle.  We observed the manufacturing process from blocks of wood to beautiful finished product.  

We also had an opportunity to see and hear these instruments in action as we attended performances of the Mongolian National Song and Dance Ensemble.  This cultural show, known as Tumen Ekh, included a little bit of everything: orchestral renditions of new and old Mongolian music, traditional and modern dancing, a contortionist who did impossible things with her body, and recitals featuring the horse-head violin as well as unique Mongolian throat singing.   

Enough of city life – it’s time to head to the countryside, where most of the country’s population lives.  First we stopped by a roadside livestock market that was doing a brisk business in goats.  Some folks took them home alive, but some were being butchered on site.  

 

Second stop was a ‘supermarket,’ where we stopped to get some snacks for the long ride.  These pictures speak volumes about the Mongolian diet – lots of meat, not many vegetables. 

 

We headed southwest of the city of Ulaanbaatar, and soon we were seeing wide open spaces and herds of grazing animals.  For 3000 years, the people of the steppes have adopted a nomadic way of life, moving in search of the best pastures and campsites.  Today, half of Mongolia’s population is still roaming the vast plains, living in gers, and moving their campsites several times a year.  Nomadic life thrives in summer and survives in winter. 

Mongolian nomads live with and for their livestock.  Traditionally, these include the five muzzles:  horses, cows or yaks, sheep, goats and camels.  Nomadic families devote most of their waking hours to caring for their animals – herding, watching over them, milking, shearing, or combing – all necessary to produce felt and felt clothes, cheese and other dairy products.   

We watched a family moving their herd of horses, cows, goats and sheep – it’s quite a production to get everyone headed in the same direction.  

There is other animal life out here.  We caught a glimpse of a fox and saw many raptors overhead.  These demoiselle cranes were fairly common.  

Before long, there were no buildings – just gers – and those mostly were few and far between.  

 

We stopped (unannounced) to visit at one of these – one that had a tiny monastery on the hill behind them.  The family had relatives visiting from the city but they welcomed us into their home.  We learned that it isn't necessary to knock before entering a ger. However, when approaching a ger, it’s a good idea to call out ‘Nokhoi khor,’ which means ‘Hold the dog!   

Our hostess found us places to sit and offered us food and drink.  We had seen the cheese and yogurt drying on top of the ger.  A basket of dried cheese and dried yogurt came with a bowl of fermented mare’s milk (known as airag) to wash it all down.   It’s hard to describe just how bad this stuff tasted – the dried yogurt and cheese were indistinguishable – both tasted like an old tennis shoe; the mare’s milk tasted like it was laced with vinegar.  Let’s just say it was challenging to be a polite guest … 

 

Well-fortified with food and drink, we traveled through beautiful countryside to reach our destination, the mountainous Khogno Khan National Park.  This sanctuary covers 16,000 acres and is habitat for ibex, wolves and many varieties of hawks.  Its arid terrain of rocky semi-desert also contains many old temples and monasteries hidden in the hills.  

One of these is the tiny Ovgon Monastery, nestled in the cliffs.  Devastated by an invading army in 1640, the monastery was re-opened in 1992. Its temples have been restored.   

It’s a tough climb to the highest temple, but it’s a nice view across the plains.    

 

Leaving the monastery, we came upon a family assembling a second ger, having just moved to this new campsite for better grazing.  We’re not experts on grazing, but we can attest that the views are spectacular.  

 

Travel is all about learning and discovery:  Grandma (supervising the operation) looked like a real character and the workers looked like they could use some help.  They were more than a little surprised when we all piled out of the van to give them a hand.   

 

First the center pole is placed in the middle of the platform and the door is positioned in the wall frame.    

 

Next the roof poles are placed between the center ring and the wall frame – perfect placement is critical – wouldn't want the whole thing to fall down when the wind blows. 

 

Next the felt lining for the walls and roof, to be followed by a canvasing covering for waterproofing.  At this point, the family assured us that they could manage without us, so we headed over the hill to check out our own camp.  

Our campground, Hoyor Sagal Ger Camp, is nearby, offering us vistas of majestic peaks, sandy hills and a graceful willow grove near the Shiluustei River.  Here’s the camp and here’s our ger, with the mountains beyond.  

 

Our lodgings are authentic Mongolian gers (known elsewhere as yurts), sturdy fabric-walled dwellings like those that have housed many generations of Mongolians.  Of all the different types of houses in our world, the Mongolian ger has to be one of the most useful, versatile and perfectly adapted for the user.  Here is a home that can be taken apart in an hour, moved to a different location, and set up again – all on the same day.   

From the outside, the ger looks like a simple tent.  The outermost and innermost material is made of canvas, with an insulating layer of felt sandwiched in between (more layers in winter and fewer in summer); it is supported by a collapsible wooden frame.  Horsehair ropes are cinched around the perimeter to hold the ger together.  The door always faces south, to avoid the winds from north and to catch the most sunlight.  Inside it is comfortably furnished with two beds, a table, tiny chairs and a wood stove that can be used for heating at night.  

 

Our camp consisted of a circle of traditional gers, with separate buildings for toilets, showers, and a ger-shaped dining room.  Pretty basic, but comfortable and surrounded by beautiful scenery – with occasional herds of horses and other animals wandering by. 

 

Near our camp, we visited a family of nomadic horse breeders.  Once again, we were welcomed and offered food and drink. The family’s home is a traditional ger, with more furnishings and modern appliances than we expected for a nomadic family.  They had a bed, a small table, a couple of chairs, a dresser, a stove – even a TV and a radio.  Electricity comes from solar panels, with energy stored in car batteries.  The kids enjoyed the balloons that we brought for them. 

 

This family had two gers side by side, one for living/sleeping and one for cooking – this is a typical arrangement in summertime.  If we’d seen the cooking ger first, we might have declined all food and drink.  There were lots of ‘interesting’ things in that room – meat was hung to dry and cheese and yogurt were being made.  One big pot contained a batch of vodka made from yogurt.  Our guide Muggyi was happy to finish off anything we couldn’t drink ….  

 

Some of the family’s horses were tethered nearby – these were the mares with young.  Here grandma is heading down to milk a mare or two – time to stir up another delicious batch of airag (fermented mare’s milk).

Kharkhorum was the capital city built by Genghis Khan in 1220; by the mid-13^th century, it was a happening place.  Genghis Khan established a supply base here and his son Ogedei ordered the construction of a proper capital, a decree that attracted traders, dignitaries and skilled workers from across Asia.  In its heyday, the city covered much of the Orkhon Valley.  On a hill high overlooking the city there is a large Turtle Rock, one of four such sculptures that marked the boundaries of the ancient city Karakorum.    

 

The good times in Kharkorum lasted about 40 years until Kublai Khan moved the capital to Khanbalik (later called Beijing) - a decision that still annoys some Mongolians.  Following the move to Beijing and the subsequent collapse of the Mongol empire, Kharkhorum was abandoned and later destroyed by Manchurian soldiers in 1388.  Whatever was left of the city was later used to build the nearby Erdene-Zuu Monastery.   

Erdene-Zuu Monastery was built in 1586 and is one of the most historically and archaeologically important sites in central Asia.  At its peak, the complex boasted some 100 temples.  During the Stalinist purges of 1937, all but three of the temples were destroyed and large numbers of monks were killed or sent to Siberian gulags.  Many statues and pieces of religious art were saved by being buried in nearby mountains or stored in local homes. The complex regained its true calling as a place of worship only after the collapse of the communist regime. 

Erdene-Zuu is a fascinating religious complex and a testament to Mongol architecture.  The monastery is enclosed in an immense walled compound.  Spaced evenly along each wall, there are 108 stupas (108 is a scared number in Buddhism). 

 

Inside the walls there are stupas and temples constructed of wood, brick, blue brick and ceramics.   The three major temples that escaped destruction trace the course of Buddha’s life – they are dedicated to his childhood, adolescence and adulthood.  Inside there are incredible collections of 16^th-18^th century thangkas (traditional Buddhist paintings), masks, wooden and bronze statues, and applique and papier-mâché images of various gods. 

We saw many local people who had come to see this, the oldest monastery in Mongolia, and to hear the monks chanting in one of the temples.   

 

This area, the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The valley encompasses an extensive area of pastureland on both banks of the river; this grassland is still grazed by Mongolian nomads. The site includes numerous archaeological remains dating back to the sixth century, including the site of the ancient city of Kharkhorum. 

Kharkhorum and its monastery are four-hour drive from Ulaanbaatar.  This is worth a mention because the drive (there and back) was a memorable experience.  Driving is an adventure in Mongolia in the best of times:  there are few real roads anywhere.  Folks just drive in the direction they want to travel, creating lots of ruts across the steppes.  And … there’d been lots of rain and the ruts were pretty much impassable, so folks just drove on across the grass.  The family in this truck and trailer were moving all their earthly belongings to a new grazing site – until they got stuck in the mud. 

We were grateful to have an excellent driver to keep us moving safely and a great guide to keep us entertained.  We saw ger camps off in the distance, as well as a stone structure that was used in winter for sheltering livestock. 

 

We also saw several ovoos, shamanistic cairns made from rocks piled on top of hills or in mountain passes.  These are mainly religious sites, used in worship of the mountains and the sky.  They also used in Buddhist ceremonies.   

 

When travelling, it is custom to stop and walk around an ovoo three times in clockwise direction, in order to have a safe journey.  This seemed a reasonable precaution, given the road conditions.  It also is customary to pick up a rock to add to the pile and to leave offerings such as sweets, money, milk, vodka, even prayer wheels.  (These prayer wheels are solar-powered; lots of people have them on dash of car.)  

Happily, we made it back to Ulaanbaatar and traveled by air to the Gobi Desert.

The Gobi Desert, Mongolia’s answer to the Australian Outback covers much of the southern part of the country.  It is a bleak place: vast, harsh and silent.  It is one of the few places on the planet that is completely off the grid – out of reach of cell phones, Facebook and cable news.    It is also a place of secrets:  ice-filled canyons, abandoned monasteries, salt flats, sand dunes, rust-colored badlands, dinosaur fossils, and legends galore.  The climate here is extreme, ranging from 104°F in summer to -40°F in winter.  Precipitation averages less than 4 inches per year, while some areas only get rain once every two or three years.  Strong winds (up to 90 miles an hour) make travel dangerous in spring and fall. 

We got a taste of Gobi weather on our flight in – there was a big, bad and windy thunderstorm underway as we arrived.  Our plane had to circle the airport until the storm cleared – a bumpy ride, but magnificent views of the storm and the desert.  Arriving just after the rain has its advantages – a rainbow stretching across the horizon. 

 

We stopped for a look at a wandering herd of camels.  These are Bactrian camels, two-humped ornery beasts with a shaggy wool coat.  Camels can still be seen hauling goods and people across the Gobi, as they have done for centuries.   The camel is a versatile and low-maintenance creature:  it can last a week without water and a month without food; it can carry up to 550 pounds; it provides wool and milk and is a good source of meat.   

 

Driving on, we marveled at the sense of isolation – we saw almost no signs of human life until we reached the Dream Gobi Tourist Camp, our home for the next few days.  Not only did it provide a beautiful view, our ger was equipped with its own bathroom – ah, such luxury!  

 

Here's another shot of our ger, showing how the modular bathroom was attached - inside and out.

 

Bayanzag is commonly known as the Flaming Cliffs, because of its glowing orange hue.  The cliffs were made famous in the 1920s when paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews dug through the shifting sands and excavated the first nest of dinosaur eggs ever found.  Over a period of two years, Andrews and his team unearthed over 100 dinosaurs, including several Velociraptors (subsequently made famous by Jurassic Park).   Since then, many more dinosaur bones, eggs and other prehistoric artifacts have been found in this area. 

 

Dinosaurs aside, the eerie beauty of the landscape here is reason enough to visit.  It’s a classic desert of rock, red sands, scrub, sun and awesome emptiness.  We learned that many of the shrubs in this area are actually trees.  These saxaul trees are one of the most important types of vegetation in Mongolia; one quarter of the country’s forested area is covered by this woody shrub.  

 

In the desert, saxaul forests protect the soil from erosion, provide habitats for animals, fodder for wildlife and livestock, and firewood for people.  The saxaul is a very slow-growing tree.    

 

Over a few hills into seemingly featureless terrain, our guide somehow found this pile of rocks, which turned out to be a well shared by local herdsmen.  They’d built a frame over the top, left a bucket for dipping, and formed a trough with old tires.  Not fancy, but it worked.  

 

Still not sure how we found the well – equally unsure how we found the home of the Mongolian family and camels that were expecting us to visit.  

 

Once again, we were welcomed into the family’s ger and offered food and drink – this time we were given a sugar cube to eat along with the dried cheese (it helped very little).  With the help of our guide as translator, we learned about the family’s difficult life. Even with a solar panel, a motorcycle for herding, and a car for long trips to town, we couldn't imagine living in such isolation with no electricity, no running water, no beds or chairs, nothing resembling a creature comfort.   

 

We had a nice long visit with the family, but we couldn’t avoid the camels forever.  They bark, they spit, they smell like a sweaty armpit, but we are going for a ride.  Don't they look thrilled to see us coming?

 

Climbing atop a sitting camel looks like it should be easy, but it took a group effort to get beast and rider coordinated.  At last we were all aboard and off on another adventure. 

We had a good look at the sand dunes known in this region as Moltsog Els.  These dunes are not Mongolia’s largest, but they stretch for over 12 miles and nearly 1000 feet high.  Very aromatic and not exactly a smooth ride, but what a great way to travel and a perfect ending to our visit to the Gobi Desert.  

 

Memorable Meals …

When it comes to cuisine, Mongolians make the most of limited ingredients.  The culinary masters of the barren steppes have always put more stock in survival than taste.  Mongolian food tends to be hearty, but somewhat bland; meat and milk products figure prominently in traditional meals.  There’s no refrigeration, so meat and dairy products are either dried or fermented.   Meals may be supplemented with bread, potatoes or rice, but green vegetables are equated with animal fodder and spices seem to be an alien concept. 

Mongolians are big tea drinkers and usually start a meal with a cup of tea first to aid in digestion.  A classic Mongolian drink is milk tea with salt, sometimes served with a dollop of butter. And of course, drinking fermented mare’s milk (airag) is a uniquely Central Asian experience, one that our stomachs won’t soon forget.