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Published: November 1st 2009
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The train rolls into Sainshand, Mongolia at 5:20 am. And our four barely awake bodies tumble down the stairs, dragging our bags behind. Onto the wide open platform standing alone in the wide open Gobi Desert under a massive wide open Gobi sky. The train is gone one minute later. The sun is already up. And so is our guide, eager to meet us and take us out to our ger (yurt in Mongolian) camp - and then on to explore!
The ger camp is right under a nice ridge that breaks the endless Gobi wind and will later give us some nice vistas for sunsets. There are perhaps 10 gers, each made of canvas stretched over a wooden frame. Traditionally the ger was made of home made felt stretched over a birch frame which was held together by leather straps. All of the materials for construction were easily available for the Mongolians, a nomadic people who traditionally followed their herds in search of fresh pasture. Thus these gers, so easily transported and constructed were perfect for their nomadic lifestyle. The door was traditionally a flap of the felt - ours have hinged doors. But just like traditional gers, our
gers have a hole in the center of the ceiling, the toono, to allow light in and smoke out. And we needed it. Because we really put our little wood stove to work on those cold June nights in the Gobi!
We roll across the track that passes for a road, through the steppes of Mongolia, the wind buffeting our tourist van. The first stop is about 20 kilometers away, Kamaryn Khild (monastery). The khild was built in 1821 by a local holy man, Danzan Ravjaa, who was considered by many to be a god. He was the leader of the Red Hat sect of Buddhism, the 5th Gobi Lord. Mongolia was under Manchu (Chinese) rule at the time. The Manchu had just killed the 4th Gobi Lord and forbidden any further Gobi Lords - but luck was on his side. He was quite a child prodigy, by age four he was composing his own music! And he grew to be a rebellious, hot headed, eccentric who was famed as a writer, artist and social critic. He had students coming to his isolated monastery from all over the world - and traveled the world as well. One tenant of
the red Hat sect is that the soul or spirit of man resides in his head, in his skull to be more exact. Thus we saw a lot of skulls. As art. And in the architecture. And also the real thing - skulls of deceased monks and holy men, all through the temples!
Sadly, the once famed 5th Gobi Lord came to an untimely early death. Many offer conjecture that it was at the hands of a leader of the competing Yellow Hat sect of Buddhism. And his monastery? It too fell to a competing power. The communist government which came to power in 1924, making Mongolia the second communist governed country in the world after the Soviet Union, destroyed many temples and monasteries in the 1930's. Including Kamaryn Khild.
All around the monastery are meditation caves and retreats used by Danzan Ravjaa and his followers. Today they have the feel of an almost new age energy center and are called Shambala. At one point we make offerings of milk to two massive mounds of rock, piled side by side, breast like - a traditional offering to the feminine spirit. Its a powerful feeling, making these offerings to
Mother Earth under the unlimited blue Father Sky. But the smell of the many offerings of milk curdling under the intense Gobi sun is equally powerful!
We stop at Wishes Mountain for further offerings and prayers. This time in the form of cups of vodka tossed over our shoulders into the Gobi wind. The spirit of the 3rd Gobi Lord is said to inhabit this mountain - and he is the source of the answered wishes and prayers that so many pilgrims come here to offer.
Our final stop in our three days here in the Gobi is a stop at a ger to meet the family, sip camel milk and ride the Bactrian (2 humped) camels. The family is timid, yet warm, sharing and welcoming. The men and boys who lead us on the camels are eager to be helpful. And even though my Mongolian language skills so far only add up to 'Hello' and 'Thank You', there is a sense of connection that I treasure.
Over and over I am struck by similarities between this open corner of the world and the people who inhabit it - and the Navajo people of the Four Corners
region of the US's southwest. The similarities in appearance and the customs that are necessary to survive in such a climate are part of it. Occasionally a word in Mongolian will connect to one of the few Navajo words I remember from a Navajo language enrichment class that I took 15 years ago. But it's also the gentle and measured way of the people. Living with an awareness of time and open space that allows for an unhurried and gentle way of interacting with the world. I mention my thoughts to the curator at a museum back in Sainshand. She concurs, telling me of official visitors they've had from the researching the connection between the Navajo Nation and the Mongolian people. Well, I guess it all goes back to that Bering Strait land bridge!
Note - a special thank you to Deb Darson, my friend and one of my travel companions on this trip. Many of the pictures in this posting are hers. In a moment of 'computer difficulty' I lost most of my pictures from the Mongolian part of the trip all the way on to Irkutsk, Russia. That is painful!
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anonymous
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Dearest Ekim, Thank you ever for these wonderful " journeys" into the lands and with the people you meet. How exquisite a treasure for us in our own land/scapes to center with the knowledge and experiences you share....and thank Deb Larson for these photos. Blessings to you and your life circle, ever, judith in Dinetla/Navajo country