Bogd blog

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The journey from Ulaan Bataar to Bayonhongor takes about 12 hours, the first part is smooth on tarmac roads and as our minibus sped along I had my first views of the Mongolian countryside; rolling steppe, brown in the dry autumn season, with scattered gers and herds of horses. Caroline, Nyamaa, co-researcher and translator, Enkhbayer, our driver, and our other passenger Batbold, a Buddhist high lama from Bayonhongor, talked and laughed a lot as we journeyed. Towards evening the tarred road abruptly ended and for the final three hours we bumped and twisted our way on narrow tracks the rest of the way, arriving with relief at a hotel in Bayonhongor with hot showers and flush toilets, our last for several weeks.

Bayonhongor is an aimag, province, in south central Mongolia. In the town of Bayonhongor we set about trying to interview various people including the aimag governor; Batbold, as head lama of the Namdalchoinhorlin monastery and Buddhist school; and the head lama of Bayonhongor monastery. Batbold, was particularly interesting as he talked about his environmental NGO and how Buddhism is concerned with protecting the environment. Batbold has a gentle smile and a deep concern with how mining in particular is affecting sacred sites and polluting rivers and land.
Late in the afternoon we drove south trying to navigate by following tracks across the steppe landscape and stopping at a remote ger to ask the way to Bogd. In the dark we arrived at a cold hotel with a little electric heater and outside latrine across the yard guarded by a large Mongolian dog, making trips to the loo in the night impossible. Thankfully the hotel owners let us cook and eat in their ger to keep warm. Even though some people have solid houses in the soum centre many prefer to live in gers. A few days later we moved to a different hotel with central heating - bliss.

Bogd soum centre is a small settlement with a mixture of solidly built houses of concrete and wood, brought from the forests of northern Mongolia, and traditional felt-lined gers. Electricity arrived here three or four years ago and Ganzarig, the previous soum governor, also acquired funds for a community centre and sports hall so it is quite an active community. Bogd soum is divided into five smaller areas or bags. During the first two days Caroline and I whizzed around the soum centre interviewing key informants such as the soum governor and some of the bag governors but early the third morning Caroline departed leaving Nyamaa and me to carry on visiting herder households scattered widely round the soum.

The landscapes in Bogd are varied and include areas of desert steppe, gravel deserts with tufts of low lying grasses and plants; taller tussocks of grass around the river and lake; and a forest of saxuul plants surrounding small sand dunes. Above it all the Bogd mountains provide a snowy backdrop to the brown lowlands. The mountains rise to over 3900 metres and the sacred summit of Ikh Bogd. Local people traditionally offer milk and tea to the mountain every morning to bring happiness to their households, believing that the mountain connects mother earth with the father sky. Ikh Bogd is a state protected area but also has traditional protection. Wildlife includes wild goats and wild sheep, marmots, foxes, wolves and even snow leopards which are reported to live in the higher areas. Hopefully next year when we return I can climb up there to try to see them although chances are slim.

Gers dot the land, hidden in sheltered corners of the landscape: in the high grasses round the river, high in the mountains and exposed on the open flat plains. Sometimes households live alone, sometimes in small groups of two or three. The larger winter and spring shelters have fenced or walled corrals for livestock. Around the lake of Orog Nuur gers are closer together but on the open steppe they may be several kilometres apart. Mongolian herders regularly move two, four or more times a year as they take their livestock to new pasture. The ger is constructed of wood and felt. Inside it is warm and cosy and a central oven burns dried dung as fuel. Many gers today have solar panels to provide electricity to power a TV. The main problem is getting into the ger as country dogs are large and protective so before we can get out of the van someone from the household has to hold on to the dog while we make a quick dash for the entrance. Lingering to take photographs is difficult.

The weather so far has been quite mild with brilliant blue skies in the day but chilly at night, particularly if the wind blows. Local herders say that it is a good autumn. We have had a couple of windy days which blew up the sand and the air became thick with grit. This spring saw a period of extreme cold in the Gobi and as last summer was dry many livestock died and few new young animals were born. Mongolia is experiencing extreme climatic changes and many herders reported how little grass there was compared to the past and the 'natural disasters' of dzud, cold winters, heavy snowfall and strong winds and sand storms.

Food in Mongolia is based around meat and dairy products and it is difficult to survive as a vegetarian outside of UB. Mongolian herders are also very hospitable and we are always offered food and milky salted tea on visiting a ger. The food may be a full meal, meat or meat soup and pasta or noodles, but more often it is Boortsog, a fried pastry that is delicious when fresh but otherwise a little hard and fatty. These biscuits are accompanied by different sorts of milk curd, most of which I actually like a little. Urum is the partly solidified cream from the top of boiled milk, delicious and rich, aarts is a soft tasty curd. Aaruul is the same curd but left to go hard and tastes similar to parmesan cheese; it is almost impossible to break a piece off or bite into the oldest aaruul. Undaa or fresh camel milk is sometimes offered, which I don’t particularly like cold but can drink a little if hot and frothy with sugar. Occasionally we are offered arak - fermented mare’s milk which is used in a drinking game and sent one of our drivers careering across the steppe landscapes. Steamed meat dumplings are sometimes offered and I have even found a small cafe in the soum centre that will make vegetarian versions.

Travelling around the countryside I’ve had the opportunity to interview many of the herders about their pasture and the environment. Most households are hospitable and welcoming even though they may be busy with their livestock. Some fascinating tales have emerged. Many of the older people were herders during the negdel times when livestock was owned by the state and managed communally. Some miss those times when herding and use of pasture was organised and everyone was paid a wage. During the transition to a market economy livestock and equipment was privately distributed, pastures became common access but the infrastructure seemed to break down. One old lady remembered climbing Ikh Bogd on an expedition in the 1940s and still follows news of other climbers round the world. Another old man in his 80s used to be a prize winning wrestler in the area and he still herds camels near Orog Nuur, the lake lying beneath Ikh Bogd and source of water for many herders in spring and autumn. However, the lake is drying up through lack of rainfall and mining activities occurring further north at the source of the Tuin river.

Off road driving around the area can be difficult and Enkhbayar navigates our 4x4 minibus over tussocks of grass, sand dunes, snow and rocky mountain slopes with skill. We often have to travel many kilometres between gers particularly in the mountains where deep rocky gullies prevent crossing easily between valleys. We usually start at 9am and finish at 9pm in the dark. One night we got lost in a saxuul forest and the ghostly shapes of the white trees was all we could see. Another night we spent in a ger in the mountains, exchanging information about England and Mongolia. Nyamaa works hard translating. I am trying to pick up a little of the language but it is hard. We slept that night in a row on the floor with the family in the padded tent but I was glad of my down sleeping bag.

Sadly, our time bumping around the plains and mountains of Bogd soum has come to an end until the spring. Yesterday we travelled to the neighbouring aimag, over vast snow and sand plains passing one vehicle in 2 hours drive and seeing maybe half a dozen ger. We stopped briefly at Guchin Us, our next survey centre, before driving on to the aimag centre of Arvaikheer. Tomorrow I return to Guchin Us for two more weeks of interviewing before returning home.

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Photos

Camel herder
Logio was a prize winning wrestler in his youth and still herds camels.

Bogd soum
Bogd soum centre with the Bogd mountains behind

batbayar
My 'brother' Batbayar guided us around the mountain areas.

ger
Isolated gers dot the landscape. It can be a problem finding our households to interview.

Herders
Older herders have many tales to tell.

hump
One hump or two?

dog
Mongolian dogs fiercely guard their gers.

saxuul
Saxuul or the Gobi tree grows on sandy ground, and is used to try to control sand movement.

Moving ger
Mongolian herders move ger several times a year to find fresh grazing for their livestock.

watering goats
Shallow wells are hand dug to provide water for livestock.

Horsehead
This horsehead instrument is traditional in Mongolia

Ikh Bogd
Ikh Bogd Mountain