Advertisement
In the barren rocky landscape a stone moved and ran across our track. “A marmot” I called and Enkhee quickly stopped the vehicle as we grabbed binoculars for a better look before it disappeared down its burrow. Batsuuri, Ikh Bogd environmental officer, who was escorting us on this tour of the protected area in the mountains was delighted. Marmots, hunted as a meaty delicacy, are now quite rare in the Bogd mountains. We sat and watched this guineapig like creature although it was well camouflaged in this rocky landscape. Later as we drove though these upper mountain pastures we spotted many more ‘moving rocks’ coming out into the early spring warmth and we even saw one family with a baby. The dark side of marmots is that they are carriers of bubonic plague and occasionally there are minor outbreaks amongst Mongolian marmot hunters.
On our way to Bogd from UB we had spent a few days in the aimag centre of Bayonhongor doing a round of interviews and exploring some of the dusty government archives. We paid another visit to lama Batbold’s Buddhist temple to ask him more about his environmental activities. Dominating the temple is a large statue of the
Ochiwaani
Ochiwaani Buddha - symbol of the connection between sky and land blue Ochiwaani Buddha that symbolises sky and land and although seemingly angry is powerful and will fight against bad things. Opposite the Buddhist temple in Bayonhongor is a new park illustrating the many dinosaur remains found in this area of Mongolia.
A few days later we arrived in Bogd soum and settled into our small ‘hotel’. No running water and the loo across the enclosure was guarded by the family dog after 11pm at night. Borma, who runs the hotel, is an English teacher at the school. She welcomed us and helped us rearrange the two rooms so that we had space to cook and entertain our many visitors. This included all five bag governors one afternoon, quite an honour.
This stage of our fieldwork is much less interview intensive. Instead we have planned a number of participatory workshops with herder groups and transects across the environment to discuss issues of pasture and landscape with local herders. Instead of walking the landscapes, as I had in Kenya, this time Caroline and I had planned a form of transport more in keeping with Mongolia – horses and camels. Battogoo, a local herder group leader, first organised a workshop in his ger
Rex
Dinosaur park in Bayonhongor. There are many dinosaur bones in the area. where we did participatory filming and the herders drew a timeline linking social and livelihood changes to environmental changes. The next day Battagoo arranged a suitable trial run of camel and horse riding for us on the southern edge of the dried up lake, Orog Nuur. I firstly took the camel option whilst Caroline rode. Bactrian camels have two humps and are far more comfortable for riding than the dromedary, one hump camels. However as I had never steered a camel myself I was led as we explored the springs and reed beds of the remains of Orog Nuur. There is still a lot of bird life here and we spotted cranes and swans. There is also a legend of a ‘naga’ or water spirit that lived in Orog Nuur when it held water. This naga was recorded as having the sound of a bull but took the form of a large bird. I think this may have been a bittern but sadly there are none here now as the loss of the water from the lake has meant that the naga has left also. The drying up of Orog Nuur is due to mining activities at the source of
Camel ride near Orog Nuur
Riding with local herders gives us a better understanding of their use of the pasture the Tuin River as well as climate change and increasing drought.
Later in our transect I swapped with Caroline to have my first ride on a Mongolian horse. These small hardy ponies have different gaits to English horses. The trot is quite lumpy and the canter half way between a trot and canter. It seems quite precarious perched on top of a wooden saddle with exceedingly short stirrups despite the ground not being too far below. To make the horse go faster you kick them on and say ‘choo choo’ in a Mongolian accent. The Mongolians laughed as I urged my horse on with a voice a couple of octaves higher than their Mongolian deep tones! Steering is done one handed pressing the opposite rein onto the horse’s neck to turn its head in the direction you want to go. We also laughed with Caroline as she is 5’11” and her feet could nearly touch the ground on these small steeds.
Seeing the marmots was the highlight of a road journey to the highest part of the Bogd mountain range. We were accompanied by the protected area environment officer, Batsuuri. At this time of year the spring grass had barely
Caroline on budget
The project budget is limited so we have to cut back on the size of horses! started to grow so the mountains were brown, stark and imposing. As we got to the rolling tops of the mountains we could see the snow fringed highest peak of Terguun Bogd, the second highest peak in Mongolia at just under 4000 metres. Eagles soared over the cliffs and we found the body of a rare wild goat at the bottom of a cliff were it must have fell to its death during a chase by wolves. Somewhere in these rocks live snow leopards although the chance of seeing them is remote. On many of the hills were sacred stones, or ovoo. Traditionally Mongolians believe in these ovoo and give offerings to bring happiness and good fortune. They are part of the landscape and integral to Mongolians’ understanding and beliefs in being a part of their country.
Another day, Nyamaa, Enkhee and I headed off to bag 5 to interview two herder group leaders that we had not yet met and organise a homestay and a group meeting. Firstly we called in on a lady who I wanted to stay with who had a deep knowledge of local herbs and medicines. Then, taking her son as a guide, we tried
Tuin River
The Tuin River with sand dunes and mountains behind. to navigate across the sand dunes to the mountains in the south. However a strong wind and sand storm blew up and we were soon lost in the dunes with little visibility. It was as though we were driving into a brown wall of sand. We finally found a herder who pointed us in the direction of the ger of the person we were trying to find. At last we reached the lower slopes of the mountains, which are very difficult to navigate and finding the right valley took us many attempts. The Russian jeep chugged up and down steep ravines following faint motorbike tracks. But when we did find the right ger the herder was out.
We set off in search of a different household that took us through a long winding rocky valley, that looked as though it is a river bed during the rain. Crags and cliffs towered above us and the jeep jolted over boulders. The colours of the rock and mountains were stained iron red to green grey with minerals. Finally, we popped out onto the rolling mountain tops and finally found the ger we were looking for. Sosorbaram was expecting us! Somehow news that
Mountain landscape
Vast rocky landscapes in Ikh Bogd protected area we were looking for him had gone ahead. We talked briefly then he escorted us to another household to try to arrange a future meeting with the whole herder group. By this time it was late afternoon and it was too late to find our planned interviews so we decided to start back home. Before leaving, Sosorbaram showed us Ghenggis Khan’s road to the top of the mountain and the place of his summer camp. This was a stunning place and we agreed to return in summer and hold the meeting here at the top of Ikh Bogd.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.615s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 20; qc: 129; dbt: 0.3202s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.5mb