What sort of clothes do Mongolians wear?

[question from Annabel & Henry]

Young people in the cities wear the same type of clothes that we do in England. However, they take a long time choosing what to wear, so everyone looks very fashionable. Most people will wear the latest clothes, and will want to look beautiful. Even though new clothes can be expensive, and most Mongolians do not have much money, they all buy the newest clothes. When I first came to Mongolia I thought everyone was rich, as they all looked so nice in their new clothes! However, one quickly discovers that whilst they have nice clothes, they may not have money for other things (for example, many families live in one room together – they cannot afford a house with separate rooms).

Elderly people and people who live in the countryside wear traditional clothes. The most popular type of clothing is called a ‘deel’. A deel is a type of large overcoat that covers most of the body. It is very long, so the whole of the arms are covered (you don’t need gloves when wearing a deel!). It’s quite baggy, so it’s quite easy to wear a deel and do physical work or ride a horse. People wear a deel with large boots, and men usually put a hat on when leaving their house. Mongolians also wear a belt with their deel, which is either made from leather or from cloth. Deels can be many different colours and can be made from different materials. Most people would have a winter and summer deel, with different amounts of padding inside (a winter deel has lots of padding to keep the wearer warm during the very cold winters). Younger people in the cities only really wear deels on special occasions, such as Mongolian New Year or on their wedding day.

Are there any Catholic Churches in Mongolia?

[question from Julia H]

As Easter is here, I thought it was an appropriate time to answer this question. Yes, there are Catholic churches in Mongolia. Mongolia is an interesting place to be a Catholic, as many people think that the Catholic Community here is the newest and smallest in the world!

Ulaanbaatar has a big cathedral church – it is new and very beautiful. Bishop Wenceslas lives here. He is from the Philippines, and is the leader of the Catholic Church in Mongolia. I sometimes go to the cathedral church as they say Mass in English once a month (most of the time Mass is in Mongolian, which is difficult for me to understand).

My favourite church is the ger church in Ulaanbaatar’s 3rd district. It is one of the poorer districts of the city, so the church is a lot more basic that anything that we are used to in the UK. For a start, the church is in a tent! Many Mongolians live in ger tent houses, and the priests decided to make one of these tent houses into a church. The tent is quite big, so 40 people can sit inside.

I wish you all a very happy and holy Easter. Don’t eat too much chocolate!

Do they like music, and if so what kind?

[question from John]

Mongolians love music! It is a big part of their culture. At every gathering people sing Mongolian songs, and musical instruments are never far away.

Traditional music – Mongolians are very proud of their traditional music. “Long-singing” is a technique which Mongolians have been using for many years. The singer sings a song, but makes each word last for a long time. They also change the pitch of their singing regularly (going up and down, up and down). It is very atmospheric. You can hear an example by clicking on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zip54HvtE2w.

“Hoomii Music”, or throat singing, is a specialty of Mongolia. It is very beautiful and unique. Hoomii singers vibrate their vocal cords very quickly, and use their tongue to create two chambers in their mouth. This technique makes amazing noises, noises which I used to think were impossible for people to make! People who practice hoomii a lot can make two noises at the same time, so it sounds like there are two singers in the room. It is amazing to listen to – have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60cZRB6V24g for a good example of hoomii.

The morin khuur is a special instrument that Mongolians play. It is a two-stringed instrument, similar to a cello. The head of the morin hur is shaped like a horse. People play this instrument very fast to create tunes to sing and dance along to.

Modern music – young people like more modern music, so will often listen to pop music and hip-hop from America and Great Britain. The Spice Girls and Westlife are still popular here. Even though many Mongolian people cannot speak English, they can still sing a few lines of an English song!

Mongolian pop music is also popular. Bold is a famous Mongolian singer, whose songs often reach #1 in the music charts. Many people also like the band Kiwi, who are a girl band. Javhlan is a singer who has managed to combine modern and traditional music together. His latest song “Eejin chamsan tsee” (My Mother’s Milky Tea) is popular with both young and old people, and is on the radio everyday!

Mongolian New Year

The 8th of February was Mongolian New Year, or as the locals call it, Tsagaan Sar (White Moon). Mongolians traditionally follow a different calendar, the lunar calendar, so their year starts on a different day. Buddhist monks will study the position of the moon and then will announce when exactly the new year will start. During Tsagaan Sar people will visit the houses of their older relatives and friends, and will generally have a great time – eating, drinking and singing. The Tsagaan Sar holiday lasts for three days.

The first day is spent with direct family, and the following days are opportunities to visit more distant relatives or friends. People would do a lot of house-hopping, visiting perhaps 3 or 4 houses a day. The older generation hosts, and the young generation does the travelling. I was lucky enough to be invited a few houses during the Tsagaan Sar period. It was lovely to see the many traditions. The oldest man in the family has to be the first to walk out of the door in the morning, and will walk in the “wrong direction” and then double-back. Then the family will offer some milk to their Buddhist shrine, and will sprinkle some milk in the direction of the sky and the nearby mountains. This is to pay thanks to the spirits of nature.

It was fascinating to see the tradition culture being lived out in a modern city. One of the traditions is that everyone greats each other according to their age, and is given a good sniff before they can sit down! Women will then sit on one side of the room and men on the other. The women do all the serving, whilst the men sit down and chat – whilst it was nice to be pampered for a few days I did feel a bit uncomfortable! The women seemed quite happy with the situation though.

Food is a big part of the celebrations, and as usual meat plays a big part in the cuisine. There is a constant supply of buuz (meat dumplings) being provided, and the men cut slabs of meat from a huge chunk of mutton in the centre of the main table. The women of the household will ensure that you do not leave without a full stomach – “Ead, ead, ead!” (which helpfully enough sounds exactly the same as “eat, eat, eat!”).

Each family has a cake which is the centrepiece of the Tsagaan Sar table. The cake is built up of many layers. The odd layers symbolise good times, and the even layers symbolise sadness. Needless to say, every family’s cake finishes off on an odd number! The number of layers also signifies the age of the head of the household. Grandparents would have 7 layers, middle aged people would have 5 layers and new parents would have 3. The cake is not eaten until Tsagaan Sar is over.

Mongolians follow the Asian Zodiac signs, so each year is linked to an animal. Last year was the Year of the Pig, and now we are starting the Year of the Rat. You can find out more about the zodiac signs and which animal you are by going to http://www.chinesezodiac.com/calculator.php. Happy Year of the Rat to you all!

Are there any famous people there?

[question from William]

Mongolia has lots of celebrities – you will probably not know them, but they are very popular here. Just like in the UK, pop stars, sports stars and actors are well liked. Young people have posters on their bedroom wall, showing a picture of their favourite person.

One person who is famous not just in Mongolia is Hakuko, the best Sumo wrestler in the world. Hakiko is very famous in both Mongolia and Japan, and is one of the richest people in the country. He is only the fourth non-Japanese person to become a Yokozuna (a Sumo wrestling master). In his career he has won 338 fights, and has only lost 128 times.

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The President of Mongolia is called Nambaryn Enkhbayar. His photo is displayed in most buildings, and Mongolians are very proud when they get to meet him. People are sometimes given awards from the President when they have done good thing for the nation.

Not many famous people visit Mongolia. However, President George W Bush, and Hollywood film stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere all came last year. George Bush came to build better relations with Mongolia, and to thank the Mongolian Government for sending troops to help with the war in Iraq. Julia Roberts came to visit a special park which is helping preserve the wild Przewalski horse. Richard Gere is very interested in Buddhism, and so came to see Mongolia's buddist temples.

What animals can you find in Mongolia?

[question from Sam, Julia, Annabel, Victoria, Patrick and Aaron]

Mongolia is a place that is of great interest to animal-lovers. If one looks hard enough you can find some of the rarest animals in the world:

The snow leopard lives in some of the mountains in the west of Mongolia. It’s a beautiful animal, but is sadly being hunted to make medicines. As a result, the snow leopard is an endangered species – whilst Mongolia has the second largest number of snow leopards in the world, only 500-1000 are thought to live there.

The Gobi bear is another animal that is close to extinction. It has been many years since someone has spotted one, so people are worried that they may already have died out.

On a more positive note, a success story is the Przewalski horse. Fifty years ago it was close to extinction, but now the numbers are growing. The Przewalski horse is very unique – it is the only wild horse in the whole world. All other horses have been bred by men, but the Przewalski horse remains the same as it did hundreds of years ago.

Some explorers recently found a new species of mouse in the Mongolian desert, the "long-eared jerboa". Have a look at the following video clip for more information:

People in the countryside often have a few horses or camels to help them with their work and to transport them from place-to-place. They also have a dog to guard their house. Farmers will sheep, yaks and cows, and will take them to market when they are ready to be sold.

Marmots are everywhere in the countryside, you can spot there holes all over the place. Mongolians love to eat marmot meat, so in the summertime they will catch the marmots and roast them.

Cats are found in cities, but they are generally not liked by Mongolians. They are thought to bring bad luck, so are quickly chased away!

How cold can it get?

[question from Anna, Henry and Theo]

As it is now the coldest period of the year in Mongolia, I guess it’s a good time to answer this question. It gets very cold! Have a look at the weather forecast for this week (the middle of January):


At the moment, everyday is at least -20C. It never gets that cold in the UK! In fact, Mongolia’s capital is the coldest capital city in the world. The average yearly temperature is -1.3C, so on average it is freezing! If you leave your clothes outside to dry in the winter, they will soon become completely frozen. As it is so cold, snow and ice doesn’t really melt – snow can fall one day, and it will still be there a month later. This situation means that all of Mongolia’s pavements are very slippery. I’ve fallen over many times!

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Mongolia was -46C. These extreme temperatures mean that many animals die. This is a real problem for Mongolian farmers, as within a month all their animals could die. They then wouldn’t have anything to eat or to sell at the market. The farmers will try to protect their animals by building temporary shelters for them, but sometimes this still isn’t enough.

What sports do Mongolians play?

[question from Miles]

Mongolians play most of the same sports that we do in the UK. Football is often played (even in the snow!), but perhaps the most popular sport is basketball. Both boys and girls are out on the streets playing basketball.

One sport that Mongolians find difficult to do is swimming. Mongolia doesn’t have access to the sea, and only a couple of the big cities have swimming pools (which are expensive to use). This means that most Mongolians can’t swim!

The three traditional “manly sports” are:

Wrestling

Archery

Horseracing

These are still the main Mongolian sports, and men in the countryside practice them regularly. Women do not play these sports, so keep themselves fit through other sports.

Mongolians expect to do well in the wrestling and shooting events in this year’s Olympics. As Mongolian horses are quite different to the horses that are used in Olympic events, they don’t expect any medals in the horse-related events. Mongolian horses are small and certainly don’t jump!

Do they have any famous sports stars?

Mongolians have been doing very well at Sumo wrestling. Three of the top 5 Sumo wrestlers are Mongolian. This achievement has been quite controversial in Japan – Sumo is a very traditional Japanese sport, so some Japanese people do not like the fact that Mongolians are dominating the sport. However, the Mongolians are very proud of their Sumo wrestlers. There is a big poster of the best Mongolian Sumo wrestler, Hakuhu, on the main square in Ulaanbaatar.

How long does it take to get to Mongolia?

[Question from Patrick]

As the crow flies, it’s 4329 miles from London to Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar.

By plane - if you are lucky, the journey from London Heathrow airport to Ulaanbaatar’s Chingis Haan airport takes 11 hours. Most people fly to Moscow, the capital of Russia, and then get on a different plane going to Ulaanbaatar. The journey would be something like this:
*London Heathrow – Moscow Sheremetyevo: 3 and a half hours.
*Wait whilst changing plane: this wait can be a long wait or a short wait. Most of the time the wait is about 3 hours (there are no seats in Moscow Sheremetyevo airport, so this wait can seem like a very long time!)
*Moscow Sheremetyevo – Ulaanbaatar Chingis Haan: 4 and a half hours.

By car – going by road the distance to Ulaanbaatar is about 8000 miles (the route is very windy). It takes experienced drivers about three or four weeks. However, you would need a very strong car to get to Ulaanbaatar, as the roads are very bumpy and quite dangerous. Often there are no proper roads at all, just tracks in the dirt. Most people would use a jeep or a rally car to get to Mongolia, as an ordinary car would just break down.

On foot - it would take ages! Before cars were invented there were not many links between Europeans and Mongolians (the journey was too tough for most, and would take many months, sometimes over a year). The two different cultures did not mix much. I’m very lucky that planes exist now, otherwise I don't think I would have come!