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!