Mongolia- Part 3
Mongolia—the hidden history
Ghengis Khan—barbarian or maker of the modern world?
You have no doubt heard of Attila the Hun and Ghengis Khan and like me have bought into the traditional picture of marauding hordes of barbarian vandals who rode their horses with lightning speed out of what is now Mongolia and laid waste the cultured civilisations of Asia, the Middle East and Europe: Attila in the 5th century and Ghengis in the 12th.
Well, it seems likely that at least for Ghengis Khan his “bad press” is a convenient fabrication of eighteenth and nineteenth century European propagandists endeavouring to inflate the superiority of European culture. However if you look far back to Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Squire’s Tale” in the Canterbury Tales written about 1390, not so long after Ghengis Khan’s exploits, you will see that Ghengis Khan was admired at the time.
How is this for a contemporaneous endorsement from one greatest writers of the English language, of the man we have been told was a barbarian vandal?
“This noble king was called Ghengis Khan who in his time was of so great renown that there was nowhere in no region so excellent a lord in all things. He kept the faith of the religion to which he was born and pledged by oath; and in addition he was brave, wise, rich, merciful and just to all; and true to his word, kind, and honourable; and as steadfast in his spirit as a fulcrum; young, energetic, and strong; ambitious in arms as any young knight of all his court. He was handsome in appearance and blessed by Fortune, and at all times maintained his royal station so well that nowhere was there another man such as him.”
A book given to us by our tour leader (the excellent Jessica Brooks of Eternal Landscapes http://www.eternal-landscapes.co.uk/ ) to read before the trip was a revelation to me. If you are interested in history or how history is distorted for political and cultural reasons I suggest you read it--it is a great story anyway and reads more like a good novel than a history book. Jack Weatherford, "Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609610627/mongoluls-20
His point is that far from being blood-thirsty barbarian, Genghis Khan and his family successors (such as Kubulai Khan) brought many very modern innovations to their huge empire which at its height included China, Russia, India, Persia, all of the "Stans" as we know them (Khazakhstan, Kyrgystan etc) and Eastern Europe. They would have done the same for Western Europe which they could easily have overrun too, but they decided that there wasn't really enough culture, learning or wealth there to be bothered with.
As well as being master strategists in war, they introduced a postal service, a paper currency system, banking, religious tolerance, a legal system, historical record keeping, all kinds of culture learning and science, and above all established the trade routes (the Silk Route, the Tea Road, etc) from Asia to Europe which fostered and sustained wealth and the cross-cultural interchanges that lifted Europe out of the Dark Ages and helped the flowering of the Renaissance.
Pre-history in Mongolia
But Mongolia was populated long before Ghengis Khan, and long before Attila the Hun, his predecessor 600 years earlier. The Orkon Valley which surrounds Karakorum, the fabled city of the Silk Road built by Ghengis Khan’s son Ogedei, is now known to also be the cradle of the Mongolian prehistory.
Archaeological exploration of Mongolia is still in its infancy and as Jack Weatherford has vividly put it, Mongolian history
"is not revealed promiscuously to every passer-by. It is not a story told in great books, large stone monuments or bronze statues. .. The artefacts don't come labelled, classified and explained--the stories of the steppe are incomplete, but you'll find Mongolia's history emerges slowly, from the object, the soil and the landscape around you."
And this is so true. You can be driving over a remote hillside far from any significant road and spot "deerstones", Bronze Age upright flat stones with an asymmetrical top and covered in highly stylised carvings of running deer with antlers. There are no signs, no ticket booths, no hotdog stands, no postcard sellers. The deer look like reindeer but reindeer do not thrive this far south. The craftsmanship is highly skilled but no one knows what they were for. Sometimes there are burial mounds nearby but it is not known if they were connected with the deer stones or were of later date.
Another time you could be driving through the wetlands near a lake and come to a wide open area which seems to be a crossroads between mountain valleys. And there are "manstones", carved with a stylised human face and body with an earring, a goblet and a tunic. These have been dated to the Turkic period around 500 AD but still no-one knows their purpose. There are no burial mounds nearby but there are sometimes sunken altar slabs and an approach road marked with large rocks. Again, you simply stumble on these, standing unmarked in the vast empty landscape.
And in the southern part of the country, there are dinosaurs remains galore. Several new species have been excavated and the first dinosaur eggs found. But there are no fences or visitors’ centres and you feel sure that you could stumble on a dinosaur skeleton yourself as you walk in some of the remote limestone, sandstone and mudstone valleys of the northern Gobi.
1644 to 1990 and today
The history of Mongolia is not well known even now. Partly this is due to the lack of written records, partly due to isolation and a small population, and a lot to do with the suppression of Mongolia first by the Chinese Manchu dynasty from 1644 to 1911 and then by the Soviet regime from 1920 to 1990.
As the Manchu dynasty collapsed in 1911 Mongolia asserted its independence and drove out them out, but this was short-lived. China attempted to regain control and Mongolia turned to the White Russians (anti-communist supporters of the Tsar) for help. They proved more oppressive than the Chinese so Mongolia turned to the victorious communist Russian Red Army in 1920.
Thus began a period of increasing domination by Russia and in Stalin’s years a total suppression of all Mongolia’s traditions as the Soviet’s worked to convert Mongolians to the secular communist life and transform Mongolia and its capital Ulan Bator to the Stalinist model. (see later photos and blog on Ulan Bator)
As soon as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 Mongolia made another bid for sovereignty over its territory and way of life. South Korea and Japan (as well as the US) rushed to provide aid and to invest money in the fledgling democracy.
This was part of their strategy to rebalance the Asian power structure. Mongolia, with its huge area and tiny population, has always been in a highly strategic position as a buffer between Russia and China (who have, historically, usually been on very bad terms).
More importantly today, as Russia and China have developed some sort of rapprochement, Russia under Putin is making a bid to re-establish Russian hegemony in the old Soviet Union, and as China is emerging as an economic power house with control of Inner Mongolia and of Tibet and with as-yet-unclear regional expansion ambitions, it suits Korea, Japan and the US to ensure that Mongolia thrives as an independent democratic nation on the north-western side of China.
Mongolians are naturally very wary of the Chinese, having been under their rule for three hundred years. And so having lost the Soviet Union as a protector and an important (though domineering) contributor to their economy they have been pleased to receive the much needed support of Japan and Korea.
But sandwiched uncomfortably between a resurgent and belligerent Russia and an increasingly assertive China it is not yet clear to me if Mongolia can sustain its position. Although its natural resources potential gives Mongolia a certain economic clout, those same riches also make it a potential target for its avaricious neighbours. And given the way the US is pulling in its horns and refusing any more to be the world’s policeman and the EU is demonstrating how feeble it is, neither are likely to be much help if either of Mongolia’s giant neighbours decides to annex it.
I certainly hope my fears are misplaced.
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| These carved stone fragments are all that is left of the grand city of Karakorum, founded by Ghenghis Khan and built by his son Ogedei Khan in the late thirteenth century. See blog above |
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| Ditto. These are found inside the huge grounds of the Erdene Zuu monastery which was itself destroyed by the Soviets in the mid- twentieth century. |
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| And this turtle is one of four that used to stand at the four gates of Karakorum. It now sits high on a hill overlooking the Orkon Valley and the very boring modern town of Kharkhorin. |
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| Ditto |
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| one of the manstones dating from around 500 AD. see blog |
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| Ditto. No one knows what these figures were for and they sit in the middle of nowhere |
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| Ditto |
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| The even earlier and even less understood bronze age "deerstones" |
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| As you can see the deerstones are located miles from anywhere and are entirely unmarked and unregulated |
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| Ditto. The carvings are believed to represent, in a highly sophisticated and stylised but expertly carved fashion, running reindeer, even though reindeer do not live this far south |
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| ditto. The deerstones' tops are not broken. They were made with that slanted top. |
Buddhism --its destruction and resurgence
And so returning to the end of its glory period of martial prowess under Ghengis Khan and his successors and the time when Mongolia’s affairs and its contact with the outside world were controlled by China for over 300 years...
... another factor contributed to Mongolia’s pacifist slumber. That was Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism spread in Mongolia from around the 15th century, although the traditional shamanism of Mongolia co-existed --as it still does (see later). The dominance of Buddhism resulted in an inward-turning introspective daily lifestyle where the main external influences came from Tibet. Buddhism dominated the political and cultural life of the country.
The Buddhist monasteries grew in size, wealth and influence until, before Stalin set out to destroy them (successfully) in the 1940s and 50s, 30 % of the male population were Buddhist monks. The burden of supporting all these monks and the wealthy (and often decadent) monasteries fell on the small population of Mongolia who were weighted down with poverty.
In a campaign of lightning strikes on Stalin's orders these wealthy monasteries were destroyed and burnt or razed to the ground. The monks were either slaughtered on the spot or "re-educated" in gulags. The remainder of the population were required to give up their nomadic lifestyle and join the vast collective farms and industries so loved by Stalin.
I asked if this destruction of the theocracy which had burdened Mongolia for centuries had since been recognised by the modern Mongolian as something of a blessing in disguise? But the answer is a firm "no". As soon as the Soviet Union collapsed Mongolians returned to their deeply held (but not flaunted) Buddhist and the even older shamanist beliefs, and to their nomadic lifestyle.
However Buddhism has adapted to meet the changed circumstances. It seems to meet a clear need in the communities the monasteries serve. Although the number of monks is increasing there is only a fraction of the numbers there were before the Stalin purges. There are far fewer monasteries too, and they are not especially lavish. Monks tend not to live in the monasteries but live out in the community and some are married. And they have mobile phones!
Shamanism and Mongolia’s traditions and symbols
Shamanism is and always was a big feature of the spiritual and cultural life, and seems to sit comfortably alongside the more formally recognised religion of Buddhism. Ghengis Khan worshipped the Eternal Blue Sky (and when you see the wide blue skies of Mongolia you can see his point).
There was a belief in the spiritual nature of the natural environment. These were not harmful spirits but spirits to be respected and revered. Mongolians then and still now have a great respect for nature. They believe in treading lightly on the land. High mountains are particularly respected because they are close to the sky. You should not speak the name of a mountain in its presence and you certainly shouldn’t relieve yourself behind a bush or rock on a mountain, since this shows great disrespect.
Certain colours have symbolic value. Blue, of course, symbolises the Eternal Blue Sky. Green symbolises the grasses which the animals graze on, yellow is the sun, red is fire, and white is a sacred colour. White food for example is the highest order—so milk products are considered to be of the highest order. In fact when you are invited into a ger as a guest you will be served milk tea---sheep’s, or horse’s or yak’s milk (depending on the season) with a few flakes of green tea and a little salt in it—with a piece of sheep’s milk cheese or a light-coloured biscuit.
Our western reaction to such “pagan” traditions is disdain---surely you can’t believe all that mumbo jumbo. But thinking about it more I realise that these kinds of things are not far below the surface in the “civilised” west.
We still wish people “good luck”; we still tend to be slightly apprehensive on Friday the 13th; if we spill salt we throw a few grains over our left shoulder three times; we still have our lucky coin or soft toy or other trinket that we keep in our pocket or tied to our rucksack or suitcase; we still surreptitiously cross our fingers; we still tend to glance at our horoscope in a magazine; and so on. We don’t really believe it all but we don’t see any harm in hedging our bets just in case....
One of the traditions of shamanism in Mongolia is the building of “ovoos”. These are pyramids of fallen tree branches in the north where wood is plentiful and pyramids of rocks and pebbles in the south where wood is scarce. These ovoos are decorated with blue prayer flags and all kinds of tributes which people have added, like paper money, empty vodka bottles, horse’s skulls, trinkets, sweets, cheese, sometimes a steering wheel or a crutch.
Each of these offerings will have had some significance to the person who has added it—for example one of the traditions of Mongolian hospitality is to offer drinks of vodka and white foods to visitors so an empty bottle or a piece of cheese is a sort of tribute to the spirits. Horses are a symbol of strength and freedom and independence so a skull of a favourite horse would also be a fitting tribute. Someone cured of an illness would leave his crutch. Someone who has safely negotiated a dangerous mountain pass in his car might leave an old steering wheel.
And any passerby can add a rock or a branch of wood and then walk around the ovoo three times clockwise and make a wish. Now tell me, honestly, would you pass up that opportunity?
And what is an ovoo but a type of “cairn”? It is the universal human way of saying “I was here”. Every culture from the bronze age and before has them, whatever they may call them: ahu, inukshuk, gromillo, dolmen, pyramid, kummul, stele, obelisk. They are way-markers, memorials, burial sites. Ovoos are just another symbol of a universal human need to be remembered in some way, to make their mark.
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| This is the charming peaceful neighbourhood monastery of Gesar Sum in Ulan Bator, surrounded at an intersection by six busy multi-laned streets. It draws people of all ages and walks of life who seem to drop in at their lunch-hour or on their way back from doing the shopping. The monks are not "resident" as they were in pre-Soviet days, but live out in the community. They are as likely to be holding a mobile phone as an ancient scroll of scripture. |
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| This enormous 26 metre gilded statue of Buddha is found in the Gandan Monastery in Ulan Bator. The original was melted down in Soviet times. This replacement was paid for in part by public subscription in 1996, evidence that Buddhism is alive and well after its years of suppression under Soviet rule. |
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| One of the other statues in the Gandan monastery. Note the picture of the Dalai Lama in front of the statue. Buddhists in Mongolia are followers of the Yellow Hat sect and look to Tibetan Buddhism for spiritual leadership. |
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| Some of the hundreds and hundreds of miniature statues of Buddha in cases, surround the giant figure |
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| An entirely different aspect of Buddhism is this ruined hidden rock temple of Chuluun Sum at Baga Gazriin Chuluu in the semi-desert steppes (see part 2 of this blog). It is very old as is said to have been here since at least the seventeenth century. Its isolation did not save it from destruction in the Stalinist purges but it remains a place of pilgrimage, particularly for the local herding families |
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| ditto |
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| This mud brick wall is all that remains of a huge monastery that used to be here at a crossroads in the Gobi. The Soviets under Stalin did a very thorough job of wiping out the monasteries and the monks in the 1930s and 1940s over 30,000 are said to have been murdered and many tens of thousands more sent for "re-education" in Russia |
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| Local people have built this stupa with its prayer wheels to commemorate the monastery that was here (see previous picture |
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| This is the site of another huge monastery destroyed in the Stalinist purges in Khogno Khan in central Mongolia (see part 2 of this blog). Since the restoration of Buddhism in Mongolia in the 1990s a small temple and outbuildings have been built and lavishly decorated on the site. |
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| The interior of the new temple (see previous picture) |
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| Buddhism sure goes in for some dramatic and garish images! |
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| Looking down on the site of the original ruined monastery in Khogno Khan (see previous photos and part 2 of this blog) |
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| The walls of the enormous Erdene Zuu monastery in the historic Orkon valley of central Mongolia, which is thought to be the cradle of Mongolian civilisation dating back to the bronze age. This monastery was the first ,and the most important one outside of Ulan Bator. There are 108 white stupas like these on the walls surrounding the huge site. |
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| Inside the walls of Erdene Zuu there was a thriving Buddhist city of over 1000 monks and over 60 temples. Only a few remain. These ones are built in Chinese style and are museums today with priceless religious art works |
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| ditto |
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| This was my favourite and it is believed to be the oldest, pre-dating the building of Erdene Zuu monastery. |
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| The monastery has returned to being a working monastery with a small contingent of resident monks. This is the current temple and work-place of the monks, built in Tibetan style. |
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| This picture gives you some idea of the size of space inside the walls of Erdene Zuu and how many buildings it could have once contained. These bronze pots and burner are said to have been used for preparing the food for the large number of monks that used to live here. |
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| And this is an ovoo (see blog above) This is Jess and Turuu with the Eternal Landcapes ovoo which was started a couple of years ago and has grown to this size. See above for how the ovoos "grow". Ovoos in the south where there isn't any wood are usually built of stone. The Eternal Landscapes ovoo is located in a transitional area where some of the ovoos are of wood and some are of stone. |
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| This ovoo is located at the top of a high and difficult pass through the mountains. And so it contains many offerings from drivers to give thanks for their safe journey. The blue prayer flags are called khadaks. |
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| Me in front of another small newly-built temple on a hill above yet another destroyed monastery |
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| And this is the ovoo higher up the hill from the small temple in the last picture. It shows how shamanism and Buddhism seem to happily co-exist in Mongolia. |
The people today
Mongolian nomadic lifestyle is a matter of choice. These are not downtrodden destitute peasants living in grinding poverty and squalor. Not in the slightest. It might not be my choice or yours as a way to live (I couldn’t bear the thought of those long hard winters!) and there is no running water or sewerage except in central Ulan Bator.
But outside every traditional ger (see below) no matter how remote is a solar panel and satellite dish and a van or car or at least a motorbike. Satellite phones are common in the countryside and mobile phones abound in the villages and towns. Livestock herders sometimes do their work on off-road motorbikes (although horses are usually a more practical method in the rough and hilly terrain). Hospitals are well-equipped and have plenty of doctors (a useful inheritance from the Soviet era).
Children go to school, being “home schooled” at primary level and then going to boarding school for secondary level. Education is taken seriously and it is not at all uncommon for the children of nomads to be off at university. Apparently in the autumn there is a flurry of sales of yaks or cattle to fund the children’s higher education for the next school year.
The education system seems to be adjusted for the nomadic lifestyle and the very short growing season—the school holidays start in the late spring and last until the weather begins to deteriorate in late summer/early autumn, allowing the youngsters to return to the family to help out with the livestock. Although most families remain on the land throughout the year, some –especially those with school age children or the elderly—now move to the towns for the winter.
But all is not rosy for some. A particularly harsh winter with “zuds” (when there are poor rains in summer and then a winter’s freeze without snow so it the herds cannot penetrate the ice crust to the winter grass and there is no spring melt to start the spring growth) can wipe out a family’s herd and leave them destitute. These are the ones who drift to the city and usually find it very hard to adjust, with the men turning to drink and the women left to cope.
But the Mongolians are a proud people and do not complain or look for handouts. I saw no beggars on the streets of Ulan Bator (but I saw half a dozen on my first day back in London). And neighbours look out for each other and shared hospitality is an article of faith, born of the harsh conditions in which they live.
Although their life is hard by western standards I did not “feel sorry” for them at all. They have wide open spaces for the children to play safely, beautiful scenery, no pollution or overcrowding, and they have the Eternal Blue Sky and a breathtaking display of stars at night.
The family
The average Mongolian young child is absolutely adorable to look at—sturdy and healthy with an open, confident, round face and lovely eyes. Families are quite small—two or three children seem to be the maximum. Children are much cherished and are beautifully dressed by their parents.
In fact everyone is careful of their appearance—it is a cultural thing. They would not be caught dead in the torn jeans and filthy T-shirts of the average gap-yearer. They will change their clothes and comb their hair before having their picture taken or to go into the nearest village to shop.
The traditional clothing garb for men and women is the “del”. Although jeans, chinos, blouses and shirts, T shirts and casual clothes are as popular as they are in the West, people also seem to have –and to wear frequently--at least one “del”, but often a “dressy” del for outings and special occasions, and a working del.
Both types of del have the same design: a calf-length wrap-around coat/tunic, held together by a very long and wide sash wrapped around and around the waist. The dressy del could be made of fine wool or padded silk. The working del is made of padded sheep’s wool and into the sash can be tucked all the tools and implements of daily nomadic life. The dell is worn with boots. Today these are leather but traditionally they were of sheep’s wool felt.
Men and women in Mongolia seem to be entirely equal. This is not a patriarchy. Women do tend to do the cooking and milking and the men do the heavy work but the women shear the sheep, draw water from the wells, herd flocks and participate in decisions and conversations as complete equals.
Honesty
Another very refreshing thing is the absolute honesty of the people. There is none of the “soak the tourist” mentality. There are not special prices for foreigners. You pay exactly what the locals pay for everything.
There is no need to bargain. The price is the price. Since I abhor bargaining this was a great treat for me. The Mongolian money is not easy to adjust to---£1 is 3000 tugruk; $1 is 1800 tugruk so you need your mathematical skills about you. But no need to worry—you can just hold out your wad of bills and the shopkeeper will point to exactly the ones he is owed.
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| I think this says it all--solar panel and satellite dish outside a traditional ger in the middle of nowhere. |
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| The bundled figure in the foreground is the wife and mother. She has covered herself from head to toe to preserve her complexion but she is still out there shearing the sheep along with her husband and children. By the way, she was much much better at shearing than her husband! |
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| Note the traditional del and sash in the foreground. These are still worn by most people, although not all the time. |
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| Note the traditional del, sash and boots. The arms of the del are always extra long so they cover the hands in winter instead of gloves, |
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