Monday July 1st and Tuesday July 2nd, 2019 - A Large Statue, A Brief Stop at Terelj National Park and Some High End Kultcha!

800 years ago, Mongolia was not a place on the map to which one said, 'Now, where is that?' It was the center of the largest contiguous empire that has existed since the death of its founder - Genghis Kahn. Now this did not happen because he approached other kingdoms with a polite knock at the door! No! His strategy was to conduct large scale massacres to establish power. The historians suggest a representative figure of 40 million deaths from his empire building. On the other hand it is estimated that as many as 16 million male descendants of his exist today. I don't think the DNA techniques allow for female descendants to be identified, as the technique uses the Y chromosome, which women don't have.

Genghis Kahn Equestrian Statue - about an hour's drive east of Ulaanbaatar

Yet Genghis is also lauded for the many positive outcomes he contributed to the world. He abolished torture, embraced religious freedom, united disparate tribes, hated aristocratic privilege, ran his kingdoms meritocratically, loved learning, established a postal system and advanced the rights of women in Mongol society, as described in this article. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanholiday/2012/05/07/9-lessons-on-leadership-from-genghis-khan-yes-genghis-khan/#670802bf6996

Whether you admire or despise this man, it is no surprise that the Mongolians have great pride in this history. Images of the great Kahn are everywhere, but the most consequential is this huge statue sitting out in a field. Standing at 131 ft tall - it is the largest equestrian statue in the world. 

This location was chosen in 2008 because it is purportedly the place where Genghis found the golden whip you see in his hand here. His face is pointing to the east toward his birthplace. The fun aspect of this monument is that one can pay to go up into the horse's head and get these views of the surrounds. It was built by a tour company and the plans are to have it surrounded by gers arrange in some historic pattern. I'm glad I saw it before it gets too crowded with people and money-making extras.

Our stop Monday night was a tourist ger camp in the Terelj National Park, also about an hour east of Ulaanbaatar. It was a landscape quite different from any other we saw on our trip.

The setting sun caught the rocks just above the camp. My ger was the one with the yellow door.

There are high end ger camps that have en-suite bathrooms, but most of the ones we stayed in were like this. There was usually a central dining area - here is is the big round ger to the left. The bathroom and shower block are the two buildings on the right with the pink roof. With a setting like this, I was perfectly happy trekking to the bathroom in the middle of the night!

Although a national park, it was still open to the herders. We watched this group of horses being moved down this hillside.

As we watched, some appeared to want to get up close and personal!

As there were a few foals among the group, the nomads may have been planning to hobble the foals as you see here. This keeps the mothers nearby so that they can be milked to make the fermented mare's milk or airag which is a summertime favorite. I did not drink it, but when offered it, thought it smelled very much like kefir. It has a reputation for causing novice drinkers to get sick, so that was an experience I thought I could live without!

In addition to the horses, we also encountered yak, the only sighting of the trip.

They were a good size, with healthy coats.

Before heading back to Ulaanbaatar for the night, our plan was to climb this rock - not surprisingly known as 'Turtle Rock'. Now you and I know it is not a turtle, as there was no water in sight. It should be a tortoise! But our guide and the internet both want it to be a turtle! In general, turtles are symbols for longevity, wisdom and power in Mongolia and traditional Mongolian legends tell about a golden turtle that carries the golden world on its carapace. So the fact that this is shaped like the reptile of legend, gives it special significance.

Our group honors the tradition of walking around the ovoo three times clockwise, throwing a stone on at each turn

It should not be surprising therefore, that there was a pile of rocks, known as an ovoo at its base. This is a sacred stone heap, rooted in both shamanic and Buddhist practice. I was interested in seeing these to compare them with the Buddhist altars after my travels in Bhutan several years ago. They were strikingly bare compared to the Bhutanese ones, lacking the splendid proliferation of prayer flags. Most often they had only blue fabric, called khadag, and these were scattered judiciously. They did not have the joyous abundance of their Buddhist peers further south. 

When offered the chance to climb through the rock, who could say no?

Nadine enters the small entry to the crevice

We didn't realize until we got up there, that there was actually a crevice that allowed us to crawl back through to the side we had just come from.

It took a leap of mental faith to go through - there was the embarrassing possibility that getting back might not be so easy.

Both Nadine and I navigated the route without having to call on any 'bottom pushing' for the return journey, so we were both thrilled knowing that these bodies of ours still had some adventure left in them! Yeehaw!

This view was awesome!

Sadly, some of the development here is being too enthusiastic in its hope of appealing to outsiders. This camp near the rock was blaring very loud western (rock) music and I was saddened to see that the buildings were not the traditional ger shape.

The restaurant opposite and the radio tower also detract from its beauty.

Sadly, this was all we were able to see of this park, so we headed back down this dirt road to Ulaanbaatar for the night.

Photo by Avrea McDonnell

Having experienced the culture and music of the nomads the previous night, this was the total opposite - a glimpse into the cultural world of the elite. I had heard the hammered dulcimer (center) played in Chinese venues, also the zither to the right, but it was the first time I had heard the horse head fiddle (on the left) in person. This instrument is one of the most important instruments in Mongolia. I had first seen it used in the movie 'The Story of the Weeping Camel'. I was very impressed with the sound it could produce with only two strings.

Photo by Avrea McDonnell

The costuming was magnificent.

Photo by Tom Starling

But the event that I was holding my breath for, was the Tuvan throat singing, a style of singing that creates overtones, making it sound as if the singer is producing two or more notes at once. Sometimes the singer has a drone going on and sings a clear, sharp melody over the top, other times it is more complicated. The man above was a marvelous singer, and hearing him unaccompanied was a joy. The venue did not allow photography without paying a substantial extra fee, so our group shared the cost to have just a few of us take the photographs.

Happily, Avrea was able to catch some video of these two men singing. The instrumentation hides some of the subtleties of the overtones, but it is worth listening through to the end, to hear what they are capable of. Otherwise, there's lots of it on You Tube.

Photo by Tom Starling

The evening ended with horns and drums and tsam - dancing with  masks. It turned out  this was good foreshadowing for our next destination - the Erdene Zuu Monastery near Kharkhorin - the original Mongolian capital city that Ghengis Kahn had envisaged. So stay tuned for more!