Natural Light in the Mongolian Ger
Do you see that thing in the background under the horse’s legs (click on pic to enlarge)? Do you have any guess what it is? It looks like a wagon wheel, like in the old pioneer days of the USA,…
Tag nomads
Happy New Year! A list of things I appreciate!
It’s New Year’s Day. It’s a time when people reflect on the year gone by and set goals for the upcoming year. I have never been one to make New Year’s resolutions- The idea of waiting for the end of…
Spirituality, Religion and Superstition in Mongolia
I would describe the Mongolian people that I met as quite spiritual, with a close connection to nature, animals and the land. In this way I believe they are similar to the Native American tribes of the USA. I started…
Improvisation and re-purposing.
Just a short post. As I mentioned earlier, the nomads are quite resourceful. Here they’ve used what looks like an old truck tire as a feeding trough. Maybe it is not a truck tire because I can’t understand how they…
Plastics on the Mongolian steppe
“Every piece of plastic created is still on this planet in one form or another” When you think about it, that statement is rather profound. Before I left on my trip to Mongolia, I was very curious about what environmental…
The “Central Asian” knot
I remember sometimes my hands would be numb from the cold in the morning- so numb that I had some difficulty tying the knot to tether the horses after tracking them down. Durukh showed me a “Mongolian” knot that he…
Seeing ourselves in animals
In the same way that humans may abandon, give up their children for adoption for otherwise just refuse to acknowledge them, so do these animals. We (humans) can see our own behavior in animals. Biology and psychology transcend the line…
“See you at the local watering hole”
“See you at the local watering hole” is an expression used in the USA to mean, “I’ll meet you at the nearby bar after work.” Where did the saying come from?
Goats play dead :-)
Just a short post and video about a small interesting thing I learned during my stay: It wasn’t until I returned to the USA that I learned certain types of goats (pygmy goats in this case) have a nervous reaction…
The Nomad Economy
I had often wondered about how the Nomads earn a living. My impression was that they just “lived off the land” meaning they get whatever they need to live/survive from their animals and land itself. “Barter” and purchase of goods…