Cultural Overview
Archaeological finds suggest that primitive man appeared in what is now Mongolia 300,000 to 350,000 years ago and recent investigations suggest that Mongols take their origin from the Huns (or Huunu) who lived in Central Asian Countries many years ago.

The term 'Mongol' only gained prominence in the early 13th Century with the emergence of the Mongolian ethnic unit and the formation of a single state. The word 'Mongol' has two suggested meanings. The first is a geographical name 'Mon gol' which means the river Mon. The second suggestion is that it should be pronounced 'Mun gol', interpreting 'Mun' as correct, basic or true and 'gol' as pivot, centre or essence. The combination would then be 'true essence'.

The development of the present ethnic composition has gone through several historical stages. The formation and disintegration of numerous military tribal alliances of ancient nomads and their mass migrations over vast expanses of the Euro-Asian steppes, resulted in the emergence of the Mongolian Nationality which consists 86% of Khalkh-Mongol tribes. The population of Mongolia consists of twenty ethnic groups although their are few differences in language. Only the Kazakhs speak in their mother tongue. Kazakhs, Derbets, Buryats and other national minorities are concentrated where they have always lived.

The 1998 population of Mongolia was estimated to be 2.42 million, showing an increase of 1.4% compared to 1997. However, even today, there are more Mongolians living outside Mongolia than in it.49.6% of the population are male. In 1998, the percentage of the population aged under 15 years was 35.6 and over 65 years, 3.9%. The population density is around 1.5 people per square kilometre. Seventy-two percent of the population are in the labour force.

There are approximately five hundred and twenty thousand families of which one hundred and seventy thousand are herders. The others live in urban centres. Approximately 51% of the population is urbanised, 27% in Ulaanbaatar. The birth rate is 2.06%, the death rate 0.66% and infant mortality rate 3.5%.

Mongolia's Children Although the gender of children is very important in many Asian societies, for nomads it doesn't matter. Regardless of gender, a Mongolian child learns to ride a horse, participating in horse races, and helps parents to herd cattle. In Mongolian traditions and customs, children do not have a big variety of toys: Constructing Gers with stones, playing ankle bones are their main pastime. Mongolian children can entertain themselves with anything and everything. For a nomad, it is an essential requirement to ride a horse from early childhood. Not only is this a must as the only way to move cattle from one pasture to another, but it is also because jockeys in the horse races are always children because of their light weight. Nomads usually have 3-5 children while the number of children per family in the urban areas tends to be smaller.

Generally, the oldest in the big family, that is to say grannies and grandpas take care of the youngest of the families Children learn to help their parents in quite small ages. They do this, among other things, by learning how to play by themselves. Children enter school when they are eight ad children of nomad families live in dormitories in rural area's. So they learn to take care of themselves in early childhood years.
While most of the children show an interest in cattle herding during early school years, in general the desire to move to the urban areas to continue their studies becomes stronger as the time passes. Each and every child in Mongolia has to undergo the eight-years primary education and that is ordered by law. A good time for urban children to visit their relatives in the countryside is summer, when they also learn to ride horses and even take part in horse races.


Women
Compared to the women of other Asian societies, in particular those in Islamic societies, Mongolian women have a quite powerful place in their families. It could be said that they have equal right with men because in the nomadic tradition women wield a huge economical power in the family. The general concept that divides the labor as men being responsible for work outside of the house and women for those inside may also be atributed to a Mongolian family, but the women of the nomad families hold the strings of the purse, which is used to keep the income generated from the animal husbandry. Their primary role in raising children also empowers them to have a say over almost everything.
In modern Mongolia, women are more educated than men. In the East, the gender balance of university students drastically favor males: In Japan, it is 70% to 30%. Also for Mongolia the trend is reverse. By the year 2000, the ratio of female university students in the country was 70% with males making up the remaining 30%. Women are overwhelming men in numbers in many professions: as doctors, teachers, administrators and among the staff of private companies, women have a higher profile than men. It is not unusual in Mongolia that a woman is the main breadwinner of the family with here salary, and in many cases, her position, above those of her husbands'.
It is also not unusual to see in many urban families the women doing the "out-of-the-house-work" and men taking on the role of the house-keeper. When Korean TV produced and aired a program about Mongolia, titling it "Country Living at the Backs of Women", Koreans who have a completely different understanding of traditional roles of women and men, where reported to have been shocked. The continuing sharp increase in the number of educated and unmarried women in Mongolian society in the recent years is becoming a unique occurence that needs to be analyzed sociologically.

Men
Nomadic man, throughout the history, have had special responsibility of protecting the land, the property and the family in fights and wars. So, their in-house responsibilties are limited. Except in situations where strength is a special requirement, the involvement of men in the everyday roral lige tends to get less and less: Wife does the milking and it's usual to entrust grazing of cattle to children.

That leaves a lot of time for Mongolian men who like entertainment and to drink Vodka in abundance. When they lose their bigger cattle while grazing unattended, they go on long rides in search of them, rides which turn in time to drinking parties and picnics, especially in the summer months. Mongolian man usually tend to be simple and carefree, characteristics that may also indicate a low level of responsibility. Majority of them, though, are kind and helpful. But when they are drunk, all these tender and gentle qualities will be lost and they will become harsh, and even cruel at times. They are known for theyr habit of dragging their feet in getting things done, something that they are diametrically opposite to Mongolian women, who are time-minded and industrious.

Family
Mongolians usually get married rather early. There is no custom of polygamy. The fact that there is no discrimination between children based on gender means the family structure looks pretty balanced on a basis of equality. There is a high probability of blood mix as it's a nation with small population which lives in less density.
Parents used to select the spouses for their children but that tradition vanished with the onset of the 19th century. So it is now possible to say for sure that the marriages are based on love. The urban divorce rate, however, has been increasing slightly in recent years, although it remains a very rare event for nomads. But there is no religious and customary ban to prohibit the divorce.
Due to the policy of the state to encourage population growth, a 3% net growth was reached in 1970, although it has fallen back since then to its current 1%. Mongolian people do like to have many children.
Just as in other traditional societies, a great importance is attached to wedding ceremonies in Mongolia. The custom of wedding is very important and has a great stature unlike the funural proceedings, which lack a uniformity of customs. Funeral practices of Mongolians appear to have traits from the funeral traditions of Tibetian, Russian and European nomadic tribes. Graves of deceased are never visited, as if it's almost prohibited.
Mongolians are not good in savings, they spend all the wealth they possess. If one leaves aside the livestock inheritance, it can be said that each and every generation start to build their wealth from scratch. The prohibition of the communist system of building up a wealth of private property certainly contributed to the tradition of failure to leave legacies. Mongolians feel strongly bonded to their families and these ties of blood are generally stronger than the ties of marriage, which in a sense, makes Mongolian society look closer to Jewish rahter than Christian understanding of family and kinship. So it is not unusual among Mongolian husbands and wives to start quarrelling in defense of a member of the familiy, which produced one of the spouses. Children of the family grow up building up strong bonds of brotherhood.

Food


Religion
Interest in Buddhism as a national religion began with Chinggis Khan. He employed the Buddhist Uigur people as teachers and state officials. The Uigur were a respected people and had great cultural influence over the Mongols. Chinggis Khan also held meetings with Buddhist leaders during his reign. In his will, he instructed his successor, Ogedei Khan to invite a Tibetan lama to conduct Buddhist services at Kharakhorum. This engaged practicing Shamans in Kharakhorum, as pantheistic Shamanism was the traditional faith of the Mongols.

Buddhism was not fully adopted as a state religion until the rule of Kubila Khan. He declared Buddhism to be the Yuan empire's official religion. Kubila Khan appointed the lama Lodijaltsan as spiritual leader and state teacher for the country. Lamas were officially exempted from military service and paying taxes. Despite these efforts by Kubila Khan, Buddhism did not become a widely-accepted religion in Mongolia. It was the religion of the aristocracy, and following the Tibetan empire's downfall, Buddhism lost its support and Shamanism was revived through to the mid sixteenth century.

In the second half of the sixteenth century, Yellow Hat sect Buddhism or Lamaism became prominent in Mongolia. Lamaism was adopted for political as well as social reasons. Politically, Lamaism was favoured because (1) Mongol aristocrats wanted their positions reinforced by religious figures, (2) Tibetan Yellow Hat proponents sought allies among the Mongol rulers against the Red Hat sect, and (3) the Ming empire in China saw Lamaism as a means of pacifying their warlike Mongol neighbours.

In 1577, Altan Khan invited the religious head of Tibet to Mongolia, as Altan Khan was intent upon unifying Mongolia under Lamaism. Altan Khan incorporated Buddhist beliefs into laws which made for a legal basis to abolish the practices of Shamanism. Altan Khan's campaign was continued by Avtai Sain Khan, who met with the third Dalai Lama in 1586. At this meeting, it was decided that the Zuu temple in Kharakhorum would be established as the Mongol Centre of Lamaism. Soon thereafter, the other monasteries and schools for Lamaism opened under the directive of Zanabazar, the head of the Lamaist religion in Mongolia. Zanabazar worked diligently to spread Lamaism to all people, nobles and commoners alike. Lamaism continued to gain popularity for the following 200 years, or until the Mongol People's Revolution.

During the period referred to as the "Left Deviation" (1929-1932) approximately 300 monasteries were closed in an effort to increase Mongolia's workforce by encouraging lamas to work outside of the monasteries. Some lamas left in fear of persecution, only to return to the monasteries in 1932, the beginning of the New Turn movement: a movement in which efforts were directed towards persuasion, education and propaganda. By 1936 there were 767 monasteries - including more than 300 closed during 1929-1932 - and over 100,000 lamas, including an increase of 10,000 during the period immediately following the Left Deviation. At this time, the adult lamas represented over forty percent of the adult male population - a problem for a socialist country.

In the mid 1930s, the communist party implemented the "liquidation of the church as an organisation" due, in part, to rumours of the political uprisings against the government being rooted in the monasteries. At this time, lamas were 'strongly encouraged' to leave the monasteries and begin secular lifestyles. By 1938, approximately 20,000 of the lamas had become herders, 5,000 were organised into government cooperatives, young lamas were enlisted in the military and child lamas were returned to their families. And the rest? Many were victims of the burning and bombing of monasteries during the mid 1930s. 1937 is said to be one of the worst years in Mongol history, as hundreds of monasteries were destroyed, tens of thousands of Buddhist books were burned, and most of the 100,000 lamas were persuaded into secular lifestyles or killed.

Over the next 40 years, Mongols worshipped in fear. Older Buddhists continued to attend the central monastery, the Gandan, which averaged 100 lamas, or the Gobi's monastery, which averaged 40 lamas. Younger people worshipped in the privacy of their homes or ceased to worship altogether.

Now that Mongolia is an independent country, the Buddhists are experiencing a revival. Young males are attending the monastery schools and many of the lamas who were forced into secular lives during the 1930s have returned to the monasteries to continue lifestyles they originally chose to pursue. In 1990, the women's monastery was opened in Ulaanbaatar by a group of 20 Buddhist women.

However, all is not calm on the religious front: missionaries are spreading across the country, attempting to convert the Mongols to western religions.

The Ger The Mongolian Ger is ideally suited to the country's extremes of climate and the people's nomadic way of life. It is a multipurpose dwelling that can be easily collapsed, transported to another place and put up again fully preserving its original shape. Being constantly on the move with herds of animals or being on military campaigns compelled Mongols to build gers on carts. Old books contain pictures of such gers, temporary abodes in which families of three or four could spend the night or find shelter. After some time the use of carts stopped because they were clumsy and the gers could not be hauled over long distances as there was the danger of getting stuck in the mud somewhere or tipping over. The ger has two key components the wooden framework and the felt cover. The wooden parts are the walls, the long poles, the round smoke escape and its supports. One wall consists of 10-15 wooden poles, each about 1.5m high, bound together in a way making it possible to fold it for transportation and then unfold like an accordion. The unfolded walls are connected to form a circle. The long poles are fastened to the upper part of the walls, with the other end passed through the round support at the top of the ger, the only window and smoke escape in the ger. Two posts prop up the round support. All this forms the wooden framework of the ger, which resembles an open umbrella. Two layers of felt are then laid on the roof and on the walls and tied down with hair rope. The top of the ger has a felt flap that can be drawn over the roof when the weather is bad. Inside the ger, felt is laid either on a wooden floor or straight on the ground. The door of the ger always faces south towards the sun. The number of walls and poles determines the size of the ger. Most herders' gers have five walls, which make a living area of 16-18 sq. m. Larger gers can have up to 12 walls. In the centre of the ger is the hearth, which has a special meaning for the Mongols. Apart from its utilitarian purpose, the hearth symbolizes ties with ancestors. There are several customs associated with hearth. Desecration of the hearth is a sin and an insult to the master of the house. The hearth is mounted on three stones, which symbolize the host, the hostess and the daughter-in-law. The hearth is the centre of the ger and divides the ger space into three conventional areas the male and female quarters and the khoimor.

The male quarters are on the western side. Here the host keeps the saddle, the horse bridle and the koumiss bag. The female quarters are on the eastern side where she keeps the kitchenware and appliances.

Accordingly, a man entering the ger goes straight to the western part and a woman to the eastern part. It is believed that the male quarters are under the protection of heaven and the sun patronizes the female quarters. The most honoured place is the khoimor by the northern wall, opposite the door. Here, they keep objects dear to the master of the house, his weapons, his Morin Huur (musical instrument) and the host's horse bridle. Pieces of furniture, usually two wooden chests, painted bright orange, are also placed in the khoimor. Framed photographs of the host's family and friends are put on the chests for everyone to see. If the host has some governmental award, he is sure to hang it in the khoimor.

When guests visit, the hosts usually sit on the eastern side of the khoimor and the guests on the western side. The hostess' place is by the hearth and the children are supposed to sit near her but closer to the door.

The bed of the host and hostess is in the female quarters; those for guests are on the opposite side. The children are put to sleep at their parents' feet.

There are many philosophical ideas on the ger, its parts and functions. The smoke escape is the only opening through which light penetrates the ger. An old legend has it that it was through such a hole that a fair-haired man got into the ger of Alangua, the Mongols' ancestral mother, and begot three sons. In olden days people could tell the time by the sun's rays falling on the cross-pieces of the smoke escape and on the poles. The Mongols divided the day into twelve hours and each hour into twelve minutes, which they called by the names of the lunar calendar animals.

A hair rope, chagtaga, is fastened to the smoke escape from which a weight stabilising the ger is suspended during strong winds. In new gers, they fasten a khadag to it, a piece of blue silk in which a handful of

On The Move, Relocation


State

Sources:
- Mongols, by Baabar and R. Enkhbat
- Mongolia, Lonley Planet
- Mongoolse sprookjes, Elmar
- Het land van de toornige wind, Galsan Tschinag and Amelie Schenk
- De blauwe hemel, Galas Tschinag
- De koude heuvels van Mongolie, Carolijn Visser