Kapiolani
Community College Horizons 2002
Kapiolani
Community College
Horizons 2002
by Yumi Heltzel
INTRODUCTION
“Who are the Mongolians?” When I ask this question to people, I get the same answer: “the descendants of Genghis Khan, the greatest warrior.” Many people also insist that Mongolia is a part of China and that “Mongolian Barbecue” is the traditional food eaten there. The story of the greatest conqueror and the myth of the “Mongolian Barbecue” have made the country famous. However, Mongolia has more to offer. For instance, the country’s location, culture, geography, climate, and political system are all atypical. The indigenous people of Mongolia became nomads and learned to adapt to the harsh climate and unforgiving geography. The society of nomads developed and followed a somewhat decentralized social system, except during the era of the warrior nomads. Being surrounded by Russia and China, modem Mongolia requires delicate international relations with these two powerful countries. Politically, Mongolia is a newly born democratic country which abandoned the seventy-year-old Russian-aided communism in 1990. The lifestyle of many Mongolians has changed drastically in the wake of the collapse of communism, and the nomadic life is no longer the dominant life of Mongolian society. Since the end of communism, Mongolia has faced the challenge of adapting to the free market. Modernization has set in, and as a result, the society has created class differences. Traditional nomads and farmers became a pastoral class, and the factory workers became a working class. As with other countries with a newly adapted political system, Mongolian society created a poverty-stricken class. On the other hand, the educated people became the middle class elite, and they currently lead this newly born democratic country towards a stable future.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, Genghis Khan and his successors ruled people through a strict code of law, the Yasa. As Genghis Khan proclaimed, the Yasa applied to all the “people who live in felt tents (Ger).” In modem Mongolia, the educated elites who left the Ger in the rural areas carry the legacy of Genghis Kahn with the hope of rebuilding Mongolia. As an introduction to modem Mongolia, this work focuses on the nomadic people who carry the long tradition of Mongolia and the educated, urban elite who now lead Mongolia. By introducing their lives and comparing lifestyles, this study introduces the culture and society of modem Mongolia.
KEY INFORMANTS
Mr. Batsaikhan Usukh and his wife, Ms.Erdenechimeg Begzsuren, provided me a great deal of information about Mongolia. Mr. Usukh is doing his graduate study in economics at the University of Hawaii. He received a scholarship from the Asian Development Bank and moved to Hawaii in September 2001. Before that, Mr. Usukh and his family were in Manchester, England, for his intensive English study. Mr. Usukh and Ms. Begzsuren graduated from the State University of Agriculture in Mongolia inl994. They have a six-year-old son, Munkhbayart Batsaikhan. After four more years of graduate study, Mr. Usukh and his family will return to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia. Mr. Christopher Greywolf and his wife, Ms. Sansar, helped me understand the brief history of Mongolia. Mr. Greywolf is a student at Kapiolani Community College who spent five years traveling in Mongolia. Ms. Sansar is from Mongolia and majored in sociology at a Mongolian university. She earned a scholarship to attend Bingham Young University in Hawaii and married Mr. Greywolf during her stay. They keep some animals in Mongolia and visit there with their son and daughter every year.
GEOGRAPHY
Mongolia is located in northern Asia, between China and Russia. The country is three times as large as France, but the population is only 2.4 million, about double the population of the State of Hawaii. Mongolia has four distinctive terrains: grassy steppes, mountains, desert steppe, and “taiga.” The southern third of Mongolia is covered by the Gobi Desert. The far northern area reaches to the southern tip of Siberia. A belt of coniferous forest, taiga, covers this area. Semi-desert plains and grassy steppes appear in the west and the southwest of Mongolia. All of Mongolia is at a high elevation with an average elevation of 1580m. The capital city, Ulaanbaatar, is located in the central northeast area of the country.
CLIMATE
Mongolian people have to deal with a harsh climate. Due to its inland location, Mongolia has an ultimate continental and desert climate with almost zero humidity. Mongolia’s winter is prolonged and extremely cold. The north wind frequently drops the temperature to -30’ C, However, the weather warms up rapidly as soon as the wind stops. Therefore, the temperature difference in one day occasionally hits a range of thirty degrees. The temperature in Ulaanbaatar reaches 0’ C in October and drops to -30’C in January. The freezing temperature remains until April. July to September is Mongolia’s short summer. However, the weather in the summer is still unpredictable and produces occasional, sudden drops of temperature.
BRIEF HISTORY
The indigenous people of Mongolia started their nomadic lives with horses, yaks, and camels around 1500 13C. They tended herds and moved from one part of the Gobi to the other in order to feed the animals. Nomadic units were small. However, to defend their animals, some clans united to develop tribes. Conflict between Chinese and Mongolian tribes was recorded as early as 4 BC. Although their “confederation” helped to protect animals, early Mongolian nomads preferred to stay as separate clans during non-confrontational periods, or until the end of the 12th century.
In 1206, Genghis Khan, a young leader of the Borjigin Mongol clan, succeeded in uniting most of the Mongol tribes and became the supreme leader of the Mongol empire. His soldiers lived on the back of their horses and fought as cold-blooded barbarians. According to Mr. Greywolf, those soldiers were not an instantly trained army. They were rather a group of skilled herdsmen who learned to ride horses and fight against enemies to protect their animals long before they became soldiers. As leader of what eventually became the great Mongol empire, Genghis Khan wanted his army and people to be united. To prevent soldiers from going back to their clans to tend their animals, Khan had to plan frequent battles for his army. Thus, the powerful invasion of the confederation continued and eventually created the largest contiguous land empire in world history. The Mongol empire stretched from Vietnam in the East to Syria in the west. However, after two generations of Genghis Khan’s descendants, the empire started experiencing inner conflicts. The conflict among Khan’s descendants created nasty battles among tribes of brothers and cousins. Expansion scattered the people of Mongolia throughout the vast empire. The elites moved to newly invaded territories and adapted to those areas and made them their new domains. As a result, the original domain of Mongolia weakened. By 1380, the empire Withdrew from China, Central Asia, and West Asia, and by the fifteenth century, the rule over Russia ended.
After the decline of the empire, Mongolia became a decentralized, remote, and sparsely inhabited land. By the end of the 15th century, Mongolia was under threat from the rise of the Manchus, a powerful non-Mongol tribe from the northeast. Centuries of Mongolian revolts against Manchu came to the end as the Khalka revolt failed in 1759. Manchus massacred great numbers of Mongolians. As a result, the population of Mongolia was reduced massively. The long period of Manchu control in Mongolia finally ended in 1911 when the Republic of China was established.
THE MONGOLIAM PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
In 1921, with the support of the Mongolian-Soviet treaty, Mongolia’s independence was recognized. On November 26, 1924, the Mongolian People’s Republic declared its independence and became the world’s second communist country after the Soviet Union. The lands and herds of Mongolia were seized under communist rule and redistributed to peasants. Private businesses as well as foreign trade were banned, and the transportation system was nationalized. The government provided medical, educational, and welfare benefits to the people of Mongolia, and the Soviet Union provided advanced training and education for Mongolian students. The influence of the Soviet Union over Mongolian society was visible everywhere in Mongolia for the next seventy years. In 1990, however, the power of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) declined while criticism against the command economy and the one-party system spread. In July 1990, a new government was democratically elected, and the Mongolian People’s Republic became the Republic of Mongolia. Wide-ranging programs of privatization and market liberalization were launched. Ironically, in the national election of 2000, the old MPRP won the majority of the seats back in the parliament and returned as the ruling party. Their current focus is on welfare reform and public order.
CURRENT CONDITION
Over the last twelve years, Mongolian society has struggled through a tough transition. The challenge to transform the former communist country to a self-sufficient, democratic country with a free market economy is far from over. Pastoral herding is still the main stream of Mongolia’s economy. With the aid of the Soviet Union, coal mining and other industries were developed in the 20th century. However, the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 drove Mongolia into a deep recession.
According to Mr. Usukh, the political transition in 1990 went relatively smoothly, with just a few demonstrations by students and intellectuals. The communist ruling party, MPRP, stepped down without much resistance and the new parliamentary body easily obtained the ruling position. However, the new government faced tough reforms far beyond its control. With the withdrawal of its communist sponsor, the Soviet Union, Mongolia lost massive economic and military aid and needed to become self-sufficient immediately. It was a very hard transition for the people, especially for the herders, to adapt to the new privatization program. Before 1990, the MPRP guaranteed their income and social welfare benefits. As a result, productivity stayed low. Under the free market economy, however, nothing was guaranteed. The herders were encouraged to buy out the ownership of their animals from the government. They eventually formed shareholding companies and were forced to compete for better productivity. Mr. Usukh often heard the herders complain: “When will we go back to the communism?” or “When will the Soviet Union come to help our country again?”
Because of his agricultural economic background, Mr. Usukh was involved with the reform of animal herding. To increase productivity of pastoral products, especially cashmere and meat for export, Mongolia’s agricultural department introduced systematic farming to the nomadic herders. The idea was to grow hybrid grass for the harsh climates and build permanent farms in certain location. In order to increase production, they imported animals from other countries. This idea seemed to work very well at the beginning. However, the long tradition of nomadic life was hard to break and the imported animals were not capable of adapting to Mongolia’s harsh climate. As a result, Mongolia’s agricultural reforms are still struggling and the economy, which heavily depends on animal herding, remains weak.
CULTURE
During the seventy years of communist rule, Mongolian culture was influenced by the Soviet Union. Mongolian people traditionally used the Uighur script for their writing. Today, however, the Russian Cyrillic alphabet has been substituted for the Uighur script. Many intellectuals such as Mr.Usukh and Ms. Sansar speak Russian as well as their national language, Khalka.
Modernism is widely spread in both rural and urban areas of Mongolia. Traditionally, the great horse rider was the hero in their society. In modem Mongolia, especially in the urban areas, the computer skill has replaced the hose riding skill. Soviet-aided communist Mongolia demoted Genghis Khan to a coldblooded villain. After 1990, Mr. Usukh explained, the modem democratic government brought Khan’s status back to the great conqueror and a national hero and tried to raise people’s confidence and nationalism.
The traditions of nomadism have become obsolete in urban areas. However, the entire Mongolian population enjoys traditional horseracing, archery, and wrestling during the National Naadam festival on July 11, the independence day of Mongolia. Mr. Usukh and his family used to go to the festival every year and enjoyed eating traditional food and watching the competition with their friends and family.
NOMADIC HERDERS
Many people who live in the Gobi, steppes, and mountain areas still keep their traditional, seasonal, nomadic lifestyle. They live in the Ger and move four to five times a year with their animals. Mr. Uskh pointed out that currently, there is no official land restriction or property ownership set by the government. As much as the government wanted to control land use, it realized that the long tradition of nomadic life would be hard to break. Lands in the Gobi, steppes, and mountain areas are available for anybody. If there are some Gers already set up in an area where another band wish to settle, the group that came first can declare a temporary ownership of that land. The group that came later has to find another area for “camping.”
Putting up a Ger in a new area is not so hard or time-consuming if it is done in a particular order. First, set two posts in the center and put 88 or 108 poles around them. A door goes in the frame next, and then latticework panels go around the poles. Use horsehair rope around the panels to hold them tight. Then, put the felt mats over the panels. Use horsehair ropes to go around and tie the felt mats. Experienced nomads only need two people and take just one hour to finish putting up the Ger. When it is time to leave for a new place, they disassemble the Ger and load the scrapped tent, as well as all other belongings, on the backs of camels. The caravan of camels and other herds migrate for weeks to get to the new place.
Nomadic herders produce everything they need from their animals. These animals include goats, camels, sheep, and horses. Mongolians eat mutton and make cheese, yogurt, butter, tea, and alcohol out of the milk of those animals. Ms. Chimeg, Mr. Usukh’s wife, gave me a piece of aral, a coin-shaped dried horse milk curd. It had a slight sour taste like yogurt and was hard as a rock. I almost broke my teeth biting into the piece. She told me that Mongolian people have very strong teeth and bones since they eat great amounts of calcium-enriched food. Animal dung is the primary fuel for the Ger. Therefore, the herders collect the dung all summer long to prepare for the severe winters. Most nomads wear the traditional outfit called Del, a long silk or cotton robe with slit at each side. Both men and women wear trousers underneath the Del and tie a belt around their waists. They also wear heavy leather or felt boots and hats.
PEOPLE IN THE RURAL AREAS
Herding animals and living in a Ger used to be the way of life in the rural areas, or near cities. People tended the animals to produce meat and dairy products for their own consumption, and traded the rest for other goods. Children inherited animals from parents and continued their herder’s life. In modem Mongolia, however, many people in the rural areas have the option to either stay as farmers or head for the city to do something else. Mr. Uskh was one of the people who left the rural area to pursue his education and career in the city.
Mr. Uskh grew up in a rural area and stayed there until he entered the State University of Agriculture in Ulaanbaatar in 1990. His father was a veterinarian assistant, and his mother was a factory supervisor. His parents were not nomadic herders, but they had a farm. Tending the animals was the main chore Mr. Usukh and his five brothers and a sister had to do every afternoon. Mr. Uskh was a hard-working student. However, he could not score the best grades in his school. He simply did not have enough time to study after he worked long hours tending the animals. He knew he would do something other than herding and eventually left for the capital city. Many of the bright students like him from the rural areas have a goal to attend university. To do so, they have to take a national exam similar to the SAT. The scores of the exam are ranked from the highest to the lowest, and students are assigned to certain schools according to their ranking. Four out of six of Mr. Usukh’s siblings graduated from universities and then worked in the city or province center. The oldest brother started as an art teacher and was promoted to director of the educational department of his province. His second brother became a veterinarian and now works for the Agricultural department in his province. His sister is an electrical engineer, and his youngest brother works for the Ministry of Agriculture and plans to study abroad following Mr. Usukh’s advice. His third older brother and youngest brother did not attend university and remain in the rural area where his parents live. His parents wanted those two to work on their farm where they own three hundred sheep, a hundred goats, fifty cattle, and eighty horses. However, none of them had any intention to tend animals for their living. Now, Mr. Uskh’s parents live alone without any of their children working on their farm. Therefore, they had to hire some people for their farm.
LIFE IN ULAANBAATAR Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, is relatively modern. Ulaanbaatar is almost like an independent, modern country located in the center of traditional Mongolia. Outside the city, the nomadic lifestyle has not changed much since long before the Genghis Khan era. In contrast, the lifestyle in the city has changed drastically in the 20th century. Government buildings, office buildings, museums, and movie theaters in Ulaanbaatar were all built during the communist era. Traditional Ger living and Del outfits became obsolete in the city. Now, many urban people live in Russian-style apartments and wear western-style clothes. About fifty percent of the people who live in Ulaanbaatar are from nuclear families, and the rest of the people prefer to live alone. The extended family living in the Ger does not exist in the city. However, according to Mr. Usukh, some people temporarily live with their parents, siblings, or in-laws in the same apartment to save on living expenses. Mr. Usukh and Ms. Chimeg lived with Ms. Chimeg’s sister and brother and shared their living expenses with them. Rent in the city is very high, so having some roommates compensates for the high cost of living.
Mr. Uskh rode a bus to his office everyday and worked there from nine in the morning to six in the evening. Sunday was the only day off up to 1998. Now, most of the workers have both Saturdays and Sundays off. Mr. Usukh’s office provided computers to every worker. However, the office did not have enough Xerox machines. There was always a long wait for making copies. Most office equipment was donated by foreign aid projects.
European influence, especially Russian influence, is visible everywhere in urban Mongolia. In the city, people eat western foods such as meat and potatoes. They even eat salad. Ms. Chimeg admitted that the first time she ate salad, she felt like she was eating grass for animals. Rural people and nomadic herders still do not eat fresh vegetables. For them, fresh vegetables are food for animals but not for humans. Instead of buttered tea served in the rural areas, the city people drink leaf tea. Unlike the nomadic herders who process their food from their animals, the urban people buy food from markets.
Nowadays, urban people get more exposure to the other Asian countries’ cultures They have close to thirty TV channels, including Russian, German, and other European TV stations. Additionally, they can watch Korean, Chinese, and Japanese broadcasting. Ms. Chimeg and her son, Mun, loved to watch Japanese Sumo tournaments on the Japanese channel in Ulaanbaatar. A Mongolian wrestler named “Tochiazuma” is now in one of the Japanese Sumo stables, and many Mongolians enjoy watching his Sumo matches.
Mr. Usukh occasionally went out for drinking with his coworkers. He actually did not want to go out with them since, as a custom in Mongolia, they drink until they are completely wasted. Because of the Russian influence, vodka is a popular drink in Mongolia. Mr. Usukh was earning $50.00 a month at the Ministry of Agriculture. His income was higher than that of the average city workers. Some herders who own thousands of animals are very rich. However, a city worker’s income is more steady and regular. Every two weeks, Mr. Uskh received salary. Rural herdsman, however, earn substantial money only when their animals are sold and do not make any income while herding the animals. During the harsh winter years of the late 20th century, many animals died and some herdsmen lost their entire income sources. Without animals, people cannot survive in rural areas. Many of the herders who lost their animals had to move to the city and find any job available for them.
POVERTY
The majority of people in Mongolia was born during the communist era. Social welfare, free medical care, and free education were all provided for them by the communist government. Then, in 1990, the overnight change hit the nation very hard. The country had to face the reality that the socialist system was no longer working and able to support the people. While the Soviet Union, the “big brother” of Mongolia, was facing the end of its communist era, Mongolia had to end its system as well. After losing Russia’s support, Mongolia went into a deep recession. As a result, a certain part of the population went down the poverty spiral.
Some herders who could not afford to buy out their animals from the government lost their animal ownership. Others simply decided to quit herding and moved to the city. The big city like Ulaanbaatar became a refuge for the unemployed ex-herders, who gave up on their herding life in the rural areas. Once they lost their animals, they had to buy food from stores. The food price went up as the market economy started. There were no more food stamps or apartments provided by the government. As a result, the homeless population in the city has drastically increased. The poorest live in the stairwells of buildings, in underground sewage pipes, or in any place where they can stay warm during the cold winter. Some people set up a Ger wherever they find the empty space in the city.
Higher education is the key to success in the city. Those people who only received four years of mandatory education cannot find high-paying jobs. They can be street sweepers, cleaners, or work at the nearby coal mine. The average income for those people with low-paying jobs is about $25.00 a month. Alcoholism and crime are increasing in Mongolia, especially in Ulaanbaatar. Frustration due to poverty, unemployment, and an uncertain future often leads people to excessive drinking. More people drink alcohol all day long and end up getting into fights or abusing their spouses. Increasing numbers of thieves and robbers in the city target foreign tourists. Tourists who carelessly walk down the street of Ulaanbatar can be easy targets for criminals.
Mongolia’s Future
Mr. Uskh predicts that Mongolia needs at least twenty more years before it obtains stability in the economy and becomes self-sufficient with a free market. He thinks that if Mongolia can attract more foreign investors, the country can develop more industry based on its abundant natural resources such as oil, coal, copper, and gold. As far as pastoralism, a transition to systematic farming from continuing nomadic herding is necessary in order to obtain economic growth. Becoming a centralized democratic government requires breaking the long history of traditional nomadic life. It is a very tough task to strengthen the links between the countryside and the city. However, uniting people scattered throughout its vast area is a very important step for the future growth of Mongolia.
Mongolia is a country which struggles to find the balance between modernization and tradition. The traditional nomadic herders and the modernized urban dwellers co-exist in one country. Although “reborn” in 1990, the country is still facing serious challenges. Currently, modernization seems to be the only solution for the country’s survival. It is unfortunate that as a result, the traditional culture is disappearing. However, whether they are traditional nomads or modernized city dwellers, the young Mongolians certainly have one hope for their future: provide better living conditions for their children. Mr.Uskh and Ms. Chimeg are committed to work hard for their country’s future so that their son, Mun, can have a better life. Hundreds of other Mongolians who are studying abroad are also working hard to learn the latest technology for their country. Eight hundred years ago, Genghis Khan succeeded in building the largest empire in history. I believe that the modem Mongolians, the descendants of Genghis Khan, can rebuild their county. It might take a long time, but the day will definitely come.
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