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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morin_khuur

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The morin khuur ( Mongolian: морин хуур, romanized: morin khuur), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered a symbol of the nation of Mongolia. The morin khuur is one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity identified by UNESCO.

In Mongolian, the instrument is usually called morin khuur or "horse fiddle".

The full Classical Mongolian name for the morin khuur is morin toloğay'ta quğur, (which in modern Khalkh cyrillic is Морин толгойтой хуур) meaning fiddle with a horse's head. Usually it is abbreviated as "Морин хуур", Latin transcription "Morin huur". In western Mongolia it is known as ikil ( Mongolian: икил-not to be confused with the similar Tuvan igil)-while in eastern Mongolia it is known as shoor ( Mongolian: Шоор).

The instrument consists of a trapeziform wooden-framed sound box to which two strings are attached. It is held nearly upright with the sound box in the musician's lap or between the musician's legs. The strings are made from hairs from nylon or horses' tails, strung parallel, and run over a wooden bridge on the body up a long neck, past a second smaller bridge, to the two tuning pegs in the scroll, which is usually carved into the form of a horse's head.

The bow is loosely strung with horse hair coated with larch or cedar wood resin, and is held from underneath with the right hand. The underhand grip enables the hand to tighten the loose hair of the bow, allowing very fine control of the instrument's timbre.

The larger of the two strings (the "male" string) has 130 hairs from a stallion's tail, while the "female" string has 105 hairs from a mare's tail. Nowadays the strings are made of nylon. Traditionally, the strings were tuned a fifth apart, though in modern music they are more often tuned a fourth apart, usually to B-flat and F. The strings are stopped either by pinching them in the joints of the index and middle fingers, or by pinching them between the nail of the little finger and the pad of the ring finger.

Traditionally, the frame is covered with camel, goat, or sheep skin, in which case a small opening would be left in the back. However, since the 1970s, new completely wooden sound box instruments have appeared, with carved f-holes similar to European stringed instruments.

The modern standard height is 1.15 m (3 ft 9 in); the distance between the upper bridge and the lower bridge is about 60 cm (24 in), but the upper bridge especially can be adapted to match smaller player's fingers. The sound box usually has a depth of 8-9 cm (3.1-3.5 in); the width of the soundbox is about 20 cm (7.9 in) at the top and 25 cm (9.8 in) at the bottom. Good quality instruments can achieve a strength of 85 dBA, which allows it to be played (if desired) even in mezzoforte or crescendo. When horsehair is used, the luthiers prefer to use the hair of white stallions. In general the quality of a horse hair string depends on its preparation, the climate conditions and the nutrition of the animals. That gives a wide area of quality differences.

Quality nylon strings (Khalkh Mongolian: сатуркан хялгас ) last for up to 2 years, but only if prepared and placed properly on the instrument. Most beginners don't comb the strings, then the sound quality worsens quickly. Good strings nearly sound like steel strings, and in spectrograms they show about 7-8 harmonics.

Morin khuur vary in form depending on region. Instruments from central Mongolia tend to have larger bodies and thus possess more volume than the smaller-bodied instruments of Inner Mongolia. In addition, the Inner Mongolian instruments have mostly mechanics for tightening the strings, where Mongolian luthiers mostly use wooden pegs in a slightly conic shape. In Tuva, the morin khuur is sometimes used in place of the igil.

One legend about the origin of the morin khuur is that a shepherd named Namjil the Cuckoo (or Khuhuu Namjil) received the gift of a flying horse; he would mount it at night and fly to meet his beloved. A jealous woman had the horse's wings cut off so that the horse fell from the air and died. The grieving shepherd made a horsehead fiddle from the now-wingless horse's skin and tail hair and used it to play poignant songs about his horse.

Another legend credits the invention of the morin khuur to a boy named Sükhe (or Suho). After a wicked lord slew the boy's prized white horse, the horse's spirit came to Sükhe in a dream and instructed him to make an instrument from the horse's body, so the two could still be together and neither would be lonely. So the first morin khuur was assembled, with horse bones as its neck, horsehair strings, horse skin covering its wooden soundbox, and its scroll carved into the shape of a horse head.

The fact that most of the eastern Turkic neighbors of the Mongols possess similar horse hair instruments (such as the Tuvan igil, the Kazakh kobyz, or the Kyrgyz Kyl kyyak), though not western Turkic, may point to a possible origin amongst peoples that once inhabited the Mongolian Steppe,[citation needed ] and migrated to what is now Tuva, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The gusle/lahuta from Southeastern Europe (Serbia, Croatia & Albania) is a very similar instrument, and may indicate this is an extremely ancient instrument perhaps even dating back to the outward migration of people out of the Middle East and Central Asia some 40,000 years ago. Often these instruments are depicted with a goat head instead of a horse in Europe.

The modern style Morin Khuur is played with nearly natural finger positions. That means, the distance between two fingers usually make the distance of a half tone on the lower section of the instrument. On the tune F / B the index finger hits on the low (F) string the G, the middle finger hits the G, the ring finger hits the A, the little finger the B flat. Identical positions are on the high strings - C, C, D, D. The little finger tips the B strings under the F string, while all other fingers touch the strings from the top.

Melodies are usually played from F to F' on the F string, then the player switches to the B string and continues with G, A, B. There are 3 hand positions on the F string, and 2 positions on the B strings a musician must memorize. The idea is that without moving the string hand too much the sound quality improves. The 2nd hand position on the B string is used to play C, D, E, then moves a little bit for hitting the F' with the little finger, then without moving the G position can be reached with the 1st finger.

It is also possible to touch the B string with the thumb to get a C, and use the ring finger under the F string to achieve the D.

On the F strings only the first harmonic is used, so the scale ranges from F to F'. On the B strings several harmonics are available: B', F", B", also often players accompanying the F' on the F string with an F" overtone at the F' position on the B string.

Some parts of the bowing technique is unique - the little and the ring finger of the right hand usually touch the bow hair, which is used for setting accents. The other two fingers maintain a slight pressure on the strings. A common technique with other string instruments is the "Kist". When the bow direction changes, the right hand moves a little bit in advance to the opposite direction to avoid scratchy sounds and for achieving a better voice. When pushing the bow the hand closes a little bit in direction of a fist, when pulling it the hand opens - nearly to a right angle between the arm and the fingers.

The instrument can be used for playing western style classical music, or Mongolian style pieces. The primary education is to learn the scales, to train the ear for achieving the " muscle memory", the ability to automatically adapt the finger position when a note wasn't hit properly. The main goal is to achieve a "clear" sound, that means no change in volume or frequency is desired. That depends on three main facts:

- finger force used for touching the strings - pressure of the bow - constant sound after bow direction changes

As variation are usually used the " accent" and the " vibrato". Other techniques like the " Col legno", the " Pizzicato" or the " Martellato" are generally not used on the Morin Huur.

Because of its standard tune to Bb and F mostly western music is transposed for being played in one of the four most common scales: F major, F minor, B Major, E major. When used as a solo instrument the Morin Huur is often tuned a half tone higher or lower.

Nearly all of the Mongolian style pieces are in F minor, and often the instrument is tuned 1-2 notes lower for coming closer to the tunes used in the deep past. The instruments in the pre-socialist era of Mongolia were usually covered with skin, which mostly doesn't allow the Bb and F tune - usually tuned 2-4 notes deeper.

On the contemporary Morin Khuur the deep string is placed at the right side and the high string is placed at the left side, seen from the front of the instrument. The Igil has the opposite placement of strings, so a player has to adapt in order to play pieces made for the other one. For contemporary teaching the modern style is in use.

In Mongolia, the morin khuur can be learned at three schools:

The SUIS (соёлын урлагын их сургууль ), Engl. "University of Arts and Culture". Here, students enter in adult age for obtaining a bachelor's degree after 2 years and a master's degree after 5 years of musical education. After the master's degree, the students are considered to be professional musicians, and can play at one of the state ensembles or later become a teacher at the SUIS.

Mongolian State Conservatory (Монгол Улсын Консерватори ). Accepting students who are not older than 10 years old for the morin khuur class at the conservatory and since September 2017, the conservatory has been offering a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music in Morin Khuur Performance degree.

The culture school of the SUIS (СУИСы, соёлын сургууль ). Here several qualification courses are available. Graduates from this school mostly become teachers or enter the SUIS.

Also many amateur players acquired reasonable skills by taking lessons from private teachers, or being taught by their parents or other relatives.

The morin khuur is the national instrument in Mongolia. Many festivals are held for celebrating the importance of this instrument on the Mongolian culture, like the biannual "International Morin Huur Festival and Competition", which is organized by the "World Morinhuur Association". First held in 2008, second in 2010 - with 8 participating countries (Mongolia, Korea, China, Russia, USA, Germany, France, Japan) - and planned for May 2012. Here, many amateurs come and play freestyle pieces, but also a professional contest is held and an instrument making competition.

During June, the "Roaring Hooves" festival is held. This is a small festival for professional skilled players - but unfortunately a closed festival. These recordings are often shown in TV reports later.

On the national festival "Naadam" praise songs are played for the most magnificent horse and for the highest ranked wrestler and archer. The songs are called "Magtaal" and accompanied by a unique style of praise and morin khuur.

Many Mongolians have the instrument in their home because it is a symbol for peace and happiness.

During the winter time, but also at the beginning of the spring time, a morin khuur player is called in for the "жавар үргээх", the "ceremony for scaring away the frost". In general, many traditional pieces are played, divided in the different styles: "уртын дуу", "urtiin duu" (long song), "магтаал", "magtaal" (praise songs) and "татлага", "tatlaga" (solo pieces, mostly imitating horses or camels).

The fourth style, the "биелгее" is rarely played in these ceremonies, but in western Mongolia it is common for accompanying "tatlaga dancing" in 3 times - like a waltz, but with dance movements imitating daily tasks of a nomad's family.

A number of folk metal and folk rock bands from Mongolia and the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia have combined heavy metal and rock music with traditional Mongolian lyrical themes and instruments, including the morin khuur; some of these bands include Altan Urag, Nine Treasures, Tengger Cavalry, Hanggai, the Hu, and Uuhai.

In the Mongolian Gobi farmer's daily life, the Morin Khuur has another important use. When a mother camel gives birth to a calf, sometimes she rejects her calf due to various natural stress situations. Mongolian camel farmers use Morin Khuur-based melodies alongside special low-harmonic types of songs called "Khoosloh" to heal the mother camels' stress and encourage her to re-adopt her calf. This re-adoption of farm animal practice is widely used in various nomadic civilizations worldwide but for Mongolian Gobi farmers' cases, only this instrument is used on camels. In other cases, if a mother camel dies after giving birth to a calf, a farmer would use this Khoosloh technique alongside Morin Khuur melodies to encourage another mother camel who has her own calf to adopt the new one. The practice is well documented in the documentary called Ingen Egshig directed by Badraa J. in 1986 and was also remade in 2003 by director Byambasuren Davaa with a different title of The Story of the Weeping Camel which was nominated in 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Marsh, Peter K. (2004). Horse-Head Fiddle and the Cosmopolitan Reimagination of Mongolia. ISBN 0-415-97156-X.

Santaro, Mikhail (1999). Морин Хуур - Хялгасны эзэрхийгч, available in cyrillic (ISBN 99929-5-015-3) and classical Mongolian script (ISBN 7-80506-802-X)

Luvsannorov, Erdenechimeg (2003) Морин Хуурын арга билгийн арванхоёр эгшиглэн, ISBN 99929-56-87-9

Pegg, Carole (2003) Mongolian Music, Dance, and Oral Narrative: Recovering Performance Traditions (with audio CD) ISBN 978-0-295-98112-3

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The morin khuur ( Mongolian: морин хуур, romanized: morin khuur), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered a symbol of the nation of Mongolia.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvan_throat_singing

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Tuvan throat singing, the main technique of which is known as khoomei ( Tuvan: хөөмей, romanized: xöömej, Mongolian: хөөмий, romanized: khöömii, Russian: хоомей, Turkish: höömey), includes a type of overtone singing practiced by people in Tuva, Mongolia, and Siberia. In 2009, it was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. The term hömey / kömey means and in different Turkic languages. That could be borrowed from Mongolian khooloi, which means throat as well, driven from Proto-Mongolian word *koɣul-aj.

In Tuvan throat singing, the performer produces a fundamental pitch and-simultaneously-one or more pitches over that. The history of Tuvan throat singing reaches far back. Many male herders can throat sing, but women have begun to practice the technique as well. The popularity of throat singing among Tuvans seems to have arisen as a result of geographic location and culture. The open landscape of Tuva allows for the sounds to carry a great distance. Ethnomusicologists studying throat singing in these areas mark khoomei as an integral part in the ancient pastoral animism still practiced today. Often, singers travel far into the countryside looking for the right river, or go up to the steppes of the mountainside to create the proper environment for throat singing.

The animistic world view of this region identifies the spirituality of objects in nature, not just in their shape or location, but in their sound as well. Thus, human mimicry of nature's sounds is seen as the root of throat singing. An example of this is the Tuvan story of the waterfall above the Buyant Göl (Deer River in Tuvan), where mysterious harmonic sounds are said to have attracted deer to bask in the waters, and where, it is said, harmonic sounds were first revealed to people. Indeed, the cultures in this part of Asia have developed many instruments and techniques to mimic the sounds of animals, wind, and water. While the cultures of this region share throat singing, their styles vary in breadth of development.

Ordinarily, melodies are created by isolating the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 12th partial in accordance with the harmonic series. Thus, if the fundamental frequency were C3, the overtones would be G5, B♭5, C6, D6, E6, G6. However, it is possible to reach as low as the 2nd and as high as the 24th. The fundamental pitch is typically around E and G below middle C, and this affects the range of partials the singer can reach, with higher partials more easily reached on lower notes, and vice versa.

The people of Tuva have a wide range of throat singing vocalizations, and were the pioneers of six pitch harmonics. There are several different classification schemes for Tuvan throat singing. In one, the three basic styles are khoomei, kargyraa and sygyt, while the sub-styles include borbangnadyr, chylandyk, dumchuktaar, ezengileer and kanzyp. In another, there are five basic styles: khoomei, sygyt, kargyraa, borbangnadyr and ezengileer. The substyles include chylandyk, despeng borbang, opei khoomei, buga khoomei, kanzyp, khovu kargyraazy, kozhagar kargyraazy, dag kargyraazy, Oidupaa kargyraazy, uyangylaar, damyraktaar, kishteer, serlennedyr and byrlannadyr. These schemes all use Tuvan terminology.

Khorekteer refers to the "chest voice". This is the voice that throat singers use when using khoomei, kargyraa, or any other harmonic-inducing style. The term can also be used to refer to all styles of Tuvan throat singing, much like khoomei. It can also refer to the feeling of chest resonance or pressure that one experiences when throat singing. Khorekteer is often used as a launching pad into the khoomei, sygyt, or kargyraa styles of throat singing.

The most popular style of Tuvan throat singing is known as khoomei (or khöömei, in Cyrillic: xөөмей). Khoomei is traditionally a softer sounding style, with the fundamental (or drone) usually in the low-mid to midrange of the singer's normal voice. In this style, usually two or three harmonics can be heard between one and two octaves above the fundamental. In khoomei, the abdomen is fairly relaxed, and there is less tension on the larynx than in other styles. Pitch is manipulated through a combination of movements of the lips, throat, tongue or jaw.

Singing in this style gives the impression of wind swirling among rocks.

The term khoomei is also used as a generic term to designate all throat singing techniques in this region.

Sygyt (in Cyrillic: cыгыт), literally 'whistling', has a midrange fundamental and is characterized by strong, flute-like or rather piercing harmonics, reminiscent of whistling. Also described as an imitation of the gentle breezes of summer, the songs of birds, the ideal sound for the harmonics is called Чистый звук-Russian for clear sound.

To perform sygyt, the tongue rises and seals around the gums, just behind the teeth. A small hole is left back behind the molars, either on the left or right side. The sound is then directed between the teeth to the front of the mouth. The lips form a bell-like shape, usually with an "ee" vowel, and the sound is directed through this small opening. Pitch is manipulated exactly the same way as in khoomei style.

The more deep-sounding style of throat singing is known as kargyraa (in Cyrillic: kаргыраа). Kargyraa has a deep, almost growling sound to it and is technically related to Sardinian bass singing in Canto a Tenore choirs, and also to Tibetan Buddhist chant and has some similarities with the way Popeye's cartoon voice was created. It uses both the vocal and the vestibular folds (also known as "false vocal cords") simultaneously, creating two connected sources of sound.

By constricting the larynx, the vestibular folds can be brought together (adducted) and, under certain conditions, vibrate. It can produce an undertone exactly half the frequency of the fundamental produced by the vocal folds. Therefore, for each second vibration of the vocal folds, the vestibular fold completes a whole vibration cycle. While the larynx generates such rich sound, the mouth cavity may be shaped, just like in the manipulation of vowels, to select some particular harmonics, resulting in a sound that may be perceived as having different pitches simultaneously.

This vocal mechanism has been elucidated and shown to be similar to Sardinian bassu, which is one of the four voices of Sardinian canto a tenore choirs. It is also similar to the chant practiced in Tibet by the Gyuto monastery and other Buddhist orders.

There are two types of kargyraa: dag (mountain) and xovu (steppe). The Dag style is deeper, while xovu is raspier and sung at a higher pitch with more throat tension and less chest resonance. There are also the distinctive kargyraa styles of Vladimir Oidupaa and Albert Kuvezin, the latter also bearing the name kanzat. This is sometimes described as the howling winds of winter or the plaintive cries of a mother camel after losing her calf.

Of the following list, two effects that commonly employed in the khoomei, sygyt and kargyraa styles: Borbangnadyr and Ezengileer.

Borbangnadyr (Борбаңнадыр) is a trill reminiscent of birds and traveling brooks, made by rapid movements of the tongue. Another effect that is usually added to this style is the light quivering of the lips, called "byrlang".

Ezenggileer (Эзеңгилээр) is a pulsating style, attempting to mimic the rhythms of horseback riding. It is named after the Tuvan word for stirrup, ezengi.

Chylandyk (Чыландык) is simultaneous sygyt and kargyraa. This creates an unusual sound of low undertones mixed with the high Sygyt whistle. It has also been described as the "chirping of crickets". A careful listener can further break down this style into Dag Chylandyk and Xovu Chylandyk.

Dumchuktaar (Думчуктаар) could be best described as "throat humming". The singer creates a sound similar to sygyt using only the nasal passage. The word means to sing through the nose (dumchuk). The mouth does not need to be closed, but of course, it demonstrates the point better.[citation needed ]

There were a few female throat singers in Tuva's history, though it was believed a woman performing throat singing could hurt her male relatives and cause her difficulties during childbirth. Choldak-Kara Oyun, the mother of the famous throat singer Soruktu Kyrgys and grandmother of the husband of famous Tuvan actress Kara-Kys Namzatovna Munzuk, throat sang throughout her life while milking her cows, singing lullabies to her children and sometimes while she was drinking Tuvan araga (fermented milk alcohol). Close relatives of famous singers, like Khunashtaar-ool's niece (in the 1960s) and Kombu's daughter (in the 1940s or 1950s), performed khoomei (throat singing) in public more than once. The wife of the throat singing shaman Bilek-ool from Manchurek, Aldinsova Tortoyavna, said that she has always sung khoomei "because it was innate to [her] from birth". She could not resist singing khoomei after she got married and had children, and sang khoomei in public in the 1950s and 1960s. But her sister, who also sang khoomei as a girl, gave up when others repeatedly reminded her of the supposed dangers.

Valentina Salchak performed throat singing in public in 1979. Valentina Chuldum from Mongun-Taiga (1960 - Autumn 2002) toured European countries as a throat singer in the early 1990s. With the start of the International Symposium of Khoomei women could sing publicly there.

Tyva Kyzy (Тыва Кызы, pronounced [tɯˈva kɯˈzɯ]) (Daughters of Tuva, in Tuvan language), founded in 1998, is an all-female folk ensemble performing Tuvan throat singing, under the direction of Choduraa Tumat. It is the first and only women's group in Tuva that performs all styles of Tuvan throat singing.

Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning prankster physicist, took an interest in Tuvan throat singing and attempted to travel to Tuva in the 1980s, near the end of his life when he was gravely ill from cancer. Although Feynman never made it to Tuva, his daughter visited there in 2009 and met with Tuvan throat singers during her trip.

The Quest for Tannu Tuva is a 1988 documentary film about Feynman's quest that was produced for the BBC TV series ; it was also repackaged with American narration and titled The Last Journey of a Genius for the PBS series in 1989.

Tuva or Bust! is a book published in 1991 by Ralph Leighton, a biographer and longtime friend of Feynman who had tried to go to Tuva with him. The book includes a flexi disc recording of Tuvan throat singing.

Yat-Kha is a band formed in 1991 and led by Tuvan throat singer Albert Kuvezin that performs a mixture of Tuvan traditional music and rock.

Huun-Huur-Tu is a band formed in 1992 that incorporates Tuvan throat singing in its performances and has performed internationally since soon after its inception.

Chirgilchin is a Tuvan musical group formed in 1996 led by Igor Koshkendey, who won the Grand Prix of the International Throat Singing Competition in 1998, 2000, and 2002.

K-Space is a British-Siberian experimental improvisation music ensemble formed in 1996 that features the Tuvan throat singer Gendos Chamzyryn.

Tyva Kyzy is an all-female folk ensemble formed in 1998 that performs Tuvan throat singing and has performed internationally.

Genghis Blues is a 1999 documentary film that won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for a Documentary and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, centers on the journey of blind American singer Paul Pena to Tuva to pursue his interest in Tuvan throat singing.

Alash is an ensemble of Tuvan musicians and throat singers formed at the Kyzyl Arts College in 1999 that has performed internationally since 2006.

The Tuvan National Orchestra, formed in 2003, often features Tuvan throat singing and includes performances by internationally known artists, including members of Alash, Chirgilchin, Huun-Huur-Tu, and Tyva Kyzy.

Batzorig Vaanchig, a member of the band Khusugtun, which was a runner-up on Asia's Got Talent in 2015, is a Mongolian throat singer with tens of millions of views on YouTube.

The Hu is a band formed in 2016. Hailing from Mongolia, the band blends rock and heavy metal with traditional Mongolian instrumentation, including Mongolian throat singing and the Morin khuur (also known as the horsehead fiddle). The Hu calls their style of music "hunnu rock", with hu being a Mongolian root word for "human". In 2018, the band made its debut at Download Festival in Donington. A song by the Hu, "Black Thunder", was created for the 2019 videogame Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. A different version of the song was then translated and recorded by the Hu from the original Mongolian to a new fictional language created by the band, with guidance from the game's developers. This version, "Sugaan Essena", was used for the game.

Bibliography and further reading

Emory, Michael. Khomeii-How To's and Why's. 7 March 2007. http://www.fotuva.org/music/emory.html

Fuks L., Hammarberg B. and Sundberg J. "A self-sustained vocal-ventricular phonation mode: acoustical, aerodynamic and glottographic evidences", KTH TMH-QPSR 3/1998, 49-59, Stockholm.

Lindestad, P. A., Sodersten, M., Merker, B. and Granqvist, S. "Voice source characteristics in Mongolian throat singing studied with high-speed imaging technique, acoustic spectra, and inverse filtering". Journal of Voice, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 78-85, 2001

Levin, Theodore C. and Edgerton, Michael. The Throat Singers of Tuva. Scientific American. September 1999 Vol. 81 Issue 3 p. 80

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Tuvan throat singing, the main technique of which is known as khoomei ( Tuvan: хөөмей, romanized: xöömej, Mongolian: хөөмий, romanized: khöömii, Russian: хоомей, Turkish: höömey), includes a type of overtone singing practiced by people in Tuva, Mongolia, and Siberia. In 2009, it was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.

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https://www.mongolia-trips.com/travel-tips/nomadic-life-traditions/mongolian-traditional-games-toys

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deel_(clothing)

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A deel ( Mongolian: дээл ; Buryat: дэгэл ) is an item of traditional clothing commonly worn since centuries ago among the Mongols, Turkic, and Tungusic peoples and can be made from cotton, silk, wool, or brocade.

The deel is still commonly worn by both men and women outside major towns, especially by herders. In urban areas, deels are mostly only worn by elderly people, or on festive occasions. The deel appears similar to a caftan or an old European folded tunic. Deels typically reach to below the wearer's knees and fan out at the bottom and are commonly blue, olive, or burgundy, though there are deels in a variety of other colors.

The deel looks like a large overcoat when not worn. Instead of buttoning together in the middle, the sides are pulled against the wearer's body, the right flap close to the body with the left covering. On the right side of the wearer are typically 5 or 6 clasps to hold the top flap in place. There is one clasp below the armpit, three at the shoulder, and either one or two at the neckline.

A deel is traditionally worn with a large sash, usually made of silk or leather belts with large, ornate buckles have become more common in the modern era. The area between the flaps and above the belt creates a large pocket in which Mongolians keep many things, Mongolian men will occasionally even carry a silver bowl or cup, or even a snuff box in their deel. Though there is no major difference in material or outline between male and female deels, females tend to wear the "pocket" closer (that is, women often prefer a more snug-fitting deel), while males' may have both larger pockets, looser fit, and wider sleeves.

In Mongolia, the usage of the word deel has been extended to cover other long winter coats as well. For example, fur and leather overcoats of western design are referred to as " nekhii deel" and " sawkhin deel", respectively, meaning "fur deel", "leather deel" and "cashmere deel", which is made of the luxurious material cashmere. Nevertheless, other Mongol regions, such as Bortala in Xinjiang retain the specific meaning of the word "deel" as the traditional garment, and refer to other overcoats as " olondoi".[citation needed ]

Deel design varies among cultures, ethnic groups and time periods to a certain degree. There are even distinct variations among different Mongol tribes mostly on the design of the upper chest opening edges. For instance the Khalkha Mongol deel opening edges are round while a Buryat deel's is square. It can also vary among other tribes such as Chakhar, Torguud, and Uzemchin. Deels are designed for different occasions and environments. The design also varies due to function. There are deels for ceremonies like weddings and holidays and deels for daily wear. Deels for special occasions have their outer layer made of silk while the common deels are usually made of wool, cotton and other relatively inexpensive materials.

Media related to Deels at Wikimedia Commons

"Mongolia Today" article

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A deel ( Mongolian: дээл ; Buryat: дэгэл ) is an item of traditional clothing commonly worn since centuries ago among the Mongols, Turkic, and Tungusic peoples and can be made from cotton, silk, wool, or brocade. The deel is still commonly worn by both men and women outside major towns, especially by herders.

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https://panoramicjourneys.com/experience/the-festivals-of-mongolia

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Mongolian festivals take place throughout the year and are mostly celebrations of Mongolian Culture. Here are some of our favourite Mongolian festivals and celebrations that we can weave into your next holiday to Mongolia.

Mongolian festivals can be intimate village affairs or huge national spectacles. We love the local experiences and social interactions of the smaller events so can design your journey so that you can share the celebrations with a family or community; there's nothing better than cheering on the eagle hunter on wrestler that you have just spent the last few days with.
Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian Lunar New Year)
Mongolian New Year (Tsagaan Sar) is normally celebrated somewhere between the end of January and end of February. The traditional Tsagaan Sar feast includes dairy products, mutton and horse meat, rice with curds, buuz (dumplings) and a 'mountain' of cookies stacked high and, of course, airag (fermented mare's milk). Families visit each other to pay their respects and eat mountains of dumplings. Join a family to experience their legendary hospitality and be a part of their community at this time of great festivity. Immerse yourself in the Mongolian culture and experience first hand the ceremonies and customs of this special festival. Read more
Khovsgol Ice Festival
March is witness to the unique Ice Festival at Lake Khovsgol. This time of year offers the rare opportunity of experiencing one of the deepest winters on the planet with temperatures regularly dropping below -35°C. The wind can make even moderate temperatures seem much colder, so this festival is not for the faint hearted! The enchanting ice festival with horse-sled races, ice rally-driving, wrestling, and tug-o'-war are all held on the frozen lake which offers the perfect light in the afternoon for those interested in photography. Read more
Gobi Camel Festival
The Thousand Camel Festival, held in the Gobi Desert, is a celebration of the endangered Bactrian camel and the role it plays in the lives of the Gobi's nomads. Camel racing and polo competitions, as well as performances of traditional Mongolian music and dance, are among the highlights of this annual event. Taking in the beautiful scenery of the Gobi Desert with its towering dunes, glacial canyons and red sandstone cliffs; this is the land of the Bactrian camel and is the best time to see them in all their fluffy winter splendour when their coats at their thickest. Read more
Nauryz (Spring/New Life) Festival
Nauryz is a new year celebration for the Mongolian Kazakhs, many of whom live in the Bayan Ulgii province. Kazakhs call the month of March 'Nauryz' - this is the time of renewed life which comes with the spring. The non-religious Nauryz celebrations take place on 21-22 March, the day of the spring equinox. People believe the more generous the celebration of Nauryz, the happier the year would be. A time to settle rivalries, upset and debts then fill all vessels in the house with milk, airan (plain yogurt), grain, and spring water to gain good yield, fortune and plenty of rain during the coming year.
Naadam Festival
Naadam is celebrated every summer throughout Mongolia across every province, in most towns and villages. Local Naadam celebrations are our favourite of the Naadam festivals - none of the queues, crowds and pollution of the big festival in Ulaanbaatar. The atmosphere is fantastic. In traditional dress, the colourful spectators watch competitors take part in the three 'manly' sports of archery, wrestling and horse racing. Tradition states that only men will wrestle, men and women can participate in archery and children (some as young as five) are jockeys for the races up to distances of 35km. Read more
Eagle Festivals
There are two Golden Eagle Festivals held each year, in September and October respectively when the weather is beginning to get cold and the eagles are livening up ready for a winter of hunting. The ancient art of falconry as practised by the Kazakhs in the west has remained unchanged for millennia. Admire the speed and power of the noble eagle and marvel at the close relationship that exists between her and her master. Set against the majestic Altai mountain views, this is an experience that truly epitomises Mongolia. Read more about visiting an Eagle festival.
Do you want to join the fun and spectacle of a Mongolian Festival? Check out some of our itineraries for inspiration and talk to us about creating one just for you.

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Mongolian festivals take place throughout the year and are mostly celebrations of Mongolian Culture. Here are some of our favourite Mongolian festivals and celebrations that we can weave into your next holiday to Mongolia. Mongolian festivals can be intimate village affairs or huge national spectacles.

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Some people still sell these as exotic clothing

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Some people still sell these as exotic clothing

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This website sells Mongolian hats and is shows multiple kidns of hats

https://mongolianstore.com/product-category/mongolian-hat/#

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Mongolian hat is a primary representation of one's social status and is the most respected of the traditional clothing items. The toortsog, loovuuz, and four-lugged shovgor hats are a few of the more than 200 different kinds of hats. Those are used by the Mongolians in accordance with various customs. Hats are classified by the season as well as the wearer's age and gender.

Mongolian Hats Design

Mongolian hats are also classified by the shape and design of their top, such as the "skullcap," "helmet," and "flag." Generally, the Mongolian hat has a pointed or domed top with red tassels, and a downward line of stitches resembling rays of the sun. It can vary in number and other features by ethnic group. The hat symbolizes eternal prosperity of Mongolia in the world. Various furs and skins are sometimes attached to different parts of Mongolian hats depending on their purpose and style.

The Buryats use the "sublimation" tapered cap. The front of the lettuce is designed to fit the longitudinal and the tails of the glass to fit the glass. In the cooling season, the jacket is worn in the cap and put it in warmth.

The elbows of Marge were eleven rows of vertical walls, the number of eleven poisons, and eight wolves (eight tribes), and they were like the Mountains, the Sunflowers, the flames, and the wick. The Mongolian hat is rounded from the top to the four corners of the eight eyelids. In addition, there are hat types, such as octopus, hat, cap hat with headphones, short hair hat.

Zahchin Hat

The men and women wear different Mongolian hats such as eyebrows, masks, tops, whistles, and dyes. The most common of these are "Halban" hat. The helmet was red, colored with 32 wigs, with a crown of blue, with a small mosque, with both sides rubbed with cheek, whip, beaver and black velvet.

The women wear worn hats or mugs in winter or summer. That means the tip is flat and round. It has a round blue tip, 64 beams wrapped, rounded in red on top, with silver on it, with a coral or red cloth.

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Mongolian Hat (Loovuuz, Skullcap, Buriad) | Mongulai.com

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Mongolian hat is a primary representation of one's social status and is the most respected of the traditional clothing items. The toortsog, loovuuz, and four-lugged shovgor hats are a few of the more than 200 different kinds of hats.

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-12/mongolia-child-jockeys-risk-injury-deaths-race-naadam-festival/11537892

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The smell of wool grease and smouldering logs hangs in the air as seven-year-old Namuun carries a saddle - weighing as much as she does - to a line of horses tied to a post.

On the edge of the Gobi desert, traditional Mongolian tents, known as "ger", mark the silent landscape. They provide shelter for entire families who eat, sleep and live in one small space together.

But you're unlikely to find Namuun there - she prefers to spend her time on horseback.

She is proud to be one of the only female child jockeys in Mongolia.

With the help of her father, she is swung up onto the saddle and slips her pink cowgirl boots into the stirrups.

She begins to circle the campsite and as the wind whips up sand from the nearby dunes. Namuun squints her eyes and breaks into song - a "gingoo" tune that she says is a tribute to their horses to make them feel calm.

She gathers the reins in close to the saddle and leans forward. With just one kick, her horse launches forward, rocketing into the distance behind a motorbike.

They break into a gallop and race 25 kilometres across the desert back home.

This is Namuun's daily training for the Naadam festival - Mongolia's most famous nomad-style games, where competitors try their hand at horse racing, wrestling and archery.

The festival has been around in some form since the Genghis Khan era and continues to be treasured by nomadic families like Namuun's.

Retired horse trainer Tsegmid Sainbayar explains that parents have thrown their children into the saddle for races since Naadam's beginnings, because "children are the lightest, not as heavy for the horses".

When asked what she thinks of the sport, Namuun smiles and says she loves horses.

"My father trains the horses and I am the jockey to race them," Namuun says as she points to her blue ribbons tied to the inside of the ger.

"I feel so good when I am on the horse's back, my family are so glad when I race, when I become a winner my brother is so proud of me."

But other young jockeys don't feel the same way. They see it as a job that they must do.

Casualties won't change tradition

More than 10,000 children participate in 395 horses races across the country.

Many parents rent out their kids to ride as jockeys over the summer so they can earn a wage to send home to their families.

On race day, some can compete in up to eight races a day, starting at 9am and finishing at 9pm.

But the sport is inherently dangerous.

Last year, about 600 child jockeys were thrown from their horses and 169 were injured and two were killed in 2017, according to Mongolia's National Traumatology and Orthopaedics Research Centre.

The number of casualties, however, isn't enough to cause widespread change in this Mongolian tradition.

Despite rules mandating that children must wear a helmet in races, in rural Naadam festivals, many child jockeys go without, or only wear helmets on race day.

While Namuun's mother, Gaanchimeg, says the sport is "good for their health" and "a national tradition", she concedes she holds some concerns for her daughter.

"Namuun didn't have any accidents so far but when she races I always worry," she says.

Children as young as five entered into races

Child rights groups want better safety standards to be enforced and for the minimum age of jockeys to be raised to 18.

Currently, children only need to be aged seven to compete.

But some as young as five still are entered into races in rural areas.

UNICEF child protection specialist Amaraa Dorjsambuu does not believe tighter regulations alone are the solution.

Rather, she says there needs to be a change in mindset among parents to put a child's right to education ahead of making money as a jockey.

"At present, the national legal system on the protection of the rights of child jockeys is not fully developed," Ms Dorjsambuu says.

"When child jockeys get injured, horse trainers and parents tend not to take it seriously and tend to only agree on medical costs, as there are no legal regulations to determine and punish perpetrators.

"One of the biggest concerns is the unofficial races - now ever more expanding - to hold horse races for private celebrations [that] happen without any supervision from the authorities and any injuries or violations to child rights can go unreported."

Traditional festival now 'just about the prize money'

As the festival slowly turns into a business, it is also facing more scrutiny.

Many fear Naadam is losing its spirit as a celebration of the Mongolian horse. The horse is one of the most treasured animals in Mongolia. Not only did they transport the travelling caravan of Genghis Khan's sprawling empire as they conquered new lands in the 13th century, but they also fed them.

But on two recent Naadam race days, horse trainers were seen openly giving their horses performance enhancing drugs.

Some trainers used doses of the diuretic furosemide, sodium bicarbonate to counteract lactic acid build-up or lactated ringers for hydration.

Others were seen heavily handling horses and driving nails into the bridles either side of the horse's bit.

Former horse trainers, including Tsegmid Sainbayar, believe the traditional festival is being spoiled by corrupt practices.

"I've trained racing horses since 1970s. We used to start early with preparation and give them extra feed to make them strong," says Mr Sainbayar.

"Now the rules aren't strict and everything is becoming easier and just about the prize money."

The future of Naadam

In the capital Ulaanbaatar, coffee shops are springing up on street corners.

Young Mongolian men stroll by not the traditional "del" Mongolian coat with the high collar, clinched waist and buttons to one side - but rather, jeans and a printed T-shirt.

With more young people moving to the city and leaving the nomadic lifestyle, many worry that Naadam won't exist in the future.

But on Naadam festival day in Saikhan Ovoo village, the mood is hopeful.

Families unload their horse trucks around a Buddhist shrine and arch that marks the finish line for the horse races.

Wrestlers in red underwear and a loose blue jacket enter the arena with their hands in the air soaring like eagles.

Horse trainers sprinkle mare's milk on the horse's rump for good luck.

Sitting in the shadow of the horse truck, Namuun speaks matter-of-factly.

"I will probably only be racing until I am 12 or 13 then I will be out of the game," she says.

When asked what she wants to do she wants to do in the future, she replies with a big smile: "I want to finish secondary school and then I would love to be a singer".
Editor's note: a previous version of this story overstated the number of children who died in the races last year.

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Mongolia's child jockeys let down by cheating and corruption

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The smell of wool grease and smouldering logs hangs in the air as seven-year-old Namuun carries a saddle - weighing as much as she does - to a line of horses tied to a post. On the edge of the Gobi desert, traditional Mongolian tents, known as "ger", mark the silent landscape.

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https://mondoro.com/what-does-hand-embroidery-mean-mongolias-skill-of-hand-embroidery/

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Hand embroidery is a handicraft that has been in the world's cultures and traditions for thousands of years. Hand embroidery is used in fashion, textiles, and home decor accessories.
Hand embroidery is the handicraft of using fabric and other materials with a needle and thread to place a design on a textile or fabric. For a textile or fabric to be considered hand embroidered, it should be just that 100% embroidered by hand. In the Kazakh part of Western Mongolia, the women have kept the skill of 100% hand-embroidery alive.
Hand Embroidery Defined

Hand embroidery is the handicraft of using fabric and other materials with a needle and thread or yarn to place a design on textile, fabric, or other materials. Hand embroidery can use various thread or yarn types and colors with other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins.

15 basic types of hand embroidery stitches include: 1) backstitch, 2) running stitch, 3) straight stitch, 4) french knot, 5) stem stitch, 6) chain stitch, 7) satin stitch, 8) feather stitch, 9) detached chain stitch, 10) fly stitch, 11) woven wheel stitch, 12) couching stitch, 13) split stitch 14) bullion knot and 15) blanket stitch. Even though these are the major hand embroidery stitches, any stitch that uses a needle, thread, textile, or another material to make a design is considered hand embroidery.

Mongolian Kazakh Hand Embroidery - Example of a small bag

Embroidery, especially hand embroidery, has been around for a long time. The art of embroidery is found worldwide. Several examples have been found in China dating back to the third century BC. Other garments have been found in Sweden that dates back between 300 to 700 A.D. These may use different types of stitches but show that the handicraft skill of embroidery has been around for a long time.

In fact, it can be said that embroidery is one skill that can still be found throughout the world. Almost every culture has some form of hand embroidery.

Due to economics or just efficiency, a lot of hand embroidery has been replaced with machine embroidery. Today, many of these machine embroideries are so good that it's tough to tell the difference between hand and machine embroidery items.

Hand Embroidery Vs. Embroidery Machines

Embroidery machines have been around since the early 1800s. Nearly 20 years before Isaac Singer patented the first sewing machine in 1846; the Frenchman Josue Heilman invented that first known embroidery machine.

Heilmann's embroidery machine was revolutionary for its time. This machine consisted of a frame to hold the fabric and a needle and thread; instead of taking the needle to the fabric, the fabric would move to meet the needle. This allowed the embroidery to go in any direction on the fabric.

In the early 1800s, this invention was viewed as such a threat to the hand embroiderers that Heilmann only sold two machines. The technology that Heilmann developed is the foundation for today's modern-day embroidery machines.

For us to consider an item 100% hand embroidered, it should be just that - 100% embroidered by hand. For example, if an embroidery machine and some hand embroidery were both used to embroidered a product, we do not consider this item a 100% hand-embroidered product as part of the embroidery was done by a machine and part by hand,

Mongolian Kazakh Women Doing Hand Embroidery

Mongolian Kazakh 100% Hand Embroidery

One area of the world that has consistently kept up their 100% hand embroidery skills is in the Kazahstan part or western part of Mongolian. . The people in this area of western Mongolia are known as the Kazakh people. They are the largest ethnic group in Mongolia, with over 100,000 people considering themselves Kazakh people; this is about 4% of the total Mongolian population.

The Mongolian Kazakh's are culturally and ethnically very different from the Mongolians. The Kazakhs speak a different language and practice a different religion. Many of Mongolia's Kazakh people are practicing Muslims; a majority of Mongolians are Tibetan Buddhists. Kazakhstan and Mongolia do not even share a common border; about 47 to 60 km (29- 41 miles) of a mountainous stretch separate Kazahstan and Mongolia, with a small part of Russian and Chinese borders separating them.
Despite this separation, the Mongolian Kazakh people share a lot of the same culture and traditions as Kazahstan. One of those cultural traditions is the art and skill of 100% hand embroidery.
In fact, it can be said that many of these Mongolian Kazakh people kept the embroidery tradition more alive than their Kazahstan neighbors. One of the reasons was that Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union and Mongolia was a socialist country.

Mongolia allowed the Kazakh people to continue to live their lives in western Mongolia as they had for centuries; this included allowing the Kazakh Mongolians to keep their cultures and handicrafts alive as their hand embroidery handicrafts. If you would like to learn more about Mongolia you can read the blog How Long Has Mongolia Been A Country? by clicking here.

Some of the Kazakh people have left their homes in western Mongolia and have moved to Mongolia's capital city of Ulaanbaatar; these Kazakh people have brought their handicraft skill of hand with them embroidery. Many women have set up hand embroidery workshops in their homes or gers (yurts) to make products and other things to sell locally and export.

A Mongolian Woman Makes Handicraft Items In Her Ger (Yurt)

These Mongolian Kazakh women's hand embroidery skills are so refined that when I saw their handiwork, I was sure it was machine embroidered and not 100% handmade; their hand stitching was so uniform and perfect. It was only upon a much closer examination that I saw that the stitching was actually 100% hand embroidered.

These Kazakh women are extremely fine hand embroiderers. They perform the hand embroidery chain stitch with exact precision.

At Mondoro, we love to help these high-skilled women keep their handicrafts alive; this hand embroidery business allows them to stay home and use their handicraft skills to earn an income to support their families. We really love and appreciate this kind of handicraft work to help these women earn an income while caring for their families.

If you are interested in developing some 100% hand-embroidered products with the Mongolian Kazakh women, please feel free to contact Anita at Mondoro. You can contact Anita by clicking here or contacting her at sales@mondoro.com. We would love to hear from you and help you develop some export quality 100% hand-embroidered products with these highly skilled and richly deserving Mongolian Kazakh women embroiderers.

Related Questions

What About Mongolian Cashmere Fibers, Yarns, and Products?

Mongolia has the largest global share in trading animal hair products and the second-largest world producer of cashmere. The reason is that Mongolian goats grow a lot of long soft fine hair, in part due to the harshness of the winter weather in Mongolia. The same goats also produce some wonderful organic colors of cashmere that is only found in Mongolia. Because of the length of the cashmere fibers, the finest of the fibers themselves, this ensures that Mongolia is a top spot in the world for the production of fine cashmere.

You can learn more by reading our blog 11 Facts About Mongolian Cashmere Fibers, Yarns, and Products by clicking here.

What Is The Difference Between Earthenware, Stoneware, and Porcelain?

Earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain are all made by various clays and then fired. The kind of clay used and the temperature they are fired at can make a difference as to how soft or hard the actual end product is. Though they can all seem to be similar, they are all very different materials and products.

You can learn more by reading our blog Earthenware, Stoneware, and Porcelain Materials by clicking here.

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What Does Hand Embroidery Mean? Mongolia's Skill Of Hand Embroidery | Mondoro Company Limited

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Hand embroidery is a handicraft that has been in the world's cultures and traditions for thousands of years. Hand embroidery is used in fashion, textiles, and home decor accessories. Hand embroidery is the handicraft of using fabric and other materials with a needle and thread to place a design on a textile or fabric.

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https://mongolianstore.com/hide-leather-crafts/

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Mongolian leather and hide can thus be cut in various ways depending upon the appropriate needs, such as: First, the hair from a slice of hide can be stripped off, after which the hide can be tanned and made into a strap or belt.

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Biography:
https://www.biography.com/political-figure/kublai-khan

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Photo: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Quick Facts

Mongolian general and statesman Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan. After conquering China, he founded the country's Yuan Dynasty and became its first emperor.

Who Was Kublai Khan?

Kublai Khan rose to power in 1260 and became ruler of the vast Mongolian Empire his grandfather, Genghis Khan, had established. He distinguished himself from his predecessors by ruling through an administrative apparatus that respected and embraced the local customs of conquered peoples, rather than by might alone. His subjugation of the Song Dynasty in southern China made him the first Mongol to rule over the entire country and led to a long period of prosperity for the empire. However, internal political strife, discriminatory social policies and numerous ill-fated military campaigns would ultimately undermine the long-term viability of his Yuan Dynasty.

Son of the Empire

Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan, founder and first ruler of the Mongol Empire, which, at the time of Kublai's birth in Mongolia on September 23, 1215, stretched from the Caspian Sea east to the Pacific Ocean. Raised in the nomadic traditions of the Mongolian steppes by his father, Tolui, and mother, Sorghaghtani Beki, Kublai was taught the art of warfare from a young age and, while still a boy, became a skilled fighter, hunter and horseman. In addition, he was exposed to Chinese culture and philosophy, for which he developed an affinity that would stay with him and inform many of his decisions later in life.

Kublai would gain his first real opportunity to apply his education when his brother Möngke became the Great Khan in 1251. He placed Kublai in charge of northern China while he set out to conquer their enemies to the south. In deference to the learning and customs of the population under his control, Kublai surrounded himself with Chinese advisers and established a new northern capital called Shangdu. No mere bureaucrat, Kublai also helped his brother expand the empire with successful military campaigns of his own. However, he would distinguish himself from his forebears with the restraint with which he dealt with conquered peoples.

Emergence

In 1259, while locked in battle with the Song in southern China, Kublai received word that Möngke had been killed in battle. Soon after he learned that his younger brother Ariq Böke had consolidated power at the Mongolian capital of Karakorum and called a meeting of royal families who named him Great Khan. With his own designs on the throne, Kublai forged a truce with the Song and returned home, where he disputed his brother's claim and had himself named Great Khan in 1260.

The brothers' competing claims would spark a civil war between the two factions, with Kublai eventually emerging victorious in 1264. Ariq Böke surrendered in Shangdu (also known as Xanadu) to Kublai, who spared his life. However, Kublai would have all of his supporters executed, securing his place as the new Great Khan of the Mongolian Empire.

The Wise Khan

Once more exhibiting his respect for Chinese culture, and eschewing the custom of his predecessors to rule with an iron fist, Kublai Khan moved the capital of the empire from Karakorum to Dadu, in what is now modern-day Beijing, and ruled through an administrative structure more in keeping with local tradition. Though not without its problems, Kublai Khan's rule was distinguished by its improvements in infrastructure, religious tolerance, use of paper money as the primary means of exchange and trade expansion with the West.

He also introduced a new social structure that divided the population into four classes: The Mongolian aristocracy and a foreign merchant class were both exempt from taxation and enjoyed special privileges, while the northern and southern Chinese bore most of the empire's economic burden and were compelled to do much of the manual labor.

Expansion

For his relatively benevolent reign, Kublai would eventually earn himself the nickname Wise Khan. However, his ambitions extended well beyond the borders of his existing empire, and in 1267, he renewed his efforts to subdue the Song Dynasty in southern China. The campaign would prove to be a lengthy one, in part due to the strategic difficulties it posed. The terrain was difficult for the cavalry-on which the might of the Mongolian forces heavily relied-to navigate. In addition, fortifications necessitated new siege tactics, such as the building of catapults and territory best approached by sea required a significant expansion of the navy. Despite these challenges, by 1279,Kublai Khan had definitively conquered the Song and he became the first Mongol to rule the whole of China.

In celebration of his newly expanded empire, Kublai Khan declared a new Yuan Dynasty, of which he was the first and most successful ruler. Although the dynasty would ultimately prove to be short-lived, lasting only until 1368, it served as a precedent for the later Qing Dynasty.

Unraveling and Death

Though Kublai Khan's Chinese-centric policies had their political advantages in some parts of the empire, it also earned him enemies in others, particularly among the Mongolian aristocracy, who felt that he had betrayed his heritage. At the core of this resentful contingent was his cousin Kaidu, who believed that power had unjustly passed to Möngke when his grandfather and former Great Khan, Ögödei, had died. Though Kaidu was never successful at unseating Kublai Khan, he remained a threat to his authority during his rule.

Closer to home for Kublai Khan, the discriminatory nature of his imposed social structure also led to deep resentment among the lower Chinese classes, who were constantly overtaxed to pay for a series of unsuccessful military campaigns, including failed attempts to conquer Japan, Burma and Java.

Though he never abandoned his ambitions to further extend his empire, these defeats, coupled with personal losses that included the death of his favorite wife and oldest son and heir, weighed heavily on Kublai Khan. He began to drink and eat in excess, becoming overweight and developing gout. He died on February 18, 1294, at the age of 79.

Fact Check

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Quick Facts Mongolian general and statesman Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan. After conquering China, he founded the country's Yuan Dynasty and became its first emperor. Kublai Khan rose to power in 1260 and became ruler of the vast Mongolian Empire his grandfather, Genghis Khan, had established.

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Biography: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Genghis-Khan

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What was Genghis Khan's early life like?

How did Genghis Khan come to power?

What was Genghis Khan best known for?

When did Genghis Khan die?

Genghis Khan, Genghis also spelled Chinggis, Chingis, Jenghiz, or Jinghis, original name Temüjin, also spelled Temuchin, (born 1162, near Lake Baikal, Mongolia-died August 18, 1227), Mongolian warrior-ruler, one of the most famous conquerors of history, who consolidated tribes into a unified Mongolia and then extended his empire across Asia to the Adriatic Sea.

Genghis Khan was a warrior and ruler of genius who, starting from obscure and insignificant beginnings, brought all the nomadic tribes of Mongolia under the rule of himself and his family in a rigidly disciplined military state. He then turned his attention toward the settled peoples beyond the borders of his nomadic realm and began the series of campaigns of plunder and conquest that eventually carried the Mongol armies as far as the Adriatic Sea in one direction and the Pacific coast of China in the other, leading to the establishment of the great Mongol Empire.

Historical background

With the exception of the saga-like Secret History of the Mongols (1240?), only non-Mongol sources provide near-contemporary information about the life of Genghis Khan. Almost all writers, even those who were in the Mongol service, have dwelt on the enormous destruction wrought by the Mongol invasions. One Arab historian openly expressed his horror at the recollection of them. Beyond the reach of the Mongols and relying on second-hand information, the 13th-century chronicler Matthew Paris called them a "detestable nation of Satan that poured out like devils from Tartarus so that they are rightly called Tartars." He was making a play on words with the classical word Tartarus (Hell) and the ancient tribal name of Tatar borne by some of the nomads, but his account catches the terror that the Mongols evoked. As the founder of the Mongol nation, the organizer of the Mongol armies, and the genius behind their campaigns, Genghis Khan must share the reputation of his people, even though his generals were frequently operating on their own, far from direct supervision. Nevertheless, it would be mistaken to see the Mongol campaigns as haphazard incursions by bands of marauding savages. Nor is it true, as some have supposed, that these campaigns were somehow brought about by a progressive desiccation of Inner Asia that compelled the nomads to look for new pastures. Nor, again, were the Mongol invasions a unique event. Genghis Khan was neither the first nor the last nomadic conqueror to burst out of the Steppe and terrorize the settled periphery of Eurasia. His campaigns were merely larger in scale, more successful, and more lasting in effect than those of other leaders. They impinged more violently upon those sedentary peoples who had the habit of recording events in writing, and they affected a greater part of the Eurasian continent and a variety of different societies.

Two societies were in constant contact, two societies that were mutually hostile, if only because of their diametrically opposed ways of life, and yet these societies were interdependent. The nomads needed some of the staple products of the south and coveted its luxuries. These could be had by trade, by taxing transient caravans, or by armed raids. The settled peoples of China needed the products of the steppe to a lesser extent, but they could not ignore the presence of the nomadic barbarians and were forever preoccupied with resisting encroachment by one means or another. A strong dynasty, such as the 17th-century Manchu, could extend its military power directly over all Inner Asia. At other times the Chinese would have to play off one set of barbarians against another, transferring their support and juggling their alliances so as to prevent any one tribe from becoming too strong.

The cycle of dynastic strength and weakness in China was accompanied by another cycle, that of unity and fragmentation amongst the peoples of the steppe. At the peak of their power, a nomadic tribe under a determined leader could subjugate the other tribes to its will and, if the situation in China was one of weakness, might extend its power well beyond the steppe. In the end this extension of nomadic power over the incompatible, sedentary culture of the south brought its own nemesis. The nomads lost their traditional basis of superiority-that lightning mobility that required little in the way of supply and fodder-and were swallowed up by the Chinese they had conquered. The cycle would then be resumed; a powerful China would reemerge, and disarray and petty squabbling among ephemeral chieftains would be the new pattern of life among the nomads. The history of the Mongol conquests illustrates this analysis perfectly, and it is against this background of political contrasts and tensions that the life of Genghis Khan must be evaluated. His campaigns were not an inexplicable natural or even God-given catastrophe but the outcome of a set of circumstances manipulated by a soldier of ambition, determination, and genius. He found his tribal world ready for unification, at a time when China and other settled states were, for one reason or another, simultaneously in decline, and he exploited the situation.

Early struggles

Various dates are given for the birth of Temüjin (or Temuchin), as Genghis Khan was named-after a leader who was defeated by his father, Yesügei, when Temüjin was born. The chronology of Temüjin's early life is uncertain. He may have been born in 1155, in 1162 (the date favoured today in Mongolia), or in 1167. According to legend, his birth was auspicious, because he came into the world holding a clot of blood in his hand. He is also said to have been of divine origin, his first ancestor having been a gray wolf, "born with a destiny from heaven on high." Yet his early years were anything but promising. When he was nine, Yesügei, a member of the royal Borjigin clan of the Mongols, was poisoned by a band of Tatars, another nomadic people, in continuance of an old feud.

With Yesügei dead, the remainder of the clan, led by the rival Taychiut family, abandoned his widow, Höelün, and her children, considering them too weak to exercise leadership and seizing the opportunity to usurp power. For a time the small family led a life of extreme poverty, eating roots and fish instead of the normal nomad diet of mutton and mare's milk. Two anecdotes illustrate both Temüjin's straitened circumstances and, more significantly, the power he already had of attracting supporters through sheer force of personality. Once he was captured by the Taychiut, who, rather than killing him, kept him around their camps, wearing a wooden collar. One night, when they were feasting, Temüjin, noticing that he was being ineptly guarded, knocked down the sentry with a blow from his wooden collar and fled. The Taychiut searched all night for him, and he was seen by one of their people, who, impressed by the fire in his eyes, did not denounce him but helped him escape at the risk of his own life. On another occasion horse thieves came and stole eight of the nine horses that the small family owned. Temüjin pursued them. On the way he stopped to ask a young stranger, called Bo'orchu, if he had seen the horses. Bo'orchu immediately left the milking he was engaged in, gave Temüjin a fresh horse, and set out with him to help recover the lost beasts. He refused any reward but, recognizing Temüjin's authority, attached himself irrevocably to him as a nökör, or free companion, abandoning his own family.

Temüjin and his family apparently preserved a considerable fund of prestige as members of the royal Borjigin clan, in spite of their rejection by it. Among other things, he was able to claim the wife to whom Yesügei had betrothed him just before his death. But the Merkit people, a tribe living in northern Mongolia, bore Temüjin a grudge, because Yesügei had stolen his own wife, Höelün, from one of their men, and in their turn they ravished Temüjin's wife Börte. Temüjin felt able to appeal to Toghril, khan of the Kereit tribe, with whom Yesügei had had the relationship of anda, or sworn brother, and at that time the most powerful Mongol prince, for help in recovering Börte. He had had the foresight to rekindle this friendship by presenting Toghril with a sable skin, which he himself had received as a bridal gift. He seems to have had nothing else to offer; yet, in exchange, Toghril promised to reunite Temüjin's scattered people, and he is said to have redeemed his promise by furnishing 20,000 men and persuading Jamuka, a boyhood friend of Temüjin's, to supply an army as well. The contrast between Temüjin's destitution and the huge army furnished by his allies is hard to explain, and no authority other than the narrative of the Secret History is available.

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Genghis Khan | Biography, Conquests, Achievements, & Facts

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Genghis Khan, Mongolian warrior-ruler, one of the most famous conquerors of history. He was a warrior and ruler of genius who, starting from obscure and insignificant beginnings, brought all the nomadic tribes of Mongolia under the rule of himself and his family in a rigidly disciplined military state.

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There are many more instruments for more details:
http://www.face-music.ch/instrum/mongolia_instrum.html

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When a host asks questions about you always give an answer

When pointing at a person use your entire palm, don't just use a finger

Never touch another person's hat

While eating never were a coat or anything that's related to keeping you warm, it means that the host ins't providing enough warmth in their home

Never walk infront of a elderly person

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always receive food with your right hand, only use your left hand to support your right wrist if the food is heavy

At least have a nibble or sip of the food even if it's not to your liking

Always hold the bottom of the cup not the top rim

Never walk outside during the meal, always wait for others to finish

cut food towars yourself

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Always enter with the right foot without touching the threshold

once inside satnd on the left side of the yurt, the host may then invite you to sit somewhere

Never pass between the two central pillars

Once inside don't take of your hat off

Do not enter with anything that can be considerd a offensive wepon

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Manner and etiquette is somethings that as lifestyle changes they change, a lot more Mongolians don't live the nomadic lifestyle, so the manner and etiquette that come with nomadic lifestyle disappears

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Knot work is also a kind of art that uses strings. The name is pretty self-explanitory. It's art that is created using knots. It is a art that looks simple yet is very complex to cretae.

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Leather crafting is common in Mongolia due to the nature of the people's lifestyle. Since every part of a animal is useful for the people. Skin can be crafted into clothing. Somethings cut into string that can be used to make other things.

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Embroider is the art of  using weaving to create patterns and art. Basicsally drawing with a strings and neddles.

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This festival is a festival take takes place in october. The people celebrate their heritage and this festival feature speacially trained golden eagles that will catch samll sniamls liek foxes.

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Otherwise known as Thousand Camel Festival. As the name suggest the festival features camles.
There's always a camle parade and race that starts the festival.

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This features "eriin gurvan naadam" or the "the three games of men". The three games are hrose riding, archery and Mongolian national wrestling.

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Usually played by two people. This game is played with goat ankle bones, they lay out the bones in the shape of race track. Each player chooses one piece of bone to be their "Horse "And the two takes turn to flick their "horse" around the race track

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Shagai refering to goat ankle bone. Is a common piece of material used for traditional Mongolian games.

https://mongolianstore.com/shagai-mongolian-anklebone-games/

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Shagai (Anklebone) games are an important part of Mongolian traditional games. There are myriad kinds of anklebone games which attract both children and adults. Researchers identified 80 variations of Mongolian ankle bone games, such as "Catch Ankle Bones", "Flick Anklebones", "Horse Race", "Wrestling", "Set Four Difficult", "Calculation", "Guessing", "Comply Four Colours", "Construct A Star", "Cat Taking", "Vow", "Nine Wisdoms", "Birth of Camel" and "Multicoloured Turtle". After finishing everyday duties and during the occasions that happen once a year, such as carding a goat, shearing of sheep, and felt making during which they gather all relatives and neighbors, Mongolians play games like "Throw White Wood", "Multicoloured Turtle", and "Catch Ankle Bones". Children mainly play flicking shagai and running horse race. Anklebone(shagai) games are important merrymakers, and at the same time, they help to develop intelligence, increase creative thinking and exercise hand, finger movements, challenge eyesight and concentration as well as foster collective identity.

The Catching Of Anklebones(Shagai)

Depending upon the number of shagai, the number of players can be established. The players place a rug or quilted felt rug and scatter ankle bones over the rug and sit around the rug. The senior or honorary person starts playing. The players' play ankle bones alternate according to clockwise. There is a piece of mail imitating the armor of ancient warriors. This piece is called the "arrow" or piece of mail. The player tosses up the piece of mail toward the air. Before the fall of a piece of mail, the player collects anklebones(shagai) as much as possible and clenches them in the palm and receives the tossed piece of mail at its palm without letting the piece of mail fall on the ground. Each player passes its turn to the next player if touches other scattered anklebones(shagai), except its clenched anklebones(shagai), anklebones slip out of the player's hand or the player does not receive the tossed piece of mail on its palm. If the player does not make a mistake, the player can continue to play. In such a way the player continues and collects all the scattered anklebones from the rug, after which the playing is over. Players can play again with the stock gathered from the ankle-bones from each player. The player, who has no ankle-bones, must leave the play. The player, who collects all the ankle-bones, can be the winner. The last player can start the second round. There are several strict rules of a game. When the player seizes those anklebones, fifteen or twenty ankle-bones may remain. In that case, there is an attempt to attack them. This is called "attack" or dairakh. When they attack ankle-bones, they need to seize all of them. If they take all of the ankle-bones, it is called "taken a package" or "bagts avakh". If there are ankle bones under ten, the player needs to take them without letting to fall single ankle-bone. It is called "tail" or "süül" when a player succeeds in taking all the ankle-bones, but one ankle-bone slips out of the hand. If the player thinks that he/she is unable to take all of the anklebones, he/she can take only one ankle-bone and passes his/her turn to play. It is called "cracking" or "tsömökh". If there are four pieces of ankle-bones, the player may pick each without remnant. It is called "picking" or "tovshij avakh".

Anklebone Flicking

Any number of people can be involved in the anklebone flicking game. Anklebones are spread out on a rug and the players hit the same positioned ankle bones by flicking and pick them by his/her choice. The four sides of anklebone are called the sheep, goat, horse, and camel. They have to be flicked by same figures like a horse by horse, sheep by sheep etc. After hitting the anklebones, the player picks up one of them. The choice depends on which one can be useful for the next shoot. During the match, if the player touches and moves other anklebones or misses the target, he/she shifts the turn to the next player. If the player doesn`t make any mistake, he/she keeps continuing and can pick all the anklebones. If the players want to continue, each player gives certain amounts of anklebones as they discuss and re-make joint stock of anklebones. The player who finishes all the anklebones first loses the game. The player who gets all the anklebone becomes a winner. The rules of this game can be discussed beforehand, such as whether to allow picking up anklebone with flicked hand or not, what to do in case of 'Onkh' (neither of the four figures is set), whether to allow flicking several anklebones at the same time which share same position, whether to allow carrying anklebone by attaching it on one's finger, as well as whether to allow grabbing anklebones when they share the same position after throwing more than 3 anklebones.

DÖRVÖN Berkh (The Four Difficulties And Divination)

Multicolored Turtle

On the Eve of the Lunar New Year (Tsagaan Sar), Mongolian children play constructing Multicoloured Turtle under the guidance of adults. The multicolored turtle consists of 92 anklebones. 36 anklebones are laid as a back of the turtle with 6 layers in each direction. In the 4 ends or shanks, there are located 16 anklebones, and 4 clubfeet are represented by 5 and total 20 anklebones. The organs of the turtle are represented by the following number of anklebones: the neck is 6, a mouth is 3, eyes are two, ears are two, a tail is 3, a kidney is 2, a heart is 2, and the bladder is 2 anklebones respectively. Kidney, heart, and bladder are represented by vivid colored anklebones. They are laid on the back of the turtle.

If the game is played on the first day of Lunar New Year, there should be a special part next to the head that 4 red anklebones are laid as a round, and tale is represented by 3 black anklebones. Also, on the left side, 5 blue anklebones are laid as an end of bow and arrow, and called as 'the Tree'. In the right side of the Tree, 3 white anklebones are placed imitating the point of the arrow and called "the Iron". Then 4 anklebones are placed on the four paws of the turtle, representing Dust, Air, Mountain and Wind. Therefore, the Multicoloured Turtle game is played with 108 anklebones during the Lunar New Year. The person who has the same year with the coming New Year has a priority to start the game. If there is
no same year person, compatible year person with coming to New Year can start and the next players succeed according to clockwise. Players cast dice and if there is 1-spot, it is available to take one of the Dust, Air, Mountain, and Wind. If 3 is indicated, it allows the players to get the Fire or 4 legs. Then 5 allows taking the Tree. If the anklebones with a same number of the dice are taken already, a player starts taking from the main body of the Turtle. For instance, bladder or heart is taken by 1, ears, eyes and kidneys are taken by 2, the head is taken by 3, shanks are taken by 4, paws are taken by 5, neck or back parts are taken by 6 respectively. When all available numbers of anklebones are finished, the player gives back the same number of anklebones according to the number that dice indicates. The game continues in this way, and the person who collected the most number of the anklebones wins. The winner is considered to be the luckiest one in the coming year.

Several people can play this game. When playing this game, some anklebones should be placed in a row, making a line and each player assigns one anklebone as their racing horse and places them at the start point of the line. Players toss up 4 anklebones and make their horses move forward according to the number of horses indicated. If there is no horse, there is no move. Then the player who reaches first to the finish point of the line wins. If the players want to continue the game, they can restart the race from the other side.

Anklebone Shagai Shooting

Shooting with a Counter

This shooting game consists of khashlaga (left edge-walled flattish shooting board made of Chinese pine) and sum (trapezium shaped counter made of antler). And targets made of the sawed prongs of antler.The targets are arranged in a row and double-laid in front of the crease-line. The middle of the double-laid three targets is called "dombo". There are single-laid three pieces from the middle targets on the right and left sides. They are called "gichir". There are seven targets to be taken off if the shooter hits the target. They are called "Gazriin khasaa".

There is a measuring stick. It is used to measure the distance of shooting. Adults can shoot at a distance of nine feet (4m and 72cm) and a child can shoot at a distance of seven feet (3 m and 67cm). There is a shooter from each playing team. The player can shoot four times in a turn. The other players sit in a row along both sides of the crease-line and "cheer". They restore the targets and collect counters. The player places the shooting board with the counter on his or her left knee firmly and shoots with the middle finger of the right hand. The winners will chip off all of the targets. If they draw, they wager money, which is called "Düüjin kharvakh". This play is expanding from year to year. There is a nationwide match every year that has become a part of the national traditional festival of Mongolia.
Plastic Anklebone Shagai
If you want to buy Anklebone Shagai

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Shagai (Anklebone) games are an important part of Mongolian traditional games. There are myriad kinds of anklebone games which attract both children and adults. Researchers identified 80 variations of Mongolian ankle bone games, such as "Catch Ankle Bones", "Flick Anklebones", "Horse Race", "Wrestling", "Set Four Difficult", "Calculation", "Guessing", "Comply Four Colours", "Construct A Star", "Cat Taking", "Vow", "Nine Wisdoms", "Birth of Camel" and "Multicoloured Turtle".

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It's basically those modern day playsets where children play house but with stones and the available resources. There would be a 2D layout of representing a yurt and it's interior. There's stones outside to represent the herd.

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Usually made of cattle leather. These Gutals usually very unique patterns. These shoes have a upturned tip. These boots are worn in Mongolian wresting and also fitted for riding. These shoes are the go to for traditional Mongolians.

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There are many Mongolian hats, toortsog, loovuuz, and four-lugged shovgor hats are a few of the more than 200 different kinds of hats. Hats represent the social status of a person and are one of the most respected pieces of clothing in Mongolia

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Deels are commonly worn by both men and woman. Nowadays not many people were this only elderly or for festive occasions will Deels appear.

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Since Mongolia is all plains and flat land taveling to find resources. And as  many other civilizations horses are a standard mode of transport.

Of course due to the dvelopment of car and people moving into cities horses would become useless as a mode of transport.

Fun fact: Mongolian horse have very short legs and are very sturdy and muscular

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Herding is also a mian part of nomadic lifestyle. Due to  the  scarce food source it is easier to just create thier own food source.
These Mongolian nomads use these animals as food and also use their skin and such as resource of their crfats.

Due to urbanization, and golbal trade, the need for herding is dealt with, so the herding culture is alos disappearing.

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Mongolians are originally nomadic because they lived on plains where winds were harsh and it was hard to get water  that would allow them to farm.
They move from place to place  to find water and food that can feed both them and their herds.

Article about disapearing nomads:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/05/mongolian-herders-moving-to-city-climate-change

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In Altansukh Purev's yurt, the trappings of a herder's life lie in plain sight. In the corner are his saddle and bridle. By the door, he has left a milk pail. If you didn't know better, you might think his horses and cattle were still grazing outside on the remote plains of outer Mongolia.

But they aren't. Altansukh's milk pail stands empty. There is no horse for him to saddle. His cattle are dead. And this tent, which once stood in the countryside, is now on the fringes of the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, surrounded by pylons, rubble and the husks of old cars. Altansukh, his wife and their four children may live among rural paraphernalia, but following a disastrously cold winter a few years ago, they were forced to move to the city to survive.

"We lost all our animals," the 38-year-old says. "Thirty-nine out of 40 cows, almost 300 sheep. The cows wandered far away in the snow and never came back. And when we got up one morning, all the sheep had frozen to death. We had lost everything - so we decided to leave immediately for Ulaanbaatar."

Look down on Ulaanbaatar from the hills at its edge, and you will see a central hotchpotch of new skyscrapers and crumbling Soviet tower blocks surrounded by an unplanned periphery of white yurts, or, as they are known in Mongolia, gers. Thousands and thousands of gers.

These are the homes of around 600,000 former herders who - like Altansukh - have migrated to the Mongolian capital in the past three decades. The scale of the migration is extraordinary: around 20% of the country's people have moved to Ulaanbaatar, doubling the city's population and significantly increasing its physical footprint.

"I arrived in Mongolia in 1998, and at that time there were still some areas of Ulaanbaatar that were totally empty," says Mitsuaki Toyoda, the head of mission for Save the Children, which runs aid programmes in the city's deprived suburbs. "But over the years it has just expanded and expanded."

One partial explanation lies in the environment. Over the past 70 years, the average temperature in Mongolia has risen by 2.07 degrees, more than double the average global increase of 0.85 degrees over the past century. This has exacerbated a periodic weather phenomenon known in Mongolia as the , which creates summers that are unusually dry, followed by spells during the winter that are unusually cold.

The dry summers make it harder to grow and harvest grass, while the harsher winters require an even bigger supply of fodder. When the cold hits, sheep and cattle have less fodder to feed on, causing widespread loss of life (for animals), and livelihood (for humans). Dzuds in 1999 and 2009 killed around 10 million and 8 million livestock respectively, and were followed by a spike in migration to Ulaanbaatar, government records show.

Aid workers fear further mass-movement in the coming months and years: another dzud is thought to be underway this winter.

Herding is a way of life for over a third of Mongolians, and of symbolic importance to the whole country. Thanks in part to rural-to-urban migration, it is now under threat.

But whether this migration is directly linked to climate change is a subject of debate. As the world warms, world leaders must prepare for the likelihood of refugees fleeing the weather rather than war - but the situation in Mongolia is too complex to be considered a straightforward test case.

"Climate change is responsible for some portions of the loss [of livestock] - but not all of it," says Dr Batjargal Zamba, an adviser at Mongolia's environment ministry. "It's a combination of change to climate, and also a change to Mongolian economic activity and lifestyle."

How much is down to the former, and how much to the latter?

***

The beginnings of an answer can be found about 370 miles (600km) south-east of Ulaanbaatar, on the edge of the Gobi desert, outside the ger of Begzsuren Nyangaa.

Begzsuren is 68, and started herding in 1956. Unlike Altansukh, he is still at it. So are his nine children, who all live within riding distance of his ger. One of them has the largest herd in the region, with 3,800 livestock, and another was once named the country's herder of the year.

Staring from his tent, sipping tea boiled in milk, Begzsuren can see the effects of climate change in the valley outside. The land here has become much more obviously desert-like, he says. The grass grows shorter than it used to, and it is thinning out. There is also much less rain, and dried riverbeds can be found across the surrounding region.

"It's a totally different picture now," Begzsuren says. "When I was 17 or 18, we had a lot of rain, a lot of grass, and we could harvest the grass in the autumn. When I tell my children this, they don't believe me! They say: how could this land produce that?"

The autumnal rains have virtually disappeared, he sighs. "I really miss those autumn days. Now the climate has changed so much - you can say we only have two seasons now."

That's a problem for herders. With little grass, there is less fodder to feed the animals over the winter. So when the cold snaps come, the cattle are at much greater risk of death.

But here in the Mongolian steppe, a changing climate isn't the only challenge. Until the fall of the Soviet Union, Mongolia was a communist country. Herding was tightly managed by central government. Livestock was owned by collectives, officials decided where you lived, and there were restrictions on the number of animals in each herd. Most importantly, officials kept a central supply of fodder that they gave to herders during the harsh winters - meaning that when the dzuds came, the worst could be averted.

"Because of the socialist system, everything was well organised," remembers Begzsuren. "Fodder was given to each family. There was a lot of winter preparation."

But that all changed in 1990, when communism ended, and the state was opened up to the market. Many herders welcomed this: they could now own as many animals as they liked, and live where they wanted. The number of livestock had remained steady under communism - fixed at around 20 million for roughly half a century. Now the headcount shot up - to over 33 million by 1999, and 70 million by this summer, according to government statistics.

But there were also downsides. State support vanished, leaving herders to deal with the dzuds on their own. As private traders, they also needed to move closer to markets in order to turn a profit. Coupled with a rise in the number of livestock, this meant that more animals were grazing on less land. The climate may be getting worse, but political and social change has made Mongolians less able to deal with it, and therefore more likely to migrate to Ulaanbaatar.

Just as importantly, they are now allowed to do so. Under communism, herders could move to find better grasslands, but they could not migrate to the city. After 1990, this restriction was lifted - allowing people to leave herding, whether or not they were affected by the worsening climate. And for some, the dzuds are not the only push factor. Many also head to the capital in search of better schooling for their children.

"We considered both," says Narmandakh Sainjargal, the wife of Altansukh and mother of their four children. "We lost all our animals, and a lot of other migrant families lost animals as well. But we also felt that it might be easier to find education in Ulaanbaatar."

***

The situation in Sukhbaatar, Begzsuren's home province, shows how migration can still be curbed when herders receive the kind of support that they lost back in the early 90s.

On the face of it, Sukhbaatar should be one of the main areas of origin for migrants arriving in Ulaanbaatar. A bumpy drive with the region's deputy governor shows how badly it has been affected by recent weather patterns.

"Look at all this," says Amarsanaa Byambadorj, squatting down in the desert. "It's July, the height of summer, so the grass should be at its greenest and longest. But instead it's very short, and it's almost yellow."

Nearby we find a sickening sight: a pile of dead livestock, rotting in the sun. More than a million animals died in last winter's dzud, and this area in south-east Mongolia was one of the worst affected. Around 10 of them lie here in the dirt.

There used to be many more, until Save the Children cleared them away during the spring. "In March, it was terrible," says Amarsanaa. "There were carcasses everywhere, and you could smell the stench."

More than 10% of the 400,000 livestock in the area were killed, he says, and some families lost all their herd. The deputy governor introduces Byambadorj Zayabaatar, a 30-year-old who lost all his 320 animals during a cold snap towards the end of the winter. "I could see the animals were so cold, so in the beginning I would bring them inside the ger," remembers Byambadorj. "But after a while there were too many, so I had to leave them outside. And they died before my eyes."

Yet very few people from this area have considered moving to Ulaanbaatar. That is partly because there is little history of rural-to-urban migration from this area - most migrants in Ulaanbaatar come from western Mongolia. But it's also because the government and various international agencies are increasingly stepping in to provide the outside help that had been lacking since the fall of communism.

This winter, Mongolia's National Emergency Management Agency partnered with the UN development programme and NGOs such as Save the Children to provide fodder and other support to the worst affected areas.

Save the Children has been particularly active in Sukhbaatar. It paid for the worst-affected families to replace their dead livestock with animals from neighbouring herds that had largely survived the winter. The programme has been so successful that it has tempted the few families who had already left for the city to consider returning. "We have received many comments from herder families saying that if you continue to restock people's herds, we would like to come back," says Amarsanaa, the deputy governor.

Additionally, home-schooling programmes have been provided to herder families who live in remote areas, far from school, and who might otherwise consider migrating to Ulaanbaatar to further their children's education.

"This way, they can live their nomad life, and the kids can still live at home - without the family having to move anywhere," says Javzandulam Myagmarjav, a local librarian who will help run the project until funding runs out in 2017. "I'm quite sad it's ending," she says. "It helps herder families, and the long-term benefit will be that there is less migration to Ulaanbaatar."

***

Yet even if people stop coming to Ulaanbaatar, the scale of recent migration will still have changed the capital beyond comprehension, and left it with a myriad of unsolved social challenges. Roughly half the population are migrant families living in the tent districts on the edge of the city - unable to access many of its services.

In Altansukh's neighbourhood, there is no running water, mains electricity, sewage or central heating. And it's a similar situation in all the migrant districts. To keep warm during the winter, migrant families are therefore forced to burn whatever they can find - and the fumes make their neighbourhoods more polluted than Delhi.

The newcomers find the city disorienting, with the houses so close together, and society so focused on money. In the countryside, you can live off the meat and milk from your herd, and use their hides to build your home. But in the city, everything must be bought from other people.

"We always miss the countryside," sighs Altansukh's wife, Narmandakh Sainjargal. "As herders you don't spend any money. You have your animals and they give you everything you need. But in the city you have to pay every day for something - transport, books for school. It's very strange to be here. We have paid such a lot of money for this small piece of land, whereas in the countryside you don't have to pay anything, and you have all this space."

With their skills little suited to urban life, many struggle to find work, making the hidden costs of state education too much for some families. Those who can send their children to school find that the teachers have little time for them: classes are so overcrowded that sometimes teachers run three shifts a day.

"Some new schools have been built, " says Toyoda, head of mission for Save the Children, which has helped to fund their construction. "But it's not enough. Not much has changed since [the 1990s] in terms of the living conditions there. If you're from the countryside with just secondary education and no relevant work experience, then what proper job can you get? If you don't have a proper job then it's very difficult to get a bank loan. So you can't purchase an apartment. Our conclusion is that the first generation of migrants will live in the ger districts for the rest of their lives."

And back in Sukhbaatar, one of the country's oldest herders can't rule out more migrants joining them. "If nature keeps changing, if the climate keeps changing, we can't say it won't happen," says Begzsuren. "If natural disasters keep on happening, people won't have any choice but to move."
Topics

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Nomads no more: why Mongolian herders are moving to the city

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In Altansukh Purev's yurt, the trappings of a herder's life lie in plain sight. In the corner are his saddle and bridle. By the door, he has left a milk pail. If you didn't know better, you might think his horses and cattle were still grazing outside on the remote plains of outer Mongolia.

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Type: string instrument

It is basically a lute with snake skin covering it. It has three strings and basically everything is made of very basic materials wood and materials you'd find in plains like skin and horn.

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Type: string instrument

A two stringed insturmnet commonly known as the horse-head fiddle. The strings are made of dried deer or mountain sheep sinew. The body of the instrument is carved from wood.

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Other names: Tuvan throat singing

Performed along with a morin khuur(horsehead fiddle)

Usually it is practiced by male herders, but women have come to also practice it.

Singer creates a sound in the throat.

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Batzorig Vaanchig- Mongolian Throat Singing

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goat or marmot meat cooked with  hot stone.
Basically the people remove the bones of the goat or marmot and put hot stones inside the mostly intact body, they also cook it with fire to burn away the fur.
By doing this the meat is cooked from the inside and outside.
It's more of a way of cooking.

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The people leave the milk to curdle and then take the solid  components and press it into a cake. Then they  cut the cake and leave it to dry.
The drying usually happens on the top of the yurts

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These are basically guts, intestines and organs of animal.
Mongolians nomads have a very limited diet due to the environment, so they have to eat what they can.
Apparently this dish is used to houner guests

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Buddhist monestaries aren't something that they still buidl. It is one of those things that can be considered cultural heritage.
Originally these monetstaries are suppoed to be yurts, but as buddhism grew the need for space increased for monetsaries. So the buildings evolved into what we see.

These are indanger since time has taken a toll on them.

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Mongolians also used tents as their houses. Usaully when traveling.
Most likely they used these tents when they were traveling to find land where they can put down their Yurts.

As nomadic culture is being replaced by urbanization, the need to move to different places to settle down lessens and these tent become useless

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The mongolian yurt the main architecture used by the Mongolain nomads.
As nomadic culture is being replaced by urbanization, these yurts are being replaced by modern buidlings

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other name:  Uyghur Uryangkha
Condition: critically endangered
Number of speakers: <20
Khövsgöl Uryangkhay is a Turkic language that is not very often spoken.
Used to be taught at  village schools during the Soviet Era.

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The Sound of the Uyghur language (Numbers, Greetings, Phrases & The Parable) (320 kbps)

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Other names: Tuha

Condition: endangered

Number of speakers: ~500

Dukha is a Turkic language that is not very often spoken,closely related Soyot(an extinct and revitalizing language) of Buryatia in Siberia.

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MONGOLIA—Duha (Tuha) speaker Battulag Solnoi

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Other names: Khamnigan
Condition: severely endangered
Numbers of speaker: ~300

Spoken in the east of Lake Baikal. Spoken by the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian, but the numbers of speakers have depleted a lot.

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With the influence of more developed countries with their video games and boardgames, these traditional Mongolian games that are intended to quench the bordome of people with the little resources they had are disappearing

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A lot of time culture from tribal civilizations have clothing that has a lot of meaning. Also they just take more time to create comapared to mass produced clothing these days. So naturally they get replaced

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These festivals are all very popular. But due to contraversy concerning the fact that all these have horse races or similar that have children jockies. Which puts the childrens' safety at a concern. This ofcourse creates ethical problems which could affect the festivals, creating a chance of the mgetting canceld

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In general most of these arts aand crafts rae in danger because less and less people try to ;arn these arts and this naturally lowers the chances of these arts from surviving

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As languages such as Chinese and modern Mongolian become more prominant. Native lanugaes and languages spoken by Mongolian nomadic tribes get replaces

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Lifestyle changes are due to global trade and urbanization. As people move to cities old lifestyles disappear

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As urbanization becomes more promoinant, modern buidlings replaces architecture that icome along with nomadic life gets replaces by these modern buildings. Also as time passes historical buildings take a toll and not always there people trying to preserve buildings

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Music and instruments are under threat due to less people learning them. And alos the growing market of pop music it makes it harder

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As golbal trade grows foods from other countires come into Mongolia, and these food replace the traditional food that were created during the nomadic period

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In this project, as part of a concerned online community. I will be making a virtual museum using a padlet that shows the different cultures of Mongolia (Official name:Mongol Uls). I’ll show different cultures from different time periods of Mongolia, before the unification of Mongolia by Genghis Khan and afterwards, during the existence of the soviet union and the modern era. I’ll show cultures that still persist but are struggling to continue. I am doing this because Mongolia is a developing country and developing countries are constantly getting affected by cultural globalization. Their cultures are being superseded by cultures of other bigger countries with better economic and political power that are able to spread their culture. Also Mongolia has a low population density, the density is 2 people per km^2, which is really low, which makes it hard for their own culture to spread within. There are many ways to preserve their culture and I tend to show the different minority cultures and show why they are worth preserving. People can also contribute to preserving the culture by raising awareness in their own ways.