Ever played ankle bones? It’s very popular in most households in Mongolia, and might not be what you think. But more about that later.
Despite all our off-road travelling, eating and sleeping there was so much else to do, and looking back I don’t know how we fitted it all in. Our trip really was non-stop from morning to night.
We were in for a great treat on one of our days, when we were fortunate to witness a ger warming, which coincided with the owners’ 25 year wedding anniversary.
If there was ever a ‘right time, right place’ experience this was it. Our driver Tugsuu had 10 siblings, one of whom (a brother) was carrying out the celebrations. Our group (John and I, our new travelling companion Carolyn from the US, our guide Migo and Tugsuu) just happened to be in an area of the vast Gobi Desert when this ger celebration was being carried out and because of Tugsuu we were all invited to the happy occasion.
We learned that when a new ger is purchased it is tradition to ‘christen’ it by inviting friends and family along who bring gifts, such as alcohol, food or cash. These are presented along with blue silky sashes (we purchased ours from a local store). The sashes are also often seen at temples as part of worshippers’ offerings.
When we arrived the party was in full swing and we were made really welcome. Once seated among the guests we were invited to get involved with the customary sharing of snuff bottles with our host, each of us in turn.
There were at least 30 guests squeezed into the new ger, along with masses of food. So many of the guests were dressed in brightly-coloured deels and they lined up to present their gifts.
To illustrate the significance of the occasion some of the guests presented whole cooked sheep carcasses, each with their heads on top. I saw three, and there could have been more delivered throughout the day. This amount would be rare. Dishes of soup, breads, curds, vegetables, lamb, horse meat, salami and chicken were all elegantly displayed, along with the very expensive fruit, including apples, grapes and bananas.
Soup was our first course, then came the meats, pickles and vegetables. I tried the horse meat out of curiosity and politeness. I have to say it was particularly tender and flavoursome. It was not long before the vodka came out and was shared in a dish amongst guests, with gay abandon. Right from the start we were not looked upon as strangers, but accepted as the hosts’ guests, which was most welcoming.
There was also entertainment, and this was wonderful. I have referred to the throat singing we experienced earlier this year amongst the Inuit women who demonstrate a deep tone, in a playful, competitive way. In Mongolia this is quite different and something we had not heard before. It is the men who throat sing and use their voice in a much higher pitched way, as if it is an instrument.
Mongolian throat singing can be beautiful and joyous to hear and we were so lucky that our hosts had a professional throat singer to entertain us. The male singers study for many years to achieve their status as a professional throat singer.
When we left, our hosts and many family members came outside the ger to wave us off, having first enjoyed some photo opportunities.
Throughout our journey we were to find that singing is something many families do. If you are lucky, as we were at times, one person may just break into song with others joining in, often playing instruments. One evening when we were having our supper, an eight year old boy picked up a dombra (a long-necked lute) and started playing and singing, which was brave of the youngster especially being amongst strangers. Then other Mongolian people joined in. This is a tradition to be savoured, especially when it could be so easily lost with television and social media now being on tap 24 hours a day.
When not being entertained we tried our hands at a few other activities including kayaking, something John and I had not done before. The water was fairly shallow and freezing cold and in one area we had to get out and push, but I was determined to beat John to the finish line… I succeeded!
A camel ride too was in the offing. I wasn’t looking forward to that, and crikey it was a long way down. These were Bactrian camels, with two humps and some can be 8 feet tall. The benefit was that I could keep a firm hold on one of the humps as we meandered across the desert.
I was quite pleased when we got off (not looking forward to the time the camel would drop to its knees with us humans being tipped forward and then jolted back without any resistance). As soon as we got off we sauntered away rather like John Wayne, tipping from side to side – the camels were so wide. We were still aching from the uncomfortable seating arrangements after several days.
Another new experience was archery, which was a scream. So many times I tried to let the arrow go whizzing to a nearby target. Each time the arrow flopped to my feet, with no danger of me being speared. Gosh, those bows are hard to operate. One needs arms of steel, but once I got the hang of it, it proved to be rather addictive, and a source of so many laughs.
In a small area of the Gobi Desert we carried out tree planting – well Tugsuu did all the hard digging. This project was a worthy cause. The initiator, a lady named Byamba, purchased an area of land 40 years ago with the aim of trying to fight against desertification. This is where land degrades to such an extent in arid and semi-arid areas that it cannot sustain plant growth. It can be caused by a number of things including lack of rain, climate, grazing, and human activity such as felling trees. This latter point is a long term issue across parts of Mongolia. Gers are heated with wood, and forests can be seen across the country which have had swaths of pine trees cut down for this purpose.
Without plants, humans cannot feed off the land and animals cannot forage. Without trees, winds are also a problem.
In an attempt to redress this, even in a slow small way, Byamba has been growing native trees – the saxaul – from seeds and cuttings in greenhouses at her home. Then, working on her own or with small-scale help, she has been planting these slow-growing trees in the sandy dry land. In so doing, she is attempting to offset CO2 emissions and reduce greenhouse gases; reduce wind and dust (the tree roots help hold the soil together, thus reducing soil erosion); provide wildlife habitats; and preserve native Gobi trees.
During our time at the site we planted and watered in a few trees, and admired the work Byamba was doing, which is a hard task. Some of the trees planted in 1999 are still only eight feet tall. Another we saw, planted three years ago, was three feet tall. In more hospitable landscapes the saxaul tree can grow to 26 or more feet.
Then, having done a tiny bit to help with these matters, we were on our way again. A lot of hiking was involved on this holiday including so many climbs up to monasteries – they were usually locked or in a ruined condition once we got there. The vast majority of religious buildings were desecrated during the Communist regime, generally in the 1930s. At some, that did not involve a hike, we were able to view the monks carrying out their morning chanting. This was popular with local worshippers. Their sounds were rather soporific as we sat and watched, but seeing some of the monks on their mobiles, or being served their breakfast supply of mares’ milk during the chanting came as a bit of a surprise.
Of great historic significance in Mongolia was a discovery in 1923 at the Flaming Cliffs in the Gobi Desert. Fossils of 15 dinosaur nests containing 50 eggs were found which led to the understanding that dinosaurs were not solitary animals but they established colonies. These were originally thought to be nests of the Protoceratops. However, expeditions in the 1990s found further identical eggs, one containing an embryo identified as an Oviraptor.
Mongolia also has many petroglyphs, some considered to date back to 11,000BC. The images produced over the centuries illustrate the transition from hunter gatherers to herding and on to a horse-dependant nomadic lifestyle. They are so valuable for the insight they give to pre-historic ways that they are protected by UNESCO. While it is brilliant to see them in their original sites, they are open to the elements and graffiti addicts. It is surprising they are not better protected in some way.
But they are not easy to reach – they are sited high up steep, craggy mountains. Climbing the mountains was really hard going, but there was something that I had not expected on the way up. A Mongolian man offered his arm to help me up the mountainside – at a rate of knots I might add. It became more of a run than a climb! As we were heading up the sharp incline the gentleman asked to marry me. I was a bit perplexed and thought a while, saying: “Maybe that is possible, but you’ll have to ask my husband first.”
“But I don’t want to marry your husband,” he exclaimed. Hmmm, that was not what I was getting at. I then enquired: “Are you rich?” He rebuffed my question, saying: “You’ve got to be joking. I’m a tour guide!”
With that, and having a good idea of my answer, he dropped his arm and left me to climb the remaining craggy rocks on my own. Blast – I should have spun that out until we got to the top!
But there was another experience that will remain memorable. It was the ankle bones. Our eagle hunter host Aiu had two young sons who looked so excited to interact with us during our overnight stay, despite the language differences. I found just the opportunity when they showed me a bucket of ankle bones. Yes, this was indeed what was in a bucket they presented me with – hundreds of sheep ankle bones.
These are displayed throughout Mongolia in homes, restaurants and shops, whether they are used for games, decoration, table mats or jewellery. Most are in their natural cream colour, but some are painted. They can be played in a similar fashion to ‘five stones’ which we enjoyed as children.
Many games involve scoring against other players and this is what we did. We each threw four bones at a time, and according to the way they fell we scored points. Each of the four sides of the ankle bone has a different shape (one needs a keen eye to see that), and points were awarded for pairs, a full house, and so on.
The two young sons, their eagle hunter father and I all played. I tried my hardest, but the odds were against me. Each time I came last until father did some trickery and I managed to come second to last. He was the perfect host and we all laughed throughout.
There was never a dull moment in Mongolia, and we had so many new experiences. But there was one further experience to come, to be covered in the next posting.
Copyright: Words and photos Sue Barnard 2022