In general, it is amazing how a country that many centuries ago created the largest empire in the history of mankind, tilted many strong civilizations and made them pay tribute to itself, today looks so wretched and poor.
Everything connected with people's lives is sad here. Moreover, this repents not only the remote province, but also the capital ...
Ulan Bator is as sad as the whole country as a whole, at least some here and here on Geliki.
Maybe this is the lot of all once powerful civilizations - first to be at the peak and rule the world, and then slide to the very bottom, vegetating in mud, poverty and hopeless ...?
Who knows ... But that's exactly what happened with Mongolia. See for yourself.
2. Mongolia is the 11th largest country in the world. But only 3.5 million people live here. 3 times less than it lives in the rest of the world !!! All who can leave Mongols from their country.
There are only a few asphalt roads in the country. The rest is the most common primer.
The roads that exist look the same as the roads in any Russian village ...
3. Near the border with Russia, even houses in villages look Russian ...
Traditionally, Mongols live in yurts, roaming the steppe. But many in our time, long ago settled in small towns and villages, located, as a rule, along asphalt roads. It is understandable, at least there is life near the road, not like in a remote endless steppe.
4. Most of the buildings that you meet along the road look very neglected. The building was built many years ago, and no one looks after it.
What is there to look after, they don't even repair it. So buildings fall apart over time.
5. All these photos were taken in Sukhe-Bator, a fairly large settlement near the Russian-Mongolian border.
And here everything is solid sadness-sadness
6. Home of a wealthy person by local standards.
7. Barn .. Although it can be a residential building. Anything can be here.
8. And this is just a residential building ... But what? After all - a roof over your head.
9. Conveniences, as usual, in the yard.
10. Mongolian deli
11. Multi-apartment residential building.
12. Typical Mongolian village. Half of the fences are not around houses, but around yurts.
13. Most of the villages along the highway are quite small - they consist of several houses and one electric pole.
14. Mongols are so used to their yurts that even houses are often built in the same style.
15. Mongol thinks ...
16. I noticed that there are practically no stray dogs and cats in Mongolia ...
17. But Mongolia has amazingly photogenic children !!! I even talk about them.
16. Such inscriptions can be found on every second house along the route. For sale. Everyone wants to sell their house or fence and move to a more prosperous country. They mainly go either to neighboring China or to Russia ...
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17. But .... For all the poverty and squalor, there are quite a few expensive cars in the country. And Hummers, and brand new Land Cruiser 200, and Gelenvagens. Moreover, people often ride in them, half falling out of a fully open window. So that everyone can see that he owns a cool car and what have you achieved?
18. But Mongolia is not rich in despondency alone. Endless steppes and stunning landscapes!
This is what attracts here and will continue to attract thousands of travelers.
And I want to come back here again, but with completely different goals and program.
For example, in the fall ...
Now, right in my blog, you can quickly book a hotel or buy flights
My previous photo reports and photo plots:
I am married to a citizen of Mongolia. My wife and I used to live in Russia, but last year she had to return home for a long time on business. I went with her.
Six months ago, I received a temporary residence permit in Mongolia. I'll tell you how we live here and why I don't really want to return to Russia.
Why go to Mongolia
Mongolia is the largest and most sparsely populated country in the world. Only 3 million people live in it, and half of them are in the capital - Ulan Bator. In the rest of the country, the population density is 1 person per 1 square kilometer.
Previously, Mongolia had continuous pastures, yurts and herds, but now skyscrapers have been built in the capital, solar power plants have appeared outside the city, and new iPhones are brought here earlier than in Russia. But traditions are still strong here. Coca-Cola is advertised on TV by shepherds, on holidays everyone dresses in national clothes, and in the city you can easily meet a man on a horse - and this will not surprise anyone.
Mongolia is a normal country if you are a freelancer and work remotely. It is inexpensive, tasty and little bureaucracy. The main attractions are natural. Be sure to visit the Gobi, Mongolian Altai, ancient mountain monasteries, lakes. If you are interested in Lamaist Buddhism, this is the best place for enlightenment. There are hundreds of datsans - local monasteries, educated monks-lamas and thousands of relics.
And Mongolia is also the birthplace of dinosaurs. The largest skeletons were found here. In the photo - the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus in the hall of the shopping center "Hunn-Mall" - there is also a branch of the Mongolian Dinosaur Museum, while its main building is closed for reconstruction
Visa
Russian citizens can come to Mongolia without a visa for 30 days. So that I could stay longer, my wife issued me an invitation. They gave him a visa for three months. With her, I entered the country and applied for an analogue of our temporary residence permit.
A residence permit in Mongolia is much easier to obtain than in Russia. The whole process took several hours over a couple of days. There is no need to confirm knowledge of the language, apostilles and notarized translations are also not needed. Two months later, they took the ready-made permit without queues, nerves, heaps of papers and certificates. In Russia, obtaining a passport will take more time and effort.
I can renew my residence permit every year. I can work with him in Mongolia and even get public health insurance.
I have not come across bureaucracy here. When I applied for a residence permit, I made a mistake and brought the wrong piece of paper. They called me and said that I can bring the necessary document when I go to get my permission.
All documents must be submitted in person, but it is very easy to get them. 25 types of certificates are issued by a special terminal: about divorce and marriage, about no criminal record, a temporary passport. You pay 1000 tugriks (24 R) and receive a document with a seal. Such machines are in every state institution and at the post office.
Terminal for inquiries
Money and banks
The national currency of Mongolia is tugrik. The rate of the tugrik to the ruble is about 40-43 tugriks per ruble. Cards are accepted in almost every store. But cash is still needed to pay the taxi driver or buy groceries on the market.
The easiest way to pay bills is through banking apps. The two main banks are Khaan-Bank and Golomt-Bank. A foreigner needs a passport to issue an account and card.
Screens of the banking application "Khaan-Bank"
You can withdraw money from a Russian card at any ATM. If you withdraw amounts from $ 100 from a Tinkoff Bank card, then there are no commissions at all.
Everyone among our family and friends has loans. The most popular are car loans and mortgages. The average rate on consumer and car loans in Mongolia is 20-30% per annum, on mortgages - 8%.
Work
The easiest way to stay in the country is on a work visa. Local businesses need engineers, builders, programmers. Schools and universities employ foreign teachers. I was interviewed to work as a history teacher at a Russian-language school in a provincial city, but at the last moment I changed my mind: the salary there is not high.
42 tugriks cost 1 R when I wrote the article.
The highest paid is the work of technical specialists - 5-10 million tugriks (119,000-238,000 R). Foreign employees with knowledge of English in mining and construction companies are most appreciated. They are paid several times more than a Mongol of the same qualifications. The earnings of such specialists are from 5 to 10 thousand dollars per month.
The salary of a foreign teacher in Ulan Bator is 2-4 million tugriks (47-95 thousand rubles), in a provincial city - up to 1.5 million tugriks (36,000 rubles).
The average salary in Mongolia is from 600 thousand to 1 million tugriks (14,000-24,000 R) in the province, 1-1.5 million tugriks (24,000-36,000 R) in the capital. According to statistics, Mongolian women have an average salary of MNT 200,000 less than men.
24 000 R is the average salary in the province.
In Mongolia, I write texts and articles for Russian websites. The wife works as a translator.
Capital
In Mongolia, as in Russia, the capital and the provinces live very differently. All business, culture and work are concentrated in Ulaanbaatar. Therefore, capital prices are several times higher than provincial ones. Outside Ulaanbaatar, life is slow, poor and cheap.
We lived in Ulan Bator for several months, but then we moved to the small town of Darkhan. Living in the capital is unhealthy because of the environment.
The main reason for the poor ecology of the city is yurts and private houses. They are popular because they are cheap to live in: maintenance costs will amount to about 100,000 tugriks (2,400 R) per month. Ulan Bator is located in a valley between low mountains, so the wind blows through the city poorly. There are private areas on the slopes - in them everyone lives in yurts and houses, and they heat their homes with coal and wood. All the smoke goes down into the city and doesn't go anywhere.
Of the 1.4 million inhabitants of Ulan Bator, 350 thousand live in yurts, 450 thousand - in simple houses, and only 600 thousand - in apartments. Living in a yurt is cheap - you only spend on firewood, coal and electricity. Often, after the wedding, newlyweds move to a yurt to save up for a mortgage
The environmental situation is worsened by enterprises and 230 thousand cars and buses. It's hard to breathe outside: a sore throat. In winter, clothes absorb the smell of smoke, which cannot be eliminated. People wear protective masks. The concentration of harmful substances in the air of the most polluted areas is 24 times higher than the norm.
According to Mongolian statistics, 20% of Ulaanbaatar residents die from air pollution: respiratory tract infections, blockages of the lungs, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer.
The haze below is not clouds, but smog
Everyone who has money tries to live outside the city, closer to the forests and away from the city smog. But you still have to go to work in Ulan Bator. Families often move out of town at the end of pregnancy to give birth and raise children in a normal environment.
Once Ulan Bator was a small, cozy, Soviet-style city. In the 90s, business centers, ugly residential complexes and shopping centers began to be built in it chaotically and thoughtlessly. The Mongolian capital has a poorly developed urban infrastructure. There are constant traffic jams and terrible buildings without normal courtyards, parks and walking places.
Due to the ecology and uncomfortableness of Ulan Bator, we moved to the small town of Darkhan with a population of only 100 thousand people. It takes three hours to get to Darkhan from the capital by car.
The monument to Genghis Khan in Tsongzhin-Boldog is the largest equestrian monument in the world, its height is 40 m. There is a staircase and a museum inside, and an observation deck on the horse's head. Photo by Stanislav Fursov
Provinces
Most cities in Mongolia are small settlements that resemble Russian urban-type settlements. Besides Ulan Bator, the developed cities are Darkhan and Erdenet.
Darkhan has fresh air, no traffic jams, and is several times cheaper than in the capital. The city is small and quiet. There is a swimming pool and fitness rooms, stadiums, shopping centers, coffee shops, although the Mongols drink little coffee. The town is small and very quiet.
View of Darkhan. In the photo - the main district of the city and the center
City Park. There are almost no trees in it: they grow poorly in Mongolia and grow short
Housing
You can rent a one-room or even two-room apartment in Darkhan for 250-400 thousand tugriks a month (6000-9500 R). For comparison, the average price in Ulan Bator is 400-700 thousand tugriks (9500-16 700 R).
Apartments are usually rented unfurnished, the payment is taken 3-6 months in advance. Furnished apartments can be more expensive by 100-200 thousand tugriks (2400-4800 R). We pay MNT 400,000 (R 9,500) for a furnished two-room apartment. The owner wrote in the ad: "I rent an apartment with furniture for foreigners."
Studio with furniture in Ulan Bator for 550,000 tugriks (13,000 R) per month
It is best to search for housing on Facebook and "Үnegүe". These are the two main sites in Mongolia. "Үnegүy" is the main bulletin board, but announcements appear more quickly in Facebook groups. We found our apartment on Facebook.
Employment agreements are not very common here. All basically agree in words. There are no special requirements for the tenant, the main thing is to pay the fee. The owner only asked for a copy of my passport.
9,500 RUR per month we pay for the rent of a furnished two-room apartment.
We pay utilities only according to the counters. Electricity and water are more expensive than in my native Voronezh, but there is no rent for living quarters. Therefore, the amount is approximately the same as in Russia: in winter we pay about 140,000 tugriks (3300 R).
4,000 tugriks (95 R) per month cost to clean the entrance and take out garbage. The cleaning lady knocks on the door during the day and picks up the garbage bag. Many tenants simply leave garbage in the doorway in the morning. I barely explained that I would take out the trash myself.
Now we want to buy an apartment in Mongolia. The average price of a two-room apartment in Darkhan is 30-50 million tugriks (715,000-1,190,000 RUR). In Ulan Bator, you can buy a one-room apartment for this amount, and prices for two-room apartments in the capital start at 90 million tugriks (2,140,000 rubles).
In the summer, a man on a horse comes to our yard in Darkhan every morning. He sells fresh milk. From 8 in the morning begins to shout under the windows: "Buy milk!"
But the residents of Darkhan themselves, who live in the private sector, also have cows.
Tax and insurance
Foreign employees pay the same taxes and pay the same insurance as local employees. I don't pay local taxes because I earn money in Russia.
Income tax for an employee is progressive - 10-25%. If you earn 3.5 million tugriks per month (83,000 R), the tax is 25%. My friends from Russia who work as teachers in Mongolia and earn 2 million tugriks a month (50,000 R) pay 15% tax.
Voluntary medical insurance costs me 8400 tugriks per month (200 R). Cadre employees pay 2% of the salary, the employer pays another 2% for them.
200 R per month I pay for health insurance.
Medical insurance will cover the costs of up to 1.32 million tugriks (31,400 R) in public clinics and up to half of the costs in private clinics. With insurance, you can get a 50-80% discount on medicines in state pharmacies according to a certain list - there are 380 items in total. Emergency surgeries like removing the appendix are free. If the case is difficult or you are in the hospital, it is customary to thank the doctors.
There is no need to attach to polyclinics - where they come, they will be served there. It is only important to show the policy.
Social insurance is deducted by the employer - 10-12% of the salary before taxes. To receive a pension, you must pay for insurance for 20 years.
Cashback for everyone
It is customary to store all checks in Mongolia. Each of them has a quar code and a numeric code. If you scan them with the special app Ebarimt, 20% of the paid VAT will be returned early next year. VAT in Mongolia is 10%, so at the end of the year you will be refunded approximately 2% of the amount spent. During the year, we have run over 80,000 tugriks (1900 R). Most small shops do not issue checks, nor do markets. Therefore, most of the purchases are still not backed by checks.
Once a month, money is raffled among all checks - from 10 thousand to 1 million tugriks (240-24,000 R). We have not won even once, but our relatives once won 20,000 tugriks (480 R).
Quar code check and Ebarimt app
Transport
All Mongols dream of a car. Used Japanese foreign cars are cheap here. Within 4 million tugriks (95,000 R), you can buy a 10-year-old Toyota or Hyundai Sonata. Not so old Toyota Prius will cost 10 million tugriks (238,000 R).
Most cars in Mongolia are right-hand drive. The most popular model is the hybrid Toyota Prius. It feels like every third or fourth car in the country.
It is inexpensive to own a car in Mongolia. Gasoline A-95 costs 2050 tugriks (48 R) per liter. For the same Toyota Prius, my wife's brother pays a tax of 51,000 tugriks per year (1200 R). Compulsory insurance will cost 1% of the cost of the car per year. The fines are small: the average fine is MNT 20,000 (R 475), for example, for incorrect parking or driving without a belt. There are practically no traffic police outside the city. Paid parking is available only in Ulan Bator - 500 tugriks (12 R) for half an hour.
1200 R per year - tax on Toyota Prius. This is the most popular car in Mongolia.
To reduce traffic flow, Ulaanbaatar has a restriction on driving cars with certain numbers on specific days of the week. If the car number ends in 7, it cannot be driven on Tuesdays; at 5 - on Fridays. For violation - a fine of 20,000 tugriks (475 R).
We don't have a car: we don't need it in the city. A bus ride in Ulan Bator costs 500 tugriks (12 R), in Darkhan - 200 tugriks (5 R). In Darkhan, I have never traveled by bus: it rarely runs.
Darkhan is a small town, and here you can walk everywhere or ride a bike in 10-15 minutes. There are few bicycles here. Basically, everyone drives illegal taxis. You go to the side of the road, and the drivers themselves stop to give you a lift. The fare is 500 tugriks per person (12 R). There are usually other passengers in the cabin, with three in the back seat. Taxis in Ulan Bator are more expensive, but still inexpensive by Russian standards: we have never paid more than 10,000 tugriks (240 R) for travel from the city center to the outskirts. A short trip will cost 2,000 tugriks (50 R).
You can order an official taxi by phone, but why, if at any time of the day or night hundreds of passing drivers will gladly give you a ride for a cheaper price. Several times in Ulaanbaatar, at a bus stop, the drivers offered us to go with them on the way for the bus fare.
You can travel between cities by car, train or plane. There are few trains, but they are very cheap. You can travel 500 km from Ulan Bator to Gobi for 10,000 tugriks (240 R). The bus between the capital and Darkhan costs the same. Most often, we travel with privateers, whom we find in groups on Facebook. A trip with such a driver will cost the same 10,000 tugriks, but it will take 3 hours instead of 4 by bus. If there is no time to look for a driver, there are always other long-distance taxi drivers at the bus station, but they will take you for 15,000 tugriks (350 R).
When you need to go out of town to nature, somewhere away from the main roads, it is better to take a car. We take from relatives. Here they recognize internal Russian rights, but there are almost no Mongolian traffic cops outside the city. For a year I was not stopped even once.
Prices
The income of 50,000 R is enough to indulge in almost nothing in a provincial town, buy a used Japanese car, rent an apartment and save money.
50,000 R a month is enough to not deny yourself anything in Mongolian Darkhan.
Chinese and Korean-made appliances, clothing and household items are 1.5-2 times cheaper than in Russia. For example, jeans will cost 30,000 tugriks (715 R). We try to buy warm clothes and accessories from Mongolian. They are normal and inexpensive, made from natural fur and leather. It turns out several times cheaper than in Russia. A women's sheepskin coat costs 200-400 thousand tugriks here (4750-9500 R). The skin is mainly cow, sheep fur.
Communication and Internet
I have a SIM card "Unitel", with a special tariff for mobile Internet. For 15,000 tugriks (350 R) per month, I have 15 GB and 20 minutes of calls.
In order to make cheap calls to Russia, I subscribe to a special service for 5000 MNT (120 R), according to which I have 30 minutes a month for calls to Russia.
The easiest way to top up your account is through the banking app. There are no payment terminals in Mongolia. You can buy a prepaid card or top up your account through an intermediary - most often it is a seller in a store. The intermediary enters into a contract with the operator. When you give him money, he writes an SMS to the operator with your number and the amount of payment. The money is credited to your account, and the intermediary receives a small percentage.
350 R per month I pay for the phone.
In all cities and villages where I was, I caught 3G. Free Wi-Fi is available on buses, in most cafes and shopping centers. Almost every family has a home Internet connection, even in yurts - via a satellite dish.
Cooking in Mongolia is simple, but insanely delicious. The local cuisine is based on meat and dough. There are 20 times more cows and rams in Mongolia than people. Therefore, they eat a lot of meat. Everyone's favorite dishes are the same: buuz (analogue of manti), tsuiwan (noodles with meat and vegetables), hushura (analogue of chebureks), suute tse (salty tea with milk). Standard lunch or dinner: tsuiwan, soup and rice with meat and vegetables.
Tsuiwan in the foreground, huushury in the background
I am from Voronezh. They say we make first-class meat. But it loses to Mongolian meat: local meat is much tastier and juicier than ours. Mongolian farmers attribute this to the fact that Mongolian cows graze in wild pastures, eat a variety of grass and generally lead happier lives than animals in barns.
A kilogram of beef on the market costs 6,000 tugriks (140 R). If you agree with the shepherds, you can buy meat in bulk from them at 3000 tugriks per kilogram (70 R). We eat 3-4 kg of meat per week, and here it does not seem like a lot. Almost every Mongolian family has a separate freezer for meat - in Russia they sell ice cream. In winter, boxes and packages of meat are stored on the balcony.
My wife and I eat 4 kg of meat a week in Mongolia.
Two refrigerators in a Mongolian family are absolutely normal. The second refrigerator is filled with meat for the summer. And in winter, from October to March, it is easier to store meat on the balcony.
The choice of other products, even in large Mongolian stores, is modest. Fruits do not grow in Mongolia, therefore they are twice as expensive as ours: a kilogram of apples costs from 6000 tugriks per kg (140 R). Chinese fruits are inexpensive, but tasteless.
The cheapest is to buy in the markets. Everything is the same there as in stores, but about 30% cheaper. Pasteurized milk in a package costs 3000 tugriks (70 R), fresh milk in a bottle costs 800 tugriks (19 R).
Cereals, fruits, sweets, household chemicals, cosmetics, canned food in Mongolia are 1.5-2 times more expensive than in Russia. It is more profitable to shop in the Russian border town of Kyakhta - there is a huge Absolute hypermarket 200 meters from the checkpoint. It takes two hours to get to him from our house, not counting the border crossing. You can cross the border in an hour, or you can stay for 6 hours. The queues are always only on the Russian side.
There are no many products familiar to Russia in Mongolia at all, for example, cottage cheese and kefir. A very small selection of fish, they are not well versed in it. On local canned food they write: "Fish".
Lunch in an ordinary canteen costs 5,000 tugriks (120 R), in an average restaurant it is 2-3 times more expensive. The portions are huge. You only need to order one dish. If the menu says “chicken,” that means chicken, rice, and some salads will be brought to you. We have never been able to spend more than 60,000 tugriks (1400 R) for dinner at a restaurant.
1400 R the maximum amount that my wife and I paid for dinner at a restaurant in Mongolia.
Tipping is not accepted. If you do, they will most likely be returned to you. Tipping is more or less used only in large metropolitan restaurants, which are often visited by tourists.
For this lunch in a canteen in the center of Ulan Bator, we paid 12,000 tugriks (285 rubles). There are about half a kilo of beef and lamb
Medicine
In free clinics there are queues and appointments for procedures weeks in advance. It is cheaper and easier to visit a paid doctor for 20,000 tugriks (500 R).
Most of the doctors we encountered here seemed to us more professional than their Russian colleagues. Many of them studied in Korea and China, speak foreign languages \u200b\u200band read the latest scientific publications.
500 R costs a doctor's appointment.
But the people do not always trust doctors - many prefer to be treated with folk methods, it is popular to appeal to shamans. Traditional medicine here is based on meat and milk, not herbs. “If the pancreas hurts, you need to eat groundhog meat. Mare's milk helps with coughing. There is nothing better for women in labor than lamb meat. "
There are many Korean, Chinese, German medicines in pharmacies. I haven't seen a single homeopathy shelf in a year.
An unpleasant thing: Russian medicines in Mongolia are twice as expensive as in Russia. For example, the ACC in Mongolia costs 12,000 tugriks (280 R), ours - 120 R; antibiotic ciprofloxacin - 2000 tugriks (48 R), we have 12 R.
Language and communication
I don't speak Mongolian. I know several hundred words and several dozen expressions. This is enough to talk to the seller, taxi driver or neighbor at a feast. I go with my wife to communicate with government officials.
It is better to speak to older people in Russian, to young people in English. Young people in Mongolia know English better than most Russian peers. An American school teacher is in the order of things here. In the 90s, they came as volunteers. Everyone got used to them, and to make them come more often, they began to pay 1-2 thousand dollars. Spending in Mongolia is small, the country is exotic, so many come with families.
If you master at least basic colloquial Mongolian, you will be respected by everyone around you. Trying to speak Mongolian is enough to inspire sympathy. I learned phrases to say hello and ask how are you: "How do you celebrate the New Year?", "How is work?" - people are pleased that I try.
Nature and climate
Mongolia is very beautiful. There are mountains, steppes, forests, deserts. If you love out-of-town travel, there will be a place to go every weekend.
This is what you can see after driving 50 km from Ulan Bator. Photo: Stanislav Fursov
But this can be seen if you drive away from Ulan Bator for 500-1000 km. Photo: Oleg Ermolov
The climate in Mongolia is continental: summers are dry and hot, and winters are sunny but frosty. Due to the dryness of the air, Mongolian -25 ° C is more readily perceived than Voronezh -15 ° C. I wear the same warm jacket that I wore in Voronezh, and I am not cold. But sometimes in winter the temperature drops to -40 ° C - here it is better to dress warmly.
The main plus of the Mongolian climate: it is almost always sunny. Rarely rainy days are perceived as a holiday.
It was me, in national outer clothing - dele - who went to the hill for spring water. I'm very hot, although it's -30 ° C outside
On weekends, I walk on the nearby hills - these are such small mountains. The hills are not high - 100-400 meters, - but until you reach the top, your head will freshen up for a whole week.
There are many wild animals in Mongolia: wolves, marmots, snakes, deer. Walking in unfamiliar areas can be dangerous. A particular danger is dogs in the private sector and near lonely yurts in nature. Almost all yurt residents keep huge dogs to protect their homes and herd. In yurt districts, dogs huddle in flocks. Several times I was almost bitten while jogging along the surrounding hills.
You cannot swim in local rivers in unfamiliar places. Rivers in Mongolia are almost all mountainous, with a fast and unpredictable flow. In each village you will be told about people who were sure that they were excellent swimmers, but they were carried away by the current and were not seen again.
Bayan-Ul. My wife spent her childhood here
I often walk outside the city. Here are the standard landscapes 10 minutes walk from the outskirts of Darkhan
A typical yurt outside the city. The shepherd and his family live in it all year round. Not visible in the photo, but there are solar panels behind the yurt. The house has electricity and satellite TV with dozens of channels
Family ties
For the Mongols, family is the main value in life. Not just a dad and mom, but all relatives at once: uncles and aunts, cousins \u200b\u200band siblings, husbands and wives of distant relatives.
In the summer we went to a meeting of the relatives of my grandfather's wife from my mother's side. Gathered 150 people. Relatives with whom we constantly keep in touch and see each other - 50 of them. I grew up as an only child in a family, and such a number of relatives is unusual for me.
The first few months after the wedding, I always got to know someone and ate a lot: each family set itself the goal of feeding the Russian son-in-law the best.
Eventually
For me, life in Mongolia has more pluses than minuses.
I like being a part of a big Mongolian family: I don't have that in Russia. I like the wild nature a few dozen meters from the city. In Mongolia, I can take a quick trip to the desert, mountains or lakes - and these will be very inexpensive trips. With a small income in Mongolia, I can afford any leisure time, car and savings. If I earn 2-3 times more, I can buy myself a two-story house outside the city.
I put up with the cons. In cold weather, you need to dress warmer, and you can leave the city from the smog of Ulan Bator. But I really miss the cozy streets, normal sidewalks and tall trees.
We don't plan to leave yet. I love watching Mongolia develop and change. In 10-20 years the country will not be recognized, and I want to see the path that it will take.
Yurt is probably the most famous nomad dwelling for Russian people. Even from school, we all remember that it was in such dwellings that the Tatar-Mongols lived, who did not allow the Russian princes to sleep peacefully.
Yurt is the national dwelling of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples, which has a frame base and is covered with felt.
The word "jurt" has a common meaning among the Turks - "people" and pasture. In Kyrgyz and Kazakh languages \u200b\u200b"Ata-Zhurt" is translated as "Fatherland". The word "house" can be considered the actual synonym for yurt among the Mongols. From the Tuvan language, where the word yurt sounds like "eg", when adding the ending "-bule" to it, yurt will mean "family".
Yurts are an ancient type of dwelling, which appeared in the period of the so-called Late Bronze Age (13-9 centuries BC). According to some historians, the Andronovo houses became the progenitors of modern yurts. But this fact can be questioned, since these dwellings resembled log huts. It is possible that the construction of yurts began later - in the 8-5th century BC. e. You can see the first ancient yurts on the figurines of Northern China, dated to the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The history of the development of this type of dwelling can be traced back to the 13th century in miniatures of the Chinese, Central Asians, Iranians and Turks.
Turkish and Mongolian yurts have some differences. Kazakh and Turkmen yurts have double doors made of wood; Akirghiz often use felt curtains as a door. Kazakhs' yurts are lower than Kyrgyz ones, because Kazakhs set them up in the steppe, where there are strong winds. To learn the structure of ancient yurts give rock paintings. It follows from them that the ancient habitation of the nomads is a tent, divided into left and right sides. Nowadays, yurts are widely used in tourism. Such dwellings have a luxurious decoration.
For a nomad, a yurt is a comfortable and practical accommodation. In an hour, a family can easily assemble or disassemble housing. The yurt is easy to transport regardless of the type of transport. The tarp cover protects against rain, wind and cold. Daylight enters the dwelling through a gap in the top of the dome, in addition, this opening makes it possible to use the fireplace. In its structure, the dwelling is quite simple - it consists of lattice folding walls, poles that make up a dome, a circle with which the poles are attached to the top and felt, which covers the entire structure. The yurt is still popular with Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Mongolian livestock breeders. This is perhaps the only dwelling in which lighting and ventilation can be controlled. The smoke from the hearth does not remain in the room, it goes into the tundyuk - the opening of the dome. During the day, the hole is a window through which sunlight enters the dwelling, and at night it is easy to close it. In hot weather, the side of the felt mat can be raised. In this case, the yurt will be well ventilated, and people will be cool and in the shade.
For the Mongols, the entrance to the yurt is always in the south. The north side is considered special and important - there is an altar there. Guests of honor are also received in the north side. The center of the yurt is occupied by a hearth.
Inside the yurt is divided into two sides. In Mongols, the east side is feminine and the west is masculine. The owner's bed is located on the male side, closer to the exit. This part of the yurt is decorated with the man's weapons, talismans. On the east side of the dwelling is the master's daughter's bed. Closer to the door they usually put a cupboard with dishes and a mortar for whipping kumis, which is considered a symbol of prosperity. This part of the yurt is considered a guest part. The burial ritual of the owner of the dwelling is also held here.
Today yurt tourism is widespread. Fans of Central Asia can afford not only to see yurts, but also to live in tents for some time. This type of recreation is called Jailoo tourism. In many restaurants and tourist sites, you can see both stylized and real nomadic dwellings.
For example, in Tuva, there are two yurts near the national museum. And the ethno-tourist center "Aldyn-Bulak" invites its visitors to live in yurts and chums in comfortable conditions.
In the names of some settlements in the North Caucasus, the word "yurt" is used - Kizilyurt, Khasavyurt, Babayurt. Most likely, such names have Turkic roots. It is likely that they were given by the Kumyks or Nogais.
A railway station and a village called Yurts can be found in the Irkutsk Oblast, and similar names for villages and villages can be found where Kazakhs and Turkic peoples lived.
As for the use of yurts in architecture, structures of this shape can be found in Alma-Ata.
Hello dear readers - seekers of knowledge and truth!
Mongolia - how much is in this word. Imagination immediately paints a picture: the endless steppe stretches, the clatter of hooves is heard, and in the distance you can see a cozy round house, from which a stream of smoke runs upward. This article will tell you about the structure of the Mongolian yurt - how it looks like, what it is made of, how furniture and utensils are arranged.
You will also find out where the male part is and where the female part is, when the hour of the tiger comes, how to determine the time in a yurt without a watch and how to be a welcome guest, feeling the hospitality of the Mongols.
What is a Mongolian yurt and what does it look like
The great travelers of history - immigrants from Europe, such as Marco Polo, Wilhelm de Rubruk, in their trips through Mongolia, met with whole nomadic cities and were endlessly amazed by them.
Rubruk recalled:
“The house in which they sleep, they put on wheels, its walls are woven rods, converging upward in the form of a small wheel, from which a neck rises upward, like a chimney.»
It's hard to believe, but even now, in the era of the Internet, transatlantic corporations and apartments in high-rise buildings, the majority of the Mongolian population lives in yurts. Residents of Ulan Bator, a modern metropolis, also have an unwavering love for yurts, and therefore even in cities there are entire neighborhoods where people live in these compact houses.
The villagers have lived according to unchanging traditions for centuries. Driven by the weather and the condition of the pastures, they wander from place to place from spring to autumn. Sometimes you have to move several times a month.
But this is not difficult for them, because two people can easily disassemble and just as easily and quickly assemble a yurt or, as they call it, ger. This structure can fit on two camels, and furniture and all other belongings - on a cart pulled by a bull.
Ger owes its strength and at the same time lightness to the materials from which it is made: wood for the frame, felt and leather. The wooden frame consists of several lattice walls - khan. The size of the yurt depends on the number of these walls.
There can be 6 or 8 of them - then this is a medium-sized ger. And if there are 12 walls, then this is a large ger, which, most likely, belongs to a wealthy owner.
At the top, in the center, a smoke hole is installed - toono. Smoke comes out through it and sunlight passes through, because there are no windows. Toono is connected to the walls with special perches - uni. The result is a cone-shaped roof.
The entire frame is covered from above with felt canvases: in summer - in one layer, in winter - in two - and then wrapped with ropes of leather or horsehair. This is done for the stability of the structure, which is constantly exposed to the raids of gusty steppe winds.
Yurt: a look from the inside
Mongolian geras lend themselves to one simple pattern: their entrance is always in the south. This is not done because of some ancient superstition, but for reasons of practicality.
The fact is that until the beginning of the 20th century, the Mongols did not use wrist watches or alarm clocks. For them, the house is a universal sundial. Thanks to the walls of a special structure, it was always possible to accurately determine the time.
The most honorable place inside the yurt is north, right opposite the entrance. There is an altar with the most precious: sculptures of gods made of gilding, silver or copper, their images, lamps and other religious paraphernalia. The most important guests are also received here.
The west side, which is to the left of the door, is traditionally considered masculine. Here is the bed of the owner of the house and his wife, as well as items necessary for truly masculine pursuits: hunting equipment, saddles, cattle harnesses, wineskins for kumis.
To the right of the door, in the east, is the female side. There is a bed of the oldest unmarried woman in the family (this may be the sister or daughter of the head of the family), near the entrance - furniture with kitchen utensils, dishes, buckets, food and other things that a woman uses in the household.
The most comfortable and warmest place in every sense of the word is in the center. There is a hearth, a stove around which all family members gather. It has a sacred meaning for everyone, and the three large stones that make up its primary base roam along with the owners and are installed first at each movement.
In addition, the rest of the beds, wardrobes, sideboard, washbasin, chests, tables are harmoniously arranged in the yurt. Felt carpets, special rugs or low chairs for sitting are spread on the floor, and all the interior decoration is replete with unusual details that are inherent in Mongolian dwellings.
Products made of wool and bright fabrics, embroidery, original ornaments, wicker items - all this was often done by the hostess with her own hands, which brought a unique comfort and originality to the house.
Wealthy people may have more than one ger. There may be yurts near the owner's house, for example, for guests or newlyweds. Their dwellings were distinguished by an impeccable white felt covering, lush interior decoration, rich carpets, and more elegant dishes.
It is interesting that the Mongols have a special reverent love for animals, real and mythical. They even have certain hours and the corresponding directions of the world, which means yurts, are named after animals.
Hare's hour has come - the east side (6 am), which means it's time to drive the cattle out to pasture. He was replaced by a dragon (8 am), and it's time to boil the milk and start cleaning. And so the whole day, until the time for the chicken comes (18 hours) - the moment of milking, after which one could rest until the next hour of the tiger (4 in the morning).
On a visit to the Mongols: how to behave correctly
Mongols are surprisingly friendly and hospitable people. They, having heard even unexpected guests, are ready to drop everything and rush headlong towards them. But if you stumble over the threshold, all the hospitality of the owners will instantly disappear - since ancient times it was believed that this is the lot of a person with bad intentions.
And these are not relics of the past, some rules should be remembered even now, when you are going to enter the Mongolian yurt:
- The weapon must be left outside the threshold, and the knife must be taken out of its sheath.
- Touching the lintel with your right hand is an indicator of good intentions.
- It is not customary to enter, not just without the owners' demand, but even quietly, inaudibly - you should definitely notify them of your arrival.
- The threshold is an important part. You can't say hello through it, talk, you can't step on it, you can't sit there. First you need to stick your head in, and then step over the threshold.
- You should not bring in empty dishes, items for working on the ground, and generally any kind of luggage.
- You cannot take out or give someone fire from the hearth or milk - it is believed that this is how happiness can go.
- Just as in Russian superstition, it is forbidden to whistle in the house - this acts as a call to demons and other unclean forces.
- You shouldn't take a photo without the permission of the owners.
Even if some rules of behavior for guests may seem senseless, ridiculous or ridiculous, it is worth honoring the traditions of another nation, respecting its culture - after all, this is precisely what mutual understanding and friendship of peoples consists in.
Conclusion
For the Mongols, a yurt is their small world. Here they are born and die, there is a masculine and feminine principle, here the tiger begins, and the chicken ends their day, here they receive guests and share sorrows and joys with their relatives near the family hearth.
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