Tradition Edition: Mongol Travel

Besides recounting some of my activities in Mongolia, I want to have regular blog updates about different Mongolian traditions, superstitions, and cultural norms.  I am going to start with the travel traditions that I have experienced so far.

Let me backtrack a bit and share a little more about travel in Mongolia.  I have mainly spent my time in Selenge Aimag, or Selenge Province, which is where Darkhan and Sukhbaatar are located.  Darkhan is the second largest city in Mongolia, and Sukhbaatar is the provincial headquarters of Selenge Aimag, so the roads going to both were paved and pretty nice.  Darkhan is about a 4 hour drive from the capital, UB, and Sukhbaatar is about 6 hours away (so, about 2 hours from Darkhan). 

When we came to Sukhbaatar for the first time, we traveled in large Russian-style minivans, called meekers, from Darkhan to Sukhbaatar.  They can comfortably fit ten passengers, but are often filled beyond this capacity.  I have learned since this trip that there is a superstition in Mongolia where you need to stop at every shrine along the road, or otherwise you will have bad luck.  I was confused when we kept stopping along the way, but now I understand that the drivers were showing us the Mongolian cultural way to travel.  Some of the shrines were small Ovoo’s (this word translates as grandfather, but is also the word for the Buddhist shrines throughout the country.  I have lost count of how many I have seen, they are really common); other shrines were large structures.  When you are at a shrine, you are supposed to walk clockwise three times around the shrine.  If it is a rock mound shrine, you should throw 3 rocks onto the shrine as you are walking around. 

Visiting a shrine on the side of the road.

Walking three times around the shrine, plus some Buddhist prayer wheels.

An Ovoo close to the large shrine: the blue cloth wrapped around the shrine are pieces of cloth called a halbock, which is a Buddhist cloth used to honor shrines, give gifts, or place on a religious shrine in a ger.

There are also signs along the road marking the entrance into certain cities; this sign is for Darkhan, where we left to go to Sukhbaatar.

A larger picture of the shrine, Ovoo, and a nearby tree that is also adorned with more Halbocks.

A mixed herd of sheep and goats, these herds are very common around this area of Mongolia.

Driving through the Mongol countryside is extremely beautiful.  In this region of Mongolia, there are rolling hills, mountains, prairies, and the occasional river.  It is common to see herds of sheep, goats, cows, and horses grazing near the road, and you can often see one or two gers, or Mongol tents, in the distance, where the herders live during the summer. 

This past weekend, my mom told me to get ready; we were going to go somewhere.  This often happens, and I usually don’t have a clue where we are headed.  It makes every day exciting, because I never know what adventures I might get to have!  This particular day, we got into my mom’s friend’s big Land Cruiser, which I am convinced has no shocks.  We ended up going up to the Russian border (its about a 20-30 minute drive from Sukhbaatar), then continued east for a while to visit the summer camp that my brother has been at for a week.  It was my first experience driving through the countryside on unpaved “roads.”  The path was basically where multiple cars driving over have worn the grass away. In some parts the path would split into three or four different ways, depending on the quality of the available path. 

My mom's friend's Land Cruiser, the height of Mongolian car fashion!

The dirt road to my brother's summer camp, it was a pretty wild ride!

When in doubt, you can always saddle a horse and head to work that way!  This isn't too common but I see it pretty often.