Prehistory and antiquity
Sites such as
Tsagaan Agui (White Cave) in
Bayankhongor Province show that
Homo erectusinhabited Mongolia from 800,000 years ago.
[13]Modern humans reached Mongolia approximately 40,000 years ago during the
Upper Paleolithic. The
Khoid Tsenkher Cave[14] in
Khovd Province shows lively pink, brown and red ochre paintings (20,000 years ago) of mammoths, lynx, bactrian camels and ostriches, earning it the nickname "the
Lascaux of Mongolia". The
Mal'ta Venus (21,000 years ago) testifies to the level of Upper Paleolithic art in northern Mongolia, though Mal'ta is now part of Russia.
Neolithic agricultural settlements (c. 5500–3500 BC) such as those at Norovlin, Tamsagbulag, Bayanzag and Rashaan Khad predated the introduction of horse-riding nomadism, a pivotal event in the history of Mongolia as it became the dominant lifestyle. Horse-riding nomadism is first seen in Mongolia during the Copper and Bronze Age
Afanasevo culture (3500–2500 BC) which stretched to the
Khangai Mountains in Central Mongolia. The wheeled vehicles found in the burials of the Afanasevans have been dated to before 2200 BC.
[15] Pastoral nomadism and metalworking became more and more developed with the later
Okunev Culture (2nd millennium BC),
Andronovo culture (2300–1000 BC) and
Karasuk culture (1500–300 BC), culminating with the Iron Age
Xiongnu Empire in 209 BC. Monuments of the pre-Xiongnu Bronze Age include
deer stones, keregsur
kurgans, square slab tombs and rock paintings.
Although cultivation of crops has continued since the Neolithic it always remained small in scale compared to pastoral nomadism, which was first introduced from the west. The population during the
Copper Age has been described as paleomongoloid in the east of what is now Mongolia, and as europoid in the west.
[14] Tocharians (
Yuezhi) and
Scythians inhabited western Mongolia during the Bronze Age. The mummy of a Scythian warrior, which is believed to be about 2,500 years old, was a 30-to-40 year-old man with blond hair and was found in
the Altai, Mongolia.
[16] As horse nomadism was introduced into Mongolia, the political center of the
Eurasian Steppe also shifted to Mongolia, where it remained until the 18th century CE. The intrusions of northern pastoralists (e.g. Guifang, Shanrong,
Donghu) into China during the
Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) and
Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) presaged the age of
nomadic empires.
Mongolia, since prehistoric times, has been inhabited by nomads who, from time to time, formed great confederations that rose to prominence. The first of these, the
Xiongnu of undetermined ethnicity, were brought together to form a confederation by
Modu Shanyu in 209 BC. Soon they emerged as the greatest threat to the
Qin Dynasty, forcing the latter to construct the
Great Wall of China, itself being guarded by up to almost 300,000 soldiers during marshal
Meng Tian's tenure, as a means of defense against the destructive Xiongnu raids.
The vast Xiongnu empire (209 BC-93 AD) was followed by the Mongolic
Xianbei empire (93–234) which also ruled more than the entirety of present-day Mongolia. The Mongolic
Rouran Khaganate (330–555), of
Xianbei provenance, ruled a massive empire before being defeated by the
Göktürks (555–745) whose empire was even bigger (laid siege to
Panticapaeum, present-day
Kerch, in 576). They were succeeded by the
Uyghur Khaganate (745–840) who were defeated by the Kyrgyz. The Mongolic
Khitans, also descendants of the Xianbei, ruled Mongolia during the
Liao Dynasty (907–1125) after which the
Khamag Mongol (1125–1206) rose to prominence.
Middle Ages to independence
Main article:
Mongol Empire
In the chaos of the late 12th century, a chieftain named Temüjin finally succeeded in uniting the Mongol tribes (belonging to the
Shiwei branch of the Mongolic
Xianbei) between
Manchuria and the
Altai Mountains. In 1206, he took the title
Genghis Khan, and waged a series of military campaigns – renowned for their brutality and ferocity – sweeping through much of
Asia, and forming the
Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land
empire in world history. Under his successors it stretched from present-day
Poland in the west to
Korea in the east, and from
Siberiain the north to the
Gulf of Oman and
Vietnam in the south, covering some 33,000,000 square kilometres (13,000,000 sq mi),
[17] (22% of Earth's total land area) and having a population of over 100 million people. The emergence of
Pax Mongolica also significantly eased
trade and
commerceacross
Asia during its height.
[18][19]
After Genghis Khan's death, the empire was subdivided into four kingdoms or
Khanates which eventually became quasi-independent after
Möngke's death in 1259. One of the khanates, the "Great Khaanate", consisting of the Mongol homeland and
China, became the
Yuan Dynastyunder
Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. He set up his capital in present day
Beijing but after more than a century of power, the Yuan was replaced by the
Ming Dynasty in 1368, with the Mongol court fleeing to the north. As the Ming armies pursued the Mongols into their homeland, they successfully sacked and destroyed the Mongol capital
Karakorum among a few other cities, although some of these attempts were repelled by the Mongols under
Ayushridar and his general
Köke Temür.
Castle built in northern Mongolia by
Tsogt Taij in 1601.
After the expulsion of the
Yuan Dynasty rulers from China, the Mongols continued to rule Mongolia, also referred to as the
Northern Yuan. The next centuries were marked by violent power struggles among various factions, notably the Genghisids and the non-Genghisid
Oirads, as well as by several Chinese invasions (like the five expeditions led by the
Yongle Emperor). In the early 15th century, the Oirads under
Esen Tayisi gained the upper hand, and even raided China in 1449 in a
conflict over Esen's right to pay tribute, capturing the Ming
emperor in the process. However, Esen was murdered in 1454, and the
Borjigids recovered.
An image of an early 20th century
Oiratcaravan, traveling on horseback, possibly to trade goods.
The last Mongol Khan was
Ligden Khan in the early 17th century. He got into conflicts with the
Manchus over the looting of Chinese cities, and managed to alienate most Mongol tribes. He died in 1634 on his way to
Tibet, in an attempt to evade the Manchus and destroy the
Yellow Hat sect of Buddhism. By 1636, most
Inner Mongolian tribes had submitted to the
Manchus, who founded the
Qing Dynasty. The
Khalkhaeventually submitted to Qing rule in 1691, thus bringing all of today's Mongolia under
Beijing's rule. After several wars, the
Dzungars (the western Mongols or Oirats) were virtually annihilated during the Qing conquest of Dzungaria in 1757–58.
[20] Some scholars estimate that about 80% of the 600,000 or more Dzungars were destroyed by a combination of disease and warfare.
[21] Outer Mongolia was given relative autonomy, being administered by the hereditary Genghisid khanates of Tusheet Khan, Setsen Khan, Zasagt Khan and Sain Noyon Khan. The
Jebtsundamba Khutuktu of Mongolia had immense
de-facto authority. The Manchus also forbade mass Chinese immigration, allowing the Mongols to keep their culture.
Until 1911, Qing Dynasty maintained control of Mongolia with a series of alliances and intermarriages, as well as military and economic measures.
Ambans, Manchu "high officials", were installed in
Khüree,
Uliastai, and
Khovd, and the country was subdivided into ever more feudal and ecclesiastical fiefdoms. Over the course of the 19th century, the feudal lords attached more importance to representation and less importance to the responsibilities towards their subjects. The behaviour of Mongolia's nobility, together with the
usurious practices of the Chinese traders and the collection of imperial taxes in silver instead of animals, resulted in poverty becoming ever more rampant.
Post-independence
With the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Mongolia under the
Bogd Khaan declared independence in 1911. However, the newly established
Republic of China considered Mongolia to be part of its own territory. The area controlled by the Bogd Khaan was approximately that of the former
Outer Mongolia during the Qing period. In 1919, after the
October Revolution in Russia, Chinese troops led by
Xu Shuzheng occupied Mongolia.
However, as a result of the
Russian Civil War, the
White Russian adventurer
Baron Ungern led his troops into Mongolia in October 1920, defeating the Chinese forces in
Niislel Khüree (Ulaanbaatar) in early February 1921. In order to eliminate the threat posed by Ungern,
Bolshevik Russia decided to support the establishment of a
communist Mongolian government and army. This Mongolian army took the
Mongolian part of
Kyakhta from Chinese forces on March 18, 1921, and on July 6 Russian and Mongolian troops arrived in Khüree. Mongolia's independence was declared once again on July 11, 1921.
[22] These events led to Mongolia's close alignment with the Soviet Union over the next seven decades.
On January 26, 1952,
Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal took power. In 1956 and again in 1962, Choibalsan's
personality cult was condemned at the ruling
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee plenums. Mongolia continued to align itself closely with the Soviet Union, especially after the
Sino-Soviet split of the late 1950s. In the 1980s, an estimated 55,000 Soviet troops were based in Mongolia. While Tsedenbal was visiting Moscow in August 1984, his severe illness prompted the parliament to announce his retirement and replace him with
Jambyn Batmönkh.
The introduction of
perestroika and
glasnost in the USSR by
Mikhail Gorbachev strongly influenced Mongolian politics, leading to the
peaceful Democratic Revolution and the introduction of a multi-party system and market economy. A new
constitution was introduced in 1992, and the "People's Republic" was dropped from the country's name. The transition to market economy was often rocky. The early 1990s saw high inflation and food shortages. The first election wins for non-communist parties came in 1993 (presidential elections) and 1996 (parliamentary elections). The signing of the
Oyu Tolgoi mine contract is considered a major milestone in modern Mongolian history. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party renamed itself the Mongolian People's Party in 2010.
Politics
The MPRP formed the government of the country from 1921 to 1996 (until 1990 in a one-party system) and from 2000 to 2004. From 2004 to 2006, it was part of a coalition with the DP and two other parties, and since 2006 it has been the dominant party in two other coalitions. Both changes of government after 2004 were initiated by the MPRP. The DP was the dominant force in the ruling coalition between 1996 and 2000, and also an approximately equal partner with the MPRP in the 2004–2006 coalition. The MPRP won the last round of
parliamentary elections, held in June 2008.
The
President of Mongolia has a largely symbolic role, but can block the Parliament's decisions. The parliament, in response, can then overrule the veto by a two-thirds majority vote. Mongolia's
constitution provides three requirements for taking office as
president; the candidate must be a native-born Mongolian, be at least 45 years of age, and have resided in Mongolia for five years prior to taking office. The president is also required to formally resign his or her party membership. The current president is
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, a former two-time prime minister and member of the
Democratic Party. He was elected as president on May 24, 2009 and inaugurated on June 18.
Mongolia uses a
unicameral parliamentary system in which the
president has a symbolic role and the government chosen by the legislature exercises executive power. The legislative arm, the
State Great Khural, has one chamber with 76 seats and is chaired by the speaker of the house. It elects its members every four years by general elections. The State Great Khural is powerful in the Mongolian government with the president being largely symbolic and the prime minister being chosen by the parliament from among its own membership.
The
Prime Minister of Mongolia is elected by the State Great Khural. The current prime minister is
Sükhbaataryn Batbold, who assumed the office on 29 October 2009. The deputy prime minister is
Norovyn Altankhuyag. There are ministers for each department (finance, defense, labor, agriculture, etc.), and those officers constitute the prime minister's cabinet.
Foreign relations
Mongolia has embassies in
Almaty,
Ankara,
Bangkok,
Berlin,
Beijing,
Brussels,
Budapest,
Cairo,
Canberra,
Warsaw,
Washington, D.C.,
Vienna,
Vientiane,
Havana,
Delhi,
Kuwait City,
London,
Moscow,
Ottawa,
Paris,
Prague,
Pyongyang,
Seoul,
Sofia,
Stockholm,
Tokyo,
Hanoi, and
Singapore, a consulate in
Irkutsk and
Ulan-Ude, and diplomatic missions to the
United Nations in
New York City and in
Geneva.
[24]
Military
Administrative divisions
Major cities
About 40% of the population lives in
Ulaanbaatar, and in 2002 a further 23% lived in
Darkhan,
Erdenet, the
aimag centers and
sum-level permanent settlements.
[29] Another share of the population lives in the sum centers.
Largest cities of Mongolia
2008 |
|---|
| Rank | City name | Province | Pop. | Rank | City name | Province | Pop. |
|---|
Ulaanbaatar
| 1 | Ulaanbaatar | Ulaanbaatar | 1,340,000 | 11 | Sükhbaatar | Selenge | 19,626 |
| 2 | Erdenet | Orkhon | 86,866 | 12 | Sainshand | Dornogovi | 25,210 |
| 3 | Darkhan | Darkhan-Uul | 74,300 | 13 | Dalanzadgad | Ömnögovi | 16,856 |
| 4 | Choibalsan | Dornod | 38,150 | 14 | Tsetserleg | Arkhangai | 16,300 |
| 5 | Mörön | Khövsgöl | 36,082 | 15 | Uliastai | Zavkhan | 16,240 |
| 6 | Khovd | Khovd | 28,601 | 16 | Altai | Govi-Altai | 15,800 |
| 7 | Ölgii | Bayan-Ölgii | 27,855 | 17 | Züünkharaa | Selenge | 15,000 |
| 8 | Bayankhongor | Bayankhongor | 26,252 | 18 | Öndörkhaan | Khentii | 14,800 |
| 9 | Arvaikheer | Övörkhangai | 25,622 | 19 | Zuunmod | Töv | 14,568 |
| 10 | Ulaangom | Uvs | 21,406 | 20 | Baruun-Urt | Sükhbaatar | 12,994 |
Geography and climate
The southern portion of Mongolia is taken up by the
Gobi Desert, while the northern and western portions are mountainous.
At 1,564,116 km
2 (603,909 sq mi),
[30] Mongolia is the world's 19th-largest country (after
Iran). It is significantly larger than the next-largest country,
Peru. It mostly lies between latitudes
41° and
52°N (a small area is north of 52°), and longitudes
87° and
120°E.
The geography of Mongolia is varied, with the
Gobi Desert to the south and with cold and mountainous regions to the north and west. Much of Mongolia consists of
steppes. The highest point in Mongolia is the
Khüiten Peak in the
Tavan bogd massif in the far west at 4,374 m (14,350 ft). The basin of the
Uvs Lake, shared with
Tuva Republic in
Russia, is a natural
World Heritage Site. Most of the country is hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter, with January averages dropping as low as
−30 °C (−22 °F).
[31]
The country is also subject to occasional harsh climatic conditions known as
zud. The annual average temperature in Ulan Bator is 0°C, making it the world's coldest capital city.
[31] Mongolia is high, cold, and windy. It has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short summers, during which most of its annual precipitation falls. The country averages 257 cloudless days a year, and it is usually at the center of a region of high atmospheric pressure. Precipitation is highest in the north (average of 200 to 350 millimeters (7.9 to 13.8 in) per year) and lowest in the south, which receives 100 to 200 millimeters (3.9 to 7.9 in) annually. The extreme south is the Gobi, some regions of which receive no precipitation at all in most years.
The name "Gobi" is a Mongol term for a desert steppe, which usually refers to a category of arid rangeland with insufficient vegetation to support
marmots but with enough to support
camels. Mongols distinguish Gobi from desert proper, although the distinction is not always apparent to outsiders unfamiliar with the Mongolian landscape. Gobi rangelands are fragile and are easily destroyed by overgrazing, which results in expansion of the true desert, a stony waste where not even
Bactrian camels can survive.
Economy
Capital
Ulan Bator is the hub of most domestic and international trade and relations
Economic activity in Mongolia has traditionally been based on herding and agriculture, although development of extensive mineral deposits of copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten, and gold have emerged as a driver of industrial production.
[32] Besides mining (21.8% of GDP) and agriculture (16% of GDP), dominant industries in the composition of GDP are wholesale and retail trade and service, transportation and storage, and real estate activities.
[32] The
grey economy is estimated to be at least one-third the size of the official economy.
[32] As of 2006, 68.4% of Mongolia's exports went to the PRC, and the PRC supplied 29.8% of Mongolia's imports.
[33]
Mongolia is ranked as lower middle income economy by the
World Bank.
[34] 22.4% of the population lives on less than
US $1.25 a day.
[8] GDP per capita in 2006 was $2,100.
[12] Despite growth, the proportion of the population below the poverty line was estimated to be 35.6% in 1998, 36.1% in 2002–2003, 32.2% in 2006.
[35]
Because of a boom in the mining sector, Mongolia had high growth rates in 2007 and 2008 (9.9% and 8.9%, respectively).
[32] In 2009, sharp drops in commodity prices and the effects of the global financial crisis caused the local currency to drop 40% against the U.S. dollar. Two of the 16 commercial banks were taken into receivership.
[32] GDP growth in 2011 was expected to reach 16.4%. However, inflation continued to erode GDP gains, with an average rate of 12.6% expected in Mongolia at the end of 2011.
[32] Although GDP has risen steadily since 2002 at the rate of 7.5% in an official 2006 estimate, the state is still working to overcome a sizable trade deficit. The Economist expects this trade deficit of 14% of Mongolia's GDP to transform into a surplus in 2013.
[36]
Mineral industry
Oyu Tolgoi employs 18,000 workers and will be producing 450,000 tonnes of copper a year by 2020
[41]
Minerals represent more than 80% of Mongolia's exports, a proportion expected to eventually rise to 95%.
[36] About 3,000 mining licences have been issued.
[36] Mining is continuing to rise as a major industry of Mongolia as evidenced by number of Chinese, Russian and Canadian firms opening and starting mining business in Mongolia.
[12]
In summer 2009 the government negotiated an “Investment Agreement” with
Rio Tinto and
Ivanhoe Mines to develop the
Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold deposit,
[32] the biggest foreign-investment project in Mongolia, expected to account for one-third of Mongolia’s GDP by 2020.
[36] In March 2011, six big mining companies prepared to bid for the
Tavan Tolgoi area, the world's largest untapped coal deposit. According to Erdenes MGL, the government body in-charge of Tavan Tolgoi,
ArcelorMittal,
Vale,
Xstrata, U.S. coal miner
Peabody, a consortium of Chinese energy firm
Shenhua and Japan's
Mitsui & Co, and a separate consortium of Japanese, South Korean and Russian firms are the preferred bidders.
[42]
Agriculture
In 2002, about 30% of all households in Mongolia lived from breeding lifestock.
[43] Most herders in Mongolia follow a pattern of
nomadic or semi-nomadic
pastoralism. Due to the severe 2009-2010 winter, Mongolia lost 9.7 million animals, or 22% of total livestock. This immediately affected meat prices, which increased twofold; GDP dropped 1.6% in 2009.
[32]
Transportation
The
Trans-Mongolian Railway is the main rail link between Mongolia and its neighbors. It begins at the
Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia at the town of
Ulan-Ude, crosses into Mongolia, runs through Ulaanbaatar, then passes into China at
Erenhot where it joins the Chinese railway system. A separate railroad link connects the eastern city of
Choibalsan with the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, that link is closed to passengers after the Mongolian town of Chuluunkhoroot.
[44]
Most overland roads in Mongolia are only gravel roads or simple cross-country tracks. There are paved roads from Ulaanbaatar to the Russian and Chinese border, and from Darkhan to
Bulgan. Some road construction projects are currently underway — for example, construction of the east–west so-called Millennium Road.
Demographics
Since the end of socialism, Mongolia has experienced a decline of
total fertility rate (children per woman) that is steeper than in any other country in the world, according to recent
UNestimations:
[47] in 1970–1975, fertility was estimated to be 7.33 children per woman, but 2005–2010 prospects are 1.87 (4 times less).
Ethnic Mongols account for about 95% of the population and consist of Khalkha and other groups, all distinguished primarily by dialects of the Mongol language. The
Khalkha make up 86% of the ethnic Mongol population. The remaining 14% include
Oirats,
Buryats and others.
Turkic peoples(
Kazakhs,
Tuvans, and Chantuu (
Uzbek) constitute 4.5% of Mongolia's population, and the rest are Russian, Chinese, Korean and American nationalities.
[48] and
Russians.
[49] Most but not all Russians left the country following the withdrawal of economic aid and dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Languages
Today, Mongolian is written using the
Cyrillic alphabet, although in the past it was written using the
Mongolian script. An official reintroduction of the old script was planned for 1994, but has not yet taken place as older generations encountered practical difficulties.
[50] The traditional alphabet is being slowly reintroduced through schools.
[51]
The
Russian language is the most frequently spoken foreign language in Mongolia, followed by
English, though English has been gradually replacing Russian as the second language.
[citation needed] Korean has gained popularity as tens of thousands of
Mongolians work in South Korea.
[52] Interest in
Chinese, as the language of the other neighbouring power, has been growing; in fact, according to Uradyn E. Bulag, anthropologist at
Hunter College and the Graduate Center,
City University of New York in
New York City,
USA, ethnic Mongols in bordering
Inner Mongolia are displaying significant linguistic anxiety about losing their language and linguistic identity to powerful Chinese nationalistic and cultural forces.
[53] Japanese is also popular among the younger people. A number of older educated Mongolians speak some
German, as they studied in the former
East Germany, while a few speak other languages from the former
Eastern Bloc. Besides that, many younger Mongolians are fluent in the Western European languages as they study or work in foreign countries including
Germany,
France and
Italy.
Religion
According National Census 2010 among Mongolians aged 15 and above were 53% Buddhists, 39% Atheists:
Various forms of
Tengriism and
shamanism have been widely practiced throughout the history of what is now modern day Mongolia, as such beliefs were common among nomadic people in Asian history. Such beliefs gradually gave way to
Tibetan Buddhism, but shamanism has left a mark on Mongolian religious culture, and it continues to be practiced. In the three Western khanates of the
Mongol Empire, which were established on Muslim territories, the Mongol conqueror elites eventually adopted
Islam (along with other aspects of the local cultures, including the indigenous languages).
[55]
Throughout much of the 20th century, the
communist government ensured that the religious practices of the Mongolian people were largely repressed.
[citation needed] It targeted the clergy of the Mongolian Tibetan Buddhist Church, which had been tightly intertwined with the previous feudal government structures (e.g. from 1911 on, the head of the Church had also been the
khanof the country).
[56] In the late 1930s, the regime, then led by
Khorloogiin Choibalsan, closed almost all of Mongolia's over 700 Buddhist monasteries and killed at least 18.000 lamas.
[57] The number of Buddhist monks dropped from 100,000 in 1924 to 110 in 1990.
[56]
The fall of communism in 1991 restored the legality of public religious practice, and Tibetan Buddhism, which had been the predominant religion in the region before the rise of communism, again rose to become the most widely practiced religion in Mongolia. The end of religious repression in the 1990s also allowed for other religions, such as Islam, Baha'i Faith and Christianity, to spread in the country. According to the Christian missionary group
Barnabas Fund, the number of Christians grew from just four in 1989 to around 40,000 as of 2008.
[58]
Culture
Naadam is the largest summer celebration
The main festival is
Naadam, which has been organised for centuries, consists of three Mongolian traditional sports,
archery, horse-racing (over long stretches of open country, not the short racing around a track practiced in the West), and wrestling. Nowadays it is held on July 11 to July 13 in the honour of the anniversaries of the National Democratic Revolution and foundation of the Great Mongol State. Another very popular activity called Shagaa is the "flicking" of sheep ankle bones at a target several feet away, using a flicking motion of the finger to send the small bone flying at targets and trying to knock the target bones off the platform. This contest at Naadam is very popular and develops a serious audience among older Mongolians. In Mongolia, the
khoomei (or throat singing), style of music is popular, particularly in parts of Western Mongolia.
The ornate symbol in the leftmost bar of the national flag is a Buddhist icon called
Soyombo. It represents the sun, moon, stars, and heavens per standard cosmological symbology abstracted from that seen in traditional
thangka paintings.
Sports
Mongolia's
Naadam festival takes place over three days in the summer and includes
horse racing,
archery, and
Mongolian wrestling. These three sports, traditionally recognized as the three primary masculine activities, are the most widely watched and practiced sports throughout the country.
Horse riding is especially central to Mongolian culture. The long-distance races that are showcased during Naadam festivals are one aspect of this, as is the popularity of trick riding. One example of trick riding is the legend that the Mongolian military hero
Damdin Sükhbaatarscattered coins on the ground and then picked them up while riding a horse at full gallop.
Other sports such as table tennis, basketball, and association football are increasingly getting popular. More Mongolian table tennis players are competing internationally.
Mongolian wrestling is a common sport
Wrestling is the most popular of all Mongol sports. It is the highlight of the Three Manly Games of Naadam. Historians claim that Mongol-style wrestling originated some seven thousand years ago. Hundreds of wrestlers from different cities and aimags around the country take part in the national wrestling competition.
There are no weight categories or age limits. Each wrestler has his own attendant herald. The aim of the sport is to knock one's opponent off balance and throw him down, making him touch the ground with his elbow and knee.
The winners are honored with ancient titles: the winner of the fifth round gets the honorary title of nachin (falcon), of the seventh and eighth rounds zaan (elephant), and of the tenth and eleventh rounds arslan (lion). The wrestler who becomes the absolute champion is awarded the title of avarga (Titan). Every subsequent victory at the national Naadam-festival will add an epithet to the avarga title, like "Invincible Titan to be remembered by all". Beginning in 2003, the Mongolian parliament adopted a new law on Naadam, making amendments to some of the wrestling titles. The titles of iarudi and Khartsaga (Hawk) were added to the existing above-mentioned rules.
The traditional wrestling costume includes an open-fronted jacket, tied around the waist with a string. This is said to have come into use after the champion of a wrestling competition many years ago was discovered to be a woman. The jacket was introduced to ensure that only men could compete.
Mongolia's traditional wrestlers have made the transition to Japanese
sumo wrestling with great success.
Asashōryū Akinori was the first Mongolian to be promoted to the top sumo rank of
yokozuna in 2003 and was followed by his countryman
Hakuhō Shō in 2007.
Architecture
The traditional Mongolian dwelling is known as a
ger. In the past it was known by the Russian term
yurt, but this is changing as the Mongolian term becomes better known among English-speaking countries. According to Mongolian artist and art critic
N. Chultem, the
ger was the basis for development of traditional Mongolian architecture. In the 16th and 17th centuries, lamaseries were built throughout the country. Many of them started as
ger-temples. When they needed to be enlarged to accommodate the growing number of worshippers, the Mongolian architects used structures with 6 and 12 angles
[clarification needed] with pyramidal roofs to approximate to the round shape of a
ger. Further enlargement led to a quadratic shape of the temples. The roofs were made in the shape of marquees.
[61] The trellis walls, roof poles and layers of felt were replaced by stone, brick, beams and planks, and became permanent.
[62]
Chultem distinguished three styles in traditional Mongolian architecture: Mongolian,
Tibetan and
Chinese as well as combinations of the three. Among the first quadratic temples was Batu-Tsagaan (1654) designed by
Zanabazar. An example of the
ger-style architecture is the lamasery Dashi-Choiling in Ulaanbaatar. The temple Lavrin (18th century) in the
Erdene Zuu lamasery was built in the Tibetan tradition. An example of a temple built in the Chinese tradition is the lamasery Choijing Lamiin Sume (1904), which is a museum today. The quadratic temple Tsogchin in lamasery Gandan in Ulan Bator is a combination of the Mongolian and Chinese tradition. The temple of Maitreya (disassembled in 1938) is an example of the Tibeto-Mongolian architecture.
[61] Dashi-Choiling monastery has commenced a project to restore the temple and the 80 feet (24 m) sculpture of Maitreya.
Music
Musician playing the traditional Mongolian musical instrument
morin khuur
The music of Mongolia is strongly influenced by nature, nomadism, shamanism, and also Tibetan Buddhism. The traditional music includes a variety of instruments, famously the
morin khuur, and also the singing styles like the
urtyn duu ("long song"), and throat-singing (
khoomei). The "tsam" is danced to keep away evil spirits and it was seen the reminiscences of shamaning.
The first rock band of Mongolia was
Soyol Erdene, founded in the 1960s. Their
Beatles-like manner was severely criticized by the Communist censorship. It was followed by Mungunhurhree, Ineemseglel, Urgoo, etc., carving out the path for the genre in the harsh environment of Communist ideology. Mungunhurhree and
Haranga were to become the pioneers in the Mongolia's heavy rock music. Haranga approached its zenith in the late 1980s and 1990s.
The leader of Haranga, famous guitarist Enh-Manlai, generously helped the growth of the following generations of rockers. Among the followers of Haranga was the band
Hurd. In the early 1990s, group Har-Chono put the beginning for Mongolia's folk-rock, merging elements of the Mongolian traditional "
long song" into the genre.
By that time, the environment for development of artistic thought had become largely liberal thanks to the new democratic society in the country. The 1990s saw development of rap, techno, hip-hop and also boy bands and girl bands flourish at the turn of the millennium.
Media
Mongolian media interviewing the opposition
Mongolian Green Party. The media has gained significant freedoms since democratic reforms initiated in the 1990s.
Mongolian press began in 1920 with close ties to the
Soviet Union under the Mongolian Communist Party, with the establishment of the
Unen ("Truth") newspaper similar to the Soviet
Pravda.
[63] Until reforms in the 1990s, the government had strict control of the media and oversaw all publishing, in which no independent media was allowed.
[63] The
dissolution of the Soviet Unionhad a significant impact on Mongolia, where the
one-party state grew into a
multi-partydemocracy, and with that, media freedoms came to the forefront.
A new law on press freedom, drafted with help from international
NGOs on August 28, 1998 and enacted on January 1, 1999, paved the way for media reforms.
[64] The Mongolian media currently consists of around 300 print and broadcasting outlets.
[65]
Since 2006, the media environment has been improving with the government debating a new
Freedom of Information Act, and the removal of any affiliation of media outlets with the government.
[66][67] Market reforms have led to an increasing number of people working in the media year on year, along with students at journalism schools.
[66] In its 2008 report,
Reporters Without Borders classified the media environment as 93rd out of 173, with 1st being most free.
[68]
Education
During the state socialist period, education was one of the areas of significant achievement in Mongolia. Illiteracy was virtually eliminated, in part through the use of seasonal boarding schools for children of nomadic families. Funding to these boarding schools was cut in the 1990s, contributing to slightly increased illiteracy.
Primary and secondary education formerly lasted 10 years, but was expanded to 11 years. Since the 2008–2009 school year, new first graders are using the 12 year system. As such, full transition to the 12-year system will not happen until the 2019–2020 school year, when the current third graders graduate.
[69]
The broad liberalization of the 1990s led to a boom in private institutions of higher education, although many of these establishments have difficulty living up to their name of "college" or "university".
[citation needed]
Health
Since 1990, key health indicators like life expectancy and
infant and
child mortality have steadily improved, both due to social changes and to improvement in the health sector. However, serious problems remain, especially in the countryside.
[70]
The health sector comprises 17 specialized hospitals and centers, 4 regional diagnostic and treatment centers, 9 district and 21 aimag general hospitals, 323 soum hospitals, 18 feldsher posts, 233 family group practices, and 536 private hospitals and 57 drug supply companies/pharmacies. In 2002 the total number of health workers was 33,273, of which 6823 were doctors, 788 pharmacists, 7802 nurses, and 14,091 mid-level personnel. At present, there are 27.7 physicians and 75.7 hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants.
i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国/中华; pinyin: Zhōngguó/Zhōnghuá; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the most populous state in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3.7 million square miles). It is the world's second-largest country by land area,[13] and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.[14]
