What's It To Feel Mongolian

I must admit, I have wondered when travelling in the countryside with my favourite Mongolian family, why the expressions on their faces change as soon as they reach the Ulaanbaatar city limits. I noticed the same thing with the guys who came on the whirlwhind four Aimag tour with me earlier this year. Also, every chance they get in the summer, the family is out to the countryside. I then received a lovely email or two from a Mongolian lady living in the US. She gave me permission to reprint the content of it here. It seems to sum up what it is to be a Mongolian and why Mongolians of all people seem to have the greatest difficulty living outside of Mongolia. Alimaa noted:

"Sain, sain bain uu?

"I am glad that you are one of the foreigners who love Ulaanbaatar (UB). Though I have to admit that if I were not born and raised in UB I am not sure if I would love UB. But again UB today is not UB in a lot of senses the UB I know or the UB I grew up in. I can understand and identify lots better with people falling in love with the countryside of Mongolia. That fenceless land under the eternal blue sky that I can claim as all mine. And that is the feeling that I would never be able to replicate, alas.

"In summer of 1993, I remember at some point there were four us on a weekend hitch-hiking trip from Kharkhorin after visiting the ancient capital of the Mongolian mighty empire back to UB and it happened so that our little hike coincided with the election weekend, which meant that there were no cars going from or back to UB.

"We walked for two whole days and I remember there were sea of rolling hills all around us, not another human being in sight as far as one's eye could see and that is when I remember having that feeling of vastness, continutiy, and eternity and the feeling of owning this whole land all to myself. This land was granted, handed down to me from my fore and fore grandmothers and grandfathers. This land was mine, this sky was mine, those rolling hills were mine.

"Now that was freedom, freedom to own, freedom to love and freedom to go wherever our souls pleased to. And we had no tents, no sleeping bags, no food rations with us, we were just at the mercy of Mongol nomads' hospitality, that is if we ever happened to cross one. And of course we did, and of course we were fed well and put to sleep in some herders' warm ger.

"Now fastforward 12 years later, here I am writing an email message from my home in Northern Virginia at 2am in the morning to Mongolia!

"Speaking of Mongolia, I did visit Mongolia in the last 12 years. Three times to be exact. But you know how these visits go - short, restless, too many people in too little time, almost superficial, though. Never get to see and observe the real flow of life and struggles and beauty of the county life.

"The last time I visited UB and Mongolia was in 2001. I am hoping maybe next summer I could stay for a nice extended visit .... will have to see.

"Cheers,
"Alimaa"

And I think that about covers what it feels like to be a Mongolian in the countryside of Mongolia. Alimaa is also very articulate (as you can see) and I would hope that I can persuade to write some more, in English, about being a Mongolian abroad, or growing up in Ulaanbaatar. I will happily publish what she writes here.