MongoliaМонгол Улс

The Mongolian plateau has been home to mounted pastoralists for about three thousand years. Deer stones, carved granite slabs from the late Bronze Age, still stand in the northern valleys, and burial mounds (khirigsuur) dot the steppe. From the third century BC the Xiongnu built the first great steppe confederation and fought the Han dynasty for centuries; the Great Wall of China is, in large part, a record of that pressure. Turkic and Uyghur khaganates followed, and in the Orkhon valley their capitals and runic inscriptions from the eighth century survive as the oldest written texts in a Turkic language.

In 1206 a kurultai (assembly) on the Onon River proclaimed Temüjin as Chinggis Khaan. He reorganised the tribes into decimal military units that cut across clan loyalties, issued a legal code, and adopted the Uyghur-derived vertical script for administration. Within two decades his armies had taken northern China, Central Asia and parts of Persia. His sons and grandsons pushed into Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and southern China. Karakorum, founded as the imperial capital under Ögedei in 1235, housed envoys, merchants and missionaries from across Eurasia.

The empire split into successor states in the late 13th century. Khubilai Khaan founded the Yuan dynasty in China in 1271 and ruled from Khanbaliq, today's Beijing; the Golden Horde held the Russian lands, the Ilkhanate Persia, and the Chagatai Khanate Central Asia. When the Yuan fell in 1368 the Mongols withdrew to the steppe, where rival khans fought for two centuries. Karakorum was sacked, and its stones were later reused to build Erdene Zuu monastery in 1585.

Altan Khan's meeting with the Tibetan lama Sonam Gyatso in 1578, at which the title Dalai Lama was created, began the conversion of the Mongols to Tibetan Buddhism. The Khalkha nobles submitted to the Qing in 1691, and for two centuries Outer Mongolia was a Qing frontier ruled through Mongol princes and a powerful Buddhist church headed by the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu. Debt to Chinese trading houses and the rising number of monks shaped life on the steppe.

When the Qing collapsed in 1911, Mongolia declared independence under the eighth Jebtsundamba, the Bogd Khan. After brief Chinese reoccupation and the chaos of the Russian civil war, revolutionaries led by Sükhbaatar and backed by the Red Army took power in 1921, and the Mongolian People's Republic was declared in 1924, the world's second communist state. Under Choibalsan the purges of 1937–39 destroyed most monasteries and killed tens of thousands of people, many of them lamas. Collectivisation, the Cyrillic script and Soviet planning followed; the 1939 battle of Khalkhin Gol against Japan sealed the alliance with Moscow.

In the winter of 1989–90 young protesters gathered on Sükhbaatar Square, and the ruling party agreed to multi-party elections without bloodshed. The 1992 constitution created the present parliamentary system, Soviet troops left, and Chinggis Khaan returned from official silence to banknotes, vodka labels and the name of the airport. The years since have seen hard economic shocks in the 1990s, a mining boom in the 2010s and a constant balancing act between the two giant neighbours, often described as the 'third neighbour' policy of courting Japan, Korea, Europe and the United States.

Mongolia has about 3.5 million people spread over an area three times the size of France. Almost half live in Ulaanbaatar, and many of the rest live in aimag (province) and soum (district) centres. The Khalkh make up around four-fifths of the population; the others include western Mongol groups such as the Dörvöd, Bayad and Torguud, the Buryat in the north, the Dariganga in the south-east, and Kazakhs, who form the majority in Bayan-Ölgii. In the taiga north of Lake Khövsgöl a few hundred Dukha (Tsaatan) still herd reindeer.

Herding remains the cultural reference point even for city people. A herding household moves between seasonal camps, usually two to four times a year, with sheep, goats, cattle or yaks, horses and, in the south, camels: the 'five snouts'. Relatives in the city send cash and phones; relatives on the steppe send meat and dairy. Summer holidays mean going back to the countryside, and many urban families keep a share in the family herd.

Shamanism is the oldest layer of belief. It centres on Tengri, the eternal blue sky, on the spirits of mountains, rivers and ancestors, and on the ovoo, the stone cairns on passes and hilltops where travellers stop, walk around clockwise and leave a stone, a coin or a blue scarf (khadag). Shamans have made a visible return since 1990, especially in the north and in Ulaanbaatar, where rituals are held at the new and full moon.

Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelug school became the dominant faith from the late 16th century. Before the purges of the 1930s perhaps a third of adult men were monks and there were several hundred monasteries. Almost all were closed or destroyed. Gandan in Ulaanbaatar was allowed to reopen in a limited way in 1944 as a showpiece, and after 1990 hundreds of temples reopened or were rebuilt. Today Buddhism is the largest religion, alongside Islam among the Kazakhs, a growing Christian minority and many who declare no religion but still visit lamas for blessings.

For a visitor, belief shows up in daily gestures: milk flicked to the sky for a safe journey, a ger door facing south, the stove and altar treated with respect, a lama consulted before a trip or a wedding. Drivers honk or circle the ovoo at a pass. None of this requires participation, but following the clockwise direction and the rules of the ger avoids giving offence.

The ger is Mongolia's first architecture: a lattice wall (khana), roof poles (uni) meeting at a crown ring (toono), felt layers and a canvas cover, all tied with ropes and assembled in an hour or two. The door faces south, the stove sits in the centre, men's things lie on the west side and women's on the east, and the altar faces the door at the back. The design has barely changed in centuries because it works: it resists wind, heats quickly and packs onto a camel or a truck.

Permanent architecture came with Buddhism. Erdene Zuu at Kharkhorin, begun in 1585, combines Chinese-style halls with Tibetan elements inside a wall of 108 stupas. Amarbayasgalant, built in the 1720s–30s under Qing patronage, is the most complete historic monastery. In Ulaanbaatar the Bogd Khan Palace and the Choijin Lama temple survived the purges and are now museums; many other temples were rebuilt from the 1990s on.

The greatest Mongolian artist was Zanabazar (1635–1723), the first Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, a lama, scholar and sculptor. His gilded bronze Taras and Buddhas, with slender bodies and calm faces, are the finest work of the Buddhist world of their time, and he designed the Soyombo symbol that sits on the national flag. The Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts in Ulaanbaatar holds the best collection, alongside thangka paintings, appliqué and masks from tsam dances.

Music is the art most visitors meet. The morin khuur, the two-stringed horsehead fiddle, is the national instrument. Urtyn duu, 'long song', stretches each syllable over long, ornamented melodies. Khöömei, throat singing, produces two or more pitches at once from one voice, imitating wind, water and animals. All three are on UNESCO's intangible heritage lists, and Ulaanbaatar ensembles perform them nightly in summer; bands such as The HU have taken the sound into rock.

The Soviet period left its own layer: a planned capital of wide avenues, apartment blocks, a state opera and ballet theatre, circus and sports palace. Mongol zurag, a painting style revived in the 20th century from Buddhist traditions, shows scenes of nomadic life in fine detail. Today Ulaanbaatar has a lively contemporary art scene, while the ger districts around the city, where hundreds of thousands live in gers and self-built houses, are themselves a visible part of how the country is changing.

Mongolian food follows the herd and the season. In the cold months people eat meat: mutton above all, then beef, goat, horse and, in the Gobi, camel. Animals are slaughtered at the start of winter and the meat freezes naturally outside. In summer, when the animals give milk, people switch to 'white foods' (tsagaan idee): milk tea, yoghurt, clotted cream, dried curds, butter and airag. The balance between red and white foods is the backbone of the diet.

Fat is prized, not avoided. On the steppe it is fuel against the cold, and the fattiest cut is offered to guests. Flour, which arrived through trade with China and Russia, turns meat into dumplings (buuz, bansh), fried pasties (khuushuur) and noodles (tsuivan, guriltai shöl). Vegetables were marginal until the socialist period introduced potatoes, cabbage and carrots, and they still play a small part outside the cities.

The most festive dishes use hot stones. For khorkhog, chunks of mutton are cooked with stones and a little water in a sealed metal churn over the fire; for boodog, a goat or marmot is cooked from the inside through its own skin. The stones are then passed from hand to hand, said to be good for health. At Tsagaan Sar, families prepare hundreds or thousands of buuz in advance and serve a whole sheep's back (uuts) with a stacked tower of biscuits (ul boov).

Tea comes first in every ger: süütei tsai, green brick tea boiled with milk and a pinch of salt, sometimes with butter or rice. The guest is served in a bowl with the right hand, with the left hand touching the elbow. Airag, fermented mare's milk, is the drink of summer and of Naadam; mares are milked every two hours and the milk is churned in a leather bag or plastic barrel for days. Distilled milk spirit (shimiin arkhi) and commercial vodka carry the toasts.

Ulaanbaatar eats differently. Guanz canteens serve set lunches at low prices; Korean restaurants and convenience stores are everywhere; Russian bakeries, Japanese, Chinese and Western cafés, and a small number of vegetarian places reflect the city's connections. Many young urban Mongolians eat far less mutton than their parents, but the buuz at Tsagaan Sar and the khuushuur at Naadam are fixed points.

Naadam is the national festival, held from 11 July and now running to 15 July. It celebrates the 'three manly games': wrestling, horse racing and archery, although women compete in archery and girls ride in the races. The opening ceremony at the National Sports Stadium in Ulaanbaatar is a state event with soldiers in Mongol-empire armour and the Nine White Banners. Every aimag and many soums hold their own naadam around the same dates, which are smaller, cheaper and closer to the action.

Wrestling (bökh) has no weight classes and no time limit; the loser is whoever touches the ground with anything but feet and hands. Wrestlers wear the zodog jacket open at the chest and dance the eagle dance before and after each bout. Titles such as Falcon, Elephant, Lion and Titan are won over the years. Horse races run over 10 to 30 km of open steppe, with riders aged about 7 to 12 and horses grouped by age; the winning horse's sweat is considered lucky.

Tsagaan Sar, the 'white moon', is the Lunar New Year, usually in February, following the Mongolian calendar, which does not always match the Chinese one. On the eve (bituun) families clean the home and eat until full; on the first day people greet elders with the zolgokh greeting, holding the elder's forearms from below and exchanging a khadag scarf, then visit relatives for days, eating buuz and exchanging gifts.

Other events fill the year. The Golden Eagle Festival in Ölgii in early October brings Kazakh eagle hunters together for competitions in calling and catching. In March the Khövsgöl Ice Festival and the Thousand Camels Festival in the Gobi break the winter. Tsam masked dances are performed at some monasteries in summer. Local naadams, horse fairs and the first milking of mares all punctuate the herding year.

The seasons remain the real calendar. Families move to summer pastures, then autumn ones where they prepare hay and fatten animals, then to sheltered winter camps. A dzud, a winter disaster of deep snow or ice after a dry summer, can kill millions of animals, as in 2009–10 and 2023–24, and push herders into the city. Understanding this cycle helps explain why summer is so busy with visitors, festivals and family life, and why winter feels closed.

Ulaanbaatar holds nearly half the population and most of the jobs, universities and hospitals. Its centre has glass towers, malls and traffic jams; its edges are the ger districts, where families who arrived from the countryside live on fenced plots in gers or small houses, often without piped water or sewage. Coal and raw-fuel stoves in these districts cause the winter smog that makes the capital's air among the worst in the world from November to February; the government has banned raw coal in the city and promotes improved fuel and apartment moves.

Mining is the engine of the economy. The Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in the South Gobi, developed with Rio Tinto, and the Tavan Tolgoi coal fields send most of their output to China, which buys the large majority of Mongolia's exports. That dependence makes the economy swing with commodity prices and with Chinese demand, and debates over mining revenues, corruption and foreign investors dominate politics.

Herding is still a major employer and source of cashmere, meat and wool. Mongolia is the world's second-largest producer of raw cashmere after China, and goat numbers have grown sharply since the 1990s, which has contributed to overgrazing and desertification. Climate change is warming Mongolia faster than the global average, drying lakes and increasing dust storms and dzuds.

Everyday life mixes old and new. Families gather for weekend barbecues, basketball and wrestling are national passions, K-pop and Korean dramas are everywhere, and Facebook is the main public forum. Many young Mongolians study or work in South Korea, Japan, Europe or Australia and send money home. Services such as online banking and QR payments are widespread in the city, while herders on the steppe charge phones from solar panels next to the ger and watch satellite television.

Politics are open and noisy by regional standards: elections change governments, protests happen on Sükhbaatar Square, and the press is freer than in either neighbour, though concentrated in a few owners. For visitors, this means locals will often talk readily about politics, mining and corruption, and are usually proud of the peaceful 1990 transition.