According to history, Mongolia is situated in the North-Central Asia. It can be roughly identified as being oval in its shape with the following measurements 1,486 miles (2392km) from the western to the eastern part at approximately a maximum of 782 miles, which is equal to 1259km when measured north to south. The land of Mongolia is approximately equivalent to that of the different countries that are located in the Central and Western part of Europe. It lies on the same latitude range. The capital city of the country is Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator). It is located in the north-central part of Mongolia country. In this paper I are going to look into Mongolia country in depth, look into the different features that are present in the country, and also get a look at the culture of the people who live in the country.
General Information
Mongolia is a landlocked country that is located on the northern part of Russia and the southern part of China. It is deep within the eastern part of Asia that is far from any known ocean. The country’s climatic condition is the continental climate which is marked short cool-to-hot summers and long cold winters. Mongolia has different sceneries, which include different semi-deserts, the deserts and the upland steppes, however in the northern and western forested high mountain ranges there are lake-dotted basins. The largest part of Mongolia is a plateau, that has an average elevation of about 1,580 meters (5,180 feet) above the sea level. Some of the highest peaks in Mongolia are located in the Mongol Altain Nuruu (Mongolian Altai Mountains), that are situated in the southwestern part. They are a division of the Altai Mountain system.
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Three quarters of the area in Mongolia is made up of lands with pasture, which support herds of livestock that are present in the country. Different animals such as cows, goats and horses are able to get their food and thus survive. The area that remains of Mongolia is almost equally divided into barren deserts and forests. There is a small fraction of land that is used for planting different crops and food in the country. Mongolia is one of the countries that is lowly populated with an average of population of individuals fewer than three million. There is no other country in the whole world that has the lowest population as Mongolia (Chen, 1630).
History of Mongolia
The individuals who live in Mongolia (Mongols) have a very long, and captivating history. Although, the Huns, who resided in the central part of Asia within the 3rd and the 1st century BCE are among their fore fathers. On the 13th century CE, there was the formation of the united Mongolian state of the pastoralist communities. They were made by the Genghis Khan. The successor of Genghis Khan controlled a very large empire which was made up of Russia, China, the Middle East and Central Asia. At a later time, the Mongol empire broke down and divided into separate places. From the year 1961, the Chinese Qing colonized the northern part of Mongolia.
The Qing collapsed between the year 1911 and 1912 and Bogd Gegeen, who was a religious leader from Mongolia, took over. He was proclaimed as Bogd Khan of that time, that is, the head of the state. He was able to make a great achievement by declaring independence in Mongolia. The only thing that was achieved was autonomy under China’s suzerainty. From the year 1919, different nationalist revolutionaries, with the assistance of the Soviet, made sure that they drove out different Chinese groups that tried to reoccupy Mongolia. In the year 1921, the White Russian cavalry was expelled. On date July 11, 1921, Mongolia was able to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution. The People’s Republic of Mongolia was successfully announced in the year 1924, and the capital city of Mongolia was situated on the major monastery of the Bogd Gegeen. This was later given the name Ulaanbaatar which means the ‘Red Hero’.
Starting the year 1921 to the end of the 1980s, Mongolia was a country that comprised of one party that was bound to the Soviet Union. Mongolia was able to fully receive economic, technical and military help from the Soviet Union and was able to closely and keenly follow Soviet guidance when it came to the different economic and political matters and thus successful building of the strongest socialist society. At the beginning of 1990, the different forces that demanded for change came to an end (Zhenkai, 29). The oneness of the political power by the communist that promoted and made sure changes were made gave rise to free multiparty elections, a new constitution, a coalition government, very great religious and cultural freedom that encouraged and laid more insistence on the different Mongol traditions. A new middle position was identified when it came to international relations and a drastic change to a market economy was identified and actively used.
Ethnicity and Languages in Mongolia
According to the history of the Mongols, Mongolia is a homogenous country when it comes to its ethnicity. Within Mongolia, the Khalkha is made up of only a fifth of the whole population of Mongols. The other groups of Mongols include Dorbed, Bayad, Dariganga and Buryat. These groups account up to half of the population present in Mongolia. The remaining fraction is made up of Turkic speaking individuals. Others who live in the western part of the country include Kazakhs, Tuvans and the Tsaatans. There are very small numbers of Chinese and Russians who live in the towns of Mongolia. The government has paid much attention in making sure that the different languages and cultures in Mongolia are protected and respected (Chaliand, 312).
Religion in Mongolia
Originally, the Mongols engaged in different shamanic practices, but after sometimes they came to positively adapt to Tibetan Buddhism, which was made up of a mixture of the shamanic elements. This happened during the Qing period. In the 20th century, the control of Mongolia changed from the hands of Qing to the incarnation of Tibetan Javzandmba who was a spiritual leader and belonged to the highest clergy. The new regime that came into existence in the year 1921 decided to divide the different religious and feudal structures with the different secular and socialist forms (Abrahms-Kavunenko, 356).
The ruling party, that was in existence in the 1930, was able to espouse atheism, it closed and destroyed most of the monasteries, took the different landholdings and livestock of the people. It killed the different monks and individuals who refused by all means to renounce their different religious practices. Despite all the killing and persecution, in the 19th and 20th century people started identifying themselves with different religions such as Muslim, Buddhism, Shamanism, Christianity and others were atheists.
Settlement Patterns in Mongolia
The settlement pattern in Mongolia can be categorized as having sharp pattern contrasts. For instance, most of the areas that are better watered are densely populated, such as ten people per square mile. On the other hand, most of the areas that are deserted are scarcely populated or totally uninhabited by people. The northern-central part of the country is densely populated because it contains a lot of Greenland in form of pasture, different crops that are planed can thrive easily, there are more industries that have been established and there is the best form of transport that is used by individuals living in the area (Kotkin, 213).
During the period of Socialists, most people who were nomads were encouraged to adapt to a permanent way of life and settlement. In the 19th century, there was an increased number of rural unemployment and this made most of the people to move from the rural areas and settle in the urban centers. Most of the houses built in urban areas are permanent. The number of these houses is larger when compared to the permanent houses that are in the rural areas. When it came to the 20th century, many towns grew at a high rate because most of the people were moving from the rural areas into the urban areas to seek for employment and other basic needs for their families. The two important towns in Mongolia are Darkhan, which is between the northern border of Mongolia, and Ulaanbaatar. The other town is Erdenest, which is on the western side of Darkhan. The first stones to the development of Darkhan were laid down in the 1961, and within a period of 20 years the population of the town had increased to 50,000.
Demographic Trends
After a period of stagnation among the people of Mongolia, in the 20th century the population of individuals living in the country increased. This was as a result of high birth rates when compared to death rates in the country. Different improvements that were done in the different department such as sanitation, healthcare and different medical facilities had a great impact to the mortality rate of the infants. The most important thing was that the government was constantly encouraging different families to increase their number of children (Wang, 78). Near the end of the 20th century, the demographic changed and there were high numbers of young people in the country. This continued into the 21st century.
Economy of Mongolia
At the start of the 20th century, most of the people who were living in Mongolia engaged in subsistence farming of livestock. Most of the herders who belonged to poor family took most of their time taking care of livestock that belong to richer families. Individual who belonged to the richer category include most of the government officials and those who lived in the Buddhist monastery estates. Individuals who belonged to this group, their wealth was measured based on the number of livestock that one had (Wallace, 55).
Most of the people living in Mongolia depend on agriculture and livestock rearing as their way of living and acquiring different economic status. There are different mining activities such as the mining of copper that take place in the major towns. Originally the main budget of Mongolia was supported by the Soviet Union. However, the economy of the country dropped drastically when the Soviet Union came to an end. Due to this different international organization decided to chip in and provide some assistance to the country. The different foreign companies were allowed to develop different mining sites that could positively contribute to the economy of the country, for example, through the paying of tax, and offering employment opportunities to the native youths who were unemployed.
Cultural Institutions
Most of the cultural institutions are in or near the capital Ulaanbaatar. The Green Palace was once located in Bogd Khan. It was made in such a way that it resembled the Chinese style of making their temples. At the moment there is a museum situated in the country that is made up of a collection of different diverse sculptures that represent the goddess Tara that was made in the 17th century. In the museum, there are different sculptures of animals and other main curiosities, including the pornography of Bogd Khan. Different materials that represent the Buddhist religion are also sculptured in the museum. The exhibition of different sculptures present in the museum is usually carried out on different occasions.
Sports and Recreation Activities
The most popular and most conducted sport activity in the traditional ways was wrestling. Most of the people showed up in the arena and engaged in the fighting activities. They used to wear red and blue jackets that distinguished them from the cheering audience. The different contests were usually conducted under the tight supervision of seconds. Some of the titles that were awarded to the winners included: lion, elephant, or Falcon (Sultana, 100).
Another sporting activity that was conducted included archery. It was comprised of bowmen who were vying for the title of marksman. The main target in this sporting activity was a line of cups covered with leather that were laid on the ground. The bows that were used in the activity comprised of the old compound type.
The third sporting activity that was valued was horse racing. This is due to the fact that most of the people in Mongolia reared them. This sport involved most of the young boys and girls who went for cross-country covering a distance of around 32 kilometers. The distance covered during horse racing depended on the age of the participants who were actively involved in the sporting activity (Pederson, 4380).
Wrestling, archery and horse racing were usually considered as men games. Currently some of the modern sporting activities include motorcycling, freestyle wrestling, playing table tennis, boxing, engaging in pistol shooting, and gymnastics. There is also the participation of individuals in golf. Mongolia citizens and the country at large have been participating in the Olympic Games, but they have never managed to win any gold medal.
Conclusion
Mongolia is a very interesting country that any individual would want to have close look at the different activities that they participate in, including the different cultural practices that they engage in. The number of individuals based in this country is few and manageable to any individual who is willing to conduct any scholarly work in the country. Studying a small population is easier when compared to a larger one. The different practices carried out by the Mongolians are not difficult to understand or comprehend. For instance, their main economic activity is farming and animal rearing and this has not changed over a long period of time. The country of Mongolia is very unique in the way it is divided and the different features that are present in it. Part of the country is Greenland and has a lot of pasture, and the climate there is favorable for growing different crops and other agricultural activities. However, the other side of the country is deserted and uninhabited. There are also other natural features that draw people to the beauty that the country has such as mountains, plateaus and other wetlands. Mongolia is a small, but very attractive country. Mongolia was my main topic of study because of its unique population.
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