mongolia

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Tell me about the camels. The

What do you admire about the Mongolian people? I admire that they take the cold and do hard work without complaining. I like their falconry because I like birds of prey and I would like one to stand on me. I like it that most of them spend their whole day with animals. I like their gers because they're different than anyone elses homes. I admire how good they are at archery.

Tell me about the Mongolian Empire. The Mongol Empire was in most of the old world during the 13th-century. The Mongol Empire got all the way to Hungary. They conquered Poland, China, Persia, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Korea, the Khmer, the Thais, and some of Turkey, but not India or Africa. The wore light-weight armor for fighting on horseback. They used arrows, lances, leather shields, sabres, and daggers. They also shot rocks, other hard things, dead animals, their own dead, and burning tar, using mangonels which are giant catapults. The European knights' armor was much heavier than the Mongols', so they could not move as quickly and they were defeated easily. The besieged cities were burned to the ground. They killed most people but saved some people as messangers so everyone would be scared of them. Once they conquered an army they took it into their army. They used whistling arrows so that people would be very scared. They practiced shooting off of their horses by shooting wild animals.
Tell me about Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan's real name was Temuchin and he married at age 9. Later he was called Genghis (strong) Khan (ruler). He lived to be 60, from 1167 to 1227. Temuchin killed his half brother at the age of 14 because he was stealing food from the whole family. He started getting followers at the age of 15 who wanted to help him in fighting. Once he was Genghis Khan he started the Mongol Empire. He fought other people like the Tanguts and other Chinese, the Kara-Khitis, the Muslims of Khwarizm, the Persians, and the Russians. But before he started the Empire he united all of the Mongol tribes, including the Kazakhs and Tartars.
Tell me about the battle for Vienna. Once the Hungarians and the Poles were defeated the rest of Europe was very scared. They thought it was the end of the world, the armegeddon. In the winter of 1241, Europe got ready to fight and they prayed. The battle never came because the Mongol leader, Ogodei Khan, died in Karakorum, their capital, and the Mongol army went back home.

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Tell me about the food. The Mongolian place that we ate was pretty good. My favorite thing was the bread rolls. They made the food by getting a really hot big piece of metal and a long wooden knife and scraping the food around on the metal until it is cooked. They call that kind of food Mongolian barbe-que. The food that I ate isn't quite like the food they eat in Mongolia. There they eat intestines stuffed with meat, sheep lungs, and sheep hearts. They eat camel, goat and yak cheese and drink very old sour curdled milk, called gurt. Yogurt is named after it! They drink arkhi which is fermented horse milk. They eat and like lots of fat. The favorite piece of fat is a fat-tailed sheep's tail. They weigh 20 lbs and they are all fat. I might not like their food but I'd try it. The hardest would be intestines.

Tell me about sports in Mongolia. Their favorite sports are horse racing, wrestling, and archery. My favorite one to do would be horse racing. Archery and horse racing probably came from soldiers practicing.

Tell me about some unique Mongolian customs. They have alot of different customs compared to the United States. They receive a gift by putting out their right hand and supporting their elbow with their left hand. An American does it by just grabbing in any way. Women have to put a hand over their mouth when they laugh. No one can kick someone else even accidently because it's considered an insult. People greet by the younger person supporting the older person's forearms. An American does it by shaking hands. They have to point by putting out all four fingers.

Tell me about the economy. Most people do herding work. They herd sheep, cows, goats, goats, and yaks, and they use horses and sheep dogs. They also do alot of coal, copper, tin, moybdenum, and fluorspar mining. They use coal in electrical power plants. But out in the steppe they use animal dung for fuel. Their country is pretty poor but not the poorest. Most people there can read. They also do hunting for meat and fur from foxes, marmots and deer. They sell a fancy kind of wool called cashmere.

Mongolia

Tell me about falconry. The Kazakhs train golden eagles to hunt marmots. I think they train them by using a lure and whirling it around and once the eagle gets it, they take it away and give the eagle a piece of meat. There's a picture in our book that shows a golden eagle that is as tall as his trainer's torso and head. They keep golden eagles from getting away by putting straps called jesses around their legs and holding the jesses. They have a big glove on their arm to keep the eagle's talons from digging in.

Tell me about Mongolia. Most of the county is made up of a large grassland called the steppe. The rest of it is made up of mountains and deserts. The name of the desert is the Gobi desert. It is really dry and really really cold. There are big bactrian camels in it. They are big and light brown. They have two humps on their back. They are much much more furry than Arabian dromaderies. There are trees in the mountains and along the rivers. But the rest of the country has no trees. To north is Russia and to the south is China. The province right to the south of Mongolia is Xinjiang.
Tell me about the people of Mongolia. They are mostly nomads that live in felt tents called gers that they can fold up and move around. They are mostly Buddhist shamanists, which is called Lamaism. They believe there are spirits in everything and they have to give offerings to keep the spirits from being offended. They call the divine the Eternal Blue Heaven and they think blue is a lucky color. They believe that to get to nirvana where everything goes away including themselves, they have to follow the 8-fold path of doing right things. Back in the old days they wouldn't wash themselves or their clothes because they thought water was a spirit and it was wrong to get water dirty. They picked maggots out of their clothes and ate them. Marco Polo and other Europeans saw that.

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Learning how to love anyone

Country of the Month by Noah Arthur

Are there Christians in Mongolia? There aren't that many. There were only five in 1990. But then Mongolia stopped being communist and they got a new constitution which allowed people to practice religions. There are more than 20,000 Christians now mostly at the colleges.

Tell me about some unique birds and animals. In Mongolia there are big furry hoofed cow-like animals called yaks. I think they probably stink. There are bactrians. There is the only deset bear in the world called the Gobi bear. There are snow leopards and Mongol horses, which are smaller and thicker than regular horses. There are not very many birders because there are not many travellers. So we couldn't find any bird pictures.

Tell me about the old capital, Karakorum. Genghis Khan's son, Ogodei, built it. Marco Polo from Europe visited Ogodei's son, Kublai, in Karakorum. Kublai moved the capital to China. Later the Chinese destroyed Karakorum. The town left over is called Kara-Khorim. There are no ruins because they built a Buddhist temple out of the ruins.

Country of the Month         Restaurant

Jan 2003 - Armenia            La Mediterranee, Berkeley
Feb 2003 - Poland              Old Krakow, San Francisco
Mar 2003 - Ireland             Kells, San Francisco
Apr 2003 - Jamaica            Jamaica Station, Oakland
May 2003 - El Salvador      Balompie, San Francisco
Jun 2003 - Nepal                Kathmandu, Albany
Aug 2003 - Turkey             Bosphorus, Berkeley
Oct 2003 - Cambodia         Angkor Wat, San Francisco
Dec 2003 - Philippines        Aroma Cafe, Concord
Jan 2004 - Saudi Arabia      Rihab's Bakery, Belmont
Feb 2004 - Mexico             El Huarache Azteca, Oakland
Mar 2004 - Mongolia          Col. Lee's Mongolian BBQ, Mtn View
May 2004 - Switzerland      Fondue Fred's, Berkeley

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What do you pray to Jesus for about Mongolia. I pray that they all will be saved by Jesus. I pray that God will bless them with things they need and good jobs. I pray to God that they won't have communist troubles again because they don't let people have the freedom to make decisions for themselves. Decisions like choosing what to buy, what to believe or worship, where to live, what job to do, and what you can say. I pray that everyone will make a good living and that they'll put more churches there. I pray that every kid will be educated.

wild mongol horses

family and their ger

inside of a ger

buddhist temple

archery

wrestling

map of the mongol empire - pink means mongol - white means not

genghis khan

kublai khan

kara-khorim today

buddhist temple at old karakorum

horse racing

genghis khan on his horse

yak

bactrian camels

sheep herding

street in ulaan baatar

buddhist priests

orient express train

mongolian soldiers

snow and a ger

camel caravan in the gobi desert

spring in mongolia

musicians

snowy, cold mountains

buddhist band