The author in Outer Mongolia

Mongolia is a vast, sparsely-populated country which neighbours Russia and China. It measures approximately four thousand kilometres across and two thousand from north to south. The population is a tiny 2.7 million; half live in cities such as the capital, Ulan Bator. As a result, much of the country is completely untouched by human hand, with not a sign of human habitation for hundreds of kilometres in any direction.

A frozen, snow-covered river in Outer Mongolia

Scenes like this make one feel so small. The sky is boundless and the mountains massive. This is late April. Spring has not yet sprung, and the rivers remain frozen and filled with snow. The powers of nature rule supreme. In winter temperatures drop to minus 45 degrees Centigrade (minus 50 Fahrenheit) and in summer soar to plus 45 degrees Centigrade (110 Fahrenheit). The only way for the wandering nomads to survive these extremes is to live totally in tune with the rhythms of nature.

A homestead in Outer Mongolia

Sheep graze nervously – the woods in the background contain ravenous wolves. The round tent, a “ger”, to the right is made of wooden struts and covered with felt (wool). In the centre of the tent stands a fire for heating and cooking, and smoke escapes through a hole in the roof directly above it.  

A wolf-infested wood

The author (right) and guide mounted on Mongolian ponies, the type used by Genghis Khan and his Mongol Hordes to conquer half the known world in the Middle Ages. This late-April day was particularly cold – minus 15 degrees Centigrade (5 Fahrenheit). I asked my guide if we could shelter in the wood from the bone-chilling wind. He forbade it, saying that on one day during the previous week, he had ridden through the woods with a group of riders: a pack of wolves had attacked one pony, knocking the rider to the ground and devouring the pony. The rider escaped, but it was an alarming reminder of how wild Outer Mongolia still is, despite the advent of mobile phones in the cities. 

Blue sky in Outer Mongolia

The sheep grazing in the foreground give a good indication of the huge scale of the landscape. In the Mongolian language the one word “Tenger” means blue, Heavenly Father and sky. There is a great deal of Tenger in Mongolia.

A sacred site on a mountain pass in Outer Mongolia

We stopped at the top of this mountain pass, got out of the car and approached the site. In Animism, shamanism and Shinto everything is believed to have a soul – you, me, animals, trees, rocks – everything is sacred, made by the Creator of All That Is.

Here is a shrine to the mountain spirits who guard this pass, allow travellers safely through and grant them protection on their journeys. We walked respectfully round the site three times, anti-clockwise, picking up any loose stones from the ground and throwing them onto the pile, as an offering to the guardians of the pass.

A Buddhist monastery

Buddhism is enjoying a revival in Outer Mongolia now. It was nearly eradicated during the twentieth century. Starting with Stalinist purges in around 1933, an estimated seventeen thousand lamas (priests) were executed and all the country’s monasteries closed.

Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has visited Mongolia five times since 1991, most recently in 2002. In the Mongolian language the word “dalai” means “ocean”, and “lama” means “wisdom”. In around the year 1530, Altan Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan, bestowed the title “Dalai Lama” (“Ocean of Wisdom”) and decreed that Buddhism be adopted by the Mongols.

Today shamanism and Buddhism co-exist peacefully in Mongolia. There are over one hundred and seventy Buddhist monasteries operating.

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