Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog and not representative of the views of Indiana University or the Fulbright IIE program.

Cheese Kings

This Friday Mongolia and my university community will celebrate the first day of Tsaagan Sar ("white moon"), the Mongolian Lunar New Year. It has also been unusually cold here this year, though I'm still only wearing what was my spring coat in Mongolia, my nostrils never freeze on the twenty minute walk, and there's very little air pollution. All in all, very different yet still reminiscent of this time last year in Mongolia.

To get you all in the spirit of the New Year, here's a video about Tsagaan Sar that I've been using in my elementary school presentations.



A few things to watch out for:
-in the first five seconds you see a woman with a blue prayer cloth (the cloth is called a hadag, and though there are five common colors the blue hadag is considered to be the best color because it represents mongke tenger, the great sky spirit) tied to a spoon flinging milk into the air, doing what's called a tsatal to bless the land.
-at 30 seconds in, the woman puts ice on top of the ger near the door. They only do this on Bituun, the night before Tsagaan Sar, where they spend extra time cleaning and making sure everything is order for the new year. Apparently the ice is for the deer of a Buddhist deity to drink from.
-At 1:55, you can see a nice close-up of the traditional Mongolian wooden saddle (they are hard!)
-At 2:15, you see a grandmother helping her grandson put on his nice clothes for the holiday
-At 2:30, the men exchange snuff bottles
-At 2:50, you see friends and relatives come to visit. Tsaagan Sar lasts for three days, so a lot of visiting and eating goes on.
-At 3:30 they're putting out the tower of cookies, steaming those buuz (dumplings, people make hundreds sometimes thousands in the month or so before Tsagaan Sar but they can just stick them in bags outside to freeze), and preparing the mutton fatback.
-4:15 is my favorite, because you see zolgokh, the special Tsagaan Sar greeting. You place a hadag over your hands and support the elbows of your elder, showing them respect, as you ask "Amar mend uu?" (Are you peaceful?/Is there peace?)


Anyways, sar shiniin mend hurgie! Happy New Year!

Don't drive here

So after an adventurous drive up to Madison, I successfully presented the first section of my dissertation to the academic community. There were lots of good questions and discussions, and I'm very excited to dig deeper into my data knowing that there are people out there interested in reading more.


In keeping with the driving idea and my tendency to post videos/media about Mongolia, enjoy this episode of "Don't Drive Here", a reality show that looks at the roads (or lack thereof). Don't listen to his pronunciations of Mongolian words, but it is interesting (and scary)




Yeah, I would never drive there.

Things keep happening in the big wide world

Hello!

I was graciously reminded this morning that I (and this blog) have more stories to tell...if I ever updated it.
I'm beginning the dissertation writing phase, which so far means largely talking about my chapter ideas to other people in the goal of getting excited enough to start putting down words. I've gotten some good feedback on some of my framing, and I've managed to make a few people excited enough about my Mongolia as indigenous research and paper idea that hopefully they will hold me accountable to actually publish it.

But that's not nearly as fun as showing you another video insight into the weird, wonderful world of Mongolia. For my new graduate assistantship, I'm developing and teaching presentations on topics in Inner Asia. My co-worker and I have decided to combine her time in Kyrgyzstan and my time in Mongolia with the recent, local pushback in both countries against exploitation by international mining companies. So far it's been fascinating and depressing compiling sources and video clips, but I did stumble across this gem of a "safety training" video.

Oyu Tolgoi, the largest mining project in Mongolia and currently a source of great controversy, is owned in large part by the Australian-based mining company Rio Tinto. They've spent a lot of time and money on marketing themselves to the younger generations, which seems to have included making a "safety training" video in a pop music style. Furthermore, when they recite the 8 or so safety guidelines, such as the classic "make sure you have all your permits before going into restricted areas", they have the famous Mongolian rapper Quiza featured.



I especially enjoy the chorus with the loud "Hamtdaa!" (Together!). Enjoy the specialness (and the English subtitles) everybody

bright yet hazy

sitting in the seoul airport by the gate for the plane that will return me to the u.s., i look from side to side out the glass walls at the airplanes and it feels almost like we are all in a cloud...the heat and humidity combine with incheon's low hills to make the airport surrounded in a too-bright haze.

in some ways, my last few days in mongolia have felt like that...mostly pleasant, a little stressful, but somehow detached and obscured from "normal" life. i have sort of maybe meant to write, and there are still topics and experiences i wanted/want to share...but a new chapter begins today.

we'll see where it goes.

this time

This time next week, I will be on Korean Air making my way to the U.S. via the grand ole metropolis of Detroit

This time last week, I was home from set-up for Culture Naadam and not looking forward to waking up in only 4 hours...but hopeful that my visitor survey would go well and it'd get to see at least one horse race (mission accomplished)

This time twelve hours ago, I was conducting my final research interview and having a fascinating conversation about how to preserve and promote cultural diversity when it's ever-evolving and belongs first and foremost to its community.

This time in twelve hours, I will be in the office for my second-to-last day of work with my NGO, probably already thinking ahead to lunch at the French bakery.

This time (around my departure) two years ago, I was looking forward to a farewell dinner at veranda with a close friend

This time (around my departure) seven years ago, I had a farewell dinner at veranda with my field studies groupmates and a few friends, and our eyes and stomachs exceeded our remaining tugruks

This time (around my departure), I am looking forward to a farewell lunch with my friends and co-workers from the Arts Council of Mongolia, and I definitely still have enough tugruks (even if I had to pay for my own meal).

In this time and place, a lemon poppyseed cake is cooling as I relax on my gold-thread couch, illuminated by my laptop screen and an orange and purple chandelier. I have just discovered that I did not entirely escape getting sunburned during Naadam, but I have also decided that having the tips of your ears peel really isn't that painful and is kind of funny (tmi? sorry).

In this time and place, I am grateful for so many of the good times I have had, the memories I have made with the people I have met, and the lessons I have learned. It is time for this chapter to end, but not just yet :)

A story lies behind every picture

So most of this blog's readership also knows me in real-life and are my facebook friends, so I know a lot of pictures appear in both places. It is, however, easier in blog form to give a little more context about the story behind certain pictures.

Three examples,

On the second day of Naadam and of our Cultural Festival, my co-worker pulls me over to the calligraphy tent and asks if I want my name written. Since the only money I had on me was small change to pay the restroom fees, I started to explain that I couldn't afford it. "No, no", she insists "For you there isn't a charge. Let's do it now before it gets busy, we'll get your handprint and I'll have him write whatever you want". I had the option to go big (two handprints!) or more modest, and I chose the one that will frame more nicely. She helped me get a good handprint and then had him write my name and "Culture Naadam 2013" for me. The stroke he is making the picture is the "Sa" of my name.
As she waves it dry, she tells me with a good frame it will look very nice in my house and she hopes that when I see it I will remember her. We haven't always had the best working relationship, so it meant a lot to me that she recognized that this particular sort of gift would mean the most to me and that she hunted me down before things too busy and it was still possible. A very nice memory and a beautiful gift.


Somewhat similarly, this next picture also shows me with a thoughtful present and special person.

I spent a lot of time in the felt art tent during the two days of Culture Naadam since one of my closest co-workers was stationed there and because to me it was the most interesting. During lulls in visitors and while I was taking a break from the heat and from asking for survey responses, Bayanduuran would always smile and show me what she was working on, occasionally let me try for myself. I am not a talented felt-artist at all, but I came to recognize the different steps of the process and really appreciate them. One particular slow time she offered me a seat and we talked in Mongolia about our graduate studies and how her PhD process is still stuck in the writing stages. We commiserated over the pressure to constantly be publishing articles and talked about the importance to doing what you enjoy in life. It was a really nice moment that was only possible because of the time I had invested in studying her language, and it was a real pleasure to get to know her a person and just not as an friendly artist. The second day I was starting to run out of surveys and the sun was even brighter and hotter, so I just rested in the tent and started to strike up conversations with some of the international visitors to help them understand the process they were seeing. It then become almost an expectation, she would gesture to me to give my short explanation or offer me water if a big group had just come through. I didn't mind and was a little pleased about being "adopted" as a helpful part of the felt art tent. At the end of the festival she presented me with this bracelet as gift, for being so hardworking and such a nice student. It was really a pleasure getting to know her and to learn from her, and I have another nice memory to take home.



Besides "working" the festival, I was able to just enjoy the cultural performances. There were a lot of neat elements, but one of the cutest was a group of child singers. I later learned that they are a professional band in their own right, and they are all beautiful singers and were very sweet.

Here's my picture from their performance:

And here is the song they were singing



The refrain "minii Mongol" describes how "my Mongolia" is the most beautiful place in the world. Out in countryside, with the big blue sky (munkh tenger) overheard, full of clouds, on a sunny Naadam day, it certainly feels so.