Now that I definitely have your attention, I can safely tell you that the above paragraph is just a load of yak dung. The goat in the photo was just a random goat that we encountered while hiking from the “Male Sex Organ Rock” to the road near Erdene Zuu. Three important points of note: first, the goat did not actually want to box with me, and ran away as I approached. Second, for those of you who are interested, I am wearing two pairs of wool socks and sandals in this picture. Three, I try not to make it a habit of hiking in the snow wearing only sandals and socks.

What this post is actually about is one of the two subjects that most fascinated me here in Mongolia: the relationship pastoralist peoples have with their animals (the first subject of interest being the people themselves). Unfortunately, we did not have enough time in Mongolia to fully explore this relationship and add to the vast amounts of ethnographic literature on the subject. However, during our short stay, we encountered many situations which hinted at the importance animals have to the people in Mongolia.

Golden Eagles

Mongolian Goat Boxing

November 2nd, 2013

I remember while growing up in New Mexico having only seen maybe one or two eagles. At the Eagle Festival in Olgii we saw more than forty golden eagles, all of whom were domesticated. The Kazakh peoples of western Mongolia capture young eagles after they have learned to fly and to hunt a bit from their mothers. For the next seven years, these eagles live in close proximity to their masters, being taught to return to them when called and to hunt fox and other small mammals (including wolf cubs). The Kazakhs use the skins to make their traditional winter clothing. After seven years, trainers release their eagles back into the wild where the birds continue to live normal lives.

The eagles themselves were the most impressive. They can easily weigh ten kilos, have talons capable of tearing your arm to shreds and beaks designed to tear chunks of flesh from their prey. A thick yak hide glove is required to hold one.

Although I did not take the time to research this subject, wild eagles do not seem to be endangered in the Mongolian steppes. Almost everywhere we went we saw eagles circling above, searching for small rodents scurrying from rocks to shrubs. Many of them are not in the least bit shy of humans and will fly close enough for you to clearly see their feathers, beaks and talons.

Yaks

As a kid my image of a yak was based entirely on the Canadian Kilted Yaksmen from the “Ren and Stimpy” cartoons. I have to admit that seeing a real one was actually a huge disappointment. In fact, I did not even recognize a cow that we encountered as a yak until someone pointed it out to me while hiking along the river from Olgii to go to the Eagle Festival. Basically, a yak is just a hairy cow. Unlike the highland cows from Scotland, yaks do not seem to have a hefty coat of hair covering their entire bodies. The hair appears to be more on the lower part of the body hanging down between their legs. Maybe it is for laying down in the snow during the winter...

To Mongolians the yak is an extremely important animal, providing meat, milk, transport (apparently you can ride a yak in the Gobi desert, although we did not get to do this) and dung. While in the west, many of our meals were prepared over a yak shit fire. The dung burns slowly and puts off a ton of heat, so it is particularly valued by Mongolians. However, I have to admit that it is rather smokey and the smell does not compare to a pine fire. One family served us a type of yogurt prepared from yak’s milk which was easily the best tasting milk product we had while on the steppes. While in the Orkhon Valley National Park, we picked up a bottle of yak milk from a nomadic family and some yak butter. They are more creamy in flavor than their bovine equivalents and can take a bit of getting used to.

Goats

Okay, so goats are not exactly the most exotic of animals, but they are certainly the most common beast to be seen wandering the steppes. During the communist period, nomads were required to limit their grazing animals to 70 percent sheep and 30 percent goat. In today’s free market, goats now make up about 80 percent of all animals as their hair is the source of the highly valuable cashmere wool sold around the world. This may not seem like such a bad thing, however goats have a serious impact on the environment. Basically, goats do not content themselves with eating just the grass growing on the surface of the steppes (as do sheep and horses). Instead they prefer to eat entire plants, roots and all, directly contributing to the desertification of the environment. These animals may provide a decent source of income to a nomadic family, but in an ugly turn of fate they could be an important factor to ending the nomadic way of life that makes Mongolia such a unique place in this world. Keep that in mind the next time you buy a cashmere sweater!

One Mongolian tradition is to slaughter a goat for your birthday. One of the drivers taking our group down to the Gobi turned 42 while on the road. He bought a goat from a nomadic family, slaughtered it the next morning, and cooked up the meat for lunch. I personally did not get to witness the slaughter (I was lazy in bed) but it went something like this. The goat is placed on its back and its legs are held while the butcher makes an incision near the heart, just below the ribcage. He then reaches in and pinches the arteries, blocking blood flow and killing the animal within a few minutes.

I think that was the freshes red meat I have ever eaten.

Camels

Bactrian camels are pretty cool. They have two humps, a very nasty temper and stink. The camels I saw in zoos as a kid never seemed to live up to their reputation of being able to spit. Mongolian bactrians did not disappoint. They can launch a hefty load of green cud at anyone who they feel may have insulted them in some way. Unfortunately I was unable to get any good photos, especially as I found myself backing away each time one seem inclined to show me what he was chewing.

The camels are not really domesticated in the sense of goats, sheep, horses, cows, dogs, etc. In fact they are much more wild than domesticated. In order to control a camel, the Mongolians place a strong stick through their two nostrils in such a way that the stick hurts the animal when tugged. A rope at the end of the stick allows the pastoralist to control the beast through pain. What is more, when the camels are not readily being used by the nomads (to move yurts, provide wool, etc.) they are hobbled with a leather rope between the front legs and left to graze. This way they cannot go too far from the pastoralists yurt or attempt to run away when it is moving day.

Because we were in Mongolia when most of the nomads were moving to their winter camps we actually got to see a lot of camels being put to use moving yurts down from the mountains into the winter valleys. In the Gobi we were lucky enough to see a camel being ridden for the first time, and then got to ride some ourselves. Also, camel socks are really warm. Buy a couple of pairs should you find yourself here in the winter.

Horses

One cannot write about animals in Mongolia without mentioning horses. Naturally, we saw horses everywhere: wandering the steppes and others ridden by their owners. I am sure that there are tons of books written about the relationship Mongolians have with their horses, so I will not even try to attempt to delve into this subject in this post.

Our encounters with horses included a couple of short rides. On our first ride we set out to find a Kazakh man’s goats and herd them back to his camp… They turned out to be in the opposite direction to where we looked and the poor man had to go out looking for them near sunset with a snowstorm setting in! Our second ride was guided by an older man who sang to his horses as he rode.

I did learn first hand that Mongolian horses are half wild. They are left out to fend for themselves most of the time and are not kept in stables like western horses. I experienced this this on our first ride. While attempting to put my camera into my backpack, the sound of the synthetic cloth rubbing on my synthetic jacket spooked the horse and sent him bucking. I ended up having to throw my backpack on the ground (my camera was still safe around my neck) in order to use both hands to reign him in. Although my mount never learned to trust me, we still had a fabulous time galloping through the hills!

Mongolians ferment mare's milk to make a sort of mildly alcoholic yogurt. We saw this being made by a Tuvan family in western Mongolia and finally tried some a couple of times when in the Orkhon Valley some weeks later. Tasty stuff when it is made well and is very fresh. However, some of it can have an acidic flavour that does more to remind you of a heavy night of excessive drinking…

Occasionally travellers in Mongolia will purchase a horse in order to wander the steppes at will. Personally I believe that this would be an amazing experience! However, I would suggest to anyone wanting to attempt this feat to first buy the horse and then travel for two to three weeks with a guided horse tour to both better learn how to care for the animal and to become better acquainted with it before starting off on your own. If you do try this, go in the summer. Mongolia in October is already incredibly cold…

At any rate, this is definitely being added to my bucket list.

Wild animals and some domesticated ones

I will not get into all of the animals that we encountered on the road, as this post is already quite long. I would like to briefly mention some of the wild animals we did encounter.

Pika, a type of tailless rodent, in the Yalin Am (Ice Valley)
Hawks, both domesticated and wild, almost everywhere
Eagles
Ibex while climbing the Shiveet Khairkhan sacred mountain (our guide Nurbol actually cried when he saw them)
Antelope in the Gobi desert (our driver Batraa chased one with the van)
Bright red and yellow fox
Trout in great abundance in many of the rivers (Mongolians do not fish!)
Camels
Wolves (two cubs that were taken by their mother by a Kazakh family. They were chained outside of their winter hose and will be kept and fet until they are four years old and then will be killed for their fur…)
Magpies
Vultures
Mice
And many birds that I did not recognize…

Domesticated animals also included sheep, dogs the size of wolves and cats.

Overall, it was an awesome experience!

An ancient Mongolian tradition dating back to a time before the great Khan rose to power and dominated much of the world, Mongolian goat boxing can trace its origins to the windy steps of Kharakhorum, as is evidenced in the many petroglyphs depicting this ancient sport.