DESTINATIONS
by a woman dressed in a magnificent
silk cloak and riding a silver-coin-
encrusted saddle. Upon greeting me
she dismounted, brought a camel to
its knees, and pulled back a sheepskin
on a side-basket to reveal a tiny
newborn baby.
I was humbled by the thought that
this woman trusted her animals with
what was most precious to her. The
meeting left me with an enduring
image of the symbiosis with which
nomads live with the land and its
creatures – a kind of camaraderie
that helps ensure a sustainable way of
life in a climate that can range from
–50°C to 50°C in a single year.M
ONGOLIA IS A vast nation,
dominated by the steppes
to the north and the Gobi
Desert to the south. It is landlockedand has an average altitude of 1580m,
making it one of the world’s highest
countries. Between the deserts are
lakes, both salt and freshwater.
In the decade since my
encounter with the caravan family,
I have watched the nation’s capital,
Ulaanbaatar, transform beyond
recognition from a relatively quiet,
Soviet-era town, to a heaving series
of traffic jams and an expandingthicket of high rises. This is a result
of Mongolia’s unprecedented mining
boom, which has seen its economy
become the world’s fastest growing
in 2011. Although, even in the face
of this rapid change, elements of
Mongolia’s nomadic lifestyle prevail in
the growing urban landscape around
Ulaanbaatar, where gers are found
between the crumbling Soviet-style
buildings, I can’t help but feel nervous
for the future of the nomadic ways in
western Mongolia.
Then again, only two or three
days ride south from my favourite
deer stone lies the semi-autonomousSteppe empire. Today some three billion
people – such as these Kazakhs in Bayan Olgiy- live in lands conquered by Ghengis Khan and
the Mongols. The Mogol empire stretched from
China to Iraq and from Poland to Indochina.
Even in the face of
change, elements of
Mongolia’s nomadic
lifestyle prevails in
the urban landscape.
106 Australian Geographicag0914_mongoliaP106 - 100 2014-08-07T16:02:52+10:00