Field report May 31-June 2:
We headed out again today with Chimga to finalize plans regarding gers and food, and check out the Dayan Derkh monastery. It was pretty dry and hot again. In the evening it got so smokey from a forest fire that nobody was quite sure of the location of. It felt just like August in Bozeman!
We had much more success and were able to get everything pinned down after spending a few hours visiting homes. Some people we revisited would just end up chatting for a while with Chimga and our driver and his co-pilot. Again, I had no idea what was going on, but it was fun to listen while eating my cheese curds and drinking my tea. I had the opportunity to use one of the toilets that are typical of rural Mongolia and that was an interesting experience. It was a fenced hole in the ground (the fence for privacy) with 2 planks of wood on either side for your feet. The system required squatting and rarely comes with toilet paper. It made me think Kent has a real market with his composting toilets, as almost anything would be better than the status quo.
The monastery was our next stop and Sue had the chance to meet with a man that oversaw the actual construction and with Bimba, the caretaker. While they discussed details of the monastery’s construction, I explored the area and hung out with Bimba’s kids. They were fascinated with my camera and kept talking to me in Mongolian. I think we were playing a game of jumping off the steps, but every time I tried to tell them I couldn’t understand what they were saying, they would just laugh. So I looked up how to say “I don’t speak Mongolian” in Mongolian, but by the time I had figured out how to pronounce all the sounds, Sue was finished with her meeting and the kids were heading home. It was pretty fun to play around with them anyway, and we got some great pictures.
The monastery itself is a beautiful wood building with blue and red trim and adorned with gold figures on the shiny metal roof. It’s right near the bank of the Uur River. In fact, clients at the Sweetwater Travel fishing camp (where Sue and I stayed) often visit the monastery from their boats at some point in their week stay. In the yard surrounding it there were a few trees covered in the blue scarves (some yellow and red ones to). Some trees are dead, but superstitions prevent the people from cutting them down. Next to the Monastery, there is a gated area that has some prayer wheels and a white stupa. Up on the hill above the monastery is a shaman ovo, this particular one only for men (I was informed after I said I was going to hike up to it). Its very common to see these wooded structures drapped in scarves on the tops of mountains. Locals will walk around it 3 times and throw a little offering to it for luck. The ovo’s proximity marks an interesting combination of Buddhist and shaman beliefs that define Mongolia’s culture.
After Sue’s meeting, we went back to fishing camp. It was still super hot so we took a quick dip in the river with some other camp members, which was freezing, and then had another great dinner. That night we got a beautiful performance from some local traditional Mongolian singing and dancing. Most traditional Mongolian songs are about the mother or father, I learned, but we also heard some about winning competitions and nature.
The next day we packed up and headed back to Moron, this time picking up a few other people who needed rides to various places too, so we were nice and tight with 7 people in the jeep for 5 hours. Now we’re back at the hotel in Moron and fly back to UB tomorrow! I enjoyed being out in rural Mongolia much more than I enjoy UB, so I’m a bit sad to leave, but glad we accomplished what we set out to do here. Hopefully everything else falls into place and The Tributary Fund has another great summer eco-camp for the kids here.
That’s all for now.
Grace
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