LAND & PEOPLE

GEOGRAPHY

An independent landlocked country in the heart of Asia between N41° and 52° and E88° and 120°, Mongolia borders Russia (RF) for 2,202 miles (3,543 km) to the north and China (PRC) for 2,926 miles (4,709 km) to the east, south, and west. Mongolia's area of 603,909 square miles (1,564,116 sq. km) makes it the eighteenth-largest country in the world, but with a population of three million the average density is fewer than five persons per square mile (or 2 per sq. km). The capital, Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar), 4,400 feet (1,350 m) above sea level, has a population of 1.3 million.

The western and northern borders and central plateau are mountainous, the south and east flat, mostly steppe and govi (gobi), or gravel semi-desert. The highest peak, Khüiten ("cold"), rises to 14,355 feet (4,374 m) at the western junction of Mongolia's borders with China and Russia in the Tavan Bogd ("holy five") range of the Mongol Altai Mountains. The lowest point is Lake Khökhnuur (1,745 feet, or 532 m. above sea level) in the eastern plains, but the biggest lakes are in the west and north: Lake Uvs (1,446 sq. miles, or 3,376 sq. km), and Lake Khövsgöl (1,057 sq. miles, or 2,738 sq. km). The longest river, the Kherlen, 754 miles (1,213 km), rises in the northern Khentii Mountains, loops east and, via Chinese Inner Mongolia, joins the Argun tributary of the Amur (Heilongjiang, Black Dragon River) forming the Russian–Chinese border. The Orkhon, 698 miles (1,124 km), rises in the Khangai Mountains and flows north, near the Russian border joining the Selenge, which enters Lake Baikal.

Forest, mostly Siberian larch, covers about 8 percent of Mongolia, mainly on the northern mountain slopes. Some 36 percent is desert and govi, but dunes form only a small proportion. The Gobi mesas are the source of dinosaur fossils and eggs. Altan Els ("golden sands"), east of Lake Uvs, is the world's northernmost desert. The steppe, which accounts for 55 percent of the country, is where most nomads live, in ger, or circular, felt-covered, lattice-walled tents, grazing their herds of sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and camels (52 million head at the end of 2014).

Mongolia's continental climate has long, cold winters and short, hot summers. Ulan Bator's average January temperature is -40°F (-40°C) and its July average 63°F (17°C). Spring is windy and dusty; summer downpours can flood rivers. In winter frozen snow may cover pastures, so livestock cannot graze and would starve if not moved or fed emergency fodder.

THE PEOPLE

Mongols

Genghis Khan united Turkic and Tungusic "people of the felt tents" as the Mongol nation in 1206. Because of his belief in "eternal blue heaven" (see Tengerism, this page), Genghis called his people "Blue Mongols." They are born with a blue spot (khökh tolbo) on the buttocks, a common feature of Japanese and Koreans. After the Mongol Empire's collapse the heartland was incorporated in the Qing Empire of China's Manchu conquerors, the southern Mongols' territory as Inner Mongolia, and the northern Mongols' lands as Outer Mongolia. Russia expanded into Siberia, bringing the Buryats at Lake Baikal under the Tsar's rule. The Oirats, or western Mongols, were destroyed by the Qing as a political power, but remain a distinctive cultural group. The Kalmyks fled Qing China and migrated to Russia, occupying the Caspian steppes. Outer Mongolia came under Soviet control in 1921, while Inner Mongolia remained part of China. The world population of Mongols is estimated at nine million, and more live outside Mongolia than in it. The Mongol population of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region alone is more numerous, although a minority among the Han Chinese. Most Mongols living in Mongolia today are Khalkh, constituting 82.4 percent of the population (2010). The largest Mongol minorities are Dörvöd (2.8 percent) in the northwest, and Buryat (1.7 percent) along the Russian border.

Kazakhs

Living as nomads in the Altai Mountain borderlands of China in the nineteenth century, Kazakh tribes moved into western Mongolia, where they constitute the majority in Bayan-Ölgii province and a significant minority in neighboring Khovd and Uvs provinces. They account for 3.9 percent of Mongolia's population (2010). Some Kazakhs claim descent from Genghis Khan's eldest son, Jochi. The word Kazakh (qazaq), meaning "marauder," comes from the fourteenth century and is also the source of the Russian word Cossack. In the twentieth century Mongolia's Kazakhs worked in the coalmines of Nalaikh and Darkhan. Many of Bayan-Ölgii's Kazakhs are herders; some are hunters with eagles.

After the birth of democracy in Mongolia in 1990, thousands of Kazakhs emigrated to Kazakhstan, but many later returned. Mongolia's Kazakhs speak a dialect of the same Altaic language as the Kazakhs of Kazakhstan, but their speech and customs were hardly understood there, and they found assimilation difficult.

The Turkic minorities of Mongolia include the Khoton, perhaps of Uighur origin, living in Uvs province, and the Tannu Uriankhai or Dukhan reindeer herders of the Lake Khövsgöl area, related to the Tuvans of the neighboring RF Republic of Tuva.

Language

The official language of the country is Mongol, and its Khalkh dialect is spoken by 80 percent of the population. Other dialects are spoken in neighboring countries. Mongol is a Ural-Altaic language and most closely resembles the Turkic languages of some Central Asian republics and Turkey. Tibetan, Chinese, and Russian terms have been absorbed over the centuries.

Mongol is unusual in having two scripts. The Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet was adopted for everyday use after the Second World War. The earlier "Uighur" syllabary, written in vertical columns, was introduced under Genghis Khan. It was banned during the Soviet period, and revived after the birth of democracy in 1990. While Mongolia was "building socialism" after the Second World War the second language of Mongols was Russian, which was taught in all schools. Today the foreign language of choice is English.

Because Kazakh is not an official language in Mongolia, Mongolia's Kazakhs have to use Mongol in contacts with the authorities. For a brief description of languages and scripts, see this page.

A BRIEF HISTORY

The Founding State

The 2,220th anniversary of Modun Shanyui's proclamation of the Hun state in 209 BCE was decreed by Mongolian President Elbegdorj in 2011 as the anniversary of the "founding state" of the Mongols, and the Huns (Khünnü, Xiongnu) are considered the Mongols' ancestors. Our knowledge about them comes mostly from the archaeology of northern Mongolia. The Hun state disintegrated in the fourth century CE, and in the sixth to seventh centuries Turkic people ruled what is...