Day Two in Mongolia was filled with excursions to the Terelj
National Park two hours outside the city. On our way there we stopped by a
super market to pick up water and I got a clean version of the Mongolian Meat
Market featured in the Youtube Vice
channel Fresh Off The Boat with Eddie
Huang. On the ride over, I was “stuck” in the van with our professors and
learned about the dissemination of bureaucracy as a system of governance across
the world. We spoke about how bureaucracy was first developed in China and when
the Mongols invaded China they adopted the system of governance and spread it
not only to Russia, but the world. The conquering of Russians by the Mongols
took Russia from modernization in only a western context and pulled them into
Eastern Systems.
That Mongolian Meat Market...do you know what this smells like?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_QXZM_9RYs
Skip to 1:37
As we drove further away from Ulaan Bataar, there were
smaller cities all confined in the surrounding mountain range. It reminded me
of all the different cities in close proximity to one another in the Bay Area
with San Francisco in the center. In the backyard’s of many of the small houses
that we passed stood gers. This was an interesting way by which Mongolians
reconciled their past traditions from their nomadic lifestyle with the
realities of urbanization.
We made two main stops once we entered Terelj National Park.
The first was to go horseback and camel riding. I was the first to jump on the
two humped Bactrian Camel the critically endangered camel species native to
Mongolia and the Gobi Desert. After I jumped on the back, the camel rose to
stand in waving me backwards and forwards like a piece of paper in the wind.
The ride was fun, but felt very unstable and the camel was also covered in
flies. I wish I could have taken the camel trotting around on my own, but after
a quick loop around the owner set me back down on the mound. After the camel
ride I decided to trot around on the horses with my classmates. This was
also a first, but felt much more natural because the horses felt stable and
lower to the ground. The horses were pretty reluctant to doing what we wanted
because they could tell that we were tourists and did not know how to handle
them. Regardless it was a great experience riding on the horses and trotting
around the hills like a mongol.
Trot Trot Trot
After our horse riding session, we ventured out to a monastery.
We rode in the van to the base of the hill to East Asian style (門) gate. About three quarters up the side of the
mountain we could see a monastery that overlooked the entire valley. As we made
our way up the hill, there were signs with Buddhist quotes in both Mongolian
and English, catering to the international audience that visited the temple.
After we walked up the path, we climbed up a staircase and arrived on the most
spectacular view of the valley. I then
ventured inside the temple that had the most colorful display of red green blue
and gold. The bright colors were a bit overwhelming for my taste, especially
after enjoying the natural beauty of the hillside. I sat in the corner and lost
myself in the chants of a local making his prayers and then took my turn in
front of the bodhisattva and made my prayers. In that moment the world slowed
down to pause as I had the chance to reflect on what mattered most to me. The
first thing that came to mind was the health and happiness of the most amazing
woman in my life, Mako Mishima Richardson. After that moment, the gears of
life, ambitions and schedules set into motion and I made my way down the hill.
I never considered myself religious, but after spending my time in the
monastery in Terelj and in the Church on the Blood in Ekaterinburg, I realized
the positives of religion on the individual for moments of self-reflection.
The Single Pause in the GSP
Monastery atop a Terelj Mountain
After the park, I went
home and took a much-needed nap and we went out for dinner and drinks with
Anton’s friend from Sciences Po in France. Ilene is a native Mongolian who
spent time in the states and I had incredible conversation with her with the
chance to pick her brain about Mongolian culture. She was the perfect person to
answer our questions because she currently interns in the Ministry of Culture,
Sport and Tourism and was young and relatable. In Mongolia, she said that there
are interesting incentives to retain the culture like subsidies for those
living outside the city and tax incentives for those who are having multiple
children. If a woman has four children she gets an award and if she experiences
the miracle of birth three more times, a total of SEVEN children, she receives
a presidents badge. The policies are meant to stimulate the economy and build a
population that can hold its own against the regional powers of Russia and
China.
The conversation then
took an interesting turn to a discussion about Mongolia’s relationship with
China. Mongolians simply do not like the Chinese. Calling someone Chinese in
Mongolia is considered a derogatory term and goes beyond Mongolian economic
dependence on China and into a relationship fraught with tension over the past
millennia as seen in our favorite Disney Film, Mulan. There are also large
amounts of foreign investment from Japan and Korea. I asked her what the Mongolian
perception of Japan was and she told me that the Mongolians like the Japanese
and their Foreign Direct Investment, but there was a fear that in the future
when the Japanese islands sank into the Japanese would invade Mongolia because
of its high elevation. We then discussed American FDI in Mongolia and the
presence of Arizona Iced Teas and KFC. Arizona Iced Teas are as easy to find as
Coca-Cola Products and KFC is the only American fast food chain present in
Mongolia. There is no McDonalds or Burger King, which raises the question about
why in a carnivorous society like Mongolia that doesn’t even consider chicken and
fish to be real meat, the burger chains that had globalized successfully cannot
or do not want to enter the Mongolian Market.
Arizona Iced Tea - The Unlikely Invader
The conversation was
one of the most dynamic and engaging since arriving in Mongolia and interestingly
enough, it was on the rooftop lounge called New York New York that overlooked
the skyline of Ulaan Bataar.
Ulaan Bataar
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