Mongolia: A homogenous kind of place.

Here's a picture of an adorable Mongolian toddler, just because.

Mongolia doesn't have a lot of ethnic drama. Fully 90% of the population is ethnic Mongol and the biggest minority population is Kazakh--a whopping 4%--largely concentrated in the western provinces and around Ulaan Baatar.  According to all the sources I looked at, there is very little strife between the Mongols and Kazakhs. Not a lot of mixing, but definitely a cordial relationship (this is confirmed by both Mongols and Kazakhs, too, not just Mongols (252).

The large population of Kazakhs in Mongolia might seem surprising. After all, they don't share a border. But here's a map that shows the relationship between the Kazakhs and Mongolia.

Kazakhstan and Mongolia sort of touch fingers, and geographically it's easy to cross between countries. And while Kazakhstan was a part of the Soviet Union travel between the two countries was nothing at all. It's much more difficult now, but since Kazakhstan's independence people migrate much more than they used to, to take advantage of business or educational opportunities.

But while there is little strife within Mongolia's people, this doesn't mean there isn't ethnic and racial tension, mostly between Mongolians and the Chinese. The history between Mongolia and China isn't very cordial, and I mentioned in my last post that Mongolians don't tend to like the Chinese all that much. The thing is, in the current economic climate, Mongolia and China have a closer relationship than ever in modern history, and that is resulting in insecurity and definite wariness of Mongolians about China's motives. They don't want to become part of China again.

So, we've almost caught up with the book now. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about next time, but you can expect another post tomorrow night or Saturday, and I'm pretty sure it will have something to do with the human geography of Mongolia. See you then!