Urbanization. From nomads to city dwellers.

The picture above of a Mongolian man herding his animals from his motorcycle links to a gorgeous photo essay at The Boston Globe. The photos are part of Taylor Weidman's Vanishing Cultures Project, which documents threatened indigenous ways of life, including the Mongolian nomad.

In the video at the end of my last post, there was an elderly woman who lived in a ger on the edge of Ulaan Baatar. She lived in a traditional nomadic tent in a permanent place, without running water at the edge of a huge city in a community of other former nomads.  This is happening a lot. Mongolia's urbanization rate is almost 3%. Nomads are giving up their way of life for a variety of reasons.

•  Political pressures. For a culture that is so reliant on agriculture, Mongolia's governments have put a lot of pressure on nomads, making it harder and harder to move around, putting strict limits on where and when nomads can move, changing nomadic routes that had been established for generations. This pressure is by no means a current issue, it's been happening since Chinese rule starting at the end of the 15th century. It became worse with the collectivism of the Socialist regime of the 20th century, though. (The Geography of Mongolia and its Cultural Effects lists my sources for this information--very interesting reading!)

• Meteorologic pressures. The climate in Mongolia is changing. Winter storms are getting worse, which threatens herds. Also, droughts are now a more common occurrence, which threatens pastures. With the harsher winds, the topsoil is being blown away, which means that the Gobi desert is expanding. Even relatively mild winters can have localized storms that can be devastating to a nomadic family. 

• Economic pressures. Nomads are poor, and the more stress put on the herds (due to other pressures) the less money they make.  They have shown themselves to be adaptable, using solar power and tech gadgets when they have them, but there's also the fact that globalization has come to Mongolia, too, and its economy is diversifying.  There is less money in agriculture and more in mining, with multinational corporations running mines and smaller local mines also operating. 

 Next time at Each Meadow, watch out, I'm going to talk about the traditional crafts of Mongolia and folk culture.