Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, between Russia and
China. Territorially almost four and a half times larger than
Germany, the country is the least populated country in the world
with only around three million inhabitants. More than 40 percent of
the country's population lives in the capital Ulaanbaatar. The
majority of the population are Mongolians, the slight majority of
whom follow Mongolian Buddhism.
The national territory covers
most of the Mongolian Plateau. Due to the nature of the soil and the
climate, agriculture can hardly be practiced in Mongolia. The
landscape is dominated by grassy steppes, with mountains to the
north and west, and the Gobi Desert to the south. The most important
economic sectors are nomadic livestock farming and mining. The
country is one of the ten countries richest in raw materials in the
world.
Excavations in the Gobi show that Homo erectus lived
in what is now Mongolia 500,000 years ago. Even before the beginning
of the Christian era, equestrian nomads such as the Xiongnu or
Xianbei united to form large tribes. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded
the Mongol Empire, which stretched across Asia and into Europe and
was the largest territorially contiguous empire in human history.
His grandson Kublai Khan conquered China and founded the Yuan
dynasty. After the collapse of this empire, Buddhism increasingly
dominated the state. During the Qing Dynasty, “Outer Mongolia” was
created as a Chinese province in 1644 on the territory of today's
Mongolian state.
From 1912 the region gained extensive
autonomy rights. In 1921, the Soviet Union established a puppet
government, which proclaimed the Mongolian People's Republic in
1924. During its existence, it was completely dependent on the
Soviet Union politically, militarily and economically. It was only
during the revolutions in 1989 that the country made the peaceful
transition to a democratic parliamentary system of government. On
February 12, 1992, parliament sealed the end of the communist system
by adopting a new constitution. Since then, Mongolia has been a
stable democracy. According to the 2022 Democracy Index, Mongolia is
the only democracy in the world completely surrounded by clear
dictatorships. The Mongolian population is particularly concerned
about the relationship with China, as they are aware of the lack of
chances in a possible military conflict and are becoming
increasingly dependent on this threatening backdrop.
The most important city and the only one with international air and
rail connections is Ulaanbaatar. The city had a million inhabitants in
May 2007 and is not only the seat of the government and practically all
administrative institutions and authorities, but also the only city that
corresponds to the concept of a large city in the western sense. All
trade with foreign countries is carried out here. The station has a
container loading station, which is also a kind of duty-free area where
goods are pre-cleared for import.
Other cities:
Khovd -
Probably the greenest city and the most important city in the west is
Khovd. Located in the middle of a valley in the Altai Mountains, the
city enjoys abundant water resources, and Khovd is also the seat of a
university to which students from the western, southern and eastern
regions travel to study foreign languages (English, Russian), politics,
economics or geology to study. This is also the headquarters of the WWF,
which has a lot of animal and nature conservation projects running in
this region of Mongolia.
Dalansadgad - The largest city in the south
is Dalansadgad, which lies in the middle of the Gobi Desert in a
foothills of the Altai Mountains.
Darkhan - Northeast of Ulaanbaatar
is Darkhan. Darkhan is the third largest city in Mongolia and is close
to the (presumed) birthplace of Genghis Khan. There are large coal
deposits near Darkhan, which are mined there in opencast mines.
Erdenet - About 400km northwest of Ulaanbaatar lies the country's second
largest city, Erdenet. Here is one of the world's largest molybdenum
deposits and one of the largest copper mines in Asia. Revenues from
copper mining account for about 70% of Mongolia's state revenue, which
underlines the importance of this city (300,000 inhabitants). Molybdenum
is also a sought-after precious metal that is used to make stainless
steel and high-temperature superconductors.
Hovd - A historic town at
the crossroads of traditional Mongol and Kazakh culture. Hovd is located
about 50km from Mongolia's highest mountain, the "Friendship Peak",
Nairamdal Orgill
Bayan Ölgii - The city furthest to the west is
Ölgii, where import/export trade with Kazakhstan is mainly handled. This
is also the coldest city in Mongolia with an average temperature of -0.5
degrees and an altitude of 1700 meters above sea level. NN. The city is
surrounded by mountains up to 3000 meters high, which are easy to reach
and climb. There are two nature reserves and Lake Uvs nearby.
Ondorkhaan - is located 340km east of Ulaanbaatar and can be reached by
bike within 4 days on a well-developed road.
Ulaangom
Uliastai - a
developing industrial city in the middle of Mongolia. Gold deposits are
suspected nearby.
Practically all of Mongolia's sights are outside the cities. Every
valley, every mountain peak, every pass road can represent a special
attraction.
Perhaps the most interesting place is Gurvan Saichan
National Park near Dalansadgad. One of the largest sites of dinosaur
bones in the world can be found here. It is a sandstone formation that,
through natural erosion, reveals these dinosaur bones, which employ
research teams traveling all over the world.
Half a day's journey
west of Dalansadgad lies a glacier in the middle of the desert and three
hours further (approx. 100 km) is Khohgoryn Els, the largest sand dune
in the world with approximately 120 km long, 30 km wide and 200 meters
high.
In the north of Mongolia lies Lake Khovsgol, one of the
largest inland lakes in Mongolia, surrounded by a nature reserve that
extends to the Russian border. Geologists suspect that in the past the
lake was connected to Lake Baikal. The lake is well suited for hikers,
and there are also tours that take place over several days, mainly on
horseback. The Saatan live in the northeast, they are reindeer nomads
whose area can only be visited with a special permit.
200km south
of Lake Khovsgol lie the hot water springs of Jargalant. Unfortunately,
the nature park is located off the beaten track and can practically only
be reached by organized tour. Not far away are the Orkhon waterfalls,
which are also worth seeing.
Anyone who has mountaineering
ambitions can let off steam in the area around Khovd and Bayan Olgii.
Mongolia's highest peak is a day's journey from Khovd and is just over
4,000 meters high. Beginners prefer to scramble around the edge of Bayan
Olgii, where you can do without special equipment.
The most
beautiful monastery is probably the Amarbayasgalant monastery in the
Selenge mountain steppe, between Darkhan and Erdenet. It is accessible
by car or after four days of hiking along the Orkhon River from Darkhan.
The active monastery is open to visitors. Next to the monastery you can
also spend the night unannounced in two ger camps (yurt camps). Costs
around 25 euros with good full board (as of 2011).
EU and EFTA citizens, Swiss and Turks do not need a visa to enter the
country for stays of up to 30 days. However, this regulation is
temporarily limited until December 31, 2025, except for Germans and
Turks. Entry visas are issued by the respective Mongolian embassy or
consulate. For non-tourist stays lasting longer than one month, the
applicant must contact the immigration authorities in Ulan Bator at
least six weeks in advance. After a positive decision has been issued, a
visa must be applied for with the relevant certificate from the
responsible consul, which is usually issued within five working days.
Bicycle travelers in particular have a bit of a hard time with the
30-day stay/visa because the extension is usually only done in Ulan
Bator, and otherwise the only route for a 30-day visa is the north-south
road from Russia to China. For stays of more than thirty days, you are
also required to report within the first week of your stay. You must
also deregister one week before departure. The immigration office, which
is also responsible for extending your stay, is close to the airport and
can be reached relatively easily with bus lines 11 or 21. The buses are
marked “Niseh” or “Нисэх”. Cost approx. 30-40 US$.
Responsible
are:
In the Federal Republic of Germany: Consular Department of the
Embassy, Hausvogteiplatz 14, 10117 Berlin. Email: berlin@mfa.gov.mn.
Processing time 5 working days. Also for non-Germans living in the
Federal Republic of Germany (with registration certificate). Germans who
entered the country without a visa can apply for an extension beyond the
permitted 30 days, but must submit this application during the first
week of their stay. Anyone who wants to stay between 31-90 days needs a
visa, which requires an invitation from Mongolia. Price: more than 30
days 1 or 2 entries: €45 or €60 each + €10 service fee.
“A visa
is required for departure and onward travel to the People's Republic of
China, which must be obtained from the responsible Chinese diplomatic
mission before the trip. It should be noted that, according to current
Chinese entry law, the visa application must be submitted in the country
of citizenship or habitual residence (which must be proven in the visa
process). This means travelers in Mongolia cannot obtain a visa for
China through the Chinese Embassy in Ulaanbaatar.”
The Mongolian
honorary consuls in the Federal Republic of Germany are not authorized
to issue a visa.
In Austria it is not permitted to submit
applications by post; appointments must be made at the
Consular
section of the embassy. Tel.: +43-1-535 28 07 (15), email:
konsulat-wien@mfa.gov.mn. Processing time 7-10 days. Price: same as
Germany.
In Switzerland: Section consulaire de l'Ambassade, Chemin de
Mollies 4, 1293 Bellevue. Tel.: (0)22 - 774 19 74.
Approval from
the Mongolian immigration authority is required to issue a visa with a
residence permit of up to 360 days. This can also be obtained from a
private or business host in Mongolia and a processing time of 1-2 months
can be expected.
It should also be noted that the inviter finds
himself in a file and cannot invite any number of people, but a maximum
of 3 private individuals per year. Otherwise, according to the
immigration authorities, it is also possible to leave the country 6
times in a row and come back with a fresh visa. However, the nearest
embassy can be found in Almaty, Astana, Irkutsk or Beijing, with each of
these places being about 2 days away by train.
If you would like
to stay in Mongolia for significantly longer than 30 days for academic
reasons, you should arrange this through the partner university. To
start a business, capital of up to US$ 100,000 must be deposited and you
will then receive a three-year investor visa.
Work visas are
generally only issued as “entry-exit” visas. The inviting employer must
then complete the formalities and pay 20% foreign tax on the salary.
When a fixed-term employment contract expires, the residence permit
expires.
e-Visa
Since May 2019, business and tourist visas,
those for multiple entries of up to 30 days and those for stays of 31-90
days can be applied for electronically at the Mongolia Immigration
Agency as an e-visa to issue a visa on arrival at least 14 days in
advance. This service is primarily aimed at residents of countries where
there is no Mongolian representation.
Mongolia is served inexpensively with connections from Turkish
Airlines and Air China. Flights from the Mongolian civil air transport
company MIAT, as well as Aeroflot, Air Haian and Air Korea are
significantly more expensive.
From Germany, MIAT offers direct
flights from Berlin and (seasonally) Frankfurt.
Overall, MIAT
offers the shortest flight time of around seven to eight hours and the
only real direct connection from Germany. MIAT's service, food and
drinks are excellent. You fly to Germany with machines that are
maintained by Lufthansa Technik.
Arrival and entry by train is possible from Moscow or Beijing. This
is the Moscow-Beijing route of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The
Irkutsk-Ulaanbaatar and Ulaanbaatar-Beijing sections are particularly
worth seeing.
If you start your journey in Ulaanbaatar, you only
pay a fraction of what is charged in Moscow or Beijing
(Ulaanbaatar-Moscow approx. 100-120 US dollars in a couchette). It is
recommended to travel on a Mongolian train as it is superior to Russian
and Chinese train compartments in terms of service, value for money and
hygienic conditions.
If you also want to leave by train, it is
worth considering booking this section first in Mongolia, as the prices
are slightly cheaper here.
Tickets for the international trains
are not available in the train station itself, but in a railway building
slightly away from the station. It's best to get the Trans-Siberian
tickets and those for the train to Beijing from the hotel or guesthouse.
But if you don't get tickets, you don't have to panic, trains run every
day to Samin Uud/Erlian (from there you can take a bus to Beijing) or to
the Russian border. Some trains only run from UB to Irkutsk, but from
there there are connections to Moscow several times a day.
Aside
from the Trans-Siberian crossing through Mongolia, the railway also
offers local trains that run between Samin Uud and UB, or from
Ulaanbaatar to the Russian border. These trains stop at every town that
has a train station.
There are now several small branches from
the main route, the most important of which are the route to Erdenet and
Darkhan, which are also served daily. The other branches can be reached
once or twice a week.
There has been a railway line between
Choibalsan and Russia that has been put back into operation since 2008.
It should be possible for foreigners to cross the border there.
Only the following crossings are available at road border crossings
for foreigners (with tourist visa type J): Mongolian-Russian border
(daily 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.): Altanbulag/Kjachta (Selenge Aimag) and
Tsgaan-Nuur/Tashanta (Bayan Ulgii Aimag) . Mongolian-Chinese border:
Zamyn-Üüd/Erenhot (= Èrlián or Ereen; Dornod Aimag), daily from 9 a.m.
to 7 p.m. Border crossings are closed on public holidays; During
festivals such as New Year, even for several days. There are a number of
other border crossings, but they are only open to citizens of
neighboring countries or require permission from the Russian and
Mongolian authorities, border troops and others specifically for the
western border, which means it is almost impossible.
You can take
a bus to Ulsanbaatar from Russia or from the Chinese border town of
Erlian. There are also bus connections from Ulasnbaatar to all parts of
the country, although only the surrounding cities of Darkhan, Erdenet,
Arvaicheer and Bayanhongor are served almost daily. Darhan and Erdenet
are also served by large, comfortable buses, and cities further away are
served by twelve-seater Russian-made minibuses.
There is a
northwest route that leads to Bayan Olgii to the west via the cities of
Arvaiheer, Uliastai, Khovd and a southwest route that leads to Bayan
Olgii via Arvaicheer, Bayanhongor, Altai, Khovd. Other destinations can
sometimes only be reached after waiting several days or not at all.
The southern route serves Mandalgov and Dalansadgad (towards China),
while the northern route has no major cities.
In the individual
cities there are official bus stations (Sochid Teerin Gasar), where
buses leave for the nearest aimag capital in the late afternoon, usually
between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. You can cover perhaps 300 to 400 kilometers
per day, which is between five and 16 hours of driving. The journey will
only begin when around 12-15 passengers have gathered, if necessary not
until the next day or the day after. Otherwise, every big city has a
market district, near which bus and jeep drivers are always waiting for
passengers.
Foreigners can currently only travel by bicycle via the border
crossings mentioned in the “Bus” section.
Crossing the
Russian-Mongolian border on a bicycle is prohibited, although exceptions
have been reported (as of 2016). It is expected that you will use a
motor vehicle. It is often possible to travel with a truck.
There
are “taxis” at the crossings that offer transfers for prices between €10
and €20 per person with a bike (2016) and are usually called by the
officials themselves. Using their services is also an advantage as they
receive priority processing and can usually help with the formalities.
There is no inland shipping for passengers; the only shipping connection that Mongolia has from abroad is via Lake Khovsgol in the north of the country and is used for the exchange of goods and the transport of raw materials in the ice-free period between June and October.
The 0.0 alcohol limit applies to drivers. Private taxis charge fancy
prices from foreigners, even more than in other Central Asian countries.
Hitchhiking: Most people in Mongolia don't own a car. Cars are only
driven in the inner cities, but they would hardly pass the TÜV in
Germany. Regardless, in Ulaanbaatar you can simply stand on the street
and try to stop a car. You will then be taken to your destination for a
comparatively low price if you speak Mongolian or Russian. You should
negotiate the prices in advance. For the route from the airport to the
city center you pay around 5000 T (as of 2006). This price has increased
significantly, even if you want to hitchhike from the airport to the
city, you have to calculate around 15,000 T (as of 2016).
Bicycle: Cycling in Mongolia is quite difficult. The bad roads and the
sometimes poor water supply make every cycling trip an adventure. There
are a few well-developed roads, one leads directly from northern Kyakhta
via Ulaanbaatar south to Samiin Uud. Other roads that are also practical
for cyclists - i.e. asphalted - lead to Erdenet and Bayanhongor.
Everything else is piste, desert or steppe. Spare parts can be found on
the local market in the provincial capitals, but not outside of that.
There are 40-50 km of concrete slab roads around the aimag capitals, and
occasionally the road is also asphalted. Further inland you can only
expect leveled desert roads, if at all.
Local transport: You have
to differentiate between the local transport system in Ulaanbaatar and
the rest of the country. In Ulaanbaatar, buses run every minute from 6
a.m. to around 10 p.m. There are also electric bus routes on the main
streets. There are also minibuses that go to the more distant parts of
the city. These minibuses are also available in larger cities.
Long-distance transport: Since only 2.5 million people live in Mongolia,
there is no strong infrastructure for public transport. All
long-distance bus routes are operated by family businesses, which often
only operate a single bus. The Aimag capitals can all be reached by
plane once or twice a week. There are also private airlines that provide
helicopters or small propeller planes and scheduled flights to the
larger cities in the interior. There is a state-regulated transport
system for bus travel, but the further you get from the capital, the
less these regulations apply and the more adventurous the loads and
filling conditions are. Smaller cities can only be reached, if at all,
with private jeeps, whereby you either wait until there are enough
passengers or you have to pay the not inconsiderable travel costs alone.
You can take the train north and south of UB and to Erdenet, once or
twice a day. This requires time - sometimes four hours for 100
kilometers - and tolerance for overcrowding - with up to 20 people in
the 8-person compartment.
You can also ride motorcycles for
shorter distances. Recently, more and more people are riding bicycles.
There are now also car-free Sundays, one of which was April 29, 2007.
For tourists, there are relatively well-organized tours from travel
companies based in Ulaanbaatar. These travel agencies offer trips into
the interior of the country for individual travelers and small and large
groups, with accommodation, meals and English-speaking support also
provided.
The national language is Mongolian. Communication is rarely possible
in German, Russian or English. If none of that works, a smile always
helped.
Mongolian belongs to the Ugro-Altaic language family and
is divided into around ten dialects, some of which are spoken in
neighboring countries. The learning effort is relatively high because
this language has no vocabulary in common (except for a few foreign
words) and is completely different from other languages in terms of
sentence structure and grammar.
Mongolian is written using a
slightly expanded Cyrillic alphabet, of which there is also a Latin
transliteration, and there is a vertically written written language, the
Uighur script. This was used in Mongolia until the mid-1920s and is
still used today in the autonomous province of Inner Mongolia (China).
The Uighur script is difficult to apply to the colloquial language
spoken today because it has remained in use virtually unchanged since
the 14th century, but the language has evolved.
In Mongolia,
Mongolian, more precisely the Khalha dialect, is used as the official
language, and all lessons at state schools and universities are given in
Mongolian, so that this dialect is also a colloquial language for all
ethnic groups living in Mongolia.
Oirat and Buryat dialects are
spoken in the north, and the entire west of Mongolia from Bayan Olgii to
the border is Kazakh-speaking. Virtually all older Mongolians also speak
or understand Russian, and Manchurian dialects are widespread in the
East.
Teaching at the university was switched from Russian to
Mongolian a long time ago, and there are also efforts to introduce
English as a foreign language. Due to active trade relations with Russia
and China, the two languages will retain their importance in trade.
Ulaanbaatar has everything, including imported goods and high-tech
items. In some cases, payment by credit card is even offered. The prices
are almost always excellent and non-negotiable. You can also pay with
foreign currency and then get the change back in the local currency.
Outside Ulaanbaatar, every aimag capital has market districts where
you can stock up on food, clothing and simpler technical equipment.
There are also smaller shops, which usually have a selection of drinks
and prepackaged foods and offer the odd artisanal item. Cash payment is
the order of the day here, card terminals are completely unknown.
Many cosmetic items are imported from Europe, Japan or China, as are
all technical items, and western prices can also be expected for them.
Items of clothing can be purchased very cheaply, and custom-made items
are also possible for relatively little money.
The large
selection of German foods is surprising. You can find the well-known
products from Edeka, Rewe and Co. in all supermarkets and also in small
shops. In the modern shopping centers of UB, e.g. in the State
Department on Peace Avenue, there are organic shelves with almost
exclusively German brands (Naturkind, Gut and glad...).
This is a topic that books could be written about. Since the culture
is nomadic, like in many other nomadic cultures, meat and dairy products
form the main basis of the diet.
Mongolian cuisine consists
predominantly of meat, animal fats and dairy products. As a European,
you are initially shocked by the taste of the products; everything
tastes somehow “highly concentrated”. But that's only because we as
Europeans no longer know it, or have been weaned off the habit by the
food industry, that meat or milk or yoghurt have their own taste. Here
in Germany everything is pasteurized, homogenized and standardized. In
Mongolia, a pig not only lives for six months and doesn't get
concentrated feed from a retort, but it lives outdoors and only eats
herbs and spices all day long. You can tell that in this meat, no matter
what animal you eat. You can prepare meat there without spices and it
still has taste. It's the same with dairy products or vegetables
(potatoes, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes and onions, everything else is
imported from China and only tastes like water). Anyone who has ever
eaten or drunk Mongolian tomatoes or tomato juice made from Mongolian
tomatoes will never forget this experience. Of course the tomatoes don't
look like our supermarket tomatoes, but the taste is unique.
Typical Mongolian dishes:
Boozz (dumplings filled with meat and
steamed)
Hushuur (as above only fried)
Zöwin (fried noodles with
carrots and cabbage)
Lapscha (Mongolian noodle soup)
Hutzei soup
(glass noodle soup with meat, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, meatballs and
bacon)
Borzock (sweet dough fried in fat)
Aaruul (dried milk or
also called concrete curd)
Milk is also generally boiled in
Mongolia, and for this reason it is completely harmless in the central
part of the country. Conversely, there is neither cheese nor yoghurt. In
the Kazakh region of Bayan Ölgii, raw milk products such as buttermilk,
cheese and yoghurt are still available in many places. Since the people
there also value quality, the wholesomeness of these dishes is
guaranteed.
There is a clear trend towards more vegetarian and
vegan food in Ulaanbaatar. In the most central square, Sukhbaatar
Square, there is a vegan restaurant from the Loving Hut chain with
dishes that creatively combine traditional Mongolian cuisine and vegan
preparation.
Always boil or filter water from the tap.
Always have some liquor
with you, as the European body is not used to these natural foods, and
take a “double” after every meal. It is also a common custom to drink
vodka together. Only this part of Kazakhstan gets by without alcohol.
Never refuse food or drink or invitations to do so, especially in the
countryside with nomads.
If you want to try Airag (fermented mare's
milk), always take enough toilet paper with you. The obligatory diarrhea
after the first consumption is not harmful, but healthy, like mare's
milk in general. With an Airag treatment, the diarrhea can last for a
week, then just drink enough (especially mare's milk)!
If you've
eaten enough, there should always be something left on your plate. Then
the hosts know that it was enough.
There are practically all the entertainment options in Ulaanbaatar
that are also available in other major cities. Among the discos, only
the UB Palace and the club The Strings in the Bayangol district should
be highlighted. There are many smaller dance halls that are located in
the city center and in the university district and only offer enough
space for around 50 people.
The beer gardens of Khan Bräu and
another brewery can be found in the city center, and there are many
other options, e.g. E.g. the Great Mongol next to the State Circus or
the Irish Pub.
Almost every evening there are events in the State
Opera and frequent performances in the State Theater. There are many
smaller clubs, restaurants and pubs along Peace Avenue that are usually
open until midnight.
The Tengis Cinema is located in the city
center, where mostly dubbed films from India or blockbusters are shown
in three cinema halls.
You shouldn't walk alone at night because
you'll often come across drunk people who can be quite disruptive. Since
public alcohol consumption outside of restaurants was banned in spring
2007, this phenomenon has also decreased significantly.
Ulaanbaatar offers several large hotels where you can expect western
comfort for western prices. This means in particular clean bed linen,
electrically generated hot water (since May 2007 the public hot water
supply has been completely switched off), telephone and internet,
restaurants, cleaning and, above all, peace and quiet.
For budget
travelers, there are many facilities called guesthouses, which offer
shared accommodation for as little as $4 per night. Single or double
rooms can be expected here for $15-20 per day.
A few private
individuals also offer accommodation, which is usually a furnished room
for $10 to $20 a day.
Comfortable hotels are unknown in the
interior of the country. Even the most expensive hotels are filthy, hot
water is only available in winter and clean toilets are a rarity. You
also have to expect that as a foreigner you will occasionally be shown a
different price list.
There are motel-like establishments in
Khovd, Bayanhongor and Bayan Olgii for around $5 per night. You shower
in public shower houses, where you can always find a hairdresser. In
some cities it is better to take a tent and camp outside the city
because the cheapest accommodation in the provincial towns is populated
with eight to twelve chain-smoking drunken Mongolians.
Camping is
allowed nationwide and you can usually have peace and quiet. In Khovd,
the Khovd Hotel should be mentioned, in Bayan Olgii you can stay quite
well in the Basteau, and in Altai there is the Altai Hotel, where you
can have a little discussion in Mongolian and then no longer pay the
tourist price.
Gercamps are open in many places in summer. Here
you sleep in traditional Mongolian tents, you can also prepare your food
there and there are decent toilets and showers. This is probably the
nicest way to stay overnight outside of Ulaanbaatar if you don't want to
camp.
Mongolia is a relatively safe country. Violent crime is rare, and
tourists occasionally fall victim to pickpocketing or scams. Even when
traveling inland, there is no risk of criminal attacks other than
pickpocketing.
The only danger you face in the evening is being
harassed by drunks. Women should not travel alone outside the capital
and should not take sensitive valuables such as camcorders or laptops
with them. This in turn is a recommendation because of the largely
non-existent roads when traveling overland in buses or jeeps - only what
can survive a day-long ride in an off-road vehicle belongs in your
luggage.
Only use boiled tap water and only consume well-cooked or well-cooked
foods. Water offered by nomads in the steppe is often taken from the
rivers, which serve as drinking water for the numerous livestock, which
defecate and urine there. Since temperature differences of 30 degrees
can sometimes occur between day and night, you should think about
suitable clothing and harden yourself accordingly.
The food
offered in restaurants is all safe, although not always tasty.
Simple medications can be obtained without a prescription from
pharmacies in Ulaanbaatar, but staff are not expected to speak English.
You MUST bring special medications, insulin and other things with you.
Since even Ulaanbaatar cannot be expected to have Western-standard
hospitals, you should always have operations carried out at home and
take out appropriate insurance.
In recent years, over 600 cases
of brucellosis have been recorded each year. This bacterial, febrile
illness can be transmitted through contact with sick animals (sheep,
goats, cattle) or consumption of undercooked dairy products. Be careful
with raw milk and raw cheese. Mongolia is one of the few countries where
the plague is endemic. Here it is transmitted to humans from diseased
marmots (marmots are a delicacy in the host country).
Cases of
rabies have been described. For trekking and/or bicycle tours where
immediate medical care and vaccination cannot be ensured within a day,
especially after animal bites, a preventative rabies vaccination is
recommended.
The classic Mongolian mentality is very much focused on saving face,
integrity and honor. Traditional norms that come from the nomadic
tradition, such as hospitality, have a very strong impact in daily life.
This means, for example, that you can never take spontaneous photos
of people. Mongolians like to be photographed, but first they want to
get ready, look in the mirror again and then be photographed with all
their relatives dressed up. It goes without saying that when you enter a
ger, especially when visiting nomads, you shouldn't start snapping
wildly.
You should be very polite towards official bodies in
particular and never show impatience. This is usually counterproductive
and is not understood by the other side. On (planned) visits you should
always take a few small gifts with you. This is expected and will be met
with a bit of misunderstanding if you fail to do so. Even in everyday
life you have to accept that certain things don't happen immediately, or
at least not today.
When visiting spontaneously, as often happens
when traveling, you should at least master the basic forms of
politeness, which means taking an hour, drinking a lot of tea, trying
one or two vodkas and some food. Refusing a drink or food completely is
considered very rude - if you don't like vodka, you'll do the deed by
sipping it.
If you are planning longer trips or stays, you should
definitely get to grips with the language. This helps with some problems
or at least solves them if you can ask the right questions and don't
have to rely on a translator. Most Mongolians know how difficult it is
to learn their language and are very grateful if you can have a little
conversation with them.
If you want to keep in touch with the outside world, you can rely on
a variety of different options in Ulaanbaatar. There are Internet cafés
on every street corner where you can write emails, make phone calls and
chat via Skype or Messenger, or call home with relatively cheap
providers.
Cell phones are also possible here, but they are
expensive, three to five euros per minute with a German cell phone
contract. So get out the German SIM card and buy a MobilCom prepaid card
for around 12 euros. You can then top it up, a minute of mobile phone
calls costs around four cents if you call Mongolian numbers and around
40 cents per minute to Germany. There is also a special foreign credit
account with which you can get down to 20 cents per minute. The largest
top-up amount is 10,000 Tugrik, which is around six euros and you will
then be credited with 11,000 units.
Anyone traveling inland will
not find any telephone booths. Sometimes it is helpful to get help in
difficult situations or to reserve rooms. The mobile phone network is
relatively well developed and is available in all major cities. Buying a
card is completely unbureaucratic, but the numbers expire after two
months and you cannot be called from abroad.
The name of the country comes from the ethnonym
"Mongols", the origin of which, in turn, continues to be the subject of
controversy. So, a number of researchers - in particular, N. Ts. Munkuev
- notes that the ethnonym "Mongol" is first found in Chinese sources
"Jiu Tang shu" ("The Old History of the Tang Dynasty", compiled in 945)
in the form of meng-wu shi -wei - "Mongols-Shiwei", and in the "Xin Tang
shu" ("New history of the [dynasty] Tang", compiled in 1045-1060) in the
form of men-wa bu - "tribe of men-wa". In various Khitan and Chinese
sources of the 12th century, the names of meng-ku, manguli, manguzi,
mengu guo were also used for these tribes. D. Banzarov connected the
ethnonym "Mongol" with historical geographical names: the river Mon and
Mount Mona. According to Hasdorj, the people who lived in the nearby
places of Mount Mon in Ordos acquired the name Mon. The word goal was
added to it, as a result of which the name Mongol arose. Gol is a
Mongolian word meaning "central, main". A version was also put forward,
according to which the name Mongol arose by combining the Mongolian
words monkh (“eternal”) and gal (“fire”).
The Mongolian scientist
Zh. Bayasakh suggests that the name Mongol appeared as a result of a
modification of the Mongolian word mongө (“silver”). The connection
between the concepts of Mongol and mongo (“silver”) is mentioned in the
Chinese texts “Hei-da shi-lue” of 1237; they say that the population of
Great Mongolia called their state the "Great Silver Dynasty".
As
B. R. Zoriktuev notes, from the many interpretations of the term Mongol,
a version stands out about its origin from the Tungus-Manchu word mangmu
/ manggu / mangga, meaning “strong, resilient, tight”. According to L.
Bilegt, the name Mongol is the Tungus-Manchu tracing paper of the
Mongolian word kiyan, which translates as “a large stream flowing from
the mountains to the lowlands, stormy, fast and strong; rushing
current." This version was further developed in the works of A. Ochira.
500,000 years ago, the territory of what is now Mongolia was
inhabited by Homo erectus. Back then the climate was milder than today.
In the valley of the Tolbor River, a tributary of the Selenga, stone
tools dating back almost 45,000 years were discovered at the Tolbor-16
site, the oldest evidence of the presence of anatomically modern humans
(Homo sapiens) in what is now Mongolia. Cave paintings in the Khovd
province date from the later Stone Age, i.e. from 40,000 to 12,000 years
ago. In the Mesolithic, around 12,000-7,000 years ago, people began to
use bows and arrows and keep pets.
The first written evidence
comes from Chinese chronicles. In the Bronze Age, around 2500 BC. to
1000 BC, the culture of the region developed quickly due to the numerous
deposits of copper in Mongolia. At the same time, however, the climate
continued to cool down, making it too cold to farm, and the people here
ultimately became livestock-raising nomads.
In the third century
BC, the Xiongnu tribe invaded the southern Chinese states. He was
successfully repulsed, and in response to frequent Mongol incursions,
Emperor Qin Shihuangdi began building the Great Wall of China. However,
steppe peoples such as the Xianbei, Tuoba, and Rouran repeatedly
breached the wall and plundered Chinese territories, at times even
building their own empires and acculturating.
The name Mongols probably came into being during the Tang Dynasty
(7th to 10th centuries). In the 8th century, Turkic peoples, especially
the Uyghurs, took over supremacy, and in the 10th century the Kitan
founded the Liao dynasty, which lasted until 1125.
In the 12th
century, Temüjin managed to unite the numerous Mongolian tribes that
were at odds with each other and form a state out of them that could
compete with its powerful neighbors. Around 1206 he was recognized as
leader of all Mongols under the title of Genghis Khan. He raised a
powerful army, to which, with a few exceptions, all men between the ages
of 15 and 70 were enlisted, taking care to include men from different
tribes in all groups. What was also new was a strictly hierarchical
organization of the army and the specialization of the soldiers.
To support his military organization, he introduced innovations such as
a census, a communications system using flags, and a mounted post.
Spiritually, Genghis Khan followed Tengrism.
The capital
Karakorum was built in what is now central Mongolia. It lay at the
crossroads of two important trade routes; the Mongols encouraged people
from other parts of Asia to settle in Karakoram. The residents had
religious freedom, and mosques, churches and Buddhist temples were built
in the city.
The Yassa Code of Laws issued by Genghis Khan
contained traditional Mongolian laws but was supplemented with new laws
that required the expansion of the Mongol Empire. The laws imposed
punishments for liars, required the return of lost property, restricted
alcohol consumption, and established a social safety net for the
survivors of slain Mongol warriors. A largely uniform legal system
contributed significantly to the Pax Mongolica from the late 12th
century to the 14th century.
Before his death, Genghis Khan had
already divided his empire into four khanates. His son Chagatai was
given control of the southwestern part of the empire, which included
Afghanistan, Turkestan and central Siberia. His grandson Batu gained
power over Central Asia and founded the Golden Horde there. Pol Uri was
given power over Mongolia and Ögedei was entrusted with rule over China
and East Asia. Ögedei Khan managed to further expand the empire and
expand its territory south and west. When Ögedei died twelve years
later, his armies were in southern China and at the gates of Vienna. His
successor Möngke conquered most of southern China and the northern part
of what is now Vietnam. In 1261 Kublai Khan became his successor. Kublai
was not only a talented military leader, but also a far-sighted ruler.
He promoted trade and shipping, the sciences and introduced improvements
in Chinese agriculture. Under his rule, the Mongolian script was
developed and in 1280 he moved his winter residence to Dadu, now
Beijing, where he founded the Yuan dynasty. Although the conquest of
Japan failed twice, the Mongol Empire reached its peak of power under
Kublai Khan. However, the succession to the throne remained unclear
after the death of each ruler, and the struggles for power damaged the
territorial integrity of the empire.
After Kublai Khan's death,
the Mongols were unable to maintain their power.[60] Even after Kublai
Khan, the Mongol Empire still had the institution of the Great Khan,
although he was no longer fully recognized by all khanates. The last
great khan to rule all Mongolian empires was Timur Khan (until 1307).
Afterwards, there were repeated tribute payments from the other khans to
the respective great khan, especially to Toqa Timur, as well as similar
gestures of submission and solidarity, but in reality the political
fortunes of the Mongol Empire after Timur Khan were largely
decentralized. In particular, the khans only supported each other - or
their great khan - only to a limited extent in military actions;
Soldiers were often only sent symbolically. In this respect, for most of
the time from 1307 onwards, the Mongol Empire was more of a
confederation of states similar to the Holy Roman Empire, under more
formal than actual leadership by the Great Khan, than a unified state in
the modern sense.
Despite a lack of political unity, cohesion
within the Mongol Empire was still clearly evident even after 1307. It
manifested itself, among other things, in the legal system, the postal
and communication system (Örtöö and Païza) and the common art and
cultural assets, especially writing and language. This means that the
unity of the Mongol Empire is comparable to that of other large empires
of the late Middle Ages and early modern times.
As before the time of Genghis Khan, the Mongol tribes repeatedly
attacked the Chinese Empire, which prompted the rulers of the Ming
Dynasty to further expand and strengthen the Chinese Wall. Numerous
fights between the Mongolian tribes began, instigated by China. As a
result of a long war between the two most important Mongolian tribes,
the Oirats and the Chalcha, the Oirats were expelled from what is now
Mongolia. During the reign of Altan Khan, Tibetan Buddhism began to
become the state religion of the Mongols.
Before that, Buddhism
had been one of several religions practiced in his empire. At the same
time, the Manchus rose to become the dominant power east of what is now
Mongolia. In 1634 they defeated Ligdan Khan, and from 1644 onwards the
Manchurian Qing dynasty was founded, in whose government numerous Mongol
officials also worked. More efficient weapons were introduced, which the
mounted Mongols could not fight with bows and arrows. However, nomadic
Mongolian society was not equipped to produce such weapons itself. The
borders of the Mongol Empire thus began to narrow. Both Outer Mongolia
and Inner Mongolia, which is now an autonomous region of the People's
Republic of China, were opened to Han settlement in the early 17th
century. Outer Mongolia increasingly came under the influence of the
Russian Empire. The entire Mongolian highland was divided into so-called
banners, whose head was appointed by the Chinese imperial family.
Buddhism led to the emergence of permanent settlements around
monasteries and became an influential power. Mongolia remained
relatively peaceful and stable until the beginning of the 20th century.
It was an impoverished province with fewer than 500,000 residents, often
deeply in debt to Russian and Chinese traders. Taking advantage of the
collapse of the Chinese Qing dynasty, the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu
declared Outer Mongolia independent in 1911 with Russian support. From
1912, Mongolia gained extensive autonomy rights. In 1915,
representatives of Russia, China and Outer Mongolia signed the Treaty of
Kyakhta, under which Outer Mongolia received some autonomous status but
remained subject to Chinese sovereignty.
After the October Revolution in Russia, the National Chinese seized
the opportunity and fully reintegrated Mongolia into the Republic of
China in 1919. In the course of the Russian Civil War, part of the White
Army under the leadership of Roman von Ungern-Sternberg moved into Outer
Mongolia in 1920, occupied the country and tried to fight the Red Army
by advancing into Russian territory. On March 13, 1921, Ungern-Sternberg
proclaimed an independent monarchy and nominally installed Bogd Khan as
head of state. On the same day, Sükhbaatar and Choibalsan, who were in
the Soviet Union, founded a communist counter-government and marched
into Mongolia on July 3, 1921 with the 400-man Mongolian People's
Revolutionary Army along with 10,000 Russian soldiers from the Red Army
and quickly occupied Urga . On July 11, 1921, the Mongolian People's
Revolutionary Party (MRVP) again proclaimed the independence of Outer
Mongolia. Ungern-Sternberg was extradited to the Soviet Army and
executed. Bogd Khan remained formally the head of state; It was only
after his death that the new rulers adopted a communist constitution on
November 25, 1924, which created the Mongolian People's Republic as a
satellite state of the Soviet Union. During its existence, it was
completely dependent on the Soviet Union politically, militarily and
economically.
The population, which continued to live
nomadically, offered no resistance to the new communist leadership. Due
to the country's almost non-existent organizational structures and low
population density, communism took a long time to establish itself in
Mongolia. As a result, all residents of the country over the age of 18
were given the right to vote. Only traders, moneylenders, former nobles
and monks were excluded. The political leadership of the one-party state
was taken over by the MRVP. The legislative body of the Mongolian
People's Republic corresponding to the Supreme Soviet was the Grand
State Khural. He chose the Small State Khural. The Little Khural elected
a presidium and a council of ministers composed of twelve members, which
formed the executive branch. The Great People's Khural met only twice a
year. In the meantime, the Presidium was able to pass decrees and
dismiss and appoint cabinet members. His decisions had to be
subsequently confirmed by the plenary session. Furthermore, the Great
Khural appointed the members of the Supreme Court.
The
constitution of November 1, 1924 introduced general active and passive
women's suffrage. Land, pastures, water and mineral resources were
nationalized. All debts to foreign traders (especially Chinese) were
canceled and the private moneylending system was abolished. Foreign
trade was placed under a state monopoly and the economic power of the
monasteries was broken. In 1924, the first Mongolian currency, the
tögrög, was introduced. The first state-owned bank was Mongolbank. At
the same time, the first industrial activities, such as mining and the
processing of agricultural products, began. In 1931, the property of
more than a third of households was confiscated and redistributed. In
response, the affected families slaughtered seven million animals. This
and the fact that the newly founded cooperatives did not function as
desired led to a famine and a rebellion in 1931/1932. A civil war could
only be avoided with great difficulty. From then on, changes in the
economic system were implemented more slowly.
On the political
stage, parallel to similar events in the Soviet Union, political purges
took place, the victims of which included Bogd Khan, Chakdorjab,
Togotkho, Puntsuk Dorji and Dindub. In 1924, Dandsan, the deputy prime
minister and minister of war and commander-in-chief of the army, was
shot. In 1937, Genden, who as prime minister was responsible for the
gradual implementation of communist policies, was executed. His rival
Choibalsan was now both prime minister and war minister. The focus of
his Stalinist politics was the fight against religion, among other
things. through the forced conscription of monks and nuns to work in
factories or to military service and the destruction of monasteries.
Gold and silver statues were confiscated, taken to the Soviet Union and
melted down. In 1932, Japan also founded a satellite state, Manchukuo in
Inner Mongolia, after which the Soviet Union increased its military
presence in the Mongolian People's Republic. Japan saw this action as a
threat to its interests and also moved additional troops to Manchukuo's
border. Both states cited support for their “brother countries” in
fighting “gangs” and warlords as the official justification for their
respective policies. From January 1935, conflicts between Soviet and
Japanese border troops increased dramatically due to unclear borders
between the Mongolian People's Republic and Manchukuo, which ended in
the Japanese-Soviet Border War in 1939. During World War II, the
Mongolian People's Republic had to support the Soviet Union by supplying
livestock and clothing.
Choibalsan died in 1952; he was succeeded
by Tsedenbal, who ruled the country for 32 years. From 1958 at the
latest, almost all nomadic households belonged to a cooperative, called
Negdel. In addition to the development of agriculture, some industrial
centers emerged in which mining and the processing of wool, meat and
wood were carried out. Tsedenbal was deposed in 1984; Under his
successor Dschambyn Batmönch, the Mongolian People's Republic was given
increasingly more room for maneuver, which was made possible by
Gorbachev's policies in the Soviet Union.
From 1988 onwards, an opposition made up of various forces formed in
the Mongolian People's Republic, demanding a multi-party system and
economic reforms. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mongolia made a
peaceful transition to a democratic parliamentary system of government
starting in 1990. On February 12, 1992, Parliament sealed the end of the
communist system by adopting a constitution based on the principles of a
democratic constitutional state and a market economy. At the same time,
the term “People’s Republic” was deleted from the name. The new
experiences with a free-market economic system were difficult for many
Mongolians; In the early 1990s there was inflation and shortages.
Despite allegations of corruption and nepotism, Mongolia was considered
one of the more stable democracies of the former Eastern Bloc in the
late 2000s.
The anthropologist David Sneath confirmed this
assessment in 2018. Although there were allegations of electoral fraud
after the 2008 parliamentary election, which resulted in violent
protests and the arson of the headquarters of the ruling Mongolian
People's Party in the capital, the demonstrators did not oppose them
democracy as an institution, but against what they perceived as the
corruption of the ruling class. This incident shows that what at first
glance appears to be a stable parliamentary government system is
struggling with strong political tensions beneath the surface. Despite
these conflicts, Sneath sees strong features of a consociational
democracy realized in Mongolia.
Mongolia is a country in East Asia. Its territory extends between 41°
35′ and 52° 06′ north latitude and 87° 47′ and 119° 57′ east longitude.
It ranks 18th among all countries in the world in terms of area.
Nevertheless, Mongolia only has two neighbors: the country shares a
3,485 km long border with Russia in the north and a 4,677 km long border
with the People's Republic of China in the south; Furthermore,
Kazakhstan begins just 38 km west of Mongolia's westernmost point. Its
east-west extent is 2392 km and its north-south extent is 1259 km. It is
covered by 40% semi-desert, 35% by tree steppe and 20% by grass steppe;
The rest is made up of forest and sandy desert.
The largest city
in Mongolia is the capital Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator) with approximately
1.3 million inhabitants, almost half of the population of the entire
country. The creation of Maidar City will not resolve the centralization
of the population around Ulaanbaatar, as the two cities will only be
approximately 30 km apart. Important cities are Erdenet with 79,649
inhabitants, Darkhan with 72,386 inhabitants and Choibalsan with 44,367
inhabitants; other cities can be found in the list of cities in
Mongolia.
About a third of the national territory is occupied by high
mountains, especially in the north, west and southeast. Dry plateaus
dominate the south and east. The average national altitude is around
1,580 meters above sea level.
The region between the Changai
Mountains and Altai is called Western Mongolia. Here, on the border with
China's Xinjiang, two peaks of the Altai reach almost 4,400 meters,
including the Chüiten peak, which at 4,374 m is the highest peak in
Mongolia. From there, the 3000 to 4000 m high mountain ranges of
Mongolian Altai and Gobi-Altai stretch 2000 km to the east-southeast,
along the border with China, to the Mongolian Plateau; Other mountains
in western Mongolia are the Tannu-ola Mountains and the Sayan Mountains.
There are hundreds of glaciers in Mongolia, although they are all very
small by international standards.
In the center of the country
lies the Changai Mountains with numerous three-thousanders, whose
northern flank already drains to the Siberian Lake Baikal, and to the
east of it the region around the capital Ulaanbaatar (1350 m). To the
east is the Chentii Mountains. South of this mountain range the country
is hilly until it merges into the Gobi. In the east of Mongolia, Lake
Choch Nuur is the lowest point in Mongolia at 532 m.
There are about 1200 rivers in Mongolia with a total length of almost
70,000 km. The land is drained in three directions: towards the Pacific
Ocean, towards the Arctic Ocean and towards the drainless Central Asian
Plain. As a landlocked country, Mongolia itself has no access to seas or
oceans.
The water-rich Selenga rivers and their large tributaries
Ider, Orkhon and Tuul run through the north. These arise in the Changai
Mountains and flow into Lake Baikal. Also in the north and east flow the
Onon and the Cherlen, which rise in the Chentii Mountains and drain
towards the Pacific via the Amur, as well as the Ulds and Chalchyn. The
largest rivers in the West are the Khovd and the Dzavkhan, both of which
flow towards drainless Central Asia. All rivers in Mongolia freeze over
in winter. The ice cover can last up to six months and reach a thickness
of more than one meter. The frozen rivers are often used as roads by
vehicles in winter, polluting them with oil.
Mongolia's almost
4,000 lakes include the 3,350 km² saltwater lake Uws Nuur and the 2,760
km² Chöwsgöl Nuur. The latter is one of the most important freshwater
lakes in the world. 95% of the other lakes are less than 5 km² in size;
80% are freshwater lakes. Because they are often fed by glaciers and are
far from any industrial centers, they are almost unpolluted and have
very clear water. They are important resting stations for migratory
birds.
Mongolia's waters are experiencing significant
desertification, with 852 of its rivers and streams and more than 1,000
of its lakes drying up or disappearing (2007 data).
The location in the Central Asian highlands gives Mongolia one of the most extreme climates among the continental and arid climates in the world. Due to the dry, pronounced continental climate, temperatures fluctuate greatly throughout the year: in winter the average daily temperatures are −25 °C and in summer they are +20 °C, which means that the fluctuations are two to three times greater than in Western Europe. The mean annual precipitation reaches 200 to 220 millimeters and decreases from over 400 mm in the north of the country to less than 100 mm in the south of the Gobi Desert. Annually, 80 to 90% of precipitation falls from May to September. The temperature differences between night and day are also unusually high, reaching up to 32 °C. The absolute temperature amplitude between summer and winter reaches up to 100 K.
Mongolia is significantly affected by global warming. Between 1940 and 2001, the annual mean air temperature rose by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The winter temperature rose by more than 3.6 degrees during this period. Mongolia's ancient ice is melting rapidly due to the changing climate and warm summer temperatures. Since the inflow from the ice fields runs dry more often in summer, the drinking water supply is increasingly restricted. This will put both cultural heritage and traditional reindeer herding at extreme risk in the coming years. As a result, the climate crisis is endangering domestic low-latitude reindeer herders living in the mountainous tundra zones of northern Mongolia.
While the northern part of Mongolia is still part of the boreal
coniferous forest zone with sufficient rainfall, rainfall continues to
decrease towards the south. The natural conditions such as the
precipitation gradient in the north-south direction and the
windward-leeward effects of the mountain ranges running through the
country lead to a pronounced vegetation zonation, which Hilbig 1995
differentiated from north to south according to the precipitation
conditions as follows (their distribution is in brackets the
corresponding geographical areas and floral regions named after Grubov
1982):
Mountain taiga (Chubsugul, Chentei, northern edge of
Changai)
(Mountain) forest steppe (Changai, Chubsugul, Chentei,
Mongolian-Daurian floral region, Mongolian Altai, Hinggan)
(Dry)
steppe (southern part of Changai, middle Chalkha, eastern Mongolia,
peripheral area of the Great Lakes basin)
Grass steppe
mountain
steppe
meadow steppe
sand steppe
Alpine vegetation
(Chubsugul, Chentei, Changai, Mongolian Altai)
Semi-desert (desert
steppe) (southern half of Mongolia, Great Lakes basin, Gobi-Altai,
Djungarian Gobi)
Desert (Djungarian Gobi, Trans-Altai Gobi, Alashan
Gobi and East Gobi)
Extrazonal vegetation (which differs
significantly from the typical vegetation of the respective climatic
zone):
Alpine vegetation (formed in the Chubsugul region, in
central Changai, in Mongolian Altai, partly in Chentei)
The fauna of Mongolia has adapted to the conditions of the steppe. People keep sheep, goats, cattle, camels and horses. Wild mammals of the steppe include saiga, jerboas, marmots, wolves, yaks, a species of wild cat and the steppe polecat. A species of crane occurs on the lakes, and other bird species in Mongolia include buzzard species, steppe eagles, the lark and a species of wheatear. A special feature is the Przewalski horse, which was already extinct and was successfully reintroduced into the wild. The forest and mountain areas of the country are inhabited by the argali, a species of wild goat, a species of gazelle, the stoat, the mountain hare, species of snipe and the Altai king chicken (Tetraogallus altaicus). A special feature here is the snow leopard, which is highly threatened due to hunting and the restriction of its habitat. The Gobi is home to the Asian donkey, the Cashmere goat, numerous species of rodents and lizards and agamas. The highly endangered Gobi bear also lives in the Gobi, a small form of brown bear that eats a primarily vegetarian diet. Carp fish, loaches, pike, burbot, perch, lenok, taimen and various species of grayling are found in the waters of Mongolia. The Baikal sturgeon (Acipenser baerii baicalensis Nikolskii) migrates more than 300 km across the Orkhon to spawn in the Selenga and the upper reaches of the Orkhon. Migratory birds that only spend the summer in Mongolia include the swan goose, mute swan and teal. There are also migratory birds that winter in Mongolia, such as the snow bunting and the snowy owl.
Due to the region's formerly warm and humid climate, which later became dry and cool, numerous dinosaur remains have been preserved. Since the 1920s, numerous spectacular discoveries have been made in Mongolia. The American scientist Roy Chapman Andrews discovered the first dinosaur eggs here. Fossils of Oviraptor, Protoceratops, Velociraptor, Therizinosaurus, Pachycephalosauria and Tarbosaurus were also found.
Mongolia lies in a very seismically active area; Earthquakes are
common. However, due to the low population density and because there are
relatively few buildings that could collapse, the earthquakes usually
cause little damage. The most violent earthquakes occurred in central
Mongolia in 1905 and in southwestern Mongolia in 1931, 1957 and 1967.
The 1905 quake measured 8.2 to 8.7 on the Richter scale, the 1957 quake
measured 7.9 to 8.3, and the 1967 quake measured 7.5. However, the
numerous cracks in the earth left by the earthquakes often lead to
rivers on which the nomads and their herds depend dry out or shift.
Dsud originally refers to very snowy winters in which the animals
are no longer able to find food under the snow cover and therefore
starve. The term is now also used for other meteorological conditions,
particularly winter ones, under which livestock grazing becomes
impossible. In addition to the above-mentioned White Dzud, in which the
animals can no longer find food under the snow cover after heavy
snowfall, a distinction is made between the so-called Black Dsud, in
which the animals die of thirst due to too little snow (since wells and
waters freeze, there is snow when it is cold temperatures the only
source of water). Another form is the Icy or Iron Dsud, in which
freezing rain covers the land with ice, preventing animals from feeding
on grass and herbs. Finally, a fourth form is the storm dzud due to
sandstorms. Dzuds are relatively common phenomena in Mongolia, which can
kill millions of animals in one winter, thereby depriving the population
of their food supply.
Mongolia is divided into 21 aimags (provinces) and the capital
Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator), which forms an independent administrative
unit. The latter also applied to the city of Erdenet until 1994. From
this, however, the Orkhon aimag was created in 1994 together with some
sums from the Bulgan aimag. Likewise the city of Darkhan, for which the
Darkan-Uul aimag was separated from the Selenge aimag as an enclave.
Each aimag is divided into a number of sums (comparable to
counties/districts), which in turn are divided into bags (comparable to
municipalities). There are over 300 sums, which are divided into more
than 1500 bags. A bag often does not exist as a permanent settlement
because its members all move around as nomads.
The Mongols had no written language until Genghis Khan adapted a
script based on the Uighur alphabet, which had been adopted from the
Naimans, to the Mongolian language. The oldest and best-known work of
Mongolian literature is The Secret History of the Mongols from the 13th
century. It tells the story of Genghis Khan's environment and his rise.
To this day, it is one of the most important sources for studying the
Mongolian empire, although the original has been lost. Parts of it can
be found in later Mongolian works, and there are also Chinese
translations from the Ming dynasty. Like the Secret History, the Golden
Book, an official court chronicle from the late 13th century, was
intended only for Mongolian readers.
After the collapse of the
Mongolian empire, numerous semi-historical works were written about the
life of Genghis Khan and other Mongolian leaders. Oral traditions
(Üliger) and stories were also recorded. From 1578, when Buddhism became
the state religion, the translation of religious texts dominated. At the
same time, the Mongols became acquainted with Indian poetry, whose
material they further processed in their own works. The Gesar Epic is a
heroic story originating from Tibet, which occupies an important place
not only in Mongolian literature.
Injannasi (1837–1892) from
China is considered the founder of the Mongolian novel. His life's work,
The Blue Book on the Rise of the Yuan Dynasty, is a depiction of Genghis
Khan's life in prose form, with his style being heavily influenced by
Chinese works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber. Along with Dulduityn
Rawdschaa (1803–1856), Injannasi is considered a classic of Mongolian
literature in China and Mongolia.
The pioneer of modern Mongolian
literature was Jamsrangiin Tseveen (Russian: Tsyben Zhamtsarano,
1881–1942), who came from Buryatia and founded the first Mongolian
literary magazine. He translated Western literature from Russian into
Mongolian. In his own works he criticized the status quo, such as the
rule of the Qing Dynasty or the state of Buddhism. Dashdorjiin
Natsagdordj (1906–1937) is considered the actual founder of Mongolian
modernism. He was educated in the Soviet Union and Germany, wrote
numerous prose and epic works and worked as a translator. The most
famous Mongolian poem, My Fatherland, is his. He was branded a
nationalist by the newly established communist government. Tsendiin
Damdinsüren (1903–1986) was a linguist and reformer. He adapted the
Cyrillic alphabet on behalf of the government, giving Mongolian a
largely phonemic script. He wrote short stories and poems, wrote the
national anthem and published new versions of classical texts. The
latter brought him into conflict with the government. A similar
situation occurred with Bjambyn Rintschen (1905–1977), who published
novels, short stories and translations and was also criticized as a
nationalist.
Since the democratization of Mongolia, literary
production has become more lively. New publishing houses have emerged
and contemporary authors use all the media available to them. However,
very few works are translated into Western languages. Perhaps the
best-known author in the West is Galsan Tschinag (* 1943), who has
published over 30 volumes of poetry and novels. Galsan Tschinag writes
many of his books, which are about the lives of people in Mongolia, in
German and has also presented them on reading tours in Germany. He has
been awarded several German literary prizes.
Mongolia was a center of Buddhist art between 1600 and 1920. Painting
and sculpture were primarily used to create images as meditation objects
for clergy or as prayer objects for laypeople. The art of the mandala
was widespread, where representations of samsara were created as sand
pictures as a contemplative exercise. These were usually destroyed after
they were completed. A Mongolian specialty are the thangka, picture
scrolls that are used to decorate monasteries. They largely follow the
Tibetan style, but include the depiction of animals. The art of the
thangka was not banned after the founding of the People's Republic, but
continued with socialist depictions.
The most important sculptor
and painter in the country was Dsanabadsar (1635–1723), who was also the
first Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu. He is considered the most important
Buddhist artist of his time and as such he shaped Mongolian art in later
times. His works are characterized by their strong influence on
Indo-Tibetan traditions and their extraordinary lifelike beauty; some of
the sculptures have been preserved and are located in the Gandan
Monastery in Ulaanbaatar. It is known that Dsanabadsar was also an
important painter, but there is no painting that can be attributed to
him without a doubt. Mardsan Scharaw (1869–1939) was an artist who
further developed the thangka art. Influenced by Soviet art, he created
book illustrations, banknotes and portraits of politicians in addition
to Mongolian Dsurag paintings. However, many of his works have been
lost. Artists such as Dolgoryn Manibadar and Monkor Erdenbajar belong to
the socialist realist movement. A contemporary artist is Otgonbayar
Ershuu (* 1981). He lives and works between Germany and Mongolia.
Otgonbayar Ershuu is on the way to becoming one of the most important
Mongolian painters. Purewbat Gankhuu is an important painter of today
who follows the traditions of Buddhist art; he was portrayed in the film
Buddha's Painter.
Traditional Mongolian music is still cultivated today and concerts
can attract large crowds of listeners. The most important and
identity-forming instrument is the Mongolian horsehead fiddle morin
chuur, other wind instruments include the transverse flute limbe, the
long flute tsuur and the cone oboe bischgüür, string instruments include
the two-stringed spike fiddle ikil and the two-stringed plucked
long-necked lute topschuur, both in western Mongolia, and a few
percussion instruments. Mongolian songs are often about heroes of
earlier times, or simple songs by nomads are performed. Mongolian
singing has two special features: firstly, overtone singing, which uses
a special breathing technique to give the impression that the singer has
two voices. When performing a long song (Urtyn duu), the individual
syllables are drawn out very long, which makes the singing seem very
spiritual and sustained.
Pop music was frowned upon during the
socialist period and musicians were only allowed to use texts that had
been officially approved by the Mongolian Authors' Association. Towards
the end of the 1980s, the pop group Genghis Khan defied the ban and
performed their songs publicly at protest rallies. In doing so, they
made a significant contribution to the end of socialist rule in
Mongolia. Today, Mongolians such as the singers Ariunaa and Nominjin,
the boy group Camerton, the rock bands Soyol Erdene, Altan Urag (founded
in 2002) and The Hu (since 2016) make modern music of all kinds.
The folk dances that travelers through the Mongolian empire reported on
were lost during the spread of Buddhism; traditional dances have only
survived in peripheral areas. Exceptions to this are ceremonial dances
such as the Tsam, which was performed by monks to appease wild deities.
In this type of dance, which originated in Tibet in the 13th century,
the performers wear colorful and imaginative masks that represent the
respective characters. After a symbolic battle between gods and demons,
these masks are destroyed and a white old man appears, embodying the
earth god of fertility. In western Mongolia, a dance called Bielgee has
been handed down, which is performed to the music of traditional
instruments such as the horsehead fiddle. In Bielgee, almost exclusively
the upper body moves, and scenes from the everyday life of the nomads
are depicted.
During the socialist era, western dances were
introduced in Mongolia. In 1931, the State Central Theater was opened,
and in 1963 the State Theater for Opera and Ballet. Professional dancers
were trained in the Soviet Union, with the dancer Baldschinnjam
Dschamjandagwa standing out in particular and is therefore considered
the father of Mongolian ballet. Classics such as Swan Lake and The
Nutcracker were performed. Since democratization, the importance of
ballet has declined, mainly due to a lack of financial resources.
In addition to traditional classics such as Urtyn duu, modern
musical styles such as pop, hip hop, folk rock and folk songs are
widespread.
A traditional item of clothing that has been worn for centuries is the deel, a special coat. The typical Mongolian boot is the gutul. The khata, a traditional welcoming scarf, has symbolic power.
Cinema was introduced to Mongolia by the Soviets. After the Soviets seized power in 1920, mobile cinemas began traveling around the country to show propaganda films and educate the population. The first cinema was built in Ulaanbaatar in 1934; a year later, the production company Mongol Kino was founded with Soviet help. Mongolian filmmakers usually studied in the Soviet Union and produced films that can be classified as socialist realism. Notable films from the communist era include Awakening, which tells the story of a Soviet doctor in Mongolia, Sükhbaatar, the biography of the revolutionary hero, and Tsogtu Taiji. Democratization in the early 1990s and the cessation of Soviet aid almost led to the extinction of Mongolian cinema due to a lack of financial resources. Since then, films such as Genghis Khan and The Story of the Weeping Camel and The Cave of the Yellow Dog by Byambasuren Davaa have been made in collaboration with new foreign partners.
Traditional Mongolian cuisine consists primarily of dairy products
and meat. Since farming is not possible in large parts of the country,
the products of grazing animals must be used.
Mare's milk is
fermented to make the national drink Airag. Milk is also processed in a
variety of ways, from cream, kefir, cheese, dried curd (Aruul) to milk
liquor. Tea is prepared with milk and salt and, as required, made into a
soup with solid ingredients. Meat (primarily mutton) is usually boiled
or combined with pasta dough to make various dishes such as dumplings.
Meat is also dried and ground (Borts) as a supply and travel provisions.
This "powdered meat" can then be boiled with hot water.
The Mongolians love the three sports of wrestling, archery and horse
racing. These sports have their origins in the military requirements of
Mongolian history and reach their annual climax in the Naadam Festival.
In horse racing, children compete against each other on one- to
five-year-old or fully grown horses. Depending on the age group,
different distances are ridden, with the big race at the Naadam Festival
in Ulaanbaatar covering a full 30 kilometers.
In Mongolian
archery, traditional reflex bows are used to shoot arrows with blunt
tips at special targets made of leather. Although the origins lie in the
mounted archers of the Middle Ages, the competitions are now mainly
carried out on foot. However, with the support of Japanese archers,
mounted archery is finding more and more fans.
Mongolian athletes
are also represented in modern shooting sports. The best known is the
German-Mongolian pistol shooter Dordschsürengiin Mönchbajar, who has won
a whole series of World Cup victories and world championship titles and
has taken part in several Olympic Games. In 1992 she won the bronze
medal with the sport pistol in Barcelona.
Wrestling is the only
one of the three sports that is still reserved for men. The rather
stocky and strong physique of most Mongolians suits them very well. The
loser of a fight traditionally bends down under the outstretched arm of
the winner. The winner is allowed to perform the eagle dance, in which
he circles the tournament banner with his arms outstretched.
Since around 1992, several Mongolian wrestlers have switched to the
Japanese sport of sumo and achieved considerable success there. The
athletes take on Japanese names for this. The greatest successes to date
were achieved by Asashōryū Akinori (Dolgorsürengiin Dagwadordsch), who
won the title of Grandmaster (Yokozuna) in 2003 and in 2005 became the
first wrestler to win all six tournaments of the year in a row. Hakuhō
Shō (Monkbatyn Dawaadschargal) was named Yokozuna on May 30, 2007 and is
by far the most successful athlete with 45 tournament victories.
Harumafuji Kōhei on September 26, 2012 and Kakuryū Rikisaburō on March
26, 2014. Since 2021, the only incumbent Yokozuna is Terunofuji Haruo
(Gantulga Ganerdene), a native Mongolian.
The National Olympic
Committee of Mongolia was founded in 1956 and accepted by the
International Olympic Committee in 1962. Since then, Mongolian athletes
have won more than a dozen medals in total.
Special Olympics
Mongolia was founded in 2013 and has participated in the Special
Olympics World Games several times.
Before 1989, state newspapers were distributed throughout the
country, down to the smallest administrative unit. This system collapsed
in the early 1990s; the state newspapers were privatized in 1999. The
independent newspapers established since the early 1990s suffer from a
lack of finance and resources, and their distribution hardly extends
beyond the big cities. Readership is also low due to the high price of
print media in relation to income. Magazines are of little importance.
The largest newspaper is Udriin Sonin, which had a daily circulation of
17,700 copies in 2000.
The first Mongolian radio station was
established in 1934. Since the 1960s, this station covered the entire
country, and it was not until 1994 that a second radio station was
established for Ulaanbaatar. Since then, several private stations have
been established in the cities, while the local stations that had been
allocated airtime on the national station before 1989 have disappeared.
Several aimags therefore only have local broadcasting on an irregular
basis.
In 1990, only 41% of households had a television. Since
1990, several commercial and Christian stations have been established in
Ulaanbaatar. Numerous foreign channels can be received on the cable
television networks of the larger cities. Satellite television in rural
areas was not yet widespread in 2010.
In 2022, 83.9 percent of
Mongolia's residents used the Internet.
The Mongolian national festival lasts from July 11th to 13th and is
called Naadam (Наадам, full name Eriin Gurwan Naadam = "the three male
games"). The festival is of religious origin and is probably several
centuries old. It is also celebrated in Inner Mongolia in China. In
Mongolia, July 11th is now considered Revolution Day, in honor of the
events of 1921. The most important part of the festival is the three
eponymous games, Mongolian wrestling, archery competitions and horse
races on one to five-year-old and adult horses. Competitions are held
almost everywhere in Mongolia, with the largest number of participants
in the capital Ulaanbaatar.
The second major holiday is the
Buddhist New Year, which in Mongolia is called Tsagaan Sar (Цагаан Сар =
White Moon). The date is usually early February, but can vary by a few
weeks between late January and early March and usually does not coincide
with Chinese New Year. On this day, Mongolians visit their friends and
relatives and bring gifts. The festive table includes specialties such
as braised lamb's back and a tower of "sole cakes" and other sweets.
Public holidays are also:
New Year's Day on January 1st
International Women's Day on March 8th
International Children's Day
on June 1st
Independence Day on December 29th
Mongolia had 3.4 million inhabitants in 2023. Annual population
growth was + 1.4%. A surplus of births (birth rate: 20.4 per 1000
inhabitants vs. death rate: 5.5 per 1000 inhabitants) contributed to
population growth. The number of births per woman was statistically 2.8
in 2022, compared to 1.5 in the East Asia and Oceania region. The life
expectancy of Mongolia's inhabitants from birth was 72.7 years in 2022.
The median age of the population in 2021 was 26.8 years. In 2023, 32.3
percent of the population was under 15 years old, while the proportion
of people over 64 was 4.8 percent of the population.
With 2.11
people per km², Mongolia is the most sparsely populated independent
state in the world. Without Ulaanbaatar, there would only be 1.15 people
per km² (as of 2020).
The vast majority of Mongolia's population (approx. 85-95%) belongs to the Mongolian people. The subgroups of this people are essentially distinguished by their respective dialect. Minorities from various Turkic peoples, such as Kazakhs and Tuvans (Urianchai), live mainly in the west of the country (Bayan-Ölgii Aimag and Khovd Aimag). Immigrant Russians and Han live mainly in the cities or as skilled workers in mining. The proportion of Russians, however, has declined sharply since democratization.
The Khalkha-Mongolian language, as the most important representative
of the Mongolian language family, is the mother tongue of around 85
percent of ethnic Mongolians. The rest is made up mostly of Buryats in
the north, Durbet in the northwest, Dariganga in the southeast and the
Western Mongolians (Oirats and others) in the west. The other minorities
in the west speak various Turkic languages (mainly Kazakh, but also
Tuvan). During the socialist era, students were taught Russian. Since
2005, English has been taught in schools as the official first foreign
language instead. Around 30,000 Mongolians speak German as a foreign
language.
The literacy rate among adults exceeds 98 percent,
according to the UN. The Mongolian language in Mongolia is now written
in a slightly expanded Cyrillic alphabet. The traditional Mongolian
script, which originally came from Uighur, is written vertically. After
the end of communist rule, it was officially decided to reintroduce it,
but in practice this has little chance of being realized for economic
reasons. In Inner Mongolia, however, the traditional script is still in
use.
The majority of the inhabitants are Buddhists. According to the 2020
census, around 59 percent of the population belonged to a religious
community, of which 87.1 percent were Lamaists.
The original
religion of the Central Asian steppe inhabitants was shamanism. Elements
of shamanism live on in Buddhism to this day. Today, shamanistic
traditions are playing an increasingly important role again. For
example, Obo - piles of stones on hills or crossroads where everyone who
says a prayer adds a stone - are more common again and the cult of the
mountain deities of Mount Burchan Khaldun has even been officially
recognized.
Buddhism was introduced to Mongolia several times: in
the 1st century BC by the Xiongnu, in the 6th century by the Jujuan, and
in the 10th century by the Khitan. In the empire of Genghis Khan, where
all religions were promoted, Buddhism was only one of several religions.
In the 16th century, the Tibetan form of Buddhism (Vajrayana) became
established in Mongolia. Altan Khan, who had ambitions to unite the
Mongolian tribes under his leadership, supported the priests of the
Gelugpa school in spreading their teachings and achieving supremacy in
Tibet. In return, he had himself declared the reincarnation of Kublai
Khan. In 1578, the title of Dalai Lama was bestowed on Sonam Gyatso for
the first time (his two predecessors were appointed posthumously); from
that year on, Buddhism spread in several waves throughout Mongolia,
starting from Hohhot. In 1586, the Buddhist monastery Erdene Dsuu was
built on a 16-hectare site from the stones of the former capital
Karakorum. It housed over 60 Buddhist temples.
Lamaism,
especially its Tibetan line Gelugpa, slowly became a dominant force.
From 1740 onwards, the Qing used Buddhism to control the Mongols by
decreeing that the Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu could only be found in Tibet,
to ensure that the temples would not become a place of rebellion. At the
same time, the monasteries were headed by a Da Lama, usually a Manchu,
who was responsible for overseeing the activities of the monastery. At
the beginning of the 20th century, around 40% of the men were lamas or
laypeople in the monasteries, of which there were more than 800
throughout Mongolia. The monasteries had great economic power and had
amassed great wealth.
From the 1920s onwards, all religions were
attacked following the Soviet model. Many monasteries and temples were
destroyed, including Erdene Dzuu in 1937, and thousands of lamas were
murdered or exiled. Only a few monasteries survived the socialist
period. Nevertheless, certain traditions, such as the Buddhist
monasticism, were preserved. B. Buddhist burial, were not touched. After
democratization in 1991, however, the practice of religion revived
strongly. In 2007, there were around 100 temples and monasteries,
although a certain part of the population is skeptical about the
religion.
Since there are no official religious statistics and
due to the unquantifiable overlap between Lamaism and Shamanism, no
reliable figures are known. 50 to 96 percent of the population are said
to be Buddhists. The religious studies database Association of Religion
Data Archives states that 54.2 percent are Buddhists and 18.6 percent
are ethnic religions.
Most of the Turkic peoples living as
minorities in Mongolia, such as the Kazakhs who live mainly in the
Bayan-Ölgii Aimag, are followers of Islam, with the exception of the
Tuvans. They make up around five percent of the total population.
At the beginning of the 20th century, European and American priests
made the first efforts to spread Christianity, but the missionaries were
deported when the Soviets took power. The end of socialism also meant
the return of missionaries, especially from Protestant faith
communities. According to surveys, one to seven percent of the
population describe themselves as Christians, with Christianity often
being associated with the high Western standard of living. The Catholic
Church in Mongolia is also gaining popularity.
Before the coup in 1921, education in Mongolia was almost exclusively
the domain of Buddhist monasteries. Only a small proportion of the
population had access to education, which is why only monks and
government officials could read and write. The socialist government
subsequently introduced a general and free education system, on which it
spent about a fifth of its budget. In the 1930s, schools were built in
all of the country's larger permanent settlements, usually with a
dormitory for children of nomadic families attached. In the 1940s, the
traditional Mongolian script was abolished and a new Cyrillic alphabet
was introduced, which meant that adults had to learn to read and write
again. The successes of the socialist education policy are still having
an impact today, and Mongolia now has one of the highest literacy rates
in the world: 97.8% of the population can read and write. In Mongolia,
children now go to school at the age of seven. There is eight years of
compulsory education, and around 120,000 students begin higher education
every year.
After the fall of communist rule, foreign donors
demanded that the new government cut spending on education and introduce
school fees. This led to a deterioration in conditions in schools,
teachers no longer received their salaries and the proportion of school
dropouts increased. Boys in particular are now leaving school earlier to
go to work.
The first university in Mongolia was founded in 1942.
This institution is now the country's leading academic educational
institution under the name of the National University of Mongolia. Over
time, other specialized universities and institutes were created by
splitting off from the state university. Since democratization, numerous
private universities and vocational schools have also been established.
Although they were only hesitantly accepted by the population, they now
offer an alternative to state institutions. At the end of 2008, there
were 31 state universities and 55 officially approved private academic
educational institutions. Until the 1980s, many Mongolians studied in
the Soviet Union, the GDR or other Eastern Bloc countries; today, people
look to East Asia, Europe and North America.
The country's health expenditure in 2021 amounted to 6.9% of gross domestic product. In 2020, there were 37.7 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants practicing in Mongolia. The mortality rate among children under 5 was 13.4 per 1,000 live births in 2022. The life expectancy of Mongolia's inhabitants from birth was 72.7 years in 2022 (women: 77.4, men: 68.1). Life expectancy increased by 16% from 62.9 years in 2000 to 2022.
Mongolia is a parliamentary democracy. The constitution, which came
into force in 1992, was based on the Basic Law of the Federal Republic
of Germany and the French Constitution. The basic values of the state
are democracy, justice, freedom, equality, national unity and respect
for the law.
The unicameral parliament is called the Great State
Khural, comprises 76 members and is elected every four years. Shortly
before the 2016 election, the proportional representation system was
changed to a majority voting system with single-member constituencies,
with 28 constituencies for the capital Ulaanbaatar and 48 for the rest
of the country.
The President is directly elected for four years
at a time, with a limit of two terms. He is simultaneously head of
state, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and chairman of the
National Security Council. Uchnaagiin Khürelsüch has held this office
since 2021.
The judiciary is independent of the executive and
legislative branches. The Supreme Judicial Council appoints all judges
and protects their rights. The Supreme Court draws up a final
interpretation of the laws and is the final authority in all appeals.
There are also specialized courts at all levels for civil, criminal and
administrative appeals. The Constitutional Court, whose nine members are
appointed for six years, is responsible for constitutional complaints.
In the 2020 parliamentary election, the MVP won 62 of the 76 seats,
the DP 11 and the remaining 3 seats went to small parties and
independents.
After an electoral reform, the MVP won 68 of the
126 seats in the parliamentary election on June 28, 2024, the DP 42
seats and three other small parties won a total of 16 seats in the Great
State Khural.
Mongolia is a democracy between the world's two largest autocracies,
China and Russia. Julian Dierkes called it a "Gallic village" in a "bad"
neighborhood. Mongolia used the leeway where the two neighbors did not
act in unison for independent negotiations.
Due to its landlocked
location, it is heavily dependent on good relations with its two
neighbors. The only usable route to the sea currently leads through the
Chinese port of Tianjin, while the country imports its energy from
Russia. Historically, during the communist era, there was a close
relationship with the Soviet Union, which has left strong economic,
political and cultural traces to this day. Since the end of the Cold
War, however, the People's Republic of China has become the country's
most important foreign policy reference point. In 2016, over 80% of
Mongolia's foreign trade was with China and a large proportion of
foreign direct investment in the country comes from the People's
Republic, especially in the mining sector. The Mongolian economy also
employs a growing number of Chinese workers, especially in construction,
mining and retail. However, this noticeable economic dominance of China
also leads to anti-Chinese sentiment among the population and fear of
too much dependence within the country's political leadership. The
country is therefore interested in diversifying its foreign policy
contacts and is thus seeking deeper relations with the states of the
European Union, the United States and Japan as part of the
"third-neighbour policy", with a particular interest in joint trade and
investment agreements.
Mongolia is a member of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Non-Aligned Movement and the
United Nations, among others. It is an observer state in the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation. Mongolia is also a member of the International
Criminal Court (ICC). At the beginning of September 2024, Russian
President Vladimir Putin was not arrested during a state visit to
Mongolia despite an arrest warrant from the ICC. This caused criticism
from other ICC members, especially Western states. It was the first time
since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine that Putin traveled
to a state that is an ICC member.
In 2017, Mongolia spent just under 0.7 percent of its economic
output, or just 83 million US dollars, on its armed forces. Since Russia
and China have good relations with Mongolia and Mongolia is not facing
any other threats, modernization programs have so far been seen as
unnecessary.
However, there are discussions about setting up two
rifle divisions by 2032, one as a "national guard" and one for
international missions. The equipment for this may be provided by
Russia.
The Mongolian military is currently involved in
international missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places. It
was part of the UN mission UNMIL in Liberia until 2018.
The
current army is accordingly equipped with former Soviet equipment. There
are 650 old T-54/55 and T-62 battle tanks and BMP-1 and BTR-60/80
infantry fighting vehicles; there are also a few air defense systems.
There are 9,300 men under arms and 137,000 reservists.
Mongolia's gross domestic product (GDP) was USD 15 billion in 2021.
Gross domestic product per capita was USD 4,483 in the same year. In
2023, GDP was USD 17.07 billion and per capita income was USD 4,950. In
the Global Competitiveness Index, which measures a country's
competitiveness, Mongolia ranks 102nd out of 141 countries (as of 2019).
In 2024, it will be ranked 61st out of 67 countries in this index. In
the Index of Economic Freedom, the country will be ranked 66th out of
177 countries in 2022.
Mongolia is one of the transformation
countries of the former Eastern Bloc. Mongolia's economy is
predominantly agrarian, although the country is one of the ten countries
richest in natural resources in the world.
After a long period of
stagnation (1990–2002, +3% to −3%), Mongolia achieved economic growth of
5.3 to 17 (2011) percent in the years up to 2011; the increase was
largely due to growth in the service sector and higher world market
prices for copper and gold. Economic growth was only 2.4% in 2015. Gross
domestic product rose by 5% in 2022, 7% was calculated for 2023 and 5.5%
forecast for 2024. The official unemployment rate was around 8% in 2016.
However, the World Bank assumes that unemployment will be much higher.
However, the growth of recent years has bypassed the poor part of
the population: around 40% live below the extreme poverty line, similar
to 1990. The difficult years of reform have increased the share of the
private sector to 80%, but have increased social differences and the
urban-rural divide.
Due to the geographically very poor soils, the long winters, the low
rainfall, the country's nomadic tradition and the short growing season
of only 95-110 days, very little arable farming has developed in
Mongolia. In contrast, however, a highly specialized livestock industry
has emerged. Five types of livestock are kept, the products and uses of
which are precisely coordinated with one another in the nomadic way of
life: sheep (wool, milk, meat), goats (fur, milk), yaks (milk, leather,
meat), horses (milk, transport) and camels (milk, cargo transport).
Traditional agricultural products include meat (six million large
animals slaughtered in 2002), milk, sheep's wool and cashmere wool; also
grain (on a few thousandths of the country's surface area), potatoes and
vegetables.
However, many important crops cannot thrive in
Mongolia's harsh climate. Only one percent of the country's usable area
is used for cultivation (1998: 1,322,000 ha, corresponding to 3,266,000
acres). Agriculture is therefore concentrated on livestock farming, and
cultivation employs only three percent of the working population. The
main crops grown are wheat, barley, oats and potatoes. Corn, millet and
rapeseed are also grown to a small extent.
Mongolia is considered one of the ten countries richest in raw
materials in the world, but only a third of it has been fully explored
geologically. A good 6,000 deposits of 80 different minerals have been
identified, including coal, copper, uranium (about 2% of the world's
reserves), oil, gold, silver, fluorspar, molybdenum, zinc and diamonds.
Coal and copper deposits have been identified in the southern part of
the Gobi, which are among the largest in the world. Between 1963 and
1971, GDR mining experts were involved in the search for and exploration
of gold deposits, and from 1973 to 1975 they explored wolframite
deposits in the Bürentsogt area.
Copper and coal deposits have so
far been mined primarily in open-cast mines. This leads to large-scale
changes in the landscape with corresponding consequences for flora and
fauna. Waste dumps and waste water from processing plants also have an
increased content of heavy metals. The mining of copper and gold in the
Gobi Desert, which began in 2011, also contributes to environmental
pollution. In 2022, almost 130,000 tons of pure copper were produced. An
expansion to 500,000 tons is planned by 2028. Gold mining has already
dried up the Ongi River. On the other hand, the large raw material
deposits also offer the opportunity for a significant increase in the
general standard of living, given Mongolia's relatively small
population.
Since the 1960s, forest stocks have been significantly reduced due to
population growth, logging and man-made forest fires. In socialist
times, an unsustainable form of agriculture was practiced that damaged
the soil. After the fall of the Wall, the danger of overgrazing by
nomads was added. Overgrazing, agriculture and deforestation combined
mean that almost 90% of Mongolia's area is threatened by
desertification. Unlike in China, there is no state reforestation
program in Mongolia.
In some cities, coal-fired power plants are
still in operation without flue gas purification, which poses a health
risk. Even in the yurt quarters, heating and cooking are mainly carried
out using wood and coal, which also contributes to air pollution.
Finally, many outdated and poorly maintained vehicles with high levels
of pollutant emissions are in use.
According to figures, small
and large Soviet-designed heating plants, together with textile, leather
and mining companies, polluted disproportionately large amounts of water
in 2006. Less than half of the wastewater is treated, and most of it is
done using outdated systems. The watercourses near larger settlements
are therefore heavily polluted; the Tuul River near Ulaanbaatar, for
example, contains more than ten times the permissible levels of
pollutants.
The country's waste management infrastructure is
inadequate. Environmental awareness was also insufficient among the
population at the beginning of the 2000s. Official and illegal dumping
sites posed an environmental risk, along with the waste that was often
thrown into nature.
Nevertheless, sparsely populated Mongolia is
home to large natural landscapes that still provide sufficient habitat
for large mammals. Numerous protected areas such as the Gobi Gurwan
Saichan National Park were created to preserve these habitats.
Some activists working together internationally opposed Erdeneburen's
hydroelectric power plant project on the Khowd Gol at the Tsambagarav
Uul National Park; Mongolian bureaucrats had one arrested in 2022
because false content about these activists had been produced on
disinformation websites in Germany. Reference was also made to the poor
condition of another dam on the Dsavkhan Gol and the reduction in runoff
due to the high evaporation of the lake.
In 2007, Mongolia exported goods worth 1.95 billion US dollars, of
which 41.6% was copper concentrate, 12.1% gold, 9% zinc concentrate, 9%
cashmere wool in various processing stages and 6% coal. Imports mainly
included petroleum products, machinery, equipment, vehicles, electronic
products and food. In 2016, 84% of all exports went to China, the second
most important buyer was Switzerland, which had a share of 9%. The most
important supplier countries in 2016 were China (40%), Russia (28%),
Japan (6.4%) and South Korea (6.2%).
Trade with Germany reached a
volume of 82 million euros in 2008, with a strong upward trend. Mongolia
exported goods worth 15.4 million euros to Germany, mainly textiles
(cashmere) and animal products. In contrast, the value of imports from
Germany was 66.6 million euros. The main imports from Germany are
vehicles and machinery. Mongolia has a strong interest in deepening
trade relations and introducing technologies for coal liquefaction, in
the construction sector or in agriculture.
In order to reduce
dependence on its two direct neighbours, Mongolia unsuccessfully pursued
a third-neighbourhood policy with Japan, the United States and the
European Union. Dependence on exports to China continued to grow, mainly
due to Europe's weak growth and China's enormous demand for raw
materials. In 2014, 90% of exports totalling 5.4 billion US dollars
consisted of raw materials.
However, due to the fall in raw
material prices since 2014, revenues from raw material exports -
especially from the export of copper ore - have plummeted. Foreign
direct investment, which was mainly made in mining, fell by 80% between
2012 and 2014.
There are also some agreements with the EU on trade policy, customs and textiles. Mongolia is a member of important international organizations - in addition to the UN and its sub-organizations, for example the WTO, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. However, Mongolia is the only WTO country that has not yet joined a regional trade agreement. With ASEAN, SAARC, APEC and CIS, there are several major regional free trade agreements in Asia that Mongolia could join. The Commonwealth of Independent States in particular, a group that brings together the emerging countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, could build on the former connection between Mongolia and the Soviet Union.
The state budget in 2015 included expenditure of an estimated 3.4
billion US dollars, compared to revenues of 3.0 billion US dollars. This
resulted in a budget deficit of 7.3% of GDP.
In 2016, public debt
amounted to 60.0% of GDP.
In 2020, the share of government
spending (in % of GDP) in the following areas was:
Health: 4.9%
Education: 4.7%
Military: 0.6% (2023)
The decline in export
earnings since 2014 has also put the state budget at risk; public debt
rose to over 60% of gross domestic product (compared to 51.7% in 2012).
Mongolia has a rail network of around 1815 km in length, the heart of which is the Trans-Mongolian Railway. It runs across Mongolia from the border with Russia to the border with China and is part of the connection from Moscow to Beijing. The 1520 mm broad gauge line handles around 90% of goods traffic with neighboring countries. In addition to the capital Ulaanbaatar, important industrial cities such as Erdenet, Darkhan and Baganuur are also connected to the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Choibalsan is connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway near Borsja by a line, but has no inner-Mongolian railway connection. In order to develop important coal and ore deposits, further railway lines are planned, such as a connection from Sainschand to the industrial city of Choibalsan and a coal railway from Uchaa Chudag to the Chinese border; for the latter, DB International, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, is responsible for construction monitoring and project management. In 2016, the Tömörtei–Chandgait ore railway was put into operation.
The road network consisted of 6,500 km of paved roads in 2007, of
which 2,600 km were asphalted. Major investments are to be made in the
road network in the coming years. Planned or already being implemented
are the construction of 1,000 km of motorway, a Millennium Road in the
region around Ulaanbaatar, the renovation or new construction of the
capital's road network itself and a paved road from Bajanchongor to
Tsagaan Tolgoi. The provincial capitals in particular were and are
connected to the capital by asphalt roads. However, most smaller towns
can still only be reached via dirt roads.
Also in 2007, 110,000
cars, 33,700 trucks and 13,000 buses were on the roads. Half of the
vehicles were more than ten years old; almost 60% of all vehicles were
registered in Ulaanbaatar. Private buses and minibuses are the most
important means of travelling in the country. Due to the still sparse
road and rail network, around 30% of loads are transported by camels.
Mongolia has two international airports, Bujant-Uchaa Airport and Chinggis Khaan International Airport, which regularly connect Mongolia with Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Moscow as well as with Beijing, Seoul and other important cities. There are also airfields and airfields in all parts of the country that are served more or less regularly. Important Mongolian airlines are Aero Mongolia, Eznis Airways and Hunnu Air as well as the state-owned MIAT Mongolian Airlines.
The waterways are almost irrelevant as they are frozen for months. However, according to ITF criteria, the flag of Mongolia is currently (March 2015) considered a "flag of convenience" and is used by ship owners to flag ships.
In 2019, the fire service in Mongolia was organized nationwide by 3,152 professional firefighters and 74 part-time firefighters, who work in 64 fire stations and firehouses, in which 138 fire engines and 6 turntable ladders or telescopic masts are available. The proportion of women is 0.1 percent. In the same year, the Mongolian fire services were called out to 57,294 operations, and 4,209 fires had to be extinguished. 54 dead were recovered by the fire services in fires and 68 injured people were rescued. The national fire service organization Онцгой байдлын ерөнхий газар represents the Mongolian fire services.