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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2016)
Wednesday, October 5, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 27 Commentary... Heritage and change in Ulaanbaatar By lynn Woodward Correspondent It doesn’t take long to drive between the vast calm of the country landscape of Mongolia to the sharp clamor of the capital city, but the difference feels like culture shock. More and more Mongolians are moving to their cities, leaving behind nomadic life for promises from the Westernized world. Gana was born in the western part of Mongolia in the early 1980s. She now works for Stone Horse Expeditions, and I was for- tunate to have her and a col- league, Davaa, drive for me there. Her parents moved her family to Derkhan City in 1995, within a few years of the fall of the Soviet Union when “everybody started searching for a way to live.” She said they wanted better education for their kids, less isolation and “brain work” instead of physical labor. Her parents’ oft-repeated comment on communism was, “it’s not the way people should live.” And yet, she admitted, some aspects of Mongolians’ lives were bet- ter under socialist rule. The brutal Manchu domination of the 18th and 19th centuries and then Soviet control are fresh in Mongolians’ memories. And it feels like Mongolia is push- ing away this recent history as it strives to reconstruct its own identity. Gana said, “If you change the words, you can change the culture.” This has happened in Mongolia, both sublimi- nally and literally. Mongolian script, a beautiful vertical script developed under order of Chinggis Khaan in 1204, was used until the late 1930s when Stalinist repression in Mongolia destroyed nearly all the monasteries — which were also the country’s edu- cation system — and exter- minated tens of thousands of people, particularly Buddhist monks. Mongolian script was replaced with Cyrillic. The most recent genera- tion can use three alphabets to write their language. And 98 percent of the population is literate. But the idealism of the 1990s has flagged and the young democracy is strug- gling to provide for its peo- ple. Their heritage is the mighty warrior and emperor Chinggis Khaan, and they are looking to him for guidance as they move into their own future. On one drive, we stopped to admire a new statue of Chinggis Khaan on a horse. It’s impressive — 250 tons of steel, 130 feet high, formi- dable and cool. In the photo, right, each tourist on the crown of the horse is about half the size of one of the horse’s ears. You know his name as Genghis Khan, a brutal mili- tary leader whose lineage amassed the largest land empire in world history … but you may not know that he also united the previously warring tribes of northeast Asia, putting many lead- ers in position according to merit instead of bloodlines. He decreed freedom of reli- gion, outlawed kidnapping, and enacted laws that grew trade and forbade killing of ambassadors. Today’s Mongolia is six times the size of Oregon and has a human population of three million. Almost half of them live in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar (“UB” the locals call it). UB has three coal power plants. Too many cars. Tens of thousands of ger stoves burning coal for heat. Air pollution is a major health problem here. Last year’s animal cen- sus tallied just under 56 mil- lion livestock in the country, and a number of them live in the capital city, too. For the lack of fences and all the cattle, sheep, goats, dogs and horses wandering over the roads, I didn’t see any road- side carcasses. Davaa told me, “if you kill an animal on Sister� Discover INSIDER’S GUIDE photo by lynn WoodWard Built in 2008 of 250 tons of stainless steel, the Chinggis Khaan equestrian Statue is 130 feet high; the world’s largest equestrian statue. the road, something bad will If they can’t bury it, they happen to you.” leave the body for the wolves Ah, karma. and vultures. As we came into the out- Just over half of skirts of UB, we passed a Mongolians are Buddhist. large orange Buddha statue. The large atheist sector is It’s where the dead rich a remnant of socialism. Buddhists are cremated and Shamanism, the oldest spiri- placed in urns. For regular tual practice in Mongolia, is folks, the family and friends take the body to the country. See ulaaNBaatar on page 31 Discover Sisters, The Insider’s Guide is tdking dd spdce reservdtions for our 2016/2017 issue! Fully re-designed into d convenient dnd eye-cdtching pocket-sized booklet! -Published every year prior to the Thanksgiving weekend to take advantage of holiday shoppers and visitors -15,000 copies - Distributed locally, regionally and mailed out by the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce throughout the 2016-17 year, including chambers & welcome centers, merchants and restaurant locations, visitor N EW DESIG N! POCKET-SIZE D BOOKLET! and tourism associations, lodging, resorts and more. -All the information about Sisters – outdoors and indoors – in one place ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES –Specialty sections, including “Top 20 • Full Page + FREE Directory Listing: $595 Things to Do,” spa, golf, arts, trails, sports and more ! • Specialty Page Sponsor - $250 (Golf, Winter Sports, Cycling, Events, Camping, Hiking, Fishing, For Kids) • “Gotta Have It” Photo Ad: $150 • Directory Listing & Photo: $125 (Dining, Lodging, The Arts, Salons & Spas, Shopping) 15,000 PUBLISHED Contdct Kdren Kdssy toddy, 541-549-9941 or dds@nuggetnews.com Spdce is limited. This hds sold out every yedr!
