Tsagaan Sar II

This is part II of our week in the Gobi, when we were invited to celebrate Tsagaan Sar.

The holidays actually start with the sunrise after the first new moon following the winter solstice. To welcome the sun of the new year, people climb up a sacred mountain close to the city that has an Ovoo on top.

The first sunrays are the signal when everybody starts cheering and throwing with fermented milk. Standing in the first row is not a good idea and reserved for foreigners who don't know about these traditions.

Maybe sitting on horse while enjoying the first sun brings some extra luck and fortune for the New Year.

After welcoming the sun, we went back to our host family where we had to drink vodka again (of course) and presents were distributed. The distribution of presents continued troughout the week at all the families we visited and I have quite a decent collection of socks now.

Traditionally, in the village everybody greets all old people in town. After the distribution of presents at home, we went to the town hall to do so. A very important element of this greeting is the Khadag, a blue garment that you hold in your hands while the younger one hold the arms of the older counterpart from below. Then you walk around in the circle and greet everybody in the room - starting with the oldest people - by holding the counterpart's hands and sniff/kiss the left and right cheek. After you finished, you stand in queue and wait for the rest of the people to pass you for greeting.

The oldest people in town.

Standing in line...

Sniffing and greeting with the Khadag

After finishing the welcome ceremony, we continued with visiting friends on the countryside. We made up to 10 families per day. At each family we had to drink vodka, Airag (fermented milk), Mongolian beer (Made of fruits) and milk vodka.

Besides drinking excessively, we had to eat even more excessively. The main meals were buuz, mutton-stomach, cucumber-sausage salad, egg salad, fruit salad with mayo and pickled vegetables. During the day we estimated to have eaten up to 50 buuz + side dishes.

On one day we could watch a horse race training.
The jockeys are usually boys from 6-12 years, which speed through the desert with more than 60 km/h. The audience has to follow along with a car, which is very challenging, because rocks and vegetation complicate the driving.

Winner horse:

Jockeys after the race

The last day was the most eventful day as well. Starting with a big headache and a bowl of vodka for breakfast, we went to the herder Manaa where we already have been before. With a group of 8 people we conducted several visits to their family and friends.



Main occassion for this trip was the first haircut of someone's nephew. This is traditionally an important event and celebrated with a lot of family members and friends.
The child is passed around by the father and each guest cuts a strand of hairs, gives a present and a kiss to the small child.

The other reason for the trip was to collect 8 sheeps and take them back to Manaa's place. So the first step was to choose the right cattle and bind them together.

The children did their best to help the older people.

The rest of the herd was chased out of the enclosure, so only the chosen sheeps stayed inside.

"Luckily they didn't grab us, friend! Lets enjoy life!"

Before heading back home we visited a monastery that was destroyed by the communists between 1937 and 1939, where nearly all Buddhist monks were exterminated and monasteries destroyed. So only ruins were left and a water well that is said to miraculously cure our permanent hangover.

In the background are the remains and some rebuilt buildings of the monastery

Afterwards we released our excessive energy by doing the national sport on a frozen river: Wrestling.

Manaa was kind enough to let me win one round.

You might have noticed already that the sky on that day was not as crystal clear and blue as usual. And weather even became worse which made our way back an odyssey.
The sun was already descending, but we had to pick up the collected sheeps and of course we couldn't take the direct way but we had to stop at every friends house in between to drink and eat.

These were some horses we have seen on our way back, a pretty good indication for the weather conditions.

Still we couldn't refuse a short horse ride on some medal-winning race horses.

I have no idea how our driver actually orientated himself while driving through the Gobi without roads, street signs and obvious landmarks.
But somehow they do orientate very well. Except it is getting dark and there is a snowstorm coming up. This was the case at this night and we got lost on the way to pick up the sheeps, after driving circles for some hours we slowly ran out of fuel. Luckily I had 5% battery on my smartphone left, which was just enough to navigate to a small town to refuel. From there our driver knew the way (mystery to me how he did so) to the sheep herder. Parts of our team passed out on the way, due to immoderate alcohol consumption. So it was mainly about the driver and us to load the sheeps to the trailer. In the middle of the night we came back to our "hotel" and after a final drink we could go to our beds.

This last day was one of the many highlights we had in this week and a great conclusion of our Tsagaan Sar holidays. For sure this was the best week during my time in Mongolia so far and I am grateful for the invitation.

Thank you Naraa and your family!

 
I hope you have enjoyed the pictures that might give a glimpse to the super interesting culture of Mongolia.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments :)


Cheers
Malte

Tsagaan Sar I

Dear all

Sorry for letting you wait some weeks, but work as well as leisure stress didn’t allow me to work too much on the blog. This entry is about Tsagaan Sar - the Mongolian’s New Year’s Eve. Tsagaan Sar is celebrated on the first new moon after the winter solstice following the lunar calendar like for example in China and in many South-East Asian countries.

I was incredibly lucky that I together with my flatmate Simon have been invited to celebrate the traditional Tsagaan Sar with a family living in Delgerkhangai. Thank you so much for the invitation Naraa! This was for sure the greatest and most eventful week I had in Mongolia so far! This is part one of two, comprising the days before the holidays really started.

The first thing I think about when looking back is eating and drinking all the time. Every day we visited up to 10 families and on every stop we were pressured to eat as much as we could eat and were forced to drink all kind of alcoholic drinks. But this week was much, much more and the following pictures shall give you a small impression about it.

Besides eating Buuz and drinking Wodka, the people and traditions were the strongest impressions I experienced in these days. When visiting a family, the first thing that  has to be done is to exchange snuff tobaco. Every traditional Mongolian owns a small pot, some kind of bottle with snuff and when you come to someone elses home everybody has to exchange the pot with everybody else. While doing so it is very important that you take it with your right hand and support your arm with you left hand. Then you take a sniff and give it back. This is usually done with everybody in the room, also with the people that do not own snuff (Such as me).

This is the great landscape of the Gobi and the home of the families we have visited. Nearly all of them live in Gers

 One of the families owned camels and we could have a short ride.

 Short camel shepherd

Nomad life

One important aspect  on all the visits was making group pictures with everyone dressed up in their traditional, colourful Deel.

 Identical twins..

 Family in red

Big group picture

Part of the adventure was driving in a car. Our awesome russian van obviously had a capacity for 26 passengers. Roads are non-existent in these parts, drivers also have to drink wodka at every family and snowy underground is no reason to slow down.

So it might happen that you get stuck in the snow...

 ...and you have to push out the car.

Another common way to travel is on a motorbike. 4 people + cattle is the capacity of these asian motorbikes, but I chose to ride alone.

The Trip to the Gobi was not only about eating and drinking, but on one friends place we could also help with their daily work which is for example collecting bullshit that is used for heating...

...or guiding a herd of around 1000 animals to the next waterhole and pump drinking water for the cattle as well as for the household of the family we stayed at.

 All this happened just before Tsagaan Sar really began and is going to be continued...