Mongolian Matters » mongolia

The Look

khuushuur — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:26:33 +0000

This image really caught my eye. Putin’s look sent shivers down my spine. It seems quite a meaningful look, but i am too afraid to speculate.

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250,000 Mongolian Gazelles

khuushuur — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:24:11 +0000

Vaste Numbers of Mongolian Gazelles

Good Old Kirk has seen them all:

In September 2007, Olson’s team were driving across the eastern Mongolian steppes studying the habitat of the Mongolian gazelle, one of the last nomadic ungulates to survive in large numbers.

Together with scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, they had been capturing gazelles and fitting them with GPS collars to track their movements, trying to work out where they travel and why.

As they drove east they began to encounter herds of a couple of thousand individuals.

“Groups of this size are impressive and beautiful to see,” describes Olson. Then the following day, at about midday, they drove to a hillside offering a great view of what appeared to be one such herd.

“But it was really one edge of a group that ended up being over 250,000 by one estimate.

“We were simply amazed at the sight. The image I have in my mind of seeing this massive aggregation of gazelles will always be etched into my memory.”

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The Mongolian Villian in the Movies

khuushuur — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:41:38 +0000

The Post Cold War villian impasse is continuing. Since the Soviet Union collapsed Russian weapon trade might still fill a few movies (James Bond’s Goldeneye, Lord of War), North Korea might entertain once or twice, but even terrorism gets a bit boring after a while. So why not look at…..Mongolia
At the moment in Houston an exhibition on Genghis Khan (Chingis Khaan for friends) tries to explain the more detailed story of Mongolian warriors riding the steppes. Although not much appreciated in his home country, international movies as “Mongol” and the upcoming “The Mystery of Genghis Khan” have tried some diffirent angles on the great leader.

In the meantime however Hollywood seems to have rediscovered the archetype of the brutal Mongolian Warrior. The blogs have been noting. In a month time 2 mayor movies were casting “Mongolians” and a US TV series is feauturing a Mongolian Warrior as its episode-villian.
Iron Man 2’s casting efforts involves the search for a “Mongolian gangster” and a MTV interpreteds that as “organized crime out of Mongolia”. The same blog mentions the Marvel Comics “resident Mongolian crime lord Haan Kaishek”. Sounds scary, in more than one sence.

If that is not your cup of tea there is a whole clan of extras sought for M. Night Shyamalan’s new film. After suprising audiences worldwide with the Sixth Sense, ‘M.’ has been more succesful in annoying or boring them ever since. For the new flick he is now looking for “Mongolian-American males and females between the ages of 5 and 85″ to join him in these efforts. But the most shocking reference popped-up in google news today: “Sam Attacked by Mongolian Demons” is the heading of an article that details the episode of a bizar series called Reaper. The actual episode title is Dirty Sexy Mongol. How more distasteful can we get? Well take a look at the guy. Even Steven Seagal looks more Mongolian.

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North Korean Embassy Censored Air Conditioning

khuushuur — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:56:00 +0000

It is a bit a crappy mobile picture, but those with good eyes might be able to distinguish the North Korean state emblem on this wall of their embassy in Ulaanbaatar (clcik on the image for a larger size). But the interesting thing in this picture is the box below. Yep the airco. Nothing special right. Well, look again. This bright square there is where the branding used to be. But the embassy decided to painting it over. Why? The manufacturer is South Korean LG. Of course they are too proud to have a symbol of South Korean kapitalism on their walls.
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technorati: mongolia north korea censor

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Mongolia 3rd in Olympic medal count

khuushuur — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:14:00 +0000

That’s an unexpected number. So what About the US, China, UK? Well they do really well, but if you translate the number of medals to the population of the country, they are nowhere to be seen in the top 10. That is the conclusion that the La Times draws. Their Top 10 of medals per capita is as follows:

1. Armenia (4) – 742,147
2. Australia (16) – 1,287,554
3. Mongolia (2) – 1,498,041
4. Georgia (3) – 1,543,614
5. Switzerland (4) – 1,895,380
6. Cuba (6) – 1,903,992
7. Slovenia (1) – 2,007,711
8. Azerbaijan (4) – 2,044,429
9. The Netherlands (7) – 2,377,902
10. Hungary (4) – 2,482,729

No over billion Chinese that can change a thing about that. Reminds that India must be at the very bottom of this list. They might be very proud on their gold, but one medal on a billion is ultimately not al that impressive

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technorati: mongolia

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Mongolia Celebrates Olympic Gold Medal

khuushuur — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:58:00 +0000

On Thursday evening in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar people went en mass out to the streets to celebrate the first Olympic gold medal in its history. Judoka Tuvshinbayar became first in the category under 100 kilo, beating his rival Askhat Zhitkeyev from Kazakhstan 120 to 10. Mongolia is famous for its wrestling both in its native form as well as in the Japanese Sumo competition which has been dominated by Mongolians in recent years. During the match load cheers were heard all over town from the public screenings of the match. Four tv channels had live broadcasting of the event that marks a highlight in Mongolia’s sports history.
The celebrations culminated in a surprising display of unity amongst the stark divided political forces. President Enkhbayar came down the stairs of the Government house holding hands with acting prime minister S. Bayar to his right and Democratic Party (DP) leader Elbegdorj holding his left hand. It was an unimaginable scene bearing in mind the still lingering conflict that sparked the July 1st protests which left 5 people dead. Mining and in particual gold mining was the big theme of the election on June 29. When a victory for the MPRP was announced the DP and other parties sparked a protest with accusations of vote rigging that led to the fatal riots.
But while it was the large quantities of gold that divided parties in the election turmoil, a particulary small amount of the commodity was able to unite people from the three key figures on the square to every man in the street. Again army personal had to come rushing to protect the government house from a wild crowd, but this time there were no ill motives. Singer Javkhlan had become the center of the crowd’s euforie and he was mangled from the one side of the square to the other, where on the roof of his car he sang one of is famous songs. People greeted and hi-fived strangers, cars were driving past with passengers holding flags while screaming and yelling of joy. From high government officials to street kids, everyone joint in one of the most overwhelming displays of celebration in Mongolia’s recent history. The Genghis Khan statue was looking motionless over the crowd that celebrated until deep in the night for their new national hero.

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technorati: mongolia

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The Buddhist and The Christian

khuushuur — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:14:00 +0000

While having posted on the bizar joint listing of Christians and Shamanists in religious statistics some time ago, the last weeks have seen a frontal confrontation of some senior Buddhists with the American director of the News/Christian channel “Eagle TV”. The fire was sparked off by a letter of Norwegian Buddhist Federation President Egil Lothe to the UB Post and Mongolia Web News. User comments, another letter by Lothe and a reaction from the head of FPMT Mongolia express a vocal irritation with practices and arguments of the Eagle TV director. He himself seems “not amused” with Lothe’s arguments, reflecting in a blog post called “Responding to Dishonesty“.
But any illusion of an open discussion is smothered as Mr. Minder’s request for mutual respect is answered by a short post on the blog of the Eagle boss

….It’s a little quote from a guy in Myanmar who was helped by missionaries after a cyclone all but destroyed that country.

“Buddha did nothing while we were suffering. But your Jesus loves us.”

And that pretty much says it all.

No further comments…

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technorati: mongolia

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P. Hulova in the Mongolian steppe

khuushuur — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:41:00 +0000

…yuu bna? brought my attention to this interview with Petra Hulova, the young author of a wonderful book In Memory of My Grandmother (Paměť mojí babičce). The Dutch translation is rather a nail biting experience, and yan has some trouble with the german as well. i hope for everyone the English is a bit better experience. regardless, the book is a gem. Mostly because is it is not a tourist guide to Mongolia, it doesnt try explain everything too much, but uses Mongolia as the landscape for an intriguing family saga.

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technorati: mongolia

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Web Apps Resource Online

khuushuur — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:40:00 +0000

There is a new resource on Web Apps and all you can do with it. Check it out!

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New Community Site

khuushuur — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:05:00 +0000

There is a new community site for/on/in Mongolia(n) Naiz.mn. Check it out!

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