Short Essay on Mongolia

“The Mongols have a long and a re­markable history. Their ancestors, the Huns, lived in Central Asia from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C. in several nomadic tribal groupings. Not until the late 12th and early 13th centuries a single Mon­golian feudal state was formed by Genghis Khan and his successors who controlled a vast empire that stretched from Bulgaria to Manchuria and included much of China, Russia, and Central Asia”.

Sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia is a vast highland country occu­pying an area of about 600,000 sq. miles (1.5 million sq. km) in the heart of eastern Asia. Referred to as Outer Mongolia in the past, it became an independent republic called the People’s Republic of Mongolia in 1924, and since 1992 has been known simply as Mongolia.

Mongolia is one of the most sparsely populated nations in the world, containing only 2.5 million people. According to a 1996 estimate, and has a population den­sity of 4 persons to a sq mile (1.6 to a sq km). Racially it is quite homogeneous, be­longing to the classic type to which the people lent their name.

Ninety-five per­cent of the population belongs to the various Mongol groups; the Khalka-speaking Mongols constitute nearly four-fifths of the entire population. Other Mongolian groups include Dorbed, Bayad, Buryat, and Dariganga. The rest of the population consists of Turkic-speaking Kazaks, who have been traditionally Muslims, and are located mostly in the western part of the country. Russians form a small but impor­tant section of the population and are concentrated primarily in the cities. The Chinese, who were formerly important in cities, trade and finance, have largely left the country.

After the establishment of the vast Mongolian empire in the 13th century, Buddhism derived mostly from Tibetan sources was introduced in the country. However, Buddhism was swept away dur­ing the 1930s when the government greatly influenced by Russia dismantled the country’s existing religious structures. Buddhist monasteries were closed, and mo­nastic lands confiscated. The number of Buddhist monks dropped from 100,000 in 1924 to 110 in 1990.

Historically, Shaman­ism has had considerable influence among the several nomadic tribes and remained, along with Buddhism, one of Mongolia’s main religions until the 16th century. In their push for empire, the Mongols came in contact with Islam during the 13th to 16th centuries, which established its ascen­dancy over the conquerors. Although the Mongol Yuan dynasty of China had adopted Buddhism, Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism) that incorporated Shamanistic traits remained the predominant religion. Shamanism is now a marginal cult, though some of the superstitions surrounding it are still widespread.

The constitution of 1992 allows freedom of worship and all traditional forms of religious practices— Lamaistic Buddhism, Shamanism, Islam, and others can be followed, but the formal practice of religion has been greatly re­duced during the 20th century, and reliable data on the religious affiliations of the people are not available.

The Mongols have a long and a re­markable history. Their ancestors, the Huns, lived in Central Asia from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C. in several nomadic tribal groupings. Not until the late 12th and early 13th centuries a single Mon­golian feudal state was formed by Genghis Khan and his successors who controlled a vast empire that stretched from Bulgaria to Manchuria and included much of China, Russia, and Central Asia.

During the de­clining days of the Mongol Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries Russia and China struggled to gain control of the Mongol territory, and China succeeded in control­ling a large part of the empire. Outer Mongolia finally gained independence in 1921. It seceded, an eastern part of its terri­tory to China.

The Chinese part is now known as “Inner Mongolia”, and the re­maining part became an independent nation, known as the Mongolian People’s Republic. Because of its location between Russia and China, the Mongol territory had been dominated by its more powerful neighbors, China and Russia between 1691-1921. After independence it became closely tied to the Soviet Union, and re­mained so until the end of the 1980s.

Today there are more Mongolians liv­ing outside the country than in it; some three and a half million live in China’s In­ner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and another one million live in the Tuva and Buryat regions of Russia that adjoin Mon­golia to the north.

Physical Features:

Most of Mongolia is a vast plateau area of rolling to level topog­raphy with elevations between 3,000 and 6,000 feet (912 meters and 1824 meters). Only one-third of the country’s surface is made up of hills and mountains located in the extreme west, and the southwestern re­gions. Two-thirds of the surface lies in the nearly flat Gobi Desert which is ap­proached over a mountain rim from all sides, in which the surface gradually de­scends.

Across the surface of the Gobi one may drive an automobile for miles on a featureless landscape, the monotony of which is relieved by only a few residual monadnocks. This nearly level plain lies at an elevation of about 5,400 feet (1,642 me­ters) in the southern part of the country to over 6,000 feet in the north, with lower elevations in the middle of the Gobi De­sert. Many of such depressions in the Gobi are located between the Inner Mongolia (in China) and Ulaanbataar, the capital of Mongolia in the north, which are parted by low hills. In several cases they contain intermittent playa lakes.

The highest and the longest mountain is the westernmost Mongolian Altai Mountains that rises to over 13,000 feet, sweeps in from the northwestern tip of the country and extends toward the southeast for nearly 1,000 miles with a lesser range splitting off to the southeast as the Gobi Altai Mountains. There are several in its eastern part of the Altai that provide gate­ways to the Junggar and Tarim basins of western China.

Near the center of the country are lo­cated the Hangayn (Khangai) Mountains with peaks rising to over 12,000 feet (3,648 meters). Unlike the Altai, however, the Hangayn contains gentler slopes and crests and is often covered with fine pastures. In the far north there are also the mountain ranges that join the Tannu Ola Mountains along the Russian border.

The entire country is prone to seismic movements and severe earthquakes. There are thousands of lakes in the country, mostly in the northern and western re­gions. A large number of those are salty, transitory, and variable in size, and with­out any outlets. The largest fresh-water lake is the Hovsgoi that occupies a struc­tural depression in the northwestern region of the country. Many of the lakes are of volcanic origin.

Tucked far away from the moderating influences of the oceans, Mongolia experi­ences an extreme continental climate, resembling that of Montana in the United States and Alberta. Its location at a high latitude and high altitude makes the win­ters more severe for its latitudes. The difference between the mean temperatures of January and July can reach SOT (44°C). January averages -7° and –10°F (–21C and –23.3°C). The growing period in most of Mongolia is about 100 days.

Moisture is of great importance in this dry country, most of which is received from the northerly winds. Because the high altitude areas are located in the north and west, precipitation is highest in the north and diminishes toward the south, from an average of 12 inches (30.5 centime­ters) in the northern mountains to less than 2 inches (5.1 cms) in the southwest Gobi Desert.

Most of the country is nearly barren, excepting the higher elevations of moun­tains which catch some moisture and are covered with vegetation of larches, aspens, and birches. The steppe lands predominate covering 75 percent of the surface with large, tall grasses, which in the northern half of the country turn southward into short grassland and further south into de­sert steppes, and wasteland. Between 1921 and 1990 Mongolia came under the Soviet hegemony, and re­ceived technical, economic, and military assistance from the Soviet Union and mostly followed the Soviet guidance in po­litical and cultural matters, both domestic and international. Until 1950 the only con­tact with the rest of the world was through the Soviet territory.

A recognition by the People’s Republic of China came in that year, and the reestablishment of trade southward. Foreign contacts increased with the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1956, and the trip from Moscow to Beijing was shortened by over 700 miles (1,183 km).

Historically, the Mongols have led a nomadic existence, and cultivation has not been significant in national economy, al­though this has dramatically changed after Mongolia adopted a communist pattern of government in the early 1920s. Herding has been the chief source of livelihood in the past, and from it the people derived eighty to 90 percent of their food. In the early 1990s nearly 30 percent of the labor force was engaged in agriculture but gener­ated only 16 percent of the gross national income. Mining and manufacturing have become important during the past few dec­ades and now contribute to nearly one- quarter of nation’s domestic product.

Livestock herding is still a significant element of economy. Nearly 14.5 million sheep, 9 million goats, 3.5 million cattle, 2.5 million horses, a million goats, and half a million camels contribute food and cloth­ing for the people, and provide raw materials for the expanding manufacturing economy and trade.

Mutton and cheese for food, dung for fuel and wool for the manufacture of the characteristic felt gers or yurts is provided by this enormous population of animals. Traditionally, horses, camels and yaks have provided means of transport. The Mongol grazing economy has thus been quite self-suffi­cient.

In the early 1990s nearly 60 percent of the population was listed as urban, in strik­ing contrast to the primarily, nomadic life that traditionally favored the yurt or ger population. A distinctive feature of the countryside is still the yurt. The ger is a cone-shaped tent-like structure of felt (nowadays of canvas laid over felt) stretched over light, collapsible wooden frames. Building materials are scarce on the steppe, and the ger structure is light, strong, and easy to assemble, transport, and re-erect.

Besides being portable, it is ideally suited to Mongolia’s rigorous cli­mate. Its round, squat shape can withstand strong winds unlike the “modern” one- man camping tents. The felt is impenetrable by rain or snow, and insu­lates well. It is still being used by herdsmen moving from pasture to pasture.

The urban centers have experienced a phenomenal growth in the second half of the 20th century. In 1950 only a quarter of the population lived in the cities. The capi­tal, Ulaanbataar (population nearly 630,000) is the largest and most important urban center containing a quarter of the country’s population.

It lies at the strategic railroad that connects Beijing with the Russian territory. Ulaanbataar houses, one-half of nation’s industrial labor force which is primarily engaged in light indus­try specializing in such items as processed food and meat, beverages, dairy products, and textiles. Two other important cities, Darhan and Suhbaatar, are located close to the country’s northern border.

The for­mer was founded in 1961 as a planned city and contains a population of 90,000. Sec­ond only to Ulaanbataar it is nation’s major industrial center. Suhbaatar, founded in 1937, is a transport and trade center, on the Trans-Mongol Railway, near the Russian border.

Economic Development:

Nearly eighty percent of Mongolia’s land is in meadows and pastures, and nine percent in forests. Less than one percent of the land, limited mostly to the northern parts of country is under permanent cultivation. Because of the long, cold winters, only a single crop in a year is possible. Eighty percent of the cropland is in grains—mostly in spring wheat but with some in barley or oats—all the rest is in fodder crops (hay).

Yields are generally low. Potatoes and other vegeta­bles occupy a tiny fraction of the cropland. Three-fourths of the cropland is in state farms, the remaining in cooperatives. The state farms are large, averaging 700 sq miles in size and typically include some livestock production as well as crops.

Livestock rising based on millions of head of sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and camels—account for about seventy per­cent of the value of agriculture. The livestock are widely distributed through­out the entire country. The horses and cattle reach their greatest concentration in the wetter north-central regions, whereas the goats and camels are proportionately more numerous in the drier west and south. Since the 1930s most of the live­stock have been raised in agricultural cooperatives, although the administration has been making efforts to slowly privatize these since the early 1990s.

Mongolia possesses several minerals, chief of which are coal, iron, tin, tungsten, copper, gold, and silver, but just a few of these (coal and copper and some gold and tungsten) are extracted at a commercial scale. Although the administration has de­voted a great amount of effort to industrialize the nation, much of the coun­try’s industrial production is limited to processing raw materials or meeting basic consumer needs.

The main manufactured products are: processed foods (meat, bever­ages, dairy products, and flour), woolen textiles, footwear, hides, skins, furs, lum­ber, paper, matches, and furniture. About half of the industrial employment resides in or near Ulaanbataar. Heavy industry based mainly on iron ore and copper is concentrated in Darhan, and forests prod­ucts are processed in Suhbaatar.

Minerals and metals are the principal exports, (40 to 45 percent of all exports). These surpassed the traditional exports of livestock and their by-products during the 1980s. Raw material goods, food products, consumer and construction materials are the other export items. The main imports are machinery and transport equipment, followed by fuels, minerals, and consumer goods.

Until the early 1990s three-fourths of Mongolia’s trade was with the former Soviet Union and much of the rest with the former Communist block countries of Eastern Europe. Since then, it has sought to increase its trade with other nations. However, the development of a broad- based international trade is hampered by several factors, notably the absence of di­rect access to the sea, the need to use Russian and Chinese ports and the high transport costs.

Prospects:

Mongolia is passing through a period of administrative, political, eco­nomic and social transition. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the political and economic systems, thus far shackled to the Soviets, have been freed. The new constitution of 1992 calls for a liberalization of economic and social forces.

Mongolia experienced great eco­nomic hardship as it moved from a command economy to a system of market economy. One-third to one-half of the budget was previously obtained from the now-defunct Soviet Union. Its interna­tional debt has become excessively high. With the escalation of national debt, and rapidly growing population, its per capita income is dropped to among the lowest in the world.

The worsening economic situation has undoubtedly been exacerbated by Mongo­lia’s landlocked position between the two powerful neighbors on which it had to de­pend for passage to the outside world for its international trade. Mongolia is now gradually increasing its trade with nations other than these two neighbors.