Gers are the semi-permanent houses of Mongolian nomadic people. On our trip we stayed in family guest gers, an extra ger that a family has set up for guests to sleep in.
Nomadic families move at least once a year from their summer ger to their winter ger, which is often set into a mountain or hill. They also have at least three animal herds (horses, goats, sheep, camels, yaks, and/or cows). What was most surprising is that all the gers we visited had solar panels for electricity and satellite dishes for TV. But they still cooked by fire and lived a simple life.
The ger itself is a white felt exterior with a large hole on the top. There is a small wooden frame and wooden door that is often painted with beautiful motifs. Inside the ger, the walls are lined with wool and tapestry-style hangings. Poles extend from the top of the wall structure to a round wooden hole in the ceiling, that is also held up by two poles going to the ground. These are also painted in a similar manner to the door.
Ger life centers around the stove. Not only is it in the center of the ger, but it offers heat in the winter, it is where you cook the food, and it is where everyone socializes.
A good example here, where Richard is cooking and Emily is hanging out.
Inside the ger there are beds with thick blankets (it gets quite cold at night in October!), a table and small benches, sometimes a wardrobe or small wash basin, and a wood-burning stove with stovepipe out the hole in the ceiling. Family gers also have Buddhist shrines and cabinets for cooking supplies. In the Gobi desert, families mainly burned dried dung (or as our guide put it, "Shit"); northern Gobi and central Mongolian families burned a mix of wood and dung. When cooking, families would take the top off the stove and put a large pot in the middle to cook soup, rice, noodles, or other foods.
A ger is a great place to stay, and gives you a glance into nomadic life. It's very typically Mongolian!
Mongolian Buddhist Temples:
About 70% of people in Mongolia are Yellow Hat Buddhist (same as Dalai Lama). We had a chance to visit a small monastery in a village, Erdene Zuu Monastery Museum in Kharkorum, and Ongiin Khid monastery ruins.
Buddhism came to Mongolia in the 13th century, but became widespread in the 15th century. Erdene Zuu was built in the 1500s but destroyed by the Soviets in the 1930s when they turned Mongolia communist. It was rebuilt in the 60s but remains a museum. Erdene Zuu does allow photography indoors, but there is a 7000 tugruk (nearly $7) fee. It is one of the only places I know where you can take pictures of the Buddha if you want to. It is heavily discouraged at all other working and non-working temples I know of. There are working monks on the property, but they live and work out of a separate building.
The temples were actually different than their counterparts in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan.
The small monasteries are often two to three main buildings with a collection of dharma wheels and a small Buddhist shrine. Blue silk fabric is a main feature of all the temples; we think they are for good luck.
Ongiid Khid are ruins of a monastery in the Gobi desert. It is quite a large complex, consisting of two dozen or so building foundations and a large shrine. There is a new monastery building there now, but the highlight is walking among the ruins and looking at the scenery. Ongiid Khid overlooks a nice river and is set into the hills, so it's a beautiful location. When we went the tourist ger camps were all closed, so we had the site to ourselves.
I found a piece of petrified wood believe it or not.
Make Grandpa proud.
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