"Genghis" Khan is Mongolia's new business symbol

Malaysia's "The Star" published an article on how a certain "Genghis" Khan has become some kinda business gimmick in Mongolia.

Khan's reputation in the West is of a blood-thirsty conqueror, but the Mongolians are raised to believe that he was a wise and just ruler who created an empire.

"In my opinion he was a unique and exceptional man. Unlike many people, I don't admire him for his military deeds. I admire him for his personality and I think that he was a genius," said 14-year-old Battulga Sainbuyuan.

I think first of all, they shouldn't be interviewing 14-year-olds about this. Because only 14-year-olds admire the personality of a man who lived 800 years ago and of whose personality not a single documentation exists. He could have been a manic depressive, or he could've been an archetype of one of the Enneagram personalities.

The fact that Mongolians got nothing to fall back on except Chinggis is no secret. We got nothing else going on for us. We don't have celebrities famous enough to market, and our artists are drunkards. Well, we're all drunkards come to think of it, but our artists are more so. 20th century is a blur, a period of amnesia for us. Whatever happened from 1690's and onwards until 20th century is something we'd rather forget. The Mongol empire falling apart, as the princes and Khans and courtesans bickered and fought, while the Manchurians nibbled away the Mongol empire to its knees.

So that leaves us with Chinggis, Ugudei, Khubilai and so on, until shit hit the fan. Speaking of which, Chinggis = Genghis. Though Genghis sounds like a name for some pet rodent. How Chinggis came to be distorted as Genghis is a comedic genius to me. It's the way my name gets distorted by Singaporeans, from its perfectly normal Bilguun, it magically transfoms into Bill Gunn, Dill Goon, Biljoon, Dilgunn. What's eve more hilarious is watching, hearing or reading scholars discussing, with all seriousness and scholarly importance, one "Genghis" Khan, which sort of brings to my mind an image of a bunch of kids in class discussing Thanta Clauth, a result of a lisping teacher introducing Santa as such. Genghis, eh. Genghis the Gerbil and Thanta Clauth.

But I have accepted the fact that Chinggis Khaan's name is now irredeemable. The guy who "compiled" the second largest land Empire, will forever be erroneously referred to as Genghis, and for no reason at all. So on a second thought, why not. Let us exploit this new brand name, and sell our vodka and beer away. After all, Genghis isn't even a proper word in Mongolian. We will not respect a charlatan. We are the descendants of Chinggis Khaan, not this Genghis Khan born from the mouths of the same people who named Native Americans "Indians", who are now called Injuns, as I hear.

Just like the popular Mongolian BBQ, it is some random foreign invention. We oughta suppress our laughter and sell the Genghis brand to those who invented it in the first place.

What it means to be a Mongolian

I thought about this for a while this afternoon, trying to distract myself from thinking about my broken digital camera with a sinking feeling in my gut. My kitten dragged it to the floor and broke it.

I've had some arguments over the status of Mongols, the Mongol race etc, on orkut.com with another poster, who was from China. Mongolian is listed as one of the 5,000 minority races in China. Well, it's more like 56, but there you go. Inner Mongolians in China are what used to be the Southern Mongol Empire. It's a long story. Kings fought and feuded, and the Mongol Empire fell apart, to be swallowed bit by bit by the Manchurians. What is today's Mongolia, the country, is the North / North Western wings of the Mongol empire. The Khalkhs, so to speak. My father is a Khalkh Mongol, which is the largest ethnic group in Mongolia. My mother is a Buriat, which is the largest ethnic minority group in Siberian region of Russia. Not that my mom is from Siberia, she was born and bred in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. But there is a sizable population of Buriat-Mongols in the Buryatia Republic in Russia, sort of a semi-autonomous republic near the Lake Baikal in Russia. So in effect, that makes me somewhat of a mixed Mongol race. But the 70 years under communism more or less homogenized the racial and cultural identity amongst Mongols. We were no longer Khalkhs or Buryats, we were just comrades, all equal under Lenin, Stalin, Marx and Engels.

So what is a Mongolian? It's probably more of a cultural identity than anything else. After all, who can say what is a pure race. And genetically speaking, a pure race is a race that will extinguish itself in its nest of inbreeding. While we are now trying to re-establish the subtler levels of ethnic identities through the tribal names etc, e.g. my clan name being Besud, and others are Borjigin, Three-drunken-men (I kid you not), and other seemingly random names, are these accurate? Remains to be seen.

There are certain ethnic groups in Mongolia that have retained their strong identities, such as the Kazakh-Mongols, Buryats etc. If you travel around the countryside, you will see they have retained their separate identities. Sheerly through isolation, if not anything else. While in the metropolitan areas, the metropolitan urban phenomena has more or less extinguished the ethnic differences. Everyone's mixed. seems to be where the world is headed. A melting pot.

When did Mongolia become independent?

I think many people are confused about this, and perhaps even so in China or Taiwan, where historical accuracy regarding Mongolia's origins and independence has always been secondary to their own agendas.

Mongolia declared its independence on 11 July 1921, 86 years ago from today. Throughout the middle of 20th century, Mongolia's status as a sovereign state has been threatened a few times, mostly by the Government of China. The Chinese government was the only country that refused to recognize our independence, choosing to instead enter a 20 year denial period where they deceitfully tried to backstab Mongolians via various closed-door discussions with the Soviet Union.

Mongol Costume in Pop Culture

Mongolian traditional costumes were the basis for some of Queen Amidala's costumes in Star Wars IVXIVI: The Monkey Wars or something or other. Truth is I am not a fan of Star Wars, but visually the costume designs were pretty great for Amidala.

The image on the left is a traditional Mongolian woman's attire. Formal attire. Hmm.. I don't think headdress hair is actually made by horse-hair if i'm not mistaken. Unless you had really long hair. But even then it's bloody difficult to make these well-formed hard loops with them. You'd hafta go through many tubs gel wouldn't ya.

Very detailed info on Mongol costumes can be found here.

Russia, Mongolia to jointly prospect, produce, process uranium - 1

Not too sure what to make of it. But I suppose this signals the resurgence of interest in Mongolia from our Big Brothers, the Russians.

MOSCOW, April 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Mongolia will jointly prospect, produce and process uranium, the press secretary of Russia's nuclear power agency said Friday.

"[Nuclear power agency] Rosatom and Mongolia's industry and trade ministry signed a protocol on development of cooperation in the field of geological prospecting, production and processing of uranium ores," Sergei Novikov said.

Mongolia possesses reserves of 37,000 metric tons of uranium-molybdenum ores. Molybdenum is a silver-white chemical element used in alloys for electrical resistance furnaces, crucial in nuclear processing.

Read more...

Chinese-Type Mongolian

So I'm house-hunting, which means I have to talk to a bunch of strangers called agents, who want as much personal detail as possible. "What do you do? Where are you from?" etc. One of the real estate agents I called asked me where I was from and upon hearing "Mongolia", he asks knowingly "Ah, the China-type Mongolia"? And I yell down the phone, "No! It's a country!". He is confused. Then asks again, "But Chinese-type Mongolians, right?", to which I reply irritably "No, the Mongolian-type Mongolians. We're a race.". The level of ignorance is amazing. Obviously the conversation didn't go well from there on. I kinda lost interest in speaking to him and excused myself shortly. Chinese-type Mongolian... Whatever the hell that means. I'm the Cannibal-Type Mongolian and I eat people for a living. My mom is a European-Type Mongolian, coz she speaks Magyar, which is a major Hungarian language. So is my dad, who studied in Poland. My sis is Swiss-Type Mongolian. Sometimes I become a Drunk-Type Mongolian, and then enter the advanced stage of Passout-Type Mongolian.

So for the record, Mongol is a race. We have nothing to do with the Chinese. We eat the Chinese. You know the Mongolian BBQ you so enjoy? Well, that's a Chinese-Type Mongolian BBQ. Hope that clears everything up. Enjoy your dinner.

Illegal Immigrants from Mongolia Save Lives in Korea

News from Digital Chosunilbo, a Korean online newspaper

Four illegal Mongolian migrant workers who rescued 11 people from a fire in Sindorim-dong, Seoul last month will be allowed to stay in Korea, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. It is first case where foreigners have been permitted to stay in recognition of a contribution to Korean society under a new regulation in the immigration laws. The four will now have access to hospitals and get a legal job. The ministry said the four “deserve the permission considering their toil and sacrifice."

Read more...

Some people have written into to Chosun, arguing that seeing as they have saved 11 people's lives, they should be given Permanent Resident status in Korea. South Korea currently has the largest population of illegal Mongolian workers. In fact, it may have the largest population of Mongolian citizens outside of Mongolia, some 28,000 to 30,000. Some legal and some illegal.

Marmot

IMG_1373
Originally uploaded by heesco.

Marmots, sort of similar to prairie dogs, are considered a delicacy in Mongolia.

They do get rabies easily, however, and once in a while there's an epidemic in a certain region as a result of eating marmot meat.

What It Means to be a Mongolian Abroad

There are 2 types of travellers. Those who adapt and mingle when in Rome, and those who would rather stick with their own group of people. I think Mongolians in many cases fall somewhere in between. There are some, like myself, who don't have a group of his own people, simply coz I have always travelled alone. Being a travelling Mongolian means a few things:
a. People's fascination with my country of origin, for those who know where it is. This is always welcome. If the person has been to Mongolia or knows something specific about Mongolia, it always makes for an interesting conversation.
b. Dealing with people's confusion as to whether I am Chinese, with lengthy explanations from me as to why we are not Chinese and why I do not speak any Chinese languages.
c. Dealing with downright ignorance as to where I am from.
d. Explaining that Mongolia is not next to Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan.

I have also observed that Asians more than Westerners are ignorant about Mongolia. I have met many Australians, Americans etc, who have heard of Mongolia and have been there. I suppose being born an Asian entitles a person to remain apathetic to the goings-on around the Asian region. It's the same situation when you live in a particular city. You will find that tourists and short / medium-term stayers in that city are more up-to-date on the city than those who were born there or have lived there for a long time.

In general, however, the frustrating times are over. While the Chinese from PR of China continue to remain completely ignorant of Mongolia's supreme status, the rest of the world is slowly starting to accept it. I remember one of the most insulting times were when I landed in the Beijing airport ten years ago on my way to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. When I showed the customs official my passport, he insisted that Mongolia is in China and I must go to the Domestic terminal for my connecting flight. This was 10 years ago, 70 years after our independence.

Ivanhoe signs the Mongolia mining deal

After a couple of years of standstill, Ivanhoe has finally signed the agreement with the Mongolian government. Does it mean a good thing for the people of Mongolia? Perhaps. While many environmentalists are resentful over the last 5 years of boom in the mining sector, the government should be relieved, the duty of feeding the economy has been made a bit easier with the findings. Ivanhoe estimates that Mongolia will be one of the largest mining countries in a few years as further explorations are made.

Mongolia has the right to purchase up to 34 per cent of the Oyu Tolgoi project under a new mineral law passed last year. As well, the Asian country passed a "windfall profits" tax law last year that sees miners' shipments taxed at a rate of 68 per cent or higher when gold trades at $500 (U.S.) or more an ounce and when copper reaches $2,600 or more a ton.

Read more....

Mongolian BBQ!

Below is an excerpt from the webpage of a US-based restaurant.

Centuries ago in the province of Mongolia, the Mighty Khan's hunting parties would camp on the banks of the great river Khan-Balik. After days devoted entirely to hunting, they would gather in droves to celebrate their successes. Communing in banquet style pavilions, the Mongols would prepare slivers of meat and vegetables by slicing them with their razor sharp swords. They would then cook their food by searing it on their overturned shields that were heated by a blazing fire. The Kublai Khan and his fiercest warriors would sit high above the hordes, and enjoy the same food prepared for him on a large, roaring hot griddle.

It's a great marketing ploy to create novelty around a random Western buffet. We don't have a Mongolian BBQ in Mongolia, no such thing. Or rather, we didn't use to, until recently. Tourists came and probably went around looking for that authentic Mongolian BBQ they enjoyed so much in Wisconsin or Paris somewhere. So some businessmen saw the opportunity, and gave the tourists what they wanted. They want a Mongolian BBQ restaurant, and a micro-brewery, just like they have it in their home country. And why can't the waiter speak English, after all he's Mongolian isn't he. Coz the Wisconsin Mongolian BBQ waiter spoke absolutely fluent English. He looked a bit white too, but hey, Mongolians adapt really well to different cultures.

That random rant aside, we do have something that could be called an authentic Mongolian BBQ, but it doesn't involve shields, swords, buffet table with an awesome spread. It involves a metal container, potatoes and other herbs such as they may be available (when I say herbs, in Mongolian dishes, no more than 2-3 types are used), and a sheep. An entire sheep. Brought to the cooking depot, alive. One of the men, usually the one who knows how to slaughter the sheep, would then make a small incision and shove his hand into the sheep insides. Until he can reach the main artery, so you can imagine his arm would go in past the elbow. He then would either severe or simply hold the main artery until the sheep breathes its last. Gruesome, eh? But that's reality. You can't say "I like mutton and I eat it but I don't wanna have to kill sheep to get it". It's a method passed down centuries, and I could say that it's probably more humane than slitting their throats while they're dangling from a hook and leaving them to bleed.

In any case, nothing is wasted from the animal, everything is sausaged, meat's carefully prepared and in it all goes into a metal container, which is placed over fire for a couple of hours. Now THAT is Mongolian BBQ. Hardly appetizing for foreigners, as the meat proves too strong in flavour and richness for them. And most usually lose their appetite watching the sheep-slaughtering. So I can understand the romantic appeal of warriors sitting around frying meat on their shields, as ludicrous as it may sound.

On a side note to the above quote, Khan-Balik is not a great river. It's the ancient Mongol name for today's Beijing, the city.

Orkut and Mongolians

So I have finally managed to get an account with orkut, which used to be exclusive invite-only forum. And I have plunged into zealously, hoping to start up some serious discussions on Mongolia, perhaps get updates from Mongolians in the home land.

And what did I discover? The biggest Mongolian community on orkut has around 210 members, of which perhaps less than 20 are actual Mongolians. The rest are from all over the world, mainly India, and the moderator and owner of the community is a Swede.

This probably explains why not many people know of Mongolia, and why those who have heard of Mongolia, think we all live in Gers and ride horses. Granted who wants to see people walking down dusty roads of Ulaanbaatar on National Geographic, which leads to a very biased view of Mongolia. Well, my point is Mongolians now need to be better marketers and promoters. Shameless self-promoters.

We have the disadvantage of being landlocked between 2 giants, China and Russia. We do not have the advantage of being a transit / port city for businesses and tourists, which I believe has been a blessing for Singapore. As they say in business "Location, Location, Location". If you're a foreigner and you're in Singapore, you could be just stopping by a coupla days on your way elsewhere in Asia or to Australia, you could just be coming down from a neighbouring country for a business meeting etc. If however, you are in Mongolia, well you really wanted to be there. It had to be your final destination.

In many ways, this isolation has saved the natural resources in Mongolia for quite some time, as well as the local culture. But this is all changing now. Progress is fast. Mongolia is rich in minerals, and mining companies are a dime a dozen now. But I believe if we elect an environmentally-conscious government into place and start promoting eco-tourism (we have a few dozen mammalian species exclusive to Mongolia, including the Takhi, the only remaining wild horse in the world), we may still have a chance to retain the natural beauty, while still ensuring increased revenue from tourism.

With that, Imma finish up my post. Below is a photo taken by a guy called Tengis, a Mongolian student, and posted to flickr. This is called the Yast Melkhii Had or Turtle Rock. Half-way up it has a shallow cave, in which a few monks, according to history, hid from their Communist persecutors in the 30s and lived for a few months.

If you ever visit Ulaanbaatar, this would be one of the nearest places to visit. It is just outside of the city and on the way to Terelj resort.

First Post

This is like the 2nd or 3rd time I'm starting up a blog on blogger.com. Hmmm.. but I plan to update here more on a regular basis. While my livejournal wormhole is still active, there are certain limitations to LiveJournal, if I do not upgrade to the paid account. So this blog will be my random postings on the daily interestingness and explorations, and some musings perhaps.