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The chaos theory of Mongolia

I returned to Mongolia 15 years ago after an absence of 13 years, save for the occasional 2-week leave from work, and that time I spent a semester and a half at a local university drinking endless cups of brown, watery 150 Tugrik instant MaCcoffee at the café strangely, or perhaps egotistically, named "In my memory", writing the first and so far the only book that got us into trouble with the local intelligence who apparently had little else to do than to pore through the ramblings of teenagers to catch the tell-tale signs of drug dealery. But I digress. When you visit a country for a short period, be it home or not, you hardly have time to immerse yourself in the spirit of the country and the city and feel the nitty gritty and dirty shiny of it all. So after 13 years, it took me a while to readjust and finally understand what the hometown of my childhood had become.  The most striking, ubiquitous, and inescapable feature was and still, unfortunately, is the traffic. In 2008,
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Tibet and Mongolia

H went to the anti-China rally during the olympic torch relay in Canberra. He said the Tibetans and Tibet-supporters were outnumbered by the busloads of Chinese by 20 to 1, trying to drown out the protests and the Tibetan flags with their Chinese flags.

Led me to thinking about the relationship between Mongolia and Tibet. Came across some sites before on this issue.

In 1913, Mongolia and Tibet signed a treaty declaring themselves to be independent states. The English translation of the treaty can be found here. Obviously this treaty was not considered legitimate by the rulers of China. Tibet was shortly occupied by Chinese troops, first of the genocides that would culminate in the massacre of millions of Tibetans

I also found an interesting article on the Tibet / Mongolian relationship and shared history. Below is an excerpt:

By the time Mao's successor finally granted the country the status of "Tibetan Autonomous Region" in 1965, the country had seen "1.2 million deaths, the destruction of 6352 monasteries and nunneries, the absorption of two-thirds of Tibet into China, 100,000 Tibetans in labor camps, and extensive deforestation."

And though religious freedom was reestablished, it was done so more nominally than in sincerity. In addition, monetary rewards were offered to Han Chinese willing to uproot and move to Tibet, and the year 1984 saw over 100,000 take up the offer.

Read the full text here
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