Nine White Banners

Mana pets his golden eagle. Eagles are used to hunt foxes,...

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:01:42 -0400

Mana pets his golden eagle. Eagles are used to hunt foxes, sheep, and wolves in Western Mongolia by the Kazakh people.

Photo by Lucas Beard.

clariceofmedici: I landed in Mongolia exactly one year ago...

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:01:46 -0400

it's like they're about to start a scene from West Side Story

Camel forcing human slave to groom him.

The fuck you looking at

Camel is so done with your bullshit.

Proud naked hump-monsters.

Gangs of camels with thumbs (m greatest fear).

clariceofmedici:

I landed in Mongolia exactly one year ago today. Today I miss my camel friends.

P.S. Camels are better than you and they know it.

Rhino and Latimeria, drawings by Mongolian artist Den Barsboldt.

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:02:00 -0400

Rhino and Latimeria, drawings by Mongolian artist Den Barsboldt.

Potanin Glacier, Altai Mountains, Mongolia. Photo by Rom...

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:01:06 -0400

Potanin Glacier, Altai Mountains, Mongolia. Photo by Rom Welborn.

Bjambyn Rinchen was a Mongolian linguist reputed to have spoken...

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:01:00 -0400

Bjambyn Rinchen was a Mongolian linguist reputed to have spoken 16 different languages. He was sentenced to death during Mongolia’s early communist period for loudly opposing replacing the traditional Mongolian writing system with Russian-style cyrillic. However, because he was well-known internationally, the sentence was never carried out.

He claimed he was once asked if he was God by a small child in Prague. With that beard, I believe it. :)

J. Gerel feels sorry for the 12000 trees that have been removed...

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:01:54 -0400

J. Gerel feels sorry for the 12000 trees that have been removed from Gachuurt Mountain by illegal loggers. He has promised to carve 2500 tree stumps into rabbits so the disappeared trees can express themselves.

According to a recent United States State Department report, the...

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:01:30 -0400

According to a recent United States State Department report, the only item American president Barack Obama kept for himself out of $250,000 of gifts given to him by foreign heads of state in 2011 was a copy of this book, which was given to him by Mongolian president Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj.

The controversial book documents the ideas conquered European lands got from the Mongolian Empire, such as the morin khuur leading to the invention of the violin, Ulugh Begh’s astronomical maps, paper money, roads built for trading, and religious tolerance.

This morin khuur (traditional Mongolian stringed instrument) is...

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:02:00 -0400

This morin khuur (traditional Mongolian stringed instrument) is made of carved wild goat bone, with horse hair strings. It took B.Altanchimeg over a year to collect and carve the bones.

April 9th, Tsatsral Erdenebileg broke the world record for...

Tue, 14 May 2013 06:01:10 -0400

April 9th, Tsatsral Erdenebileg broke the world record for holding the “Marinelli bend” for two minutes and thirty four seconds, supporting herself with her teeth. My teeth hurt just looking at this.

The previous record, 50 seconds, was held by a different Mongolian contortionist, Oyungerel Luvsandorj. Mongolia has several schools that teach contortion, and it is a well-respected art form there.

nomadic-alternative: Suekhbaatar, Mongolia — I was wandering...

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:01:56 -0400

nomadic-alternative:

Suekhbaatar, Mongolia — I was wandering an hour or so outside the town of Baruun Urt, and I saw a nomad riding by. I waved to him and he trotted up. His name was Taava, friendly guy. Invited me to his yurt for dinner. The family had just slaughtered a goat.

After dinner I went with him to water his horses.

Mongolia is horse country, and Mongolians are good horsemen. Some foreigners who come to Mongolia also dream of adventures with horses. Alas, the foreigners are often not such good horsemen.

I met one traveler who had bought a pack horse and planned to spend a month trekking around Mongolia with his horse. He’d bought all his provisions and was just finishing packing everything on the animal — all his food, camping supplies, everything he needed for a month. He was nearly done packing and was tightening the straps, and then suddenly something fell off the load, and the horse got spooked and took off running. That guy ran after the horse but couldn’t catch it, of course. He never saw it again. Lost everything, all his food, all his luggage and, of course, the horse itself.

But it was a lucky day for some poor nomad somewhere out on the steppe!

pamccf: Flag outside a shopt selling incense, charms, and...

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:02:11 -0400

pamccf:

Flag outside a shopt selling incense, charms, and prayer flags. Darkhan, Mongolia.

The khiimori (wind horse) symbolizes the human spirit.

The giant Genghis Khan face carved into a hill south of...

Tue, 07 May 2013 06:01:21 -0400

The giant Genghis Khan face carved into a hill south of Ulaanbaatar.

A ceremony is scheduled today to formally return this...

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:01:00 -0400

A ceremony is scheduled today to formally return this stolen Tyrannosaurus baatar skeleton to Mongolia from the United States. It is illegal to remove dinosaur skeletons from Mongolia without government permission, but many looters and smugglers do anyway. The skeleton will be put on display at a new dinosaur museum in Ulaanbaatar. Tyrannosaurus baatar is related to Tyrannosaurus rex, but has even shorter, goofier arms.

Zaya is a Mongolian painter. His art depicts ancient Mongolian...

Mon, 06 May 2013 12:02:02 -0400

Zaya is a Mongolian painter. His art depicts ancient Mongolian fashion and hairstyles, wild animals, and everyday life. Zaya spent two years living as a buddhist monk studying religious art and painting pictures of gods; his work is influenced by Tibetan art traditions as well.

battlefoxes: minimongol: rouerie: 500 Tugrik, Mongolian...

Mon, 06 May 2013 06:01:09 -0400

battlefoxes:

minimongol:

rouerie:

500 Tugrik, Mongolian Coin

I’ve never seen this. I would be super happy, if someone send me this :)

I didn’t see any Mongolian coins when I was there. This one is fucking rad though.

This is a fancy pure silver proof coin sold by the National Bank of Mongolia to coin collectors. They make a new design each year, 2011 was the Ural Owl (Хув ууль). You can probably find one on ebay, but not cheap.

You can see pictures of regular mongolian coins and this year’s fancy collector coins on the National Bank of Mongolia site.

kevin-vanier: Deer at the Ger, South Mongolia Five in the...

Sun, 05 May 2013 18:01:40 -0400

kevin-vanier:

Deer at the Ger, South Mongolia

Five in the morning in the Gobi desert and we stopped at this family’s ger to get some airag. (Airag is the fermented mare’s milk.) I saw this fawn amongst the sheep but couldn’t get an explanation why.

Our vehicle, a problematic Chinese-brand Grand Tiger pick-up truck, ran out of diesel a hundred kilometers later and we were stranded for six or seven hours with only our delicious, alcoholic horse milk to nurture us.

Sain Tsetseg of the Tsaatan ethnic group herds reindeer by day...

Sat, 04 May 2013 18:01:23 -0400

Sain Tsetseg of the Tsaatan ethnic group herds reindeer by day like most of her people, but works as a shaman at night. Her assistant burns juniper twigs to attract spirits, and Sain beats a drum to guide her trance.

Photo by Carolyn Drake.

Johannah Herr photographed embroiderers in Olgii posing with...

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:01:37 -0400

Johannah Herr photographed embroiderers in Olgii posing with their work, traditional Kazakh patterns.

0n0s3ndai: Mountains. Mogolia. June 2011.

Wed, 01 May 2013 18:01:44 -0400

0n0s3ndai:

Mountains. Mogolia. June 2011.

The shiver gulmer is a salamander found in Siberia and Mongolia...

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:02:13 -0400

The shiver gulmer is a salamander found in Siberia and Mongolia that can be frozen solid at -40 degrees for months, years, even decades, then saunter away as soon as it thaws out, thanks to natural antifreeze in its body. Live shiver gulmer have been found frozen in permafrost with mammoths, but they probably got there by falling through cracks in the ground, not by being millions of years old. Probably. :)

Photo by Boris Timofeev.