Culture of Mongolia
The culture of Mongolia has been shaped by the country's nomadic tradition and its position at the crossroads of various empires and civilizations. Mongolian culture is influenced by the cultures of the Mongolic, Turkic, and East Asian peoples, as well as by the country's geography and its history of political and economic interactions with other nations.
One of the most distinctive aspects of Mongolian culture is its nomadic pastoral economy, which has shaped the traditional way of life for the Mongols for centuries. The nomadic lifestyle is centered around the family and the community, and involves the herding of 5 main animals including sheep, goat, horse, cow, camel and some yaks. This way of life has had a significant impact on Mongolian culture, influencing everything from the country's social relationships and family structures to its art, music, and literature.
Mongolian culture is also well known for its traditional arts, which include music, dance, and literature. The country's music and dance traditions are closely connected to its nomadic past and are an important part of its cultural heritage. Mongolian literature, on the other hand, has a long and varied history, and includes both oral and written traditions.
Mongolian culture is also known for its distinctive architectural style, which reflects the country's nomadic tradition and its harsh weather during the winter months and rugged landscape. Mongolian homes or known as "ger" circular in shape and are constructed using a variety of materials including felt and wooden parts. The interior of a traditional Mongolian "ger" is portable and can be easily dismantled and reassembled, making them well-suited to the nomadic lifestyle.
In addition to its traditional architecture, Mongolian culture is also known for its handicrafts and folk art. Mongolian folk art includes a wide range of crafts and decorative arts, such as woodcarving, metalworking, embroidery, and weaving. These crafts are often passed down from generation to generation and are an important part of the country's cultural heritage. Mongolian handicrafts and folk art are often sold as souvenirs to tourists and are an important source of income for many Mongolian families.
Mongolian culture is also strongly influenced by its equestrian and wrestling traditions, which have played a central role in the country's history and continue to be an important part of its cultural identity today. In addition to these cultural traditions, Mongolia is home to a number of festivals and celebrations that reflect the country's rich cultural heritage, including the Naadam Festival and Tsagaan Sar, which is a national holidays that celebrates Mongolian culture and history.
Material tradition
Clothing
Mongolian traditional clothing has changed little since the days of the empire because it is supremely well-adapted to the conditions of life on the steppe and the daily activities of pastoral nomads. However, there have been some changes in styles which distinguish modern Mongolian dress from historic costume. The deel, or kaftan, is the Mongolian traditional garment worn on workdays and special days. It is a long, loose gown cut in one piece with the sleeves; it has a high collar and widely overlaps at the front. The deel is girdled with a sash. Mongolian deels always close on the wearer's right and traditionally have five fastenings. Modern deels often have decoratively cut overflaps, small round necklines, and sometimes contain a Mandarin collar.
Depictions of Mongols during the time of the empire, however, show deels with more open necklines, no collars, and very simply cut overlaps, similar to the deels still worn by
Each ethnic group living in Mongolia has its own deel design distinguished by cut, color, and trimming. Before the revolution, all social strata in Mongolia had their own manner of dressing. Livestock breeders, for example, wore plain deels, which served them both summer and winter. The priests wore yellow deels with a cape or
Cuisine
Traditional
Cultural artifact controversy
On May 20, 2012, a rare skeleton of a
Ger (yurts)
The ger (yurts) is part of the Mongolian national identity. The Secret History of the Mongols mentions Genghis Khan as the leader of all people who live in felt tents, called gers, and even today a large share of Mongolia's population lives in ger, even in Ulaanbaatar. Ger also means "home" in a broad sense, and other words are derived from its word stem. For example, gerlekh is a verb that means ("to ger, to make a home" >) "to marry."
Literary tradition
Traditional values
Among the topics that are mentioned from the oldest works of Mongolian literature to modern soft pop songs are love for mothers, parents and homesickness, a longing for the place where one grew up.
Literature
Other pieces of literature have long been orally traded and typically consist of
Beginning from the 17th century, a number of chronicles have been preserved. They also contain long alliterative passages. Notable examples are the Altan Tovch by Luvsandanzan and another anonymous work of the same title, Sagang Sechen's Erdeniin Tovch, Lomi's History of the Borjigin clan (Mongol Borjigin ovgiin tüükh), and many more.
Already at the time of the Mongol empire, samples of Buddhist and Indian literature became known in Mongolia. Another wave of translations of Indian/Tibetan texts came with Mongolia's conversion to Tibetan Buddhism in the late 16th/ early 17th centuries. Beginning in the 1650s, copies of religious texts like the
In Mongolia's time under the Qing dynasty, a number of Chinese novels were translated into Mongolian. At the same time, social discontent and an awakening Mongol nationalism lead to the creation of works like Injanash's historical novel Blue Chronicle or the stories about "Crazy" Shagdar.[6]
Beginning with the works of
Religious theatre plays about the Tibetan
Oral traditions and oral literature
The spoken storytelling traditions that led to Mongolian literature include "heroic epics, legends, tales, yörööl (the poetry of good wishes), and magtaal (the poetry of praise)".[7]
Fine arts
Before the 20th century, most works of the fine arts in Mongolia had a religious function, and therefore Mongolian fine arts were heavily influenced by religious texts.
In the late 19th century, painters like "Marzan" Sharav turned to more realistic painting styles. Under the Mongolian People's Republic, socialist realism was the dominant painting style,[9] however traditional thangka-like paintings dealing with secular, nationalist themes were also popular, a genre known as "Mongol zurag".
Among the first attempts to introduce modernism into the fine arts of Mongolia was the painting Ehiin setgel (Mother's love) created by Tsevegjav in the 1960s. The artist was purged as his work was censored.
All forms of fine arts flourished only after "Perestroika" in the late 1980s. Otgonbayar Ershuu is an important painter of the time, he was portrayed in the film "ZURAG" by Tobias Wulff.[10]
Religion
Since ancient times
Tibetan Buddhism is a ritualistic religion with a large number of deities. This inspired the creation of religious objects including images in painting and sculptures.
After the
Customs and superstitions
Mongolians traditionally were afraid of misfortunes and believe in good and evil omens. Misfortune might be attracted by talking about negative things or by persons that are often talked about. They might also be sent by some malicious shaman enraged by breaking some taboo, like stepping on a yurt's threshold, desecrating waters or mountains, etc.
The most endangered family members were children. They are sometimes given non-names like Nergui (Mongolian: without name) or Enebish (Mongolian: not this one), or boys would be dressed up as girls.[12] "Since people of the steppe received only one name in life, its selection carried much symbolism, often on several levels; the name imparted to the child its character, fate and destiny."[13] Before going out at night, young children's foreheads are sometimes painted with charcoal or soot to deceive evil spirits that this is not a child but a rabbit with black hair on the forehead.
When passing ovoos (cairns) on a journey, they are often circumambulated and sweets or the like are sacrificed to have a safe trip. Certain ovoos, especially those on high mountains, are sacrificed to obtain good weather, ward off misfortune, and the like.
For a child, the first big celebration is the first haircut, usually at an age between three and five. Birthdays were not celebrated in the past, but today, birthday parties are popular. Wedding ceremonies traditionally include the hand-over of a new yurt (ger) to the marrying couple. Deceased relatives were usually put to rest in the open, where the bodies were eaten by animals and birds. Nowadays, bodies are usually buried.
Festivities
The most important public festivals are the Naadam (English: game). The biggest one is held each year on July 11–13 in Ulaanbaatar, but there are also smaller ones on
For families, the most important festival is
Under the Soviet influence, New Year became a big holiday, and it is one of the biggest celebrations, comparable to Christmas in the West.
Entertainment
Music
Mongolia has a very old musical tradition. Key traditional elements are
In the 20th century, western style classical music has been introduced, and mixed with traditional elements by some composers. Later on the full palette of Pop and Rock music has also been adopted by younger musicians.
The Mongolian Waltz is a dance unique to Mongolia. Typically, one mounted horseman and one mounted horsewoman circle each other in time to a traditional song, which speeds up as it progresses. The three step gait of the horses, as they circle, gives the dance its name.[14]
Cinema
In socialist times, movies were treated as a propaganda instrument by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. The first topics were popular legends and revolutionary heroes like in Sükhbaatar. In the 1950s, the focus shifted to working class heroes, as in New Year. The 1970s saw many documentaries and everyday life stories as in The Clear Tamir.
After democratization, film makers turned to international partners for support, as in the Japanese-Mongolian co-production
Games
Popular board games are
Dominoes are played widely. Indigenous card games existed in the 19th century but are now lost. One of the popular card games that is played is Muushig and various other modern card games are very popular among the younger generations such as 13 (similar to poker).
Sheep anklebones, or
Mongolian children were known to have played an ice game on frozen rivers that is similar to curling.[13]
List of Mongolian Intangible Cultural Heritage
Element[A][16] | Year Proclaimed[B] | Year Inscribed[C] | Region[D] | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Traditional Music of the Morin Khuur | 2003 | 2008 | [17] | |
Urtiin Duu - Traditional Folk Long Song | 2005 | 2008 | [18] | |
Biyelgee dance | 2009 | |||
epic poem
|
2009 | |||
Tsuur end-blown flute | 2009 | 2008 | ||
The Traditional Naadam festival | 2010 | 2010 | [19] | |
Falconry, a living human heritage | 2012 | [20] | ||
Mongolian throat singing | 2010 | |||
Folk long song performance technique of Limbe (flute) performances - circular breathing | 2011 | [21] | ||
Mongolian calligraphy | 2013 | |||
Traditional craftsmanship of the Mongol Ger and its associated customs | 2013 | [16] | ||
Mongolian knuckle-bone shooting | 2014 | [19] | ||
Coaxing ritual for camel | 2015 | [22][23] |
See also
- History of Mongolia
- Architecture of Mongolia
- Mongolian alphabets
- List of historical cities and towns of Mongolia
- Long-song
- Biyelgee
- Soyombo symbol
- Flag of Mongolia
- Emblem of Mongolia
- Mongolian mythology
- Traditional Mongolian medicine
- List of museums in Mongolia
- List of World Heritage Sites in Northern and Central Asia
- List of World Heritage Sites in Eastern Asia
- Society of the Mongol Empire
- Mongolian name
- Surnames by country § Mongolia
- Nomadic pastoralism
- List of nomadic peoples
- Goyol Fashion Festival
References
- ^ "A Brief Guide to Historic Mongol Costume". AOL. Archived from the original on 11 June 2001. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Mongolia Information". Asia-planet.net. Archived from the original on 24 May 2004. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ Pearson, Michael (21 May 2012). "Mongolia tries to stop sale of rare dinosaur fossil". CNN. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ Moynihan, Colin (27 December 2012). "Man Admits to Smuggling Asian Fossils of Dinosaurs". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ Fox, Emily Jane (27 December 2012). "Dinosaur smuggler faces 17 years in prison". CNN. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ Heissig, Walther (1986). Weiers, Michael (ed.). Die Mongolen, Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur. Darmstadt. pp. 70–85.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
- ^ Bartholomew, Terese Tse (7 September 1995). "Introduction to the Art of Mongolia". asianart.com. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
- ^ Ronge, Veronika (1986). Weiers, Michael (ed.). "Die Mongolen, Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur". Kunst und Künstler. Darmstadt. pp. 125–148.
- ^ ZURAG – a movie about Otgonbayar Ershuu; Germany/Mongolia 2010; produced by Tobias Wulff (The movie was broadcast twice in the Mongolian State television in 2011)
- ^ Kaschewsky, Rudolf (1968). Weiers, Michael (ed.). "Die Religion der Mongolen". Die Mongolen, Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur. Darmstadt. pp. 87–123.
- ^ Szynkiewicz, Slawoj (1989). Heissig, Walther (ed.). Geburt, Hochzeit, Tod - Der menschliche Lebenszyklus im Brauchtum der Mongolen. Innsbruck. p. 196.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ ISBN 9780307237811.
- ISBN 9780340556658.[page needed]
- ^ Slawoj Szynkiewicz, Sport und Spiele, in Walther Heissig (editor), Die Mongolen (exhibition catalogue), Innsbruck 1989, p. 205ff
- ^ a b Mongolian Intangible Cultural Heritage - unesco.org
- ^ "The Traditional Music of the Morin Khuur". UNESCO Culture Sector. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
- ^ "Urtiin Duu - Traditional Folk Long Song". UNESCO Culture Sector. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
- ^ a b "Naadam, Mongolian traditional festival". UNESCO Culture Sector. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
- ^ unesco.org
- ^ Mongolian Limbe is registered as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding
- ^ Coaxing ritual for camels UNESCO
- ^ New inscriptions on the lists of intangible cultural heritage UNESCO "Mongol herders have a coaxing ritual, which uses singing, music and chanting to help female camels accept new-borns or adopted calves. A song is performed to the mother tied to a calf, using chants, gestures and music played on a fiddle or flute, to calm and unite them. Most herdswomen practise the ritual, transmitted during adolescence from parents or elders. It is considered important for maintaining community ties but under threat from rural-urban migration and greater use of modern transport".
External links
- Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
- National Museum of Mongolia
- Mongolian culture blogs
- AsianArt.com, Mongolian art exhibit