ALL
nomadism
ICH Elements 30
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Urtiin Duu, traditional folk long song
The Urtiin duu or “long song” is one of the two major forms of Mongolian songs, the other being the short song” (bogino duu). The Urtiin duu is a lyrical chant, which is characterized by an abundance of ornamentation, falsetto, an extremely wide vocal range and a free compositional form. The rising melody is slow and steady while the falling melody is often intercepted with a lively rhythm. Performances and compositions of Urtiin duu are closely linked to the pastoral way of life of the Mongolian nomads on their ancestral grasslands.
China,Mongolia 2008 -
Traditional craftsmanship of the Mongol Ger and its associated customs
For thousands of years, nomadic herders of Mongolia roamed across the country-side from season to season. Dry, windy areas close to rivers are best for summers while areas away from river-bank wind and close to mountains or hills are best for winter stays. In the country where pasture always was and still is a public domain, the herders moved freely to the best locations for the season. With this lifestyle of freedom of movement and pastoral animal husbandry was invented the national dwelling called the ‘Mongol ger’. It is a round structure of easily dismantle-able walls, polls and a round ceiling covered with canvas and felt, tightened with ropes. The ger was designed to be light enough for Mongolian nomads to carry, flexible enough to fold-up, pack and assemble, sturdy enough for multiple dismantling and assembling as well as easy for regulating temperatures within. Over many centuries the mongol ger was modified into a perfectly aerodynamic structure which can withstand Mongolia's fierce spring winds ranging up to 18-20 meter/sec. It can be dismantled in half an hour and assembled in an hour by a small family with 2-3 adults. The Mongol ger has many varieties. The most common “5-wall ger” consists of five lattice segments forming a circular wall, a door, a toono (round window ceiling), two bagana (columns that hold the toono), and 88 uni(long poles that connect wall lattices and toono which forms the roof of the ger). There are also several accessories attached to the ger.
Mongolia 2013 -
Fairy tales
Fairy tales are an important genre of the oral prose-literature of the Mongols which widely spread among people from ancient times. Mongolian tales are unique in a way that they reflect the nomadic way of life, symbolism, people’s dearest aspiration and strife in life. According to their contents and themes, the Mongolian tales are classified into parables and fables, magic tales, and witty narratives. In the fairy tales, wild animals such as antelope and domesticated animals are representing man’s behavior and portrayed with speeches in accordance with narratives. Only animal is portrayed as subject and played main role, this is why it is called fairy tale of animal. The Mongol fairy tale about animal is entirely allegory and portrayed animals are represents human behaviors. For instance, animals are portrayed as a wolf is greedy and always in hunger, a fox is tricky, a tiger and lion are sniffy, a bear is strong, a rabbit and hedgehog are wise, and other animals are generous and helpful.
Mongolia -
Traditional way of moving to a new pasture
Mongols move from place to place throughout four seasons in search for new pastures. In order to use the grass-land properly Mongols move from place to place and this has been an important part of their life and traditions associated with animal husbandry for hundreds of years. There are strict rules to follow for the practices of moving. Mongols have a tradition to move on a clear and cloudless day by observing the sky and weather. The head of the family decides where to encamp. After the loading of the camels or oxen is completed, the old sites of the ger and corral are cleaned. Ashes and rubbish are taken away. The old sites and holes where the tethering line was get leveled. The load leading horse’s main is cut. There is a custom that the lady of the house dressed in her best garment to lead the load on a horseback with fully decorated saddle.
Mongolia -
Mongol Biyelgee, Mongolian traditional folk dance
Mongolian traditional folk dance “Bii Biyelgee” is an outstanding form among traditional performing arts of Mongolia, and unique and distinguished art expression which has embodied and originated from the nomadic living style of Mongols. Bii Biyelgee expresses the customs, traditions and spiritual practices through dancing elements, and its movements are typically confided to small space inside the Nomad’s dwelling-ger. Biyelgee is performed while half sitting or cross-legged sitting, coupled with fist and hand opening and waving, stiff and swift movements of chest and shoulders, shrugging and shaking them, crossing legs, steps and walks, as well as flexible body movements involved in prevalence. In doing so, biyelgee performers imitate the expressions of their lifestyle, household activities, courage, love, prides and livestock to the accompaniment of morin khuur, ikel khuur, tovshuur, tsuur, coupled with ethnic costumes.
Mongolia 2009 -
Traditional forms of puzzle games
Mongolians have a rich tradition of games and toys. Mongolian traditional folk games are an outstanding intellectual heritage that originated from hundreds of years of nomadic life experiences, which has been maintained and re-created from generation to generation. Mongolian folk games are well-suited to traditional nomadic ways of life and with the Mongolian seasons and weather. There are puzzle games that consist from 2 to hundreds of pieces each with its distinct solving and interlocking methods. Traditional forms of puzzle games improve one’s brainpower, intellect and tolerance. The elements of games of nomadic Mongols have reached up to 3000 which most of them are at risk of being forgotten.
Mongolia -
Naadam, Mongolian traditional festival
The Mongolian Naadam is inseparably connected to the nomadic civilization of the Mongols who have practiced pastoralism on Central Asia’s vast steppe for centuries. Mongols’ traditional Naadam festival consisting of three manly games is considered as one of major cultural heritage elements which Mongols contributed to the nomadic civilizations. The three types of sports games – archery, horserace and wrestling – are directly linked with lifestyles and living conditions of Mongols and thus become the authentic cultural traditions among nomads. National Naadam is celebrated from July 11 to 13 throughout the country, in soums (counties), aimags (provinces), and the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Naadam represents distinct features of Mongolians’ nomadic culture and traditions, with expression of their unique cultural characteristics and images to become an identity of Mongolian people to the outside world. Thus, Mongolian Naadam has served a key factor to unite the Mongolian people and an important symbol of national solidarity. Mongolian people develop their physical strength, strong will power, patience, space and time related sensitivity and friendly hospitality from the three manly games which provides the cognitive and moral education basis. Main bearers of this cultural heritage are practitioners of the three games. i.e. those who significant part of the Mongolia population. Currently, over 100,000 people practice the traditional wrestling in various clubs and training courses, in addition to 3,000 students studying in several wrestling universities and colleges. Besides, the home schooling is considered one of most effecient forms, as it is the main traditional method to teach and learn the wrestling. Youths who practice wrestling would develop postive personalities such as being friendly, caring to the elderly and modest, besides strong will power, physical strength and courage. The main bearers of horserace appear racehorse trainers and jokey-children. Nowadays, about 400-500 horserace tournaments take place annually and altogether 200,000 horses (some recounted across tournaments) participate in them. About 100,000 racehorse trainers normally train these horses, while over 70,000 children ride and race. Besides, the audience of those tournaments would reach over 300,000 people. The Mongolian traditional home schooling provides extensive knowledge and skills, traditions and customs, culture and art elements of horserace. Compared to other two forms, relatively fewer people (about 10,000) practice and are interested in archery. Similarly, home schooling methods tend to dominate in learning and transmitting archery that family members and relatives become archers a lot. There are hundreds of thousand artisans and craftmen who make various tools and items used in the three manly games through employing meticulous skills and design to make them as collections of various art pieces. For instance, wrestling outfits – hat, boots and shorts, racehorse saddles and jokey’s outfits, and bows and arrows used in archery competitions have specific traditional technology and techniques each. These three sports games make a core blend of traditional arts and sports. Title-singing of horses and wrestlers indicate musical elements embracing songs and melodies. • Wrestling. After the wrestling site has been chosen based on the quality of the grass and the flatness of the site, the wrestling matches begin. Judges in groups of 8, 16, or 32 are divided into two groups which line up at the right and left side of the wrestling site and the wrestlers are divided into two groups at the left and right wings. To present the wrestler to the audience, judges will hold the participant's hat and sing praise songs while the wrestler performs an eagle dance before assuming the position to begin. Wrestling is not only a display of strength and bravery; it is also a competition of skill and technique. The object of the match is to make one’s competitor to fall on the ground with his elbows, knees or any other part of the body touching the ground, at which point he loses. Wrestlers who lose in each round will get eliminated from the tournament. The number of rounds differs from tournament to tournament. There are often 9 rounds at the national festival which takes place on July 11-12 annually and altogether 512 wrestlers wrestle. A half leaves after each round. From the fifth round, winning wrestlers can earn titles starting from hawk, falcon, elephant, garuda /mythical bird/, and lion, to the coveted champion. Wrestlers are divided into two groups or so-called ‘wings’ that the highest ranking wrestlers are listed at the top depending on their titles, such as first grand champions, then champions, lions, garudas, elephants, hawks, falcons etc. • Horserace. Horse-trainers choose potential race horses among horse flocks and train them meticulously, carefully adjusting their daily training and diet. Horse races are grouped in age-specific categories such as stallions, adults, 4-years old, 3-years old, 2-years old and 1-year old which race in different distance categories from 10 km to 30 km. Race horses have their mane and tails trimmed to improve their appearance while their trainers use specially crafted wooden sticks or a brush to remove the sweat from the horse after the race. These sweat-removing tools are often carved and decorated with traditional patterns and images of horses to symbolize their strength. Young riders wear special clothing including the deel and hat. Typically, children aged 6-10 years old jockey racehorses. When registration of the applicant horses is completed, the race administrator rides around the Naadam site three times, while children riding race horses sing ‘Giingoo’ to raise spirits of horses before racing. The winning horse is given the title of ‘Tumnii ekh’ (the mightiest of all), whereas the last horse in the race is given a nickname ‘Buren jargal’ “complete happiness”. The praise song is performed to congratulate winning horses and is called ‘singing titles’. • Archery. This competition is divided into two categories; Khana sur (big bow) and Khasaa sur (small bow). Men shoot from a distance of 75 meters to the target, and women from 65 meters. The target is called ‘zurkhai’, and is made of leather balls neatly lined along the flat ground in two rows. Each archer shoots 40 arrows and the one who shoots the most targets wins.
Mongolia 2010 -
Mongolian traditional art of Khöömei
The exact origin of the Khöömei art is unknown, but researchers suppose that it could have been developed in connection with argil (a throat timbre) epic telling vocal technique, shamanic calling and the play of the wooden tsuur flute. The history of Mongolian Khöömei dates back hundreds of years. The popularity of Khöömei among Mongolians has arisen as a result of close interaction between natural environment and human culture. Ethnomusicologists studying Khöömei mark it as an integral part in the ancient pastoralism that is still practiced today. This art has developed to mimic and imitate the sounds of animals, nature, wind and water. The wonder of the Khöömei art is its simultaneous melodies-overtone. In this way the Khöömei is a phenomenon which differentiates from other traditional arts based on human vocal organs. This is the reason of calling the Khöömei performer as “Human-Music” (Khun khugjim) which highlights its specificity from a “normal singer”. The meaning of Khöömei for its community is enormous. As the traditional art form, Khöömei is in close cohesion with the daily life of the Mongolian nomads. They perform Khöömei in the variety of social occasions ranged widely, from grand state ceremonies to the household festive events, associated with respective rituals, and customs. Khöömei is not only performed in social events, because Khöömei performance is often found during the herding, and even when lulling the baby, as well as in the evenings in the ger (Mongolian traditional yurt) in domestic context. Hence, Khöömei is an essential part of the identity, pride and continuity of Mongolian society. Therefore, it provides the concerned community with sense of unity and harmony, as well as continuous creativity. One of Khöömei’s social functions is that, it is used as a traditional pedagogic instrument in the social and art education and upbringing. This is because during the Khöömei transmission, a comprehensive knowledge, philosophy and wisdom on the correlation of human life and nature are transmitted at the same time. As an art form created and developed by the Mongolians, Tuvinians and other ethnic groups, and regarded as the classic art of nomadic civilization, Khöömei is one of the core performing arts that shape the Mongolian national arts in today’s Mongolia. Thus, it shows great influence on ensuring the visibility and enhancement of the living art of Mongolia. Khöömei is born by variety of ethnic groups as Khalkh, Bayad, Dörvöd, Uriankhai, Zakhchin, Tuva, Tsaatan in different locations, therefore there are a number of sub-classifications of Khöömei style, reflecting the special features and local flavors. This diversity is what constitutes the richness of Khöömei composition, and thus, each communities concerned are proud of their own unique styles and techniques while expressing themselves with such diversity. The governments of Mongolia, Russian Federation and PR China have been undertaking variety of measures for the effective enhancement and spread of Khöömei tradition, such as holding international meetings, workshops, competitions and performances on Khöömei. This shows the significance of Khöömei for the bearers and their will to safeguard, transmit and develop it in multinational level, which also promotes international interaction, mutual respect and intercultural dialogue. Researchers classify Khöömei’s vocalization into 2 styles: -The Kharkhiraa (deep Khöömei) vocal emission: The singer sings a drone in a normal voice, then he inhales deeply and, simultaneously pressing on his pharynx and abdomen, he produces a deep harmonic sound which vibrates one octave lower than the fundamental note produced. What you hear is in a very low-pitched register. The singer actually vibrates not only his vocal cords but also his arytenoid cartilage. It is this deep harmonic sound that is heard in the foreground and that characterizes the kharkhiraa style, although in some variants a melody of high-pitched harmonics can be heard above the fundamental sound. -The Isgeree Khöömei (whistled Khöömei) emission: Also called Nariin Khöömei, Uyangiin Khöömei, Altain shingen Khöömei. The singer sings a drone in a normal voice, then he inhales deeply and, still pressing simultaneously on his pharynx and abdomen he produces a harmonic sound, which vibrates several octaves above the fundamental sound. A melody of harmonics with a very high-pitched whistle can then be heard. In both cases, the harmonic melody is sung in the same fashion. The singer modulates his mouth cavity by opening and closing his lips or by moving his tongue backwards, sticking its tip on his palate, or else by moving the central part of his tongue from front to back, its tip against his bottom teeth. To this are added techniques aiming to enrich the tone colour and others of ornamental character. Moreover, all these techniques can be combined. Inside more than 20 techniques, we can find the Bagalzuuriin Khöömei (throat Khöömei) Tsuurai Khöömei (echo Khöömei) Khamriin Khöömei (nasal Khöömei) or Dangildakh Khöömei (syllabial Khöömei). The singers use the Shakhaa vocal emission to sing the magtaal praise songs with a throat timbre as well. It is necessary to intensifying and deepening the Khöömei research and studies particularly on the originality and authenticity of the heritage in order to identify and reveal the deeper form, techniques and specifications furthermore.
Mongolia 2010 -
Traditional knowledge related to making of meat products (chuchuk, zhorgoom, byzhy, olobo, tash kordo)
One of the main meat delicacies is a horse meat sausage called ‘chuchuk’. It was made out of horse intestine stuffed with horse meat and fat. Sheep meat and internal organs were used to make such delicacies as ‘jorgoom’ (made out of sheep lungs and stomach), ‘byzhy’ (a sausage made out of sheep liver, fat and blood) and ‘olobo’, that is sheep lungs filled with milk and boiled in water. Tash kordo is an ancient Kyrgyz dish. Literally, it means “food prepared on hot stones”. The separated and marinated meat is wrapped into the game skin and prepared in a hole in the ground about 1.5 m long and 70 cm wide, with stones at the bottom and sides hanged over the hot ashes.
Kyrgyzstan -
Tradition of protecting and preserving the nature
One of the valuable characteristics of Mongol herders keeping the nature in its original form treating with care and respect through centuries until now is the cause and ability to live in harmony with mother nature, preferring the water and dirt as gold, the earth as mother and the high blue sky as father. While moving from pasture to pasture searching for the freshest of the water, richest of the grass and favoring the nicest of the weather, the herders have accustomed not to leave any trash or rubbish behind at the old homestead. It is highly prohibited to break the young tree, single tree or old tree, to dig the dirt at one’s own will, to cut the trees and plants without any need or purpose due to their belief in spirits and deities.
Mongolia -
Traditional technique of preparing the dairy products
Mongolian traditional food is adjusted to the condition of the nomadic way of life. It is divided into milk or white products, meat or red products, and vegetable or green products. During summer and autumns, Mongols prefer to consume various different dairy products from milk of five livestock animals. Dairy products are generally produced by boiling, fermenting, distilling, brewing, extracting, separating or drying. Traditional food is dairy products, meat and green food or grain. Mongols do “Airag” from the mare’s milk, and do milk skim, youghurt, aaruul (oblong), with and orange eezgii, tsagaan tos (derived from the skim), tsorom by milk from sheep, goat and khoormog and aaruul from camel milk. Additionally, smoking, drying and preserving the meat from goat, cow and camel for making borts and shuuz. In addition, khorkhog, boodog, buuz and khuushuur and various different meals are made from sheep, goat and meat from hunting.
Mongolia -
Traditional knowledge and skills in making Kyrgyz and Kazakh yurts (Turkic nomadic dwellings)
Yurt production includes knowledge and skills in creating a portable dwelling traditionally used by Kazakh and Kyrgyz people. Yurt has a dismountable wooden circular frame covered with felt and braided with ropes. Yurts can be easily set up and dismantled within a short period of time. Yurts are basically characterized as easily transportable, compact, ecological and practical dwellings. Bearers of yurt-making traditional knowledge are craftspeople (men and women), producing yurts and yurts’ interior decorations. Men and their apprentices make yurts’ wooden frames, traditionally by hand using special devices and instruments. Men also make wooden, leather, bone and metal details for yurts and household items. Women make yurt coverings and interior decorations. As a rule, they work in community-based groups supervised by experienced skilled women-artisans. Women-artisans use weaving, spinning, braiding, felting, embroidering, sewing, winding and other traditional handicraft technologies. Women’s work- process is usually accompanied by their singing, joking, telling stories about famous masters of the past and treating traditional meals. Clans’ wise elders are also bearers. Knowledge and skills are transmitted through generations traditionally from masters to their apprentices (oral instructions, practical classes, joint production). The element is a great value and heritage received genetically or through learning, enriched by masters and transmitted to young generations. Joint production of yurts gives craftspeople the “one-family” feeling; the use of yurts by livestock-breeders as their dwellings in everyday life and by urban citizens as their summer-houses generates the feeling of continuity of ancestors’ traditions. Yurts are an obligatory part of all national festivities, traditional events and funeral-memorial rituals; yurts are kept in the family and transmitted from parents to their children as a sacred family relic ensuring ancestors’ protection. For Kyrgyz and Kazakh people the Yurt is not only a dwelling and the Universe model; but also a symbol of their national identity. Yurt’s top crown shanyrak and tyundyuk are depicted on the state symbols of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan – coat of arms and flag. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan Heads of State receive honourable guests in Yurt.
Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan 2014