American Buddhist Net

As Mongolia struggles to overcome a devastatingly harsh winter, international development organizations, including United Nations agencies and the World Bank, are urging Ulaanbaatar to take a hard look at reforming the country’s nomadic agricultural practices.

Since January, temperatures have hovered around minus 30 degrees Celsius and snow has covered 90 percent of the landlocked nation. Known locally as a "dzud," the harsh winter weather has killed over 3.3 million head of livestock and has threatened food and fuel supplies in rural communities, aid agency representatives say.

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I moved to Mongolia from Seattle last June to work as a community youth development volunteer with the US Peace Corps. This is the coldest winter I have ever experienced.

I know it is an especially cold day when I can see frost forming on my hood, my feet ache from the cold ice underneath them.

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Mongolia’s billions of dollars worth of copper, gold, uranium and coal reserves promise the greatest influx of wealth for the country since Genghis Khan conquered much of the known world in the 13th century.

They also may spawn a crisis. Sudden prosperity can overwhelm an economy, exposing it to commodity-price swings. Mongolia’s leaders, some educated at Harvard and Cambridge, say they are determined to avoid this syndrome, known as “Dutch Disease” -- a sudden surge in wealth that ultimately hampers expansion.

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While international attention has been focused on earthquake-ravaged Haiti, a quiet, prolonged catastrophe is playing out in Mongolia.

Known locally as a "dzud," the unfolding disaster stems from naturally occurring factors that are combining to wipe out livestock. The summer of 2009 was particularly dry, hampering the ability of many herders to gather sufficient supplies of fodder and hay. And this winter is proving to be one of the harshest in living memory, with heavy snowfall, chilling winds, and temperatures averaging minus 35 Celsius (-31 Fahrenheit). Weakened by hunger, many animals -- especially cashmere goats revered for their soft, valuable wool -- are succumbing to the elements.

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THE vast spread of Indic philosophy across Asia since ancient times is one of the great miracles of history. The concept of samsara, of maya and mithya, the illusory nature of the material world around us, was crystallised in the Upanishads by the 8th or 9th century B.C. The high purpose in life was to be able to see beyond this veil of illusion to the eternal truth which was beyond. People who were able to achieve this were known as Buddhas, or Enlightened Ones, and Tirthankaras, or Victors over the fear of Death.

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Mongolian sumo champion Asashoryu has announced his retirement following allegations he attacked a man outside a Tokyo nightclub last month.

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Mongolian press ridicules JSA

More Mongolians are going vegetarian as people seek healthier diets and restaurateurs seize the initiative. Vegetables remain unpopular, though; menus tend to feature traditional meat dishes made with soy.

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The United Nations has warned that extreme winter weather has killed more than a million livestock in Mongolia.

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The president of Mongolia, Tsakhia Elbegdorj, has placed a moratorium on the death penalty in his country.

Calling for the penalty to be abolished, Mr Elbegdorj, speaking to parliament, said that the punishment degraded Mongolia's dignity.

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Gobi bears, which are in great danger of extinction, are getting fewer and fewer each day in the Mongolian. A 84 years old gamekeeper who follow after this animal for the past 20 years were interviewed by Nomad Green’s citizen journalist.

Video clip of Gobi bears (Ursus arctos gobiensis)

ZUUNKHARAA, Mongolia -- There are many ways to measure the success of Mongolia’s 20 years of democracy. One is by visiting here.

This town once bustled as a railroad hub nestled between the city of Darkhan, near the Russian border, and the capital Ulan Bator. But trains rarely run on the line anymore, and Zuunkharaa has become a ghost town, unsettlingly quiet even on a weekday afternoon.

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Coming up in Bodh Gaya in Bihar is a Buddhist monastery that will be run by Mongolia, the land of legendary warrior Chinggis Khan. The envoy of the Central Asian country, Voroshilov Enkhbold, says it will be completed by next year.

'We believe that the Buddha came from India; therefore all Mongolians hold India very close to their heart,' Ambassador Enkhbold told IANS in an interview.

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On December 10, 1989, protesters in the People's Republic of Mongolia issued their first call for democratic change. Three months later, the vast Asian nation peacefully broke with its communist past and quickly evolved from an isolated satellite to post-Soviet Asia's singular success story. So...

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When Degi, a 24-year-old web designer in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, hit a pedestrian in July 2008 with his Daewoo sedan, his luck took a turn for the worse. His company didn’t get a contract he was hoping for, and misfortune seemed to hover over his personal life. The family of the victim extorted money from him, threatening to sue and warning him that they had connections in the courts. So Degi, like many Mongolians, took his troubles to a shaman.

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There was a festive mood in a village in Mongolia’s Khovd District recently as family and friends gathered to celebrate the birth of a baby into an ethnic Kazakh family. A new arrival is always cause for celebration in a Kazakh household, marked with a succession of events from the "cradle party" soon after the birth to the "string cutting" ceremony to snip a symbolic string when the child starts walking.

In this case, the celebrations were rolled into one: many relatives and friends of the Bakhyt family were seeing the child for the first time, because she was born over the border in Kazakhstan. This is just one of many families whose members straddle the frontier, and a visit from the other side is a chance to exchange news -- and a good excuse for a party.

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Mongolia's government is going to sign a key investment agreement for the $4 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine on Tuesday, Oct. 6, a spokesman for Mongolia's president said Saturday.

"On Tuesday will be the signing ceremony. This day is the best day to do a big job," the spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires, referring to the Buddhist calendar.

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At midnight in Mongolia's capital, Ulan Bator, 14 people are in the "sobering-up" cells at a district police station on a recent evening.

This and police stations like it are on the frontline of Mongolia's battle against alcohol abuse. People are brought to the cells to prevent them from freezing to death in the winter, and from doing harm to others.

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Shamanism

The world of the shamans in Siberia and Central Asia, especially of the Mongol, Buryat and Tungus people (Evenks) is related with that of the Turk people in the High-Altai, the Altaic, Khakas and Tuva and with the Bon religion from Tibet. The tribes living in the northern part of Mongolia (Darkhad, Tsaatan, Khotgoit, and others), in the northeastern area of Mongolia (Buryat and Khamnigan) and in western Mongolia (Uriankhai) as well as some tribes living in Central-Mongolia, the Khalk still maintain the ancient shamanic traditions. These phenomena are still present today.

Shamans practise a form of animistic religion (animism - magic thinking belief - all humans, animals and all things in nature have a soul - spirit) with several meanings and with different characters. The difference between soul and spirit is explained in that only human beings had a soul, while spirit was an abstract notion that could be related to a wide spectrum of natural phenomena. The opinion is that animism must have developed from the dream experience, where people generally feel as if they existed independently from their bodies, flying in the other worlds. In short, the soul takes "journeys" outside the body. During such dream journeys they could meet dead relatives, friends, or their spirits (souls).

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(IsraelNN.com) What does Israel have in common with Mongolia? Deserts. The two countries will develop joint tourism ventures to each other’s respective arid regions.

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HOVSGOL PROVINCE, Mongolia – Bayanjargal laughed as she watched the three of us from NBC News turn on our cell phones for the first time in 24 hours and maniacally start emailing and texting. We probably were a ridiculous sight – hungry, dishevelled, basically slightly worse for wear after having flown two hours and then bumped along another ten hours inside a Russian UAZ van. But that wasn’t why Bayanjargal was grinning so widely.

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ULAN BATOR, MONGOLIA — Waving her cigarette impatiently, the shaman declared that she had just the cure for the man’s misfortunes. Two divorces and a business in the dumps? Yes, yes, she had heard it all before. But first she needed another drink.

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There may not actually be solid evidence of an acid-spitting, lightning-throwing Mongolian deathworm living in the Gobi Desert but there will definitely be a documentary about it.

Journalist David Farrier and cameraman Christie Douglas have returned from Mongolia, where they spent about two weeks trying to verify the deathworm's existence.

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The National Museum of Korea said yesterday it has unearthed a 2,000-year-old skeleton of a Mongolian nomad at the Xiongnu Tombs of Duurlignars, about 500 kilometers northeast of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.

The skeleton of a man was identified as mortal remains of the Xiongnu, a confederation of nomadic tribes in Central Asia, a finding that archeologists and historians could use to advance the studies about the ancient tribe. The Xiongnu tribe is often linked with the Huns, a tribe which is better known in Europe, but identification of the two tribes has yet to be confirmed.

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Any serious student or practitioner of shamanism has studied the Mongolian-Siberian shamans. Mircea Eliade in his classic text, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy first published in 1951 has 33 references to the Siberian Mongolian shamans not including numerous references to the specific tribes. For decades, anthropologist and ethnographers have been hampered by translations two or three times removed from English making it difficult to understand the nuances of the Mongolian shamans' rituals,ceremonies, and healing powers. Also hampering was the blatant Communist suppression of shamanism. Shamans were forbidden to practice and drums were outlawed. There are many stories of shamans being imprisoned or killed because they found it impossible to stop healing.

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...A shaman is a conduit to the spirit world. Shamanism is among humanity’s oldest religions. Not everyone can become a shaman, and Tsend's story is typical. She was seven years old, when she became ill, falling to the ground with seizures. Her grandmother performed a shaman ceremony for her, dressing Tsend in her own costume. After that, Tsend developed the ability. Now her grandmother, Urel, is Tsend's most important spirit.

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Deep in the Larch Forests of Northern Mongolia lives a tiny tribe of people known as the Dukha. For more than 3,000 years they have survived as nomads, moving camp 10 times a year across the mountains. Their existence is pinned on one animal: the reindeer. But their unique way of life now hangs in the balance.

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Good video at the link provided. ABN

Circle of Tengerism is a organization dedicated to the preservation of Siberian and Mongolian shamanism.

The purpose of this website is to educate Westerners about our ancient beliefs and to keep our traditions alive.

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A spectacular ceremony named "Gongoriin Bombani Hural" will take place at Amarbayasgalant Khiid on August 13-14-15, 2009. Hundreds of worshipers and visitors are expected to attend. The monastery is located about 70km west of Darkhan in northern Mongolia. The unique costumes of the monks, the special rituals and above all the Tsam Dance make it one of the most elaborate ceremonies in Mongolian tradition.

Otgo had the opportunity to interview the manager of the monastery. Today 50 monks reside in the monastery. The youngest monk is 11 years old and the oldest is 104. This old monk has lived through the modern history of Mongolia - the Chinese rule in the 1900's , Russian rule in the 1920's, the socialist repression of Buddhism in the 1930's and today's democracy, which permits free religious practices.

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Two New Zealand journalists will set off explosives in the Gobi Desert in an attempt to find the legendary creature.

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