A Visit to Parliament!

Our beloved Puje, or Parliament Puje as she is known in UB, arranged for a large group of us to visit Parliament.  It was an impressive building and we enjoyed the visit very much.

These pictures are outside Parliament on Sukhbaatar Square.   Us and Puje.

 The group included bottom row: Zeeka, Angel (translators), Sister Stewart, LaNice, Sister Farmer, Sister Gardner and Sister England.  Top row: Elder England, Alan, Elder Stewart, Elder Farmer, Elder Gardner, Puje and Jiggur's wife.  "J" as he is fondly called by the UB couples, was taking the picture.

 Sukhbaatar Square!

 We love our Pujee!

We learned that the three-pronged pitchfork looking ornament represents Mongolia past, present and future.  This item is kept in the city building of communities and is brought out only for Naadam--particularly for the wrestling portion of the celebration

 This is an amazing painting called "One Day in Mongolia."  We have seen other versions or portions of it, but this one was huge.  We can't remember for sure, but it seemed like it was about 40 meters long, or about 130 feet long.  Here is some description I found on the internet.

The most famous Mongolian painting is 'One Day in Mongolia' by the great painter, B. Sharav who lived from 1869 to 1939. This masterpiece of Mongolian art depicts a grand overview of the timeless traditions of the day-to-day life of Mongolian people. 
Close scrutiny of sections of this grand painting illuminates many different aspects of Mongolian nomadic life including the various stages of felt making, erecting a Ger, and religious rituals. This painting by B. Sharav shows Mongolian pastoral nomadic life as a robust colorful existence with great liveliness shown through its many fine details.

 This a close up of some of the detail of the painting.  This person represents the secretary of the community and is the one whole keeps the community together be keeping records, etc.