Hair-Cutting - 2

I decided I better put these two events in separate blogs.  This one was for the branch member's son, Monuley.  He was not quite so excited about having people cut his hair.  But after a little coxing, he was a bit  more cooperative.  This one was held in the family's ger

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The father is a nonmember and the mother is a returned missionary.

They wanted their son in his deel and hat for the picture.

 This little guy is a little hellion in church, he is so full of enthusiasm.  But he really is a cute little guy!

 Again, after cutting the hair we gave the family money.  This party was for the church members.  The family party had been held the day before.  So it was the missionaries, the branch president and a few other members who were at this celebration.(My hair was so dirty that day!  I had planned to shower and wash it that morning, but when we got up, waalaa!  no water and no power!)

The traditional food appears to be a sheep's head, but it wasn't served while we were there.  There may have been yet another party for a different group of people, who knows!!

 The branch president just cut a slab of meat off the body of the sheep and that is what was put into the soup and was also eaten as cold cuts.  I'm not sure how long the meat had been sitting out from the previous party, but it tasted pretty good and we all stayed healthy!

We were also served a fruit salad with a mayonaise dressing on it which was very good. And, of course, the traditional, yummy potato salad.  The vodka bottle must have been for the family of the father because it was never opened or offered while we were there!

 This item was at both parties and also at the wedding reception we went to. There is hard biscuit like things on the bottom, always in an odd number of layers, because it represents good and bad, starting with good, so they always want the top layer to be good!  Cubed sugar, soft cheese, dried cheese and little white candies were added.  I'm thinking this represents the "white" item at this celebration.  Again, notice the vodka bottle is not opened for this church party!

This picture of the little guy was taken at my birthday party after he had his head shaved!  I didn't even recognize him!  Not sure why they kept the braid, but it sure was cute.

 And he sure loved my birthday cake!  It was pretty good.  I had always wondered how those cakes tasted when I would see them in the bakery.  Now I know!  And I can understand why he is so ready to have another bite!

Mongolian Hair-Cutting Ceremony - 1

We were invited to two Mongolian traditional hair-cutting ceremonies last week.  We understand that some people schedule this according to when the Llama (Buddhist priest) tells them is a good day.  Well, last week must have been a good time because they were on Thursday and Friday.

The story we were told about this centers around the Chinese invasion of Mongolia years ago.  Apparently, the Chinese would take the baby boys and raise them for their army.  In order to keep that from happening, the parents let the hair grow on the boys so it was not obvious it was a boy.  At around the age of the 3, they cut their hair.

The first invitation we had was from a nonmember who had attended our English class and had very good English.  She helped us at the school a few times when Puje was sick.  Anyway, her little boy was so cute and up for the party.  They had visited at our house before, so he knew us a little bit.  He was not the least bit shy about being the center of attention.

We all had the opportunity to cut a lock of his hair off.  You can see it is a bit uneven as we were some of the later guests to arrive and some of his hair had already been cut.

 Notice the plate.  The scissors are tied with a bright blue piece of silk fabric and comes on a plate.  After cutting the hair, each guest puts money on the plate.  Or we could have taken a gift for the child.  We chose money.  I don't know if it goes to the boy or if it goes to pay for the celebration!

It was a really big party and there were about 40 in attendance.

 They served juice and vodka.  Each member attending would say a toast to the boy and his family and then everyone would down a jigger of vodka.  The waiter just couldn't understand why we wouldn't take any!  I bet the party got really interesting after we left!

 Serving sheep seems to be very traditional.  The head is on the top and the rest of the sheep is below.  The head is cooked with a blow torch from what I am told.

 We loved the fruit!  We hadn't seen fruit like this since leaving the MTC!  It was wonderful.  The oranges were very small, but Alan loved them and had about 7!  I loved the bananas and the apples!  The  cold cuts on the plate in the front had fresh cucumber (yum), several slices of orange, salami and cow tongue!  Puje said cow tongue was one of her favorites, so we tried it.  And it was really pretty tasty! Notice the unopened vodka bottle in front of us.  The waiter left it there in case we changed our minds, I guess!

 This is Azaya's dad, the grandfather of the boy whose hair was getting cut.  Here he is showing his snuff bottle.  It is white (there must always be something white at these celebrations) and he passes it around to everyone.  Some take snuff, but it is also just Ok to hold it, examine it closely and make even smell it and then return it to the owner.  He seemed very pleased to show us his beautiful bottle!

 I can't remember this little guys name, but he sure remembered visiting our house and playing with the iPad.  He loved it.  We had a hard time leaving because he didn't want to quit tracing his ABCs!

 A parting gift favor was provided.  This is a Mongolian cookie on the left, Mongolian fudge, then cheese and bread.  There was also a bag of tea leaves, but we gave that to the taxi driver who brought us home!

We had met him before and he is always very friendly to us when he sees us downtown.  He is quite the character.  He doesn't know much English, but he shares with us all he knows whenever we meet.  He's taller than most Mongolians and is usually very happy. Most Mongolians don't smile for pictures.

 Here's the whole family.  We don't know why the boy's dad wasn't there, just that he wasn't.  He lives in UB and they live here.

 He was one happy little guy and loved having all the attention!

Mongolian Ingenuity

 One day Branch President Batmonkh asked us to go help him cut fire wood for his family.  He took us up to the top of this mountain in his "classic" vintage Russian car, (we call it the Murun Jeep because it goes everywhere and he uses it like a truck).  We were in the snow and it was pretty cold and windy on the top, but it was beautiful.  These pictures don't really capture the beauty of the barren vastness of this country.  In the spring and summer, this area is very green with good grass.  But in the winter it is very brown and dry. The sky was a beautiful blue, but it was deceptively cold and windy!  But it was beautiful!

It was amazing to see these two gers out in the middle of nowhere.  We wondered how they feed and water their livestock and take care of house water needs.  We were told they save rain water in the summer and melt snow in the winter.  They were not fortunate enough to have a well.  They probably had solar power for their electricity, but we were too far away to be tell for sure.  It's a pretty isolated, nomadic lifestyle!

The top of the mountain!  Cold and beautiful!

We worked for awhile......

and then had a  picnic on top of the stump he had just chopped shorter.  The law here doesn't allow cutting of the standing trees, but requires the stumps of trees previously cut to be chopped and removed.  So we didn't cut down the tree of this stump. We had a tasty lunch of Ramen type noodles, carrot sticks and home made peanut butter and jam sandwiches and No Bake cookies.  We were out of the wind here and it didn't seem so cold.  We had the best seats in the house!

 Notice the packing job on the car.  The top bags are full of smaller pieces of wood and tied on.  Then we started on his trunk. President Batmonkh had it down to an art.  He knew just where the small pieces should go to build a base for the larger pieces on top.

Then the bed frame at the back allowed the wood to be stacked as high as the trunk lid and tied in place!  He probably never attended Boy Scouts, but he sure knows his knots and how to make them hold!

We were amazed that this little car could hold so much wood.  He usually also puts wood in the back seat, but since we were sitting there he couldn't do that this time.  He said this wood would heat his ger for about two weeks in the winter and would have lasted them most of the summer.  It also saved him from buying wood at the market which would have been about $60 for this amount.

The last thing to go on was the saw!  We thought we would be holding it on our laps, but he threw it up with the bags of wood and tied it down.  I was pretty amazed it was still there when we got to his house to unload, but it was!  What a great day!  Beautiful country, a bit of exercise, great company and service for a man who gives so much to his little branch and it's members!  We had a wonderful time!  President Batmonkh said, if the weather holds pretty nice, he would like us to go with him again.  Maybe this time we will know enough about what needs to be done that we can actually help a little better!  We told him we would love to go.  We understand that he has started earlier in the day and is now making two trips a day to be prepared for the cold months ahead.  He is truly a great man and a hard worker for a guy who is into his 60s!  What a great example of making due with what you have and making what you have work!

Deer Stones/The Colt

On our trip to the hills, we stopped at this park called Uushisiun Uvep where there are Deer Stones.  It is out in the middle of nowhere!  The story told us by Puje was that the Mongolians believe this is the place where the first man and woman were placed after the creation was complete.  And they were the ones who carved on these stones.

This is what Wikipedia had to stay about deer stones:  Deer stones (also known as reindeer stones) are ancient megaliths carved with symbols that can be found all over the world but are concentrated largely in Siberia and Mongolia. The name comes from their carved depictions of flying deer. There are many theories to the reasons behind their existence and the people who made them.

Classic Mongolian

These stones are fairly detailed and more elegant in their depiction methods. They usually feature a belted warrior with a stylized flying reindeer on his torso. This type of stone is most prominent in southern Siberian and northern Mongolia. This concentration suggests that these stones were the origin of the deer stone tradition, and further types both simplified and elaborated on these.

Reindeer             

Reindeer feature prominently in nearly all of the deer stones. Early stones have very simple images of reindeer, and as time progress, the designs increase in detail. A gap of 500 years results in the appearance of the complicated flying reindeer depiction. Reindeer are depicted as flying through the air, rather than merely running on land. 

Anyway, they were pretty amazing, and some were so old and wind worn we could hardly see the carvings.  Others were still quite easily seen.  

Some of them were quite tall, and others had been broken into pieces. Deer stones were probably originally erected by bronze age nomads around 1000 BC.

Darjhand wore his deel and his matching hat so we could have a picture of it.  He is the 2nd Counselor in the Branch Presidency and he and his wife are wonderful members who are planning to go to Hong Kong to the temple next month.

There were quite a few of these stones-- probably about 12.  They were scattered around a bit, but this kind of gives an idea of how they looked.

This one had a face carved into the top and had large earrings on the side.  From what we read, ones with faces are very rare!  This one was quite tall and had carvings on three sides.

 These carvings really are located out in the middle of nowhere.  We understand that there are other similar stones in other areas of Mongolia, one is particular on the way to Khuvsgul Lake.  We didn't know it when we went or we probably would have tried to find them!

We left the Deer Stones and continued on through this pass, stopping at the rock formations on the side of the road.  Alan had to try his hand at climbing!  It looked like volcanic rock, but there was  no other evidence of a volcano in the area. There was a nice little bench in the rock where Puje and I sat while Alan climbed. It was slightly protected from the sharp wind.  It was quite a cold day and started to snow while we were here.

 Alan wishing Andy had been here with his climbing gear.  He said if he only had a rope he could go clear to the top.  I keep trying to remind him that his is not the same age as Andy and needs to not do things that could cause bodily injury.  It even says that in the White Missionary Handbook!

 This is called the Stone Gate to Murun and is where the horse races begin during Naadam.  It's 8 miles from town.  The story told about this opening in the rock is that long ago a huge snake came to this area and was going to drink all the water in the Murun River.  Of course, the valley people didn't want that to happen, so a hunter was sent out to slay the snake. He was successful  in cutting the snake's head off and he put it on one side of the road, away from its body on the other side of the road. The cracks in the rock are a result of the hits from the sword of the hunter.

Out last stop was at this statue of Mongolian horse colt.  This is a relatively new monument placed by the horse racing committee in Murun.  This is about 3.5 miles from the city and is where the horse races for the year-old colts starts.  The riders of both races range in age from 8 to about 15.  The difference in the race lengths doesn't depend on the age of the rider, but on the age of the horse.  We had a really great day and saw places we hadn't seen before.  We decided we better do these little day trips before it gets too cold!

Mongolian Steppes

On P-day one of the members volunteered to take us on a drive to the country side.  It was a cold and windy day, and it actually started to snow while we were in the hills.  But the country side was very beautiful.  The lighting on the fields and hills was amazing to watch as it changed.  You can only imagine how happy Alan was about the correct lighting for pictures!

This herd of yaks was quite impressive, as were the herds as they controlled the animals with a whip on the end of a long pole.  He would snap the whip away from the horse and close to the yaks to keep them moving.

This farm house was quite amazing.  It is located out in the middle of nowhere and we were wondering where they got their water for house and animals.  They had a well, the long pole you see, with a bucket on the end of it!  This is one of only a very few wells we have seen.  Most people haul their water from a community water house.  They would have to haul their water a long way if they didn't have this well.  The pens and corrals in the back of the house were pretty impressive too.  I guess they provide some protection for the animals during the cold winter months.

These pictures really do not do justice to the beauty of this barren land.  The land seems to go for miles with just grass which is really dry now, but is really green in the spring and summer.  These are called the Mongolian Steppes, which is just miles and miles of grasslands!

  It actually turned out to be a pretty nice day.  It looks warm, but the wind was cold and constant.  In the mornings when I wake up and see the beautiful blue sky, I always think what a warm day it will be.  NOT!  It is very deceptive.  Blue skies here are common, even in the coldest months of the year!