The Outher Mongolian Shepherds

They were small, yellow-skinned horsemen with short legs and eyes like blades. They were preceded by their fame, one of terror and cruelty that knew no bounds.

Called Tartars in Europe they became Mongols from the name Manghol, the tribe to which belonged a man called Temucin destined to pass into the history books as Genghis Khan.

In 1206 he became the leader of the steppe people, the “people who live in tents of cloth”. The Parisian Mattia wrote: “Like swarms of grasshoppers that move across the earth, they have annihilated the Oriental countries with fire and massacres. They are not human at all, but animals, like monsters with a thirst for blood. They don’t have humane laws, they don’t live in comfort and they’re more savage than bears.” As often happens with political powers though, built on millions of people’s lives, there is always acknowledgement of civility.

In the case of the Mongolians this occurred quite quickly. Genghis Khan’s nephew, Kublai, was the leader of China, a judicious sovereign and an effective organiser, made known to the chronicles by the tales of Marco Polo.
In a seemingly endless landscape, in the green plains, in the Gobi desert (which signifies gravel and stones in Mongolian) what remains of this strange past? It should be said that, even though they survive in an inhospitable land far away, modern Mongolians find themselves confined by nations and events of gigantic purport, becoming a buffer between a soviet Russia and, after the Second World War, a communist China. In the ideological dispute between the two giants, the Mongolians have always been the ones to pay the price.
However, the majority of the Mongolians have remained faithful to their culture of the steppes, to their ability to ride horses and their sense of freedom. Part of the daily life of the nomad Mongolians is to still wear the ancient costumes.
For centuries their living quarters have been “gers”; huge circular tents big enough to accommodate an entire family, with felt walls whose thickness varies seasonally, supported by a framework of interlaced wood.

Inside the “ger” the beds are placed at the walls around a central stove fed by dried bovine excrement, which is essential to survival during the intensely cold periods.
The entrance faces the southeast to avoid the icy monsoons that sweep down from Siberia in the winter at 80 km/h from the northwest to the southeast. The daily routine revolves around the needs of the animals: the pastures, the milking and the treating of the milk.
In winter the terrain is virtually completely covered by a thick layer of ice that the animals must break in order to graze on the scrubland. When the climatic conditions threaten the survival of the herds, the Mongolian farmers transfer them to another area.

The scariest thing is the “Kzud”, a phenomenon which happens roughly once every ten years or so. A dramatic snow-storm that lowers the temperature, which in turn forms layers of ice impossible for the animals to penetrate. They subsequently die from hunger and cold.

Nomad families make up 80% of the population and their existence is entirely reliant on their animals, which are the communities’ only source of support. It’s incredible to think that when the pastures around the encampment can no longer sustain the herd, the entire family are ready in a few hours to move with the herd in search of new pastures.

The Inner Mongolia Shepherds

In Inner Mongolia there are about 2.5 million Mongolian nomads, an ethnic minority. The majority of the population, 18 million in fact, originate from China. The two groups have never got on and today, a nomad who enters a village or city runs the risk of starting a fight.

The centuries old rancour is a result of the old raids carried out by the steppe people. Over 2,000 years ago the Great Wall of China was constructed to combat this.

The Chinese, cultivators of the earth, scorned the sons of the steppes who came to be called Sao-ta-tse (Stinking Tartars), whilst at the same time the Mongolians gave the Chinese the epithet Kara-Kitat (black slaves).

It is the Mongolian nomads however, the descendants of Genghis Khan, who are the only ones able to live on the steppe, a stock rearing life for around 10,000 families. They are the ones who have known the secret of cashmere for more than a millennium.

Tibetan Nomads

At present, almost half the population of Tibet is made up of nomads and semi-nomads.
Belonging to the first group are those families or clans that do not live permanently in any region but migrate with the alternation of the seasons, while the second group consists of those who spend the winter months in specific regions of the country and take their herds to pasture in other geographical areas only during the summer period.

The nomads of Tibet (Drokpa or Drogpa) travel in groups of many families, up to 20 or more. Each family unit lives in a four-sided tent made from yak skins, which houses all the possessions of the family to which it belongs. In the tent there is also space for the family altar, with the images of the Buddha constantly lit by candles made from yak butter. Next to the altar is a box which contains the family valuables.

The various families of the group pitch their tents at a certain distance from one another, usually because the poverty of the pastureland means that the goats and the yak have to browse over a vast area in order to find sufficient nourishment.

Tibetan nomadism is marked by the rhythms of the seasons, in the sense that, with the alternation of the seasons the clans, tribes and families move with their herds from the summer pastures in the mountains and high plateaux to the southern valleys sheltered from the icy winds in winter.

The decision to move to a new territory is taken by all the families of the group.

The social basis of the community of nomads is made up of the family, within which the relations are governed by very clearly defined customs and traditions. In the past the polyandric marriage was prevalent (a woman who married several men, almost always brothers); today polyandry is still widespread, but less so than in the past. In all nomadic families, both the polyandric and the monogamic, the role of the woman is absolutely on a par with that of the man, and they are entrusted with tasks of great importance. During the day, while the men watch over the herds of goats and yak, the women and children perform domestic tasks: they weave blankets, and tan sheepskins and make butter and cheese.

In Tibetan society the relations between the permanently resident components (city inhabitants and peasants) and the nomads is one of reciprocal dependence, hinging on the exchange of foodstuffs and goods; thanks to this trade the nomads supply themselves with tsampa (roasted barley meal) and the farmers with butter, cheese and meat.

The traditional mode of life suffered a heavy blow in 1968, when the nomads were collectivised and forced to undertake a stationary life by the government. In 1981 the communities were broken up and the collectively owned animals were equably divided among them, each receiving 5 yaks, 25 sheep and 7 goats.

This attempt at enforced collectivisation reduced to starvation hundreds of thousands of nomad families, who dramatically resented the Chinese attempt to curb their free lifestyle. Today, fortunately, the situation has improved, and almost all the nomadic tribes have returned to their former way of life, despite which the nomads remain the very poorest bracket of Tibetan society.

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