Day 22

Walking around Ulaanbaatar again. UB is good for that. Not exactly a picturesque city, but it does the trick.

I started today with a walk to a Japanese place around the corner from Tselmeg's apartment. They sell a toasted egg and cheese sandwich with a dollop of salad and a drink for about $2.25 US. Best deal in town!

Followed that with a trip to the Internet place to upload a few photos and update the journal.

Later I took a tour of some of the city's temples and monasteries. Those are all crumbling affairs... it's sort of sad, really... they haven't had proper maintenance since the 80s, at least. But the sadness isn't really warranted: the monasteries in the city aren't really living places. They are just museum pieces. The real spiritualism is happening at facilities in the countryside. Stalin had most of the monks of the monks of his time murdered or integrated into secular society, but it would seem that religion has been enjoying a resurgence since the breakup of the USSR.

I made a mistake earlier. Some of the temples in this city are older than 100 years. One palace of the Bogd Khan (he was head of state when Mongolia was briefly a Buddhist theocracy in the 1910s) survives. It was built in 1903. Also, parts of the Ghandan Khiid, a monastery on the outside of town were constructed in 1838.

Buddhism here is of the Tibetan mode. I dig the difference in iconography as compared to western Europe's Zen Buddhism ("Seon" in Korea). That model is pretty minimalistic in terms of temple images and representations of deities and protectors. Tibetan Buddhism is quite different. A highlight of my trip to Karakorum this past August was going to a temple and seeing a female idol wielding four swords and sporting a chunky necklace of human skulls. Not exactly the smiling fat-man at the urban temple I worked at in Suncheon.

I learned that it was one of the later Mongol Khans who created the title of "Dalai Lama." Altan Khan was converted to Buddhism in the late 16th century, and later named Tibetan leader Sonam Gyato as the third Dalai Lama (while designating the first two posthumously) (31). Curiously it was Altan Khan who would later lead the last conquest of the crumbling Mongol empire - a war against the kingdom of Tibet.

But back on topic: my wanderings today took me into the ger-district ghettos on the outside of town. Those places are pretty sad. Living conditions are quite shitty... everything is dusty and sanitation is medieval. The "ger," as I wrote earlier is the traditional yurt that Mongolian people have been living in for the past 1000 years.

One assumes that that unemployment in the ghettos is very high. People are poor in the countryside, also... but the nomads have possessions (herds of animals) and they live in a clean place. Not so, the urban poor.

Tselmeg tells me that about 70% of the urban population lives in the ghettos. Math tells me that is about 30% of the national population. The government, she says, wants to build apartments for the people, but first they must agree to sell their land. She says that people are hopeful, but building affordable housing for one million people would be a tall order in ANY country.

Anyhow, after checking out the districts, I wandered over to Tsagaan Tolgoi hill, to hopefully enjoy a nice view of the city. But without success. That hill contains a collection of stones called an ovoo (literally, a pile of stones with, perhaps, some prayer flags). Unfortunately for me, a trio of locals were enjoying a drink on the hill when I arrived. Upon seeing me, though, they all put down their drinks and picked up really large rocks.

So, obviously, I went back down the hill.

Dave pointed out yesterday afternoon that one difference between when he first visited Mongolia and today is the existence today of a significant anti-foreigner sentiment. I experienced a bit of that last time also (more on that in a later entry!) but I was hoping it was an isolated incident.

Guess not.

Everyone in our little ex-pat community in Suncheon used to giggle at the silly xenophobia of the Korean people. We were right to laugh at that, but I never, EVER felt unsafe in that country. No matter where I was, no matter what time. Here though, and in other countries, I have felt extremely unsafe.

Such a funny world we live in.

11:00, UB.