Nomadic Mongolian Summer

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Saturday, October 16, 2010 | 5 photos

My story is simply an attempt to capture the remnants of a wildly beautiful, nomadic culture in the world. Mongolia today is at a crossroads. Surrounded by globalization, yet attempting to preserve their incredibly rich heritage steeped in traditions of a time long gone. Few places on earth can compare to this beautifully rugged land of nomads and wide open spaces.
I spent the first six months of 2010 living in Ulan Baatar, Mongolia’s modern capital working as an ESL teacher. After becoming conversational in Mongolian, I headed out into the “Xodoo”- wild countryside in Mongol. Outside of 21st Century “UB”, one finds a land from the pages of history. I spent three months hiking and horse trekking after, ultimately living as a nomad in this splendid country, attempting to understand what it is to be a nomad in a tradition clinging on in the modern world.
In these photos I attempt to capture the beautiful countryside while honoring the remaining nature of nomadic culture in Mongolia.

1. Mongol archer’s head shot while firing his bow. This is in Ulan Baatar during the Naadam games, celebrating the three manly sports in Mongolia- Archery, Horse racing, and Wrestling.
2. Mountains with distant rider and packhorse. I trekked for eight days in the Lake Khovsgul mountains of Northern Mongolia. This captures the wide open spaces as my guide Baggy looks for the next pass.
3. River crossing. I took this photo on horseback while my horse trampled through the river.
4. Man sitting on camel. I took this near Kharhorin. Many nomads rent out their animals to tourists in summer to supplement their incomes, especially after this year’s record setting brutal winter in which much of the herder’s livestock was decimated.
5. Gobi camel rider. A Mongol man in the desert riding home.