Going to See a Giant Man on a Giant Horse

Today is the day to see Chinggis Khaan.  English translation for those who must translate names is Gengis Khan.  This is the guy who famously united the Mongolian tribes and conquered the Chinese, becoming the Father of Mongolia.  (Very abbreviated history lesson)  We slept in because the drive from our lodging to the statue isn't very far, and when we got close, our driver pulled over so I could take a picture of the entrance.

Kind of a nice shot of the complex from there, too.

It's a pretty imposing statue on top of a 3-story building that houses a museum, some shops, and a cafe.  The statue itself stands 40 meters (130 ft) tall and is made of stainless steel.  It is erected at the site where legend says Chinggis found the golden whip.  Legend has it that before he was known as Chinggis Khan and was just lowly little ol' Temujin, his wife was kidnapped by a rival tribe.  While he was riding to a different tribal leader to ask for help rescuing his wife, he stopped at this location and found a golden whip.  Finding a whip was a sign of fortune and great leadership, and the one he found was golden, so...  Legend has it that finding this golden whip was an omen that was used to help him unite the tribes to fight off the Chinese, Russians, and others to develop the largest contiguous land empire in all of history, approximately 9 million square miles (23-24 million sq km).  From what I can tell, the original golden whip no longer exists and there are no historical accounts that factually back this up, but it is clearly part of the oral history of the time.  You can see the golden whip in his right hand, resting under his knee.

When we entered the complex, before even entering the building, you could see the people who were on the statue, walking around his horse's head.

After climbing the steps to the building, we entered to see the largest traditional Mongolian boot.  It is an inflatable, but it's also huge.

Then, we went to the museum and saw lots of things.  Coins and dishes from Chinggis Khan's time and battle clothing,

and formal wear

and weapons

Finally, we took the elevator up to the top and a short flight of steps up to Chenggis Khan's crotch, which is how you exit onto the horse's neck.  You can see the golden whip on the left (Khan's right) and his sword holstered on the right (Khan's left), and I'm right between his legs at the bottom of the stairs.

For 250 tons of brushed steel, it has a surprising amount of detail!

This is the statue from the grounds on the side that he is facing, and the statue faces the Onon River, where he was born, which also is an easterly direction, so he is also facing the rising sun.

We drove by Turtle Rock on the way to lunch at the Resort World Terelj Hotel.  I guess the girl at the sales talk in Pigeon Forge was right when she said they had a hotel in Mongolia.  But I was also right, it wasn't where I needed it to be to see snow leopards!

I also thought it was very interesting how the Mongolians raise their power poles.  Look closely.  They just lashed the existing posts (darker) to new posts (lighter) that were put in the ground!  Talk about ingenuity! 

We went to the Aryabal Meditation Temple with 108 stairs meant to symbolize an elephant's trunk.  Looking at the path and those steps made me question some of my life's choices, the choice to go to the Tibetan style temple being the most recent.  After all of the things we had done this trip, I just didn't think I could make those steps.  I would have been happy to let them go up while I waited, but they stayed down, too.  I would love to see a Tibetan style monastery, but why do they all have to be so hard to get into?

There are multiple paintings on the cliff walls above the monastery.  They symbolize different dieties.

We decided to make it a short day and just use the rest of the time to get packed for the trip back to Ulaanbaatar.  On the way back to the lodge, we saw this Cinerous vulture.  You know what I say about a bad picture being better than no picture at all.

We got up the next morning and had breakfast and headed out.  We were the last guests at the lodge, so we gave the chef a ride to town, too.  It's a great lodge.  We stayed inside the building, but they also had a ger camp

and these pods that were like tiny homes, but not really so tiny

This ruddy shelduck came out to bid us a fond farewell after the last workers at the lodge sent us off with a milk blessing before locking up behind us and heading out themselves.

Just outside of Ulaanbaatar, we had to change cars because the city has pollution control measures that include only allowing cars to drive on certain days based on their tag numbers, and our driver had the car with tags that couldn't drive.  As we got into Ulaanbaatar, we saw that there are lots of statuary, and you know how much I like statuary.  There was also lots of pollution, so I had to clean these up a lot to take the haze out of them.

We did stop for yarn.  Ariuna was awesome finding us a place we could purchase yarn instead of finished products.  And timing was right so I was able to Facebook call Chrissy so she could pick her yarn.  It was surprisingly cheap.  I got her 4 skeins: 2 cashmere, 1 yak, and 1 camel for the equivalent of about $25 total.  I might have gotten her more if I had more room in my suitcase!  Then, Ariuna got us deposited in our hotel room for the rest of our stay in Mongolia.  It was a nice place.  Since this would be the last time we saw her, I gave her the other pair of hand warmers for the snow leopard camp, and hugs.  It's been a great time with her, both at the snow leopard camp and in Terelj.  Tomorrow will be exploring Ulaanbaatar with Khos.

A Yak of a Good Time!

We got up early and headed out of Khomen Tal National Park by 7-ish.  We had a plane to catch.  I did keep The Baby out of the camera bag in hopes of getting some good Saiga antelope shots.  We got a few herds, but my shots were pathetic. This is as cleaned up as I could get them.  

The males have bluish necks and appear to change color in the distance when they move.  They have these big, long, faces, too, that look sad (according to pictures I've seen from better photographers than me).  I had to try to steady The Baby on my own because I packed up the tripod.  Not the best call.  These antelope are difficult to shoot.  If you get close enough to see them, they move.  They're skittish little beasts.  And when they move, they have some serious speed!  That, coupled with my tremor, made my video a little difficult to watch, but I'm gonna give it to you anyway.

This is running and I have not sped it up at all.

They walk very fast, too!  I haven't sped this one up, either.

After the failures with the Saiga, I was happy to take some good shots of the sand grouse that moved much slower, but move they did!

It didn't take long before we hit the paved road, and I packed up The Baby.  I kept the Lumix out because you never know when you're going to need a shot out the window of a moving vehicle, and I did take a few of those, too!

Mongolians like to put up dinosaur statues, too!

These are offerings to the gods and concerns/wishes.  The local shaman will maintain these spots, periodically removing the attachments and doing what they need to do to keep them sanctified.

People driving a small-ish herd of cattle and goats down the road.  This was not the entire herd, just the rear guard.

After a very nice family-style, delicious lunch in a restaurant, Bina took us to the airport in Altai and bade us farewell.  He has some business he must attend to before heading back to Ulaanbaatar, so Ariuna met us at the airport and took care of us from there.  Our plane was a bit late, but she had everything under control.  She and the new driver picked us up from the airport and took us to Terelj National Park, where we drove far down a dirt/mud (concept of a) road to the Chenggis-13 Resort on Chenggis Mountain.  This hotel is reputed to be located at the place where Chenggis Khan spent many winters.  To tell the truth, I was really excited to be housed inside with a bathroom just down the hall.  A ger is nice for a while, but it gets old after a bit.

We got up the next morning and headed to the yak herders.  I'm not sure how they get back and forth during the summer, but this winter has been much wetter here than on the western steppe in the Margaz Mountains, with lots of snow blanketing the frozen water, holding in the chill even though the air felt warmer here to me.  My companion kept track of the temperature, but I forgot what she said every day, so I can't tell you if my feeling was accurate.  The river here was still frozen solid and snow covered, though.  They even do sleigh rides if you want them.

We stopped for a squirrel who wanted to get his good side on the pictures!  Check out those fuzzy ears!  His tale was fuzzy, too!

We got to the herders' home and met Amarah and his wife, Bangalore.  They were lovely people.  They have this home for spring, but live in a ger during other seasons.  They have 60 yaks and 40 cows and use and/or sell all parts of them.  They comb the baby yaks for the first three years, gathering the ultra soft fur that comes off from combing for wool.  They also sell yak milk, yak butter, yellow oil, and Aaruul candies (made from the milk curds).  We tried them all.  The milk is acceptable, but I'm not a fan of milk of pretty much any kind.  The butter was delicious.  Probably the best butter I've ever tasted.  The yellow oil is a runoff from the milk as it's heated for the butter and Aaruul and was used as oil in making the noodles we had for lunch.  Bangalore has many presses for the Aaruul and sells them at various places.  A full set can go for as much as the equivalent of $100.  She gave us a cake and a side piece as a gift as we left.  Knowing the traditions, Ariuna made sure we had gifts to give them when we arrived.  These are absolutely beautiful.  I cannot deal with the taste, though.  But keep in mind that I'm not a fan of a lot of dairy products, especially yogurts or curds.  

One corner of their home

Molds for the Aaruul

Stacked Aaruul.  This grouping can sell for the equivalent of $100.  The picture is taken from somewhere on the internet, not mine.

Showing us how the expensive grouping is stacked

This is how she just pulls that delicious butter off the top of the milk

Soon after this demonstration and tasting, Amarah and a neighbor came driving the yaks to the enclosure by the house.

 

This is a brand new baby who is too small to go out in the pastures with Mom.

He's quite happy that Mom's back!

We didn't actually ride because they are at winter weight, but Amarah rode a bit and we sat on a couple.

And we got to play with the baby!

We went back in for lunch, where Amarah helped Bangalore make the noodles for the Tsuivan, a traditional meal of yak meat and noodles.  It was delicious, but I couldn't eat nearly as much as Bangalore put on my plate!  

Yak meat is good, at least the way Bangalore cooked it.  I don't think Bruce would appreciate me using the knife this way, even with my kevlar glove on (even though it's how it's supposed to be done - I'm just not coordinated enough)!  Bangalore has mad skills!

After lunch, we went horseback riding.  Amarah had brought two horses up saddled.  The Mongolian saddle is very different from anything I had ridden on before.  It is a combination of a western and forward seat saddle.  It has a forward pitched seat, like a jump saddle, but a high pommel like a western saddle.  The skirts are also longer and thicker than either a western or jump saddle.  You have to use your legs right because the saddle won't let you pivot on your knee.  It took a lot of getting used to.  Because of the snow and ice, we only walked, so I can't tell you anything about the gaits of the Mongolian horse, but the walk was fairly smooth after I got used to the saddle.

Buural (the tan) and Khul (the blanketed), our horses, all saddled up and waiting for us.

Amarah on Khul and me on Buural

Ariunaon Khul and me on Buural

Finally, the day was turning to dusk, and Amarah and Bangalore had to settle the animals for the night (we had already sent the yaks back to pasture, but the horses had to be cared for), and we had a drive back to our lodge, so we said fairwell after taking selfies with all of us.  Bangalore gave us each pieces of Aaruul to take with us.

It was an amazing day, and I have now ridden horses in Asia.  That makes, in order, North America, Europe, South America, and Asia.  I need to return to Australia and Africa and make sure I ride horses in each of those.  There are no horses in Antarctica, so I don't think I can ride on all seven continents.

The One Where I Geek Out Over Horses

We got up this morning and went out of to search for wolves.  The park ranger who took us said he thinks there are two packs of 5 or 6 wolves each.  We searched multiple places, but we failed.  No wolves were seen on this trip.  We did see another herd of Takhi, though.  This time, Sunny, the biologist who specializes in the Takhi (or Przewalski Horse) was with us, so we got lots of questions answered.

When I was a teenager, I was on the 4-H Horse Club's horse bowl team.  That's a team that competes in competitions with other clubs on horse-related trivia.  One of the things we learned on that team is that the Przewalski Horse was the bridge between the "hippus" animals and the "equus" animals we now know as horses.  This is not true.  It very well may be what science thought at the time, but genome mapping and other things were not known waaay back then.  As science learns more, things we thought sometimes change, too.  I'm getting ready to geek out on you, so consider yourself warned!  We now know that both the modern horse and Przewalski's horse evolved from early equus.  However, Przewalski's horse (known as Takhi in Mongolian) is the only remaining truly wild horse in the world, making it its own species in the equus genus - just like the zebra is its own equus species.  Once the horse was domesticated, breeding was controlled, which kept its chromosomal makeup stable with 66 chromosomes.  This is the case whether this domesticated horse has ever been tamed or not, so it includes those wild ponies on Chincoteaque Island and the wild mustangs in the western US.  It also includes all the untamed livestock horses in Mongolia and other countries where horse meat is eaten.  This is because those untamed horses have descended from horses that were previously domesticated so that the chromosomal makeup has been stable at 66 without the massive amount of years required for a Robertsonian translocation

The Takhi, on the other hand, continued evolving naturally and eventually underwent a common Robertsonian translocation (a fusing of some chromosomes) so that it now only has 64 chromosomes, even though the 14 Takhi that remained in the world were in zoos.  This is why the Taklhi looks more similar to the cave drawings of horses than the domestic horse does.

Cave painting in Lascaux Cave in Dordogne, France (dated Paleolithic) (Credit World History Encyclopedia)

The last confirmed sighting of a Takhi in the wild prior to reintroduction was in 1969.  At that time, there were 14 individuals in various zoos around the world.  To prevent extinction, some of those zoos started an intensive breeding program.  Beginning in the 1990s, they began reintroducing the Przewalski horse to various places in the wild, including in three locations in Mongolia.  One of those locations is Khoman Tal National Park in Mongolia.  In 2003, they fenced in 14,000 hectares of the Khomen Tal steppe to protect it from overgrazing and to ensure there was water from the Zavkhan River.  Then 22 zoo-born horses were transported from France.  Because of the success of this reintroduction, Khoman Tal National Park was recognized in 2020, and expanded to 411,403 hectares, with the original 14,000 hectares remaining fenced.  The expansion of the protected area by designation as a national park has also helped the populations of the Saiga antelope, the Mongolian gazelle, and other animals of the western steppe.  Estimates are that for the three locations with the Takhi reintroduction in Mongolia, there are approximately 900 Takhi in the country, with approximately 150 of them in Khoman Tal National Park.

Anyway, we saw lots of Takhi and we had Sunny, the Takhi biologist, with us!  (Sunny's name in Mongolian means sunny, so that's the name she goes by in English.)  She explained to us that the Takhi are all the same color.  The color variations we were seeing during our visit was the result of them being in various stages of shedding their winter coats.  She also told us that in 2014, anthrax invaded the park.  They took steps to control the spread, by testing, quarantine, and treatment.  When a horse passed, they buried it and fenced the area around it for further quarantine.  With all of these steps, they were able to limit the loss to only five horses, which I think is amazing!  We also asked about potential hybridization.  Though the Takhi and domestic horses can breed and have viable offspring, Sunny said their experience has been that the offspring have not survived the few times it has happened in their herds.  

Following breakfast, we went searching for owls.  There's only one place in the park to find owls, so we didn't have to search a whole lot.  We drove down to the river and saw some whooper swans chilling out in the cold water.  They flew away before I could get a decent shot.  I usually say a bad shot is better than no shot, but these were even too bad to qualify for that.  We found nests for

the eagle owl (who didn't move)

and the bearded vulture (who gave me a couple of poses)

We came back to the lodge for lunch and some information about the park and the reintroduction program, including the challenges the park is facing with reintroduction, including plans to remove the fence and let the Takhi roam throughout and the other animals in the park graze in what is currently the protected area.  Then we went out for more Takhi.  I'll never get my fill of these lovely and unique horses.  I've been wanting to see them since the late 1970s, when I learned about them, and now that I have, I can't seem to get my fill.  I won't bore you with aaaallllll of the shots I took while we were at the park.  But I will give you a few of the more unique ones.  They have a stallion in the park who has lost his herd and is cast out.  For some reason, he has not decided to join a bachelor herd and wanders alone.  Maybe the bachelor herd won't accept him because he has become disfigured.  His name is NoTail because he has lost his tail, potentially in the fight when he lost his herd.  Being alone makes him vulnerable to wolf or other predator attacks, but he has survived thus far.

The Takhi are also matriarchal even though a herd only has one stallion.  It is the lead mare who tells everybody what to do.  The male is only there for mating.  In this herd, The matriarch was putting many of the others in their places.  I missed the best one, but I did catch a smaller discipline.  I'm not sure what the other mare was doing wrong, but she was having none of it!

We also saw a large herd of Mongolian gazelle.  They're just adorable little critters!

After a very productive day, we headed back to the lodge, getting ready to move again in the morning for more adventures!  Again, Soaring Expeditions knocked it out of the park, delivering more than I was hoping for!