Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0244/02445.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 27KB | 447 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02445}
$Pretitle{276}
$Title{Mongolia
Chapter 6A.   Living Conditions}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Trevor N. Dupuy, Wendell Blanchard}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{even
ulan
bator
country
mongolian
ger
high
gers
less
meat}
$Date{1973}
$Log{Shri Deva*0244501.scf
}
Country:     Mongolia
Book:        Mongolia, A Country Study
Author:      Trevor N. Dupuy, Wendell Blanchard
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 6A.   Living Conditions

[See Shri Deva: Courtesy Embassy of Mongolia, Washington DC.]

     There was much hardship among the ordinary nomadic Mongols-and even
possibly among their princes and monastic order-before independence. This was
not so much the result of reactionary or despotic rule as it was a
consequence of the limited level of development of the society. There was no
science or medicine as it was known in the West, and so no universities or
hospitals or living conveniences such as existed in Europe. A rigorous
climate also made life hard.

     This situation could not help but take its tool of the people who were
the Mongols of only half-a-century ago. Their living accommodations were a
remarkable adaptation to the climate in which these Mongols live, and the
nomadic life which they pursued. Nevertheless 50 years ago their dwellings
were sometimes not adequately heated, let alone ventilated or lighted. The
sanitary standards of the people, moreover, themselves posed health hazards.
Polluted water was consumed, bodies irregularly washed, and excretion
inadequately disposed of.

     Although the Mongol may prefer to live in his traditional-style dwelling,
the government is gradually providing him with modern apartments, with the
main purpose of discouraging nomadism. He eats a more varied diet today than
he has ever done, and he has the opportunity for a more varied dress, though
he does not exploit it, on the whole. Prices for luxury and even some
consumer goods are high, but the present-day Mongolian is paid enough to
make ends meet.

     All aspects of the contemporary Mongolian's living conditions reflect
the modernization of life in his country in general-and the tension between
the old and new in 20th-century Mongolia. In particular, today's Mongolian is
the beneficiary of improved hospital and other medical facilities, provided
free, as well as of a wide range of social insurance benefits. Bicycles,
sewing-machines, and battery radios appear to be within the reach of some
citizens.

     These changes cannot help but affect the way in which the Mongolian looks
at life, and how he regards his future and that of
his country. He sees foreign films (primarily Communist ones), learns of
developments throughout the world on his radio, and even hears the top pop
tunes of America and Europe.

     Few people in Asia eat better than today's Mongolian, and the statistics
of the availability of hospitals and doctors are impressive. The average
Mongol is better off than the average Chinese, thanks in major measure to
Soviet aid. But this is less important than a comparison with his own past, a
half century ago or even on the eve of World War II. In terms of his living
standard, the Mongolian is better off.

Housing, Clothing and Food

     Mongolian life is more urbanized and sedentary today than before in the
country's history, and the change is reflected in the type and availability of
housing. A fifth of the MPR's 1.2 million inhabitants live in a single city,
the capital of Ulan Bator, where the greatest change has taken place. Even
here, however, the old habits survive, especially among those who have
recently moved to the city, as well as those most advanced in years.

     Mongolia's nomadic society meant, among other things, that dwellings
had to be moved, sometimes frequently in a single year. Almost all of the
people until very recently lived in large, circular, collapsible, portable
tents called gers by the Mongols themselves (but more widely known outside
Mongolia as yurts, the Turkic word). Only princes and higher monks lived in
wooden dwellings, and even these could be collapsed and transferred to another
location. There were very few houses of the European type in the country
before the revolution.

Housing: The Old and The New

     The main change in housing in the MPR has come since World War II. In
Ulan Bator in particular a large number of multi-storied apartment buildings
have been built, at one period almost exclusively by Chinese labor. These
buildings are not of the same size, shape, or color-and the variety of their
appearance is described by travellers as generally appealing. The streets are
wide, with public squares both numerous and attractive. It has been claimed
that one-fifth of the capital's population was housed in apartments by the end
of the Second 5-Year Plan in 1957. However, during the same period the
production of felt (the insulating substance of the traditional tent-like
dwellings) almost doubled (suggestive in large part of the increase in
population, both in the capital and in the country at large). There is no
doubt about the continuing construction of new apartment dwellings, but
especially in Ulan Bator population growth has outstripped the building of
dwelling units (see ch. 2, The Land and the People).

     Even in Ulan Bator, as a result, the ger is still to be found as a
standard dwelling-place, and the fenced-in rectangular areas in which these
round tents are located provide a striking contrast with the modern apartment
and office buildings. In some provincial centers, stone and wooden dwellings
are also to be found, but the rate of new construction is much slower than in
Ulan Bator.

     The ger, however, should not be considered as "primitive" or
"sub-standard" housing. A top American journalist who has visited the MPR
on different occasions has written that nowhere is it warmer in Mongolia in
the fierce winters than inside these white, beehive-like tents. Small
children, indeed, comfortably play, half-naked, within them. And many persons
in the capital of Ulan Bator-and other cities-live in gers out of preference.
Others, especially older persons, forsake their modern apartment residences
in the summer and return to the ger as a kind of vacation dwelling. Younger
Mongolians, on the other hand, do not display this attitude-they too, like to
get out of the city in the summer but the motorcycle, returning to the family
apartment at night.

     The government has tried to house those Mongolians who flow into Ulan
Bator in modern housing units-but has so far lagged behind the movement of
people. The city, as a consequence, is more or less ringed by groupings of
gers-and, in some cases, even shacks which have been partially screened from
view by wooden fences. From a distance, such aggregations look very much like
a group of oil storage tanks. Even in downtown areas of the city, gers can be
seen interspersed with more modern dwellings-with the landscape a constantly
changing one as the portable residences are moved from place to place. Some of
the gers have electricity-but by no means all of them-while interior plumbing
is altogether absent, a circumstances that poses a major sanitation problem.
Gers located away from the main cities or aimak centers do not have
electricity, light being provided at night by non-smoking lamps. These
old-fashioned lamps are not necessarily a less reliable source of light than
government-supplied electricity.

     The ger in the past was an imaginative-and fairly satisfactory-response
to the need for a portable home. This light, movable, circular "tent" has for
the frame of the side walls an expandable trellis about 4 feet high attached
at each end to the door frame. The wheel-like roof-ring is supported by two
sturdy poles. Closely spaced rafters rise from the wall to the roof-ring. The
framework is covered with sheets of felt (or, rarely, skins) overlaid with
white waterproof canvas. The number of layers of felt varies with the season.