Mongolia - Geography
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Mongolia is a landlocked country located in Northeastern Asia between China and Russia. Most famous for its extensive Gobi dessert (gobi is a Mongolian term for arid lands that can support camels but not small mammals and is distinguished from real desert which cannot support even camels.), Mongolia actually has a terrain consisting of mountains and hills in the west and north, sloping gradually down to plains and low lands in the east and south. In addition to the large Gobi areas, the country has one of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes (Hovsgol Nuur) as well as salt lakes, marshes, sand dunes, rolling grasslands, alpine forests and permanent glaciers in the mountain areas.
The three mountain ranges in Mongolia include the Altai Mountains, stretching across the western and southwestern regions of the country and bordering on China, Russia and Kazakhstan, the Hangayn Nuruu in central and north central Mongolia and the Hentiyn Nuruu near the Russian border to the northeast of the capital, Ulan Bator. The eastern part of the country consists of a large plain with grasslands reaching from the Gobi to the northeast frontier with Russia; much of this land borders the Chinese autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia. While Mongolia has several major rivers, they are concentrated in the mountainous regions; the few rivers in the south and eastern portions of the country often run into the dessert and disappear. The exceptions are rivers in the north east which drain into the Heilong Jiang (Amur River).
Mongolia is “high, cold, and dry” with an extreme continental climate. It has long cold winters and short hot summers; it receives little rainfall except in the northern mountainous regions; some areas of the Gobi receive no rainfall at all. Winter temperatures between November and March are usually below freezing, the border months of April and October hover around the freezing point while summer temperatures can reach 100 degrees F in the Gobi and 90 degrees in the capital. About one half of the country is covered with permafrost and all rivers and freshwater lakes freeze over in the winter. The capital, Ulan Bator, is located in the relatively well-watered north but receives less than 12 inches of rainfall each year, mostly between June and August, which is the frost free period. Thus, Mongolia’s weather is extremely variable and the country is subject to both blizzards and sandstorms. The extremes of temperature, the lack of rainfall, the lack of fresh water in the east and south, and the volcanic nature of the mountain areas pose great difficulties for human habitation. On the other hand, Mongolia has over 260 sunny days per year and considers itself the “Land of the Blue Sky.” Official statistics classify only about 1 percent of the land as arable, 8-10 percent as forest and the rest, excluding the mountain areas, as pasture or dessert.
As is to be expected, Mongolia’s traditional pattern of livelihood has been based on a nomadic herding economy and the population has always been small. It is estimated that, in the 13th century, when Mongolia came to the world’s attention with the conquests of Genghis Khan, the total population was less than 300,000. Today’s population of over 2 million represents a conscious government policy of encouraging population growth coupled with great attempts to modernize and increase the amount of land under cultivation. Particularly important in this growth is a low death rate caused by improved public health and medical services, and government rewards to large families. During the years in which Mongolia was controlled by the Soviet Union, population growth was encouraged to give the country the manpower to modernize as well as to aid development of neighboring Siberia. The current government wishes to ensure the survival of Mongols as an ethnic group and to ensure the continuation of the country’s independence. The population is increasing rapidly, with a growth rate of 2.7 percent; much of this population is young. In the 1980’s the government was anxious to bring the population to the 2 million mark. The government’s Central Statistical Board determined that one of the 260 babies born on July 11, 1987 was the 2 millionth citizen. Thus twenty-five of the babies were selected as “Two Million Babies”. The government gave each of these families an apartment, and a subsidy of 5,000 tugrek—about 9 months to one years average wages.
Mongolia is a very homogeneous country with 90% of its population being ethnic Mongols and speaking one of several dialects of the Mongol language. The majority of these (77.5%) are the Khalkha Mongols, a term meaning “shield” which has been used since the mid-sixteenth century to refer to the nomads of the Mongol heartland of high steppes and mountains. The Khalkha Mongols are the most pastoral of the Mongol tribes, the least affected by foreign influences, and living mainly in the central and eastern parts of the country. In addition to the Mongol tribes, there are several minorities in Mongolia, the largest of which (about 5.5%) is the Kazakhs who live in the Altai mountains. The Kazakhs are a pastoral, Turkic speaking and Muslim people who also live in the newly independent country of Kazakhstan (which borders the Altai mountains) and in China’s Xinjiang-Uygur autonomous Region. Another 5% or so of the population consists of Tungusic-speaking hunters and reindeer herders in the northeast, clusters of Uzbeks and Uygurs, Russian and Chinese residents.
The official language of Mongolia is the Khalkha dialect of Mongolian spoken by the largest tribal group. Mongolian is a variety of Turkic as are Uygur, Kazakh and some of the other languages of Central Asia. This dialect is taught in the schools, used for official business and is readily understood by speakers of other Mongolian dialects. The Kazakh minority in the Western mountain region uses Kazakh in the primary schools and in local government; Mongolian is taught as a second language. Kazakhstan often supplies textbooks in Kazakh for these schools. The written language changed during Soviet occupation from using the traditional Mongolian script to using the Cyrillic alphabet.
While Mongolia has traditionally supported a nomadic system of life, in the twentieth century, and especially after annexation by the Soviet Union, Mongolia experience rapid urban growth. Slightly over 50% of its popular now lives in urban centers, the majority in the capital and largest city, Ulan Bator. The population of this city is over 500,000 people, about 25% of the entire population of the country. It is not only the government center, it is the center of all economic and cultural life as well. The transportation system including the paved roads and the rail system, radiates out from this capital. Other major cities include the industrial center of Darhan on the main railroad line north of Ulan Bator, the city of Erdenet, founded in 1976 around a major copper and molybdenum mining complex, and Choybalsan, an industrial metropolis in eastern Mongolia. These are all relatively small cities with populations ranging from 80,000 to 25,000. The cities have seen a building boom in the 80’s and 90’s with the construction of high rise apartment buildings to replace the traditional yurt (ger) with high density and modern accommodations such as central heating and piped in water.
While the majority of the people thus live in cities, the majority of the land is rural, with the highest population density in the north and west (the areas with steppes and water) and the lowest in the arid and desert areas of the south and east. Thus over half of the country’s population lives in the core area in north central Mongolia, centered around the capital and the rail line. The overall population density is around 1.5 people per square kilometer.
The traditional nomadic lifestyle (see the section on culture for a more detailed description of this traditional lifestyle) was changed drastically in the 20th century both with the creation of national boundaries which limited the nomads from entering areas now in another nation, and the collectivization forced on the country during Soviet occupation. The nomads were organized into collectives and permanent settlements were organized; the traditionally self sufficient herders were placed into bureaucratically structured and economically specialized productive units, such as herding collectives; these collectives were supervised by a class of managers. The nomads did receive greater security and a range of welfare benefits including medical care, education for their children, sick leave, annual holidays, and old-age pensions.
The traditional Mongol value of living in harmony with nature has been replaced by the assertion of the dominion of man over nature and major attempts to control and change the natural environment. This has taken place on many fronts, including the scientific management of herds (artificial insemination, veterinary care, selective breeding) to increase the numbers of sheep, yaks, horses and goats, and the increased amount of steppe land put to the plow and planted with wheat. This is in addition to the opening of coal, copper and other mines.
In the late 1980’s Mongolia’s government became aware of the environmental ravages of unchecked economic growth and has been taking steps to end or improve its environmental problems. These include the pollution of lakes and rivers by industrial and human waste, as well as fertilizers and pesticides used in the collective farms, the deforestation in the mountain areas resulting in decreased river flow and destruction of the land. The capital city, with factories and inhabitants who use soft coal for heating and electrical generation has severe air pollution. The efforts to put more land under the plow resulted in soil erosion from wind and heavy downpours of rain. The fragile gobi is being destroyed and desert areas increasing. The government has taken some steps to alleviate these problems but the cost of environmental protection coupled with the desire to modernize has limited their effectiveness. Mongolia is also home to a number of endangered animal species including the ibex and the snow leopard and it taking steps to preserve their habitat.
Transportation in Mongolia is improving but is still fairly primitive outside of the major lines and cities. The main railway line which connects Mongolia with China and Russia and forms one spur of the Russian Trans-Siberian railway, is at the center of the nation’s cities and industrial development. All told, there are 1,800 kilometers of railway in the country. While there are about 50,000 kilometers of roads in Mongolia, only about 9,000 are paved; the rest are dirt roads. Likewise, many of the airports are small and with unpaved runways, suitable only for small planes; only 15 airports have paved runways.
The communication infrastructure is improving but still quite basic and the country has only about 7 phones for each 1000 residents. Many of these, however, are cell phones and cell phone usage is increasing rapidly. Likewise, only a fraction of the country’s population is internet users (about 10%) but this too is increasing rapidly. Mongolia has its own television and radio broadcast stations and most of the population has access to them, if not through their own sets, through those in the local administrative centers. Just as the country is attempting to provide education to its citizens, it is trying to improve the communication and transportation infrastructure and is succeeding in spreading this around the country.
For a site with a discussion of geography and some pictures, as well as links to other sites, click on the following:
selena-travel Mongolia tourism
An excellent, printable map of Mongolia can be found at Mapquest Atlas
