A Life of Travel

Mostly Mongolian Women

This link has loads of photos of Mongolian women, followed by a variety of men, women and children from seemingly all over Central Asia. As someone rather helpfully comments:

A lot of the people that are posted here have phenotypic overlaps with Turkic people (especially Kazakhs, with some overlapping with Yakuts, and less so with Uzbeks). However, I must say that there are also a large number of Mongolians with phenotypic overlaps with Tungusic people and Koreans. It shouldn't be surprising at all considering the old historical geographic position that the Mongols occupied.

http://www.chinahistoryforum.org/lofiversion/index.php/t28127.html

There are naturally many photos on Flickr of Mongolian people of all shapes and sizes!

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongol
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongols
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongolians
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongolian+man
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongolian+men
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongolian+woman
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongolian+women
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongolian+child
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mongolian+children

All yield different results.

Here's an outstanding photo of a Mongolian woman waiting for a ride in the middle of nowhere:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vueltaa/1633479462

Communicating with Mongols

The official language of Mongolia is Khalkha Mongolian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet, and is spoken by 90% of the population. A variety of different dialects are spoken across the country. In the west the Kazakh and Tuvan languages, among others, are also spoken. The Russian language is the most frequently spoken foreign language in Mongolia, followed by English, though English has been gradually replacing Russian as the second language.

Korean has gained a popularity as tens of thousands of Mongolians work in South Korea. Interest in Chinese, as the language of the second neighbouring power, has been growing. Japanese is also popular among the younger people. A number of older educated Mongolians speak some German, as they studied in the former East Germany, while a few speak other languages from the former Eastern Bloc. Besides that, many younger Mongolians are fluent in the Western European languages as they study or work in foreign countries including Germany, France and Italy.

Mongolian is one of the Mongolic languages. Mongolic is frequently included in the Altaic languages, a group of languages named after the Altay Mountains that also includes the Turkic and Tungusic languages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia#Demographics

Find resources for learning the Mongolian language for free here: http://alifeoftravel.org/node/7

Ahem

Long time in coming, the projects is actually a Conscious Manifestation - unrevved - and, as such, will come to being in full form - plein d'infos - very shortly. "Soon come!"

Key topics in this resource will be minimalist life and minimalist travel design, especially focusing on mobility - moving light, yet having what you need.

Mongolian Horses

Some use their feet. Others a bike. Many a minimalist considers a motorcycle somehow minimal in today's age. Still others, such as your author extraordinaire, prefer Mongolian horses (also knows as Mongolian ponies).

Mongolian horses are able to live outdoors all year (at 30°C in summer down to -40°C in winter) and search for food on their own. They work together with nomadic humans to survive, and have so for ages. Sturdy, faithful once acquainted and of utmost consequence in the era of the Great Khan Dynasties of Mongolia, these trusty horses can march through Eurasia at a moment's notice.

The Great Khan's relied on them, and each nomadic warrior had several horses for food and warmth in extreme climates and conditions, or so a kid at school told me.

The Mongolian horse (Mongolian Морь, mori or mor': "horse") is the native horse breed of Mongolia. The breed is purported to be largely unchanged since the time of Genghis Khan. Nomads living in the traditional Mongol fashion still hold more than 3 million animals, which outnumber the country's human population. Despite their small size, they are horses, not ponies.

In Mongolia, the mare's milk is processed into the national beverage Airag, and some animals are slaughtered for meat. Other than that, they serve as riding animals, both for the daily work of the nomads and in horse racing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_horse

Can't wait to get started? Book an epic Mongolian nomadic tour and share time with the folks who really live it. Always seems to be the best way to learn.

Also try these for online starters to get prepped to speak the lingo...

Learn Mongolian Language

http://bit.ly/byki (Free software for Mac/Windows to learn Mongolian basics.)
http://www.linguamongolia.co.uk (See 'Resources' section for some amazing PDF downloads.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_Language
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Mongolian_language

Once you've mastered it... ;0)

http://mn.wiktionary.org
http://mn.wikipedia.org