NEW DOCUMENTARY ON MONGOLIA ENTERS POST PRODUCTION PHASE

Robert H. Lieberman, novelist, film director, former Fulbrighter and long time member of the physics faculty at Cornell University, provides the following update on a new documentary, filming for which largely took place in Mongolia during summer 2018:

A new feature film, Hoof Beats --  Mongolia Swept Up in Change -- is now in postproduction. It comes from the award-winning team that produced Angkor Awakens and They Call it Myanmar. Anticipation is high since both films were New York Times Critics' Picks and screened theatrically in major cities around the world. The films were broadcast on BBC and are now available on many digital platforms.

A brief teaser of Hoof Beats can be seen here.

This film will reveal the Mongolia of "then and now" -- a society which is complex and ever-changing. Covering both nomadic and urban life, the film is drawn from over 50 hours of footage and includes stunning cinematograpy. It is populated by a large cast of Mongolians who tell their stories, taking the viewer into this vast country which remains largely unknown.

The film opens with best-selling author Jack Weatherford who takes us through the early, tumultous history when the vast Mongolian Empire occupied lands stretching all the way across Asia to Hungary as well as reaching the Jordan River in the Middle East. We experience the brutality of the Soviet period in which 30,000 Mongolians were killed, but also discover the Soviet legacy of universal literacy and the arts, including world class ballet and opera. Famed national poet Mend-Oyoo, a child of herders from the Gobi, tells of his remarkable upbringing, how he began riding horses at the age of four. He demonstrates the calligraphy he hopes will replace the Russian Cyrllic alphabet.

The Mongolians featured are many and varied: individual musicians and whole orchestras, throat singers and people of the steppe singing the famed long song. We encounter painters, a grafitti artist, a shaman and, of course, the people of the steppe who continue a nomadic life that has barely changed in thousands of years.

Rhythm of Life is directed by Robert H. Lieberman and produced by Deborah C. Hoard, who were the creators of the Myanmar and Cambodia films. The work also involves experienced editors, sound people and graphic artists.

Those interested in helping to make this new film a reality should contact Robert H. Lieberman (RHL10@cornell.edu) and Deborah C. Hoard (deborah@pspny.com).

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EMBASSY OF MONGOLIA AND THE MONGOLIAN CULTURAL CENTER ANNOUNCE XIII ANNUAL MONGOLIA STUDIES CONFERENCE (FEBRUARY 15-16, 2019)

The Embassy of Mongolia and the Mongolian Cultural Center in Washington, DC are pleased to invite those interested in Mongolia to the XIII Annual Mongolia Studies Conference, scheduled to take place during February 15-16, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Presentations will cover such subjects as Mongolian language, history, religion, arts, literature, anthropology and other subjects that speak to social, economic and cultural issues related to Mongolia.

The conference will be held on February 15-16, 2019 at Clarewood University, located at 1840 Michael Farady Drive (Suite 100), Reston, VA 20190.

Please address queries to info@mongolcc.org and khulan@mongolianembassy.us

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TANG CENTER FOR SILK ROAD STUDIES AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY SPONSORS CONFERENCE/SYMPOSIUM ON "POINTS OF TRANSITION: OVOO AND THE RITUAL REMAKING OF RELIGIOUS, ECOLOGICAL, AND HISTORICAL POLITICS IN INNER ASIA" (FEBRUARY 22, 2019)

As part of the Mongolia Initiative at the University of California at Berkeley's Institute of East Asian Studies, a conference/symposium will be held at Doe Library from 10 AM to 6 PM on February 22 in Berkeley, CA on "Points of Transition: Ovoo and Ritual Remaking of Religious, Ecological and Historical Politics in Inner Asia".

Ovoo, the structures of stones, trees, scarves, skulls, steering wheel covers and an array of other objects, are ubiquitous across the landscape of contemporary Mongolia, Buryatia, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai, having long marked sites where ritual (though often highly spontaneous) practices invoke the presence of immanent relations.

Built and maintained by various publics, gatherings at ovoo have over past centuries been major sites of political action, where the identities of and relationships between shamans, lamas, imperial officials, businesspeople, bureaucrats, politicians, and nonhumans are narrated, contested and re-defined. At the same time, ovoo are often engaged individually, by travelers engaging roadside ovoo or at places generally unspoken of to others and not visible on the wider landscape, that are especially significant to an individual or intimate group.

Scholars from the US, Europe, and Asia will be discussing such issues as how these sites are useful in juxtaposing historical and political narratives, ecological and environmental movements, religious practices, and the productive logics of households, businesses, and states.

Please address queries to: ieas@berkeley.edu (e-mail) or 510-642-2809 (phone)

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UPCOMING CONFERENCE ON THE MONGOLS AND RELIGIONS IN VIENNA
(MAY 16-19, 2019)

The fourth meeting of the Mongol Empire Spring Series will be held in Vienna (Austria) on May 16-19, 2019, jointly organized by the Institute for Austrian Historical Research (University of Vienna) and the Institute of Iranian Studies (Austrian Academy of Sciences).

Scholars from Europe and beyond are invited to submit papers on "The Mongols and Religion". The conference will address the attitude of the Mongol ruling elite towards the various religious forms and bodies of religious specialists that they encountered during the construction of the Empire and of the successor Khanates, between the 13th and 14th centuries.

On the one hand, the Mongols interacted with the various religions and religious institutions that they encountered, either through patronage, conversion or persecution, profoundly impacting the landscape and structures of Eurasia during this period. On the other hand, religious communites played a decisive role in shaping Mongol policies, both a pillar of the state and its legitimacy, as would-be monopolizers of knowledge and vectors of cultural exchange, as well as key agents in the economic life of the Empire.

Starting at least with the historian Gibbon, academics have tended to praise the attitude of Mongol rulers toward religous leaders and communities. However, more recently scholars have increasingly questioned whether the Mongols were indeed so tolerant or whether seeming tolerance was not, rather, a part of Empire-building policy, in keeping with a recognition of the potential of religion as an instrument to control countless sedentary surbordinates throughout the Empire's vast territories.

Paper are invited dealing with various aspects of these dynamics, among others: religious personnel and personalities, texts and text transmissin, interreligious dialogue, dynamics of power and material culture.

Abstracts for proposed papers (maximum 250 words) as well as queries should be directed to: Karin Jirik: karin.jirik@univie.ac.at (Deadline for submission is December 5, 2018).

Accepted applicants will be offered accomoodation for up to two nights in Vienna but are expected to arrange their own funding for travel. Selected papers will be considered for publication in the workshop proceedings.

Organizers include Francesca Fiaschetti (University of Vienna) and Bruno De Nicola (Goldsmiths College, University of London/Austrian Academy of Sciences). For more information, contact Francesca Fiaschetti:  francesca.fiaschetti@univie.ac.at

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QUERY FROM UK SCHOLAR ON MONGOLIAN EXPERIENCE OF WORLD WAR II

Ashley Jackson (ashley.jackson@kcl.ac.uk) poses the following question:

Do you have colleagues who might be interested in collaborating with me on a project looking at the Second World War from different national perspectives? I am building a team of experts to contribute chapters on such places as Brazil, Denmark, Egypt, Fiji, Indonesia, Korea and Mongolia during the conflict offering perspectives on the war's course in these countries, its place in popular memory and the historical literature. What I hope to find are people up for writing a chapter who are in a positIon of familiarity with their particular country's war history and the literature in the national language (as well as English or other relevant languages).

Ashley Jackson
Professor of Imperial and Military History,
King's College London
Visiting Fellow,
Kellogg College Oxford
ashley.jackson@kcl.ac.uk

ACMS members with an interest in this subject (or who know others who may be interested), feel free to contact Ashley Jackson on this query directly (ashley.jackson@kcl.ac.uk)
                                                                                                     

Birds of Mongolia by Gombobaatar Sundev and Christopher W. Leahy; 224 pages; includes 83 plates with color illustrations; color distribution maps; Paperback ($35); (Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2019)

As the publisher of this forthcoming reference book notes, "Mongolia is a huge, landlocked central Asian country encompassing a wide range of habitats, including forests, vast treeless plains, the Altai Mountains and, of course, the Gobi desert. With an avian population that reflects this diverse landscape, the country is rapidly becoming a popular destination for birders. The first field guide dedicated to the birds of Mongolia, this beautiful volume provides in-depth details for every species to be found in the region . . . Birds of Mongolia is an indispensable guide for birders, adventurers and all those interested in this central Asian nation."

Gombobaatar Sundev is professor at the National University of Mongolia. President of the Mongolian Ornithological Society for more than twenty years, he has led many birding and photography tours across Mongolia for scientists and photographers from around the world. Christopher W. Leahy holds the Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology at Massachusetts Audubon. He is the author of A Birdwatcher's Companion to North American Birdlife (Princeton) and has visited Mongolia many times.

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Breaking Barriers: Leveraging Mongolia's Transport and Logistics Sector prepared by the Asian Development Bank (ADB); 94 pages; Paperback ($24); electronic version available at no cost here (ADB, 2018)

Written by multiple authors working for the Asian Development Bank, this useful study was issued in September 2018, providing a wealth of facts, figures and analysis related to trade and infrastructure in Mongolia. Separate chapters include an analysis of the logistics associated with Mongolia imports and exports; the assessment also covers key areas such as domestic freight and transit trade. In addition, it includes interesting comparative information, providing information on issues faced by other land-locked Asian countries such as Nepal as well as the various land-locked countries of southern Africa. 

According to the ADB, "recommendations may be used by policymakers, as well as nongovernment organizations and industry associations to delve deeper into some of the key areas of the trade and logistics sector in Mongolia". Economists and development scholars who follow Mongolia will be interested as well, given the paucity of reliable data that sometimes makes it difficult to move beyond inference and conjecture when it comes to assessing and understanding the challenges and opportunities that have been so much a part of Mongolia's sector-specific development experience.

Note: Another recent ADB publication that may be of interest to the ACMS membership is Tsolmon Begzsuren and Veronica Mendizabul Joffre, Translating Women's Voices into Action in Mongolia: Addressing Gender-Based Violence through Investments in Infrastructure; 26 pages; posted in October 2018.

The Asian Development Bank, based in Manila but with offices in Ulaanbaatar, undertakes analytical research and sectoral studies in many Asian countries; it also plays a major role in financing infrastructure and other development initiatives in Asia.

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Mongolia: Internal Migration Study prepared by the International Organization for Migration (IOM); 66 pages; electronic copy only (IOM, 2018)

Visitors to Mongolia will appreciate almost immediately the extent to which internal migration has emerged as an important economic, political and cultural feature of present day Mongolia. Perhaps most apparent by the rapid growth in ger districts surrounding Ulaanbaatar, it is also an important factor in a number of provincial towns, even as certain rural parts of the country are being depopulated.

As this study points out, "Internal migration within Mongolia has a long tradition that continues up until today. More recent trends, however, are exceptional in that the share of households moving from rural to urban areas (including the capital of Ulaanbaatar) is relatively high, resulting in urbanization and the depopulation of certain rural areas of origin. Given the challenges in both urban and rural areas because of internal migration, it is no surprise that the issue has become a main policy concern for the country."

This study packs a lot of detail into only 66 pages, covering such important topics as basic characteristics of migrants; living conditions including housing, water, sanitation, health and education; drivers of migration; challenges in both the place of origin and destination; and plans, if any, for future migration. It also includes a useful set of conclusions and recommendations, all available for free at the IOM "bookstore" website.

The last such detailed internal migration survey was conducted nearly a decade ago, making the statistics availble in this latest IOM contribution especially welcome. Also, the study provides opportunities for policymakers and researchers alike to move beyond the anecdotal. In particular, this study draws on household surveys across both rural and urban Mongolia, covering 3,715 individiuals living within 1,001 households.

This quantitative data is supplemented by qualitiative observations based on focus group discussions and stakeholder interviews. These observations combined with the statistical presentation will be very useful for both policymakers and academics attempting to better understand contemporary Mongolia and especially the main features and impact of the movement of people within the country, primarily to Ulaanbaatar.

The International Organization for Migration, based in Geneva but with offices in Ulaanbaatar and around the world, sponsors research as well as development programs related to both internal and international migration. 

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The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy by Paige Williams; 452 pages; Kindle ($14.99); Paperback ($19.25); Hard Cover ($21.71); Audiobook ($25.95) (Hachette Books, 2018)

As Kirkus Review describes it, this debut book by New Yorker staff writer Paige Williams provides "an account of a 38-year-old American fossil hunter who, in 2012, sold the reassembled bones of a 24-foot-long T. bataar from Mongolia at auction in New York," an illicit $1 million sale the eventually resulted in a landmark court case and the return of the bones to Mongolia.

According to the New York Times, what begins "as the tale of an unusual court case involving a rogue fossil hunter unspools in this book into a wide-ranging examination of the ways that commercialism, ambition, politics and science collide".

Mongolia figures prominently in the book, both in terms of the court case at the heart of the story and with respect to the role that it has historically played in contributing to both the mythical narratives and the dinosaur bones that are a catalyst for American perspectives on the country, starting with Roy Chapman Andrews and continuing to the present day.

Paige Williams is a staff writer for The New Yorker. A National Magazine Award winner for feature writing, her journalism has been anthologized in The Best American Magazine Writing and The Best American Crime Writing. She is the Laventhol/Newsday Visiting Professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism; has taught at the University of Mississippi, New York University, Missouri School of Journalism and MIT; and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. This book is based on a story that orginally appeared in The New Yorker for which she has also writen about suburban politics in Detroit, the death penalty in Alabama, paleoanthropology in South Africa and the theft of cultural palimony from the Tlingit peoples of Alaska.

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Ivre de Steppes, Un hiver en Mongolie by Mark Alaux; 180 pages; includes 5 maps, 26 drawings and 72 color photographs; 19.90 Euros; available on Amazon.fr (Transboreal, 2018)

ACMS members who speak and read French may be interested in this new book published in France and scheduled to be released by Transboreal in November 2018. The text covers the winter that Mark Alaux spent with a family of nomads from the Bayad ethnic group in the far west of Mongolia, sharing in their solitude, their work as herders and their celebrations and festivals. The book also includes a large number of maps, drawings and photographs.

Mark Alaux is a French researcher, writer and archaeologist. He first visited Mongolia in 2001 and has subsequently made six more trips, walking more than 7,000 kilometers in various parts of the country. When not visiting Mongolia, he lectures, helps organize events related to Mongolia and writes and publishes books and articles on the history, economy and cuture of Mongolia.



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The Mongol Empire by Timothy May; 440 pages, 53 illustrations; hardcover; $44.95 (Edinburgh University Press, 2018)

Timothy May, active in both ACMS and the Mongolia Society, has just published a new book on the Mongol Empire, the "largest contiguous empire in history," one that "permanently changed the map of Eurasia as well as how the world was viewed."  As the publisher notes, "the Mongols were alternatively seen as liberators, destroyers and harbingers of apocalyptic doom. At the same time, they ushered in an era of religious tolerance and cross-cultural transmission".

This volume is part of a continuing series, published as part of the "Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires".  As such, it "explores the rise and establishment of the Mongol Empire under Chinggis Khan as well as its expansion and evolution under his successors. It also examines the successor states (Ilkhanate, Chaghatayid Khanate, the Jochid Ulus (Golden Horde), and the Yuan Empire) from the dissolution of the empire in 1260 to the end of each state. They are compared in order to reveal how the empire functioned not only at the imperial level but how regional differences manifested".

Timothy May is Professor of Central Eurasian Studies and Associate Dean, College of Arts and Letters at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega, Georgia. A specialist on the history of the Mongol Empire, he has authored or edited six books as well as advised on several television shows. He is also editor of Mongolian Studies: The Journal of the Mongolia Society.


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Mongolia Remade: Post-Socialist National Culture, Political Economy and Cosmopolitics by David Sneath; 252 pages; hardcover; 85 UK pounds (Amsterdam University Press, 2018)

According to the publisher, "This collection explores historical and contemporary processes that have made and remade Mongolia as it is today; the construction of ethnic and national cultures, the transformations of political economy and 'nomadic' pastoralism, and the revitalization of a religious and cosmological heritage that has led to new forms of post-socialist politics".

As the publisher also notes, "Mongolia underwent two episodes of revolutionary change in the 20th century; first the overthrow of a Buddhist aristocracy and the construction of a Soviet-style modernist nation-state, and then the collapse of state socialism and the introduction of a 'neoliberal' market economy and parliamentary system".

The volume includes both new and previously published work by David Sneath, with a special emphasis on exploring "the major historical processes that made and remade Mongolia as it is today: the construction of ethnic and national cultures from the aristocratic orders of the past; the transformations of political economy and 'nomadic' pastoralism from pre-revolutionary times to the present-day; and the revival and re-invention of ritual pratices that have made Mongolia's cosmological heritage the subject of new forms of politics. This study brings together constructionist social theory, political economy and historically-informed anthropology to offer a distinctive account of social and cultural change".

David Sneath is Director of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit and Reader at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. He has over 50 publications including three monographs and three multi-volume edited works.