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This Month in Mongolian Studies is a monthly listing of selected academic activities, resources and other material related to Mongolia. This list is based on information the ACMS has received and is presented as a service to its members. If you would like to submit information to be included in next month's issue please contact the ACMS at info@mongoliacenter.org This publication is supported in part by memberships. Please consider becoming a member of the ACMS, or renewing your membership by visiting our website at mongoliacenter.org/join.
Thank you!
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ACMS Announcements, News and Media References
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New Resident Director – Dr. Isaac Hart
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is pleased to announce that Dr. Issac Hart has agreed to serve as the new Resident Director in the Ulaanbaatar office. Dr. Hart received his Ph.D. in Anthropology in 2017 from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and is an interdisciplinary archaeologist and paleoecologist with expertise in anthropology, zoology, and climate science. He has conducted fieldwork around the world, from the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico to the Eurasian steppes of western Mongolia and is excited to be able to now base himself in Mongolia to help build ties between international and Mongolian scholars and institutions and support the range of academic and cultural exchanges and programs offered by the ACMS.
Dr. Hart plans to arrive in Mongolia in mid-November 2023, and is looking forward to meeting and listening to important stakeholders and friends of the ACMS in Mongolia and abroad as the organization works to develop and implement a new strategic plan. The ACMS Resident Director is responsible for the management of the ACMS Ulaanbaatar office, staff and programs, and the development of new programs, partners, and funding sources. As Resident Director, Dr. Hart’s goal is to build a strong, collaborative international community in Mongolian Studies by fostering strong connections between international and Mongolia scholars and researchers, and international and Mongolian institutions and programs. Together with ACMS board member Charles Krusekopf he recently attended a meeting hosted by the Council of American Overses Research Centers in Dakar, Senegal, where Directors from over 20 research centers met to discuss new programs, collaborations and funding opportunities under the sponsorship of the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Dr. Hart's research explores the paleoenvironmental record of climatic change to provide environmental context for important developments in human prehistory, including the domestication and early spread of the horse in central Eurasia, the adoption of maize farming in the Colorado Plateau of western North America, and the response of humans and animals to climatic change in Baja California and the Yucatan. He served as Director for the University of Utah's interdisciplinary Anthropology and Geography Research Laboratory, where he also trained students in archaeological science. Dr. Hart has a strong track record of leadership in international and scientific partnership with Mongolian institutions. Since 2017, he has co-directed, with scholars from the National Museum of Mongolia, the collaborative Altai Archaeological Project that investigates ancient environmental change in alpine lakes and recovered important ancient artifacts melting from mountain ice due to global climate warming.
“I am absolutely thrilled to share that I'm joining the American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) as Resident Director, based in Ulaanbaatar. This opportunity to work with ACMS to strengthen the bonds between the United States and Mongolia is a true privilege. Building connections, fostering understanding, and enhancing scientific cooperation between our two nations is a goal I hold close to my heart. I am excited to embark on this journey with ACMS and look forward to the positive impact we can create together, both for our countries and the global community at large.”
– Dr. Isaac Hart, Resident Director, ACMS
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) is a non-profit, non-governmental educational organization that supports the development of Mongolian Studies and academic exchanges with Inner Asia. The activities of the ACMS include the development of academic resources, student and research support, and the fostering of academic partnerships in all fields of study related to Mongolia. The ACMS is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).
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| Dr. Tsermaa's Language Classes are in High Demand
As our subscribers know, Dr. Tsermaa's language classes are effective and fun. Fall 2023 brings to us more students wanting to learn Mongolian, they come to Mongolia through various programs such as the Fulbright program, the Princeton in Asia program or even Peace Corps Volunteers. These students wish to learn Mongolian to better communicate with their students. Of course not every student is associated with a special program, some are working in Mongolia and need to pick up the language to become a better team mate and be more productive. There are also a number of students learning Mongolian online. They are usually grad students and researchers, whose research is related to Mongolia. We receive emails asking for details of Mongolian language instruction frequently below is the link to our website, where you can learn out the details of our Mongolian language classes, like the hourly rates and how to schedule a class: |
| | Dairy Cultures: The Science of Mongolian Heritage Exhibition
As part of the ACMS' Cultural Heritage Program and the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the ACMS and the Natural History Museum, the ACMS is co-organizing an exhibition showcasing Mongolia's dairy culture called "Dairy Cultures: The Science of Mongolian Heritage" with the Natural History Museum of Mongolia, UNESCO Silk Roads Programme, European Research Council and Dairy Cultures Project. The co-organizers partnered with the Mongolian Dietetics Association, Bounty of Yak Association, APU Dairy, Wegner Siemens Foundation, Max Planck Institute and Harvard University. The Dairy Cultures: The Science of Mongolian Heritage is the first exhibition in an annual exhibition series organized by the ACMS. The exhibition aims to present the works of ACMS fellows and to provide accessible scientific knowledge to the public on the science behind dairy products and dairy digestion and is based on the research of ACMS fellows and Dairy Cultures Project led by Dr. Tina Warriner, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and the Sally Starling Seaver Associate Professor at the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University. Dr. Tina Warriner is also a group leader in the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and affiliated with the faculty of biological sciences at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany and the Leibniz Institute for Infection Biology and Natural Products Research.
The exhibition will run through September 22, 2023 to October 20, 2023. Scan the QR code for details. |
| | | AFCP Funded Project Carries On
Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation funded Preserving and conserving Mongolia's endangered textile collections and tradition project continues with monthly conservation lectures/workshops for the participating museum and conservation professionals. September lecture was titled "Stitches and supports in conservation" and was the 12th lecture in the series.
The online lectures and workshops together with the in-person workshops provide necessary training and knowledge for museum and conservation professionals to better care and improve storage conditions for the textiles in their museum collections and in their care. This is particularly true for the provincial museum participating in our project. |
| | Last Week's Word
ᠰᠢᠦᠳᠠᠨ /siudan/ - (Cyrillic: шуудан /shuudan/, English: mail, post) - [1] organization responsible for delivering and bringing letters, mail and small packages, [2] transportation for the mail.
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| | Becoming a Member
ACMS membership is another way to support and engage with the ACMS. Individuals and institutions can become members of ACMS, both come with corresponding benefits. In September, 3 new people have signed up to become ACMS member(s).
ACMS welcomes new members:
- Diane Wolff
- Alexi Cathey
- Dennis Grammenos
If you are in Ulaanbaatar, you can also visit our office to sign up for membership in-person. Our UB office address is Natsagdorj Library, East Entrance, Seoul St – 7, Sukhbaatar District, Ulaanbaatar 14521
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ACMS Sponsored Programs and Events
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CAORC-ACMS FACULTY DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR
Climate Change and Public Health: What does Climate Change Mean for the People of Mongolia?
Seminar dates: May 31 - June 15, 2024
To support community colleges and minority-serving institutions, CAORC offers fully-funded overseas seminars that help faculty and administrators gain the requisite first-hand experience needed to develop and improve international courses, curricula, and teaching materials.
This seminar, administered by CAORC in collaboration with its member center in Mongolia, the American Center for Mongolian Studies, funds participation in a two-week seminar in Mongolia focused on issues related to Climate Change and Public Health that will include stays in the urban capital Ulaanbaatar, the rural communities at Kharkhorin, the historic capital of the Mongol Empire, Erdene Zuu Monastery, the oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, and a visit to Hustai National Park, home to the rare and endangered Przewalski’s horses. Mongolia, with its vast landscapes, shares similarities to rural parts of the United States and other countries, where limited infrastructure and a dispersed population that lives on the land must contend with a lack of access to health resources and a rapidly changing climate. Mongolia’s average temperatures had already risen more than 2°C and rainfall declined by 7% before 2015, leading to challenges for people in both rural and urban areas. This course will focus on how climate change is already impacting public health and life in both urban centers and rural communities in Mongolia.
Community colleges are at the forefront of training for professional careers in the health professions and fields associated with climate change. These topics also impact a wide range of issues in the social sciences and humanities through economic development, government and cultural change. Through site visits and meetings in Mongolia participants will be able to hear from local officials, health specialists, climate scientists and nomadic pastoralists, and gain a first-hand understanding of how climate change (hotter days, more wildfire, increased storms, colder winters, drought) is impacting the environment and threatening human wellbeing. We will explore how socio-economic conditions and access to resources impacts local responses, and how international cooperation can help overcome challenges. You’ll be able to connect the experiences of people in your own region with the climate and health issues facing this remote region and discuss how people around the globe can connect together to develop better understanding and shared solutions.
Participants will experience the wide diversity of Mongolia’s rich history, society, and culture and its relevance for the climate resilience of the United States. Round-trip travel, accommodations, in-country transportation, and meals will be provided for the seminar.
Eligibility:
- The program is open to full-time or part-time faculty and administrators at U.S. community colleges or minority-serving institutions. A directory of MSIs can be found at the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions. The program is open to faculty in all fields, at all academic ranks, and from any academic or administrative department.
- Applicants may apply to only one (1) of the CAORC Overseas Faculty Development Seminar opportunities being offered for 2024. Applications to more than one seminar will be considered ineligible. Applicants who apply to more than one seminar may be removed from consideration for all seminars.
- CAORC and the U.S. Department of State do not require any vaccinations to participate in the Overseas Faculty Development Seminar program, however the host countries, overseas research centers, individual sites, and communities that are part of the FDS program schedule may have their own requirements for vaccination. These requirements may change from the time of application to the time of travel.
- Applicants must be U.S. citizens at the time of application and must hold a valid, current U.S. passport that does not expire within six months of the last date of the program.
Program Expectations:
As an outcome of the Overseas Faculty Development Seminar program, participants are required to develop and implement a project to increase internationalization on their campus. Details and examples of these projects will be shared with awardees during pre-departure orientation. Projects should be implemented within one year of the conclusion of the program, at which time participants will be asked to submit a project report and share curriculum and/or documentation of the project for inclusion on CAORC's Open Educational Resources site.
Participants are also required to contribute a short article for the CAORC blog Field Notes. This article should be submitted within three months of the program.
Important dates:
Opening date for applications: April 19, 2023
Application deadline: January 31, 2024 at 5:00pm ET
Recommendation letter deadline: February 5, 2024 at 5:00pm ET
Notification of award decisions: March 1, 2024
Application instruction can be found here: |
| | VPS Discussion on Political Repression in Mongolia
On September 21, ACMS held an hosted a Virtual Panel Series discussion on the topic of "Political Repressions in Mongolia". Panelists included historians Dr. Batsaikhan O., Dr. Dashdulam D., Dr. Urangua J., representing different organizations Mr. Enkhbold B., a Member of Mongolia's National Commission for Human Rights, Mr. Pchirsuren, Head of Operations of the State Commission for the Management of Exoneration, and Mr. Tsogtsbaatar, Head of the Mongolian Political Victims Association.
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| | | Visit our YouTube channel to see more series of the Virtual Speaker and Virtual Panel Series, as well as our videos on Cultural Heritage Project, interviews with our Field Research Fellows and more.
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| We are working to bring back in-person speaker events, we will be putting these events up as more in-person speaker become available. If you would like to speak in-person for an ACMS Speaker event, please email buyandelger@mongoliacenter.org
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Vacancies, Scholarship, and Fellowships
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CAORC: MULTI-COUNTRY RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
The Multi-Country Research Fellowship enables US scholars to carry out trans-regional and comparative research in countries across the network of Overseas Research Centers as well as other countries.
The fellowship supports advanced research in the humanities, social sciences, and allied natural sciences for US doctoral candidates, who are ‘all but dissertation,’ and scholars who have earned their PhD or a terminal degree. Preference will be given to candidates examining comparative and/or cross-regional research. Applicants are eligible to apply as individuals or as teams. Twelve awards of $12,600 each will be granted. Funding is provided by the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Important information about the fellowship competition:
- Scholars must carry out research in two or more countries outside the United States, at least one of which must host a participating Overseas Research Center (ORC). Click here for a list of the centers.
- The award is for a minimum of 90 days and fellows may travel and carry out research between the period of May 2024 and November 2025. The 90-day travel minimum can be split into multiple trips and does not need to be consecutive.
- Fellows must work on their research full-time while they are traveling on the fellowship.
- Twelve awards of $12,600 each will be granted. The award payment is in the form of a stipend.
Eligibility:
- Applicants must be US citizens.
- Funding is not available for research conducted in the US.
- Team projects are admissible and will be evaluated as a single application. Teams should submit one (1) application for the team project and a CV for each member. Note that all team members must fulfill the fellowship eligibility requirements. If awarded, a single grant of $12,600 will be issued to the team.
- Independent scholars are eligible to apply.
- PhD candidates must be 'all but dissertation' (ABD) by May 2024.
- If you have held a Multi-Country Fellowship in the past, you must wait three years before you are eligible to apply again.
- It is permissible to apply for both the Multi-Country Research Fellowship and the CAORC-NEH Research Fellowship at the same time, but only one fellowship can be awarded to an applicant.
- Minority scholars and scholars from Minority-Serving Institutions are especially encouraged to apply.
Link to the Application Form:
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CAORC-NEH RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
The CAORC - National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Research Fellowship provides the opportunity for scholars to spend significant time in one country with an Overseas Research Centers as a base. The fellowship supports advanced research in the humanities. Fellowship awards are for four to six consecutive months (i.e. you can hold the fellowship for four, five, or six consecutive months). Selected fellows are awarded $5,000 per month of the award. This program is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) under the Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions (FPIRI).
Important information about the fellowship competition:
- Fields of study include, but are not limited to, history, philosophy, religious studies, linguistics, languages, literature, literary criticism, and visual and performing arts. In addition, research that embraces a humanistic approach and methods will be considered.
- Applicants must propose four to six consecutive months of research in an Overseas Research Center in one of the following countries: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cyprus, Georgia, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan (senior scholars may be permitted to travel to Lahore and Islamabad subject to approval), Senegal, Sri Lanka or Tunisia.
- Travel advisories may fluctuate in some countries, which CAORC continually monitors. CAORC abides by all US Department of State travel restrictions. Please contact CAORC if you have questions.
- Fellows may travel and carry out research for four to six consecutive months between the period of May 2024 to end of December 2025.
- Please list a tentative travel plan and dates in your application.
- Selected fellows must work on their research full-time during the entire tenure of their fellowship.
- Fellowship awards will not exceed $5,000 per month.
- All materials publicizing or resulting from NEH-funded activities must contain an acknowledgment of NEH support as well as CAORC support.
- CAORC-NEH Fellows may hold non-federal fellowships or grants during their fellowship tenure, including sabbaticals and grants from their own institutions. Fellows cannot hold another concurrent NEH or other federally funded grant.
Notification of fellowship status will be made available to each applicant via email in late March 2024. Fellows are advised that it can take up to six months to obtain necessary research clearances and should plan accordingly.
Eligibility:
- All applicants must hold a PhD or terminal degree.
- Applicants who are US citizens are eligible.
- US citizens living outside of the US are eligible.
- Foreign nationals who have resided in the US for at least three years prior to the application deadline are eligible.
- Independent scholars are eligible if they meet the above criteria. It is not a requirement that applicants be affiliated with a US academic institution.
- Funding is not available for research conducted in the US.
- Minority scholars and scholars from Minority-Serving Institutions are especially encouraged to apply.
Link to the Application Form:
Notification of Award Decisions: Late March, 2024
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Grants and Calls for Paper
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CFP: XVI ANNUAL MONGOLIAN STUDIES CONFERENCEHosts: The Mongolian Cultural Center & Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
In collaboration with: The Embassy of Mongolia
When: February 2-3, 2024 Where: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History located at 10 th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington D.C. 20560
The Mongolian Cultural Center is pleased to invite you to submit a paper for consideration for the “XVI
Annual Mongolian Studies Conference.” Papers are invited for the 2024 conference, with a Mongolian Studies subjects, such as Mongolian language, history, religion, arts, culture, literature, anthropology as well as papers that address Mongolian social, economic, and cultural issues are also welcome. The papers must be original work of the author(s) and can be written and presented in either Mongolian or English. However, presenters who are planning on presenting in Mongolian must submit a full English translation of the paper at least one month prior to the conference.
Submission deadline for paper abstracts is November 19, 2023. Abstracts must not exceed 500 words. If your paper is selected, you will receive an email from us by December 1, 2023.
Please note that if your paper is selected, we will ask you to submit your full paper by 01/20/2024 as we print the conference proceedings before the conference.
Prerequisite for presenting at the conference is payment of a $50 conference fee, which entitles you to 2- day attendance (including breakfast and lunch), conference proceedings book, and the closing reception.
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| | CFP: Extended deadline: International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture Vol. 33 No. 2 (December 2023)
Submission deadline is extended to October 15, 2023 for the International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture, (Vol.33 No.2), and the date of publication (Vol.33 No.2) is December 31, 2023.
The International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture (IJBTC) is seeking contributions of articles and book-reviews on history, philosophy, literature, and culture that are relevant to Buddhism.
The IJBTC welcomes submissions that bring new perspectives and ground-breaking research to the various fields of Buddhist Studies.
The IJBTC is listed in the Atla Religion Database®, the Thomson Reuters Emerging Sources Citation Index, and is accredited by Korean Research Foundation.
For more information, including submissions, subscriptions and inquiries, please visit our homepage http://ijbtc.dongguk.edu/ or contact us by email at ijbtc@dgu.ac.kr
Contacts
KIM Jongwook (Dongguk University, Korea)
Richard D. MCBRIDE II (BYU, USA)
Editors, International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture
Email: ijbtc@dgu.ac.kr
URL: https://ijbtc.dongguk.edu/
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Interesting digital resource we discovered in September, 2023:- "Historical Maps" - is an online publication of all 3 volumes of Local Maps of Mongolia (2019-2020). Local Maps of Mongolia is a collection of pre 1920s maps of Mongolian aimaks (provinces), frontier regions and banners collected by the Institute of Sutras and Scriptures (precursor to the Mongolian Academy of Sciences). The online publication was made by the Agency for Land Administration and Management, Geodesy and Cartography.
- "Historia Mongolarum" - is a peer-reviewed journal for historical research on Mongolian history published by the Department of History, Division of Humanities, School of Arts and Sciences, National University of Mongolia.
Podcasts we discovered in September: - Syndicate Talk - Exclusive #16 Christianity and the Pope's Visit [to Mongolia] /HE Giorgio Marengo/ MPlus (in Mongolian)
- Nomads, Past and Present - The Secret History of the Mongols: An interview with Chris Atwood /Christopher Atwood, New Books Network
- Manduulero - Interesting research about milk with Christina Warriner /Christina Warriner/ YouTube (in Mongolian)
Reviews published in September:
Submit reviews of your works or reviews you wrote to us at info@mongoliacenter.org. Make sure you put Review submission in the Subject field of your email.
Member contribution publications:
(If you would like to announce your publication, please reach out to us at info@mongoliacenter.org. Make sure you put Member contribution publication in the Subject field of your email.
Selected scholarly articles published in September, 2023: Featured Documentary: - "Dippers in the Altai IV: Emergence of the chicks" by Andrew Laurie [version with Mongolian subtitles] - The White-throated Dipper, or Гялаан омруут харзлай, (Cinclus cinclus) is distributed from Europe to China, including upland parts of Mongolia. Andrew Laurie studied Dippers in the UK as a schoolboy. Much later, when working in Mongolia on a conservation project, he became interested in how their lives differed in the mountains of the Altai and started to observe and photograph them. He has now made four films about Dippers in the Altai: I. Nest building (2017) II.
Incubation (2018) III. Feeding the nestlings (2019) and IV. Emergence of the chicks (2022). There are Mongolian subtitled versions of each film. Andrew Laurie's Channel - "Special Report: How Buryats after hundreds of years repeating their departure from Russia to Mongolia due to war" by Anna Zueva (in Russian) - After the mobilization no less than 20 thousand have left Buryatia. About half of them are ethnic Buryats. Their current departure is no the first one. The situation literally repeated events from a century ago. At the beginning of the 20th century the Russian Empire strengthened its defensive capability with Buryats. This caused a big wave of emigration. Civil war, collectivization and repressions in the 30s further enabled the departure of residents of the republic to Mongolia and China. How a hundred years later Buryats are leaving their homes again, how they help each other in Ulaanbaatar, and under what conditions are they willing to return home as told by a librarian, a photographer, a film editor and an entrepreneur from Ulan-Ude.
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| | FEATURE ARTICLES AND EVENTS ON MONGOLIAN STUDIES |
| For the First Time, a Pope Visited Mongolia
/PBS/ Sept 2. Pope Francis on Saturday praised Mongolia’s tradition of religious freedom dating to the times of its founder, Genghis Khan, as he opened the first-ever papal visit to the Asian nation with a word of encouragement to its tiny Catholic flock. Francis met with President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh inside a traditional Mongolian ger, or round yurt, set up inside the state palace and wrote a message in the guest book that he was visiting “a country young and ancient, modern and rich of tradition,” as a pilgrim of peace. Francis is in Mongolia to minister to one of the world’s newest and smallest Catholic communities — some 1,450 Mongolians are Catholic — and make a diplomatic foray into a region where the Holy See has long had troubled relations, with Russia to the north and China to the south. Read more
More on this:
Pope arrives in Mongolia to visit 'people of a great culture'
Pope’s visit to Mongolia a classic example of the Vatican thinking in centuries |
| | More Koreans attracted to Mongolia's destination allure/Korea Joongang Daily/ Sept 2. As summer draws to a close, a growing number of Korean travelers are setting their sights on Mongolia over conventional choices in Japan and Southeast Asia. Behind their decision is the lure of fresh cultural experiences, including stays in traditional gers and camel rides, and eco-retreats on offer in the lesser-explored Asian country. There was a 320.2 percent surge in Korean tourists to Mongolia from January through June this year, recent data from the National Statistics Office of Mongolia showed, with 43,192 visitors compared to 10,278 during the same period last year. Read more |
| | China bans book about the early history of the Mongolian people
/RFA/ Sept 3. Chinese authorities have banned a book on the history of the Mongols, citing "historical nihilism" – a term indicating a version of history not in keeping with the official party line – in what appeared to be a concerted attack by Beijing on ethnic Mongolians' identity. Orders have been sent out to remove "A General History of the Mongols" by scholars in the Mongolian Studies department of the Inner Mongolia Institute of Education should be removed from shelves, the pro-Beijing Sing Tao Daily newspaper reported. Read more |
| | Order of the Polar Star Awarded to CESS Lifetime member Dr. Olsen
/Central Eurasian Studies Society/ Sept 5. John Olsen’s Research Leads to Mongolia’s Highest Honor University of Arizona Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and ACMS founding member, John W. Olsen has received the Order of the Polar Star (Алтан гадас одон), the highest civilian award Mongolia can present to a foreign citizen. Created in 1936, the Order was bestowed upon Olsen in acknowledgment of his contributions to Mongolian science and society extending back over three decades. Read more
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| | Reflection: Why Are So Many Millennials Going to Mongolia?
/The New York Times/ Sept 13. Over the past decade, millennials like me — those born between roughly 1981 and 1996 — have been seeking out remote places like Mongolia, while other tourists crowd Santorini, the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum. [...] The Mongolian government has been trying to capitalize on this desire for less curated travel. It has invested in a digital marketing campaign targeting people ages 23 to 40. It has also invited social media influencers to come to Mongolia and post videos of the country’s verdant valleys, Caribbean-blue lakes and orange sand dunes. According to a 2019 survey cited by Mongolia’s tourism ministry, 49 percent of visitors to the country were under 40. Read more
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| | Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Age Sites Registered as World Heritage/Gogo.mn/ Sept 18. The UNESCO Cultural Heritage Committee's 45th Session held in Saudi Arabia from September 10 to 25, registered Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Age Sites as world heritage. Deer Stones are bronze age markers for Central Asian nomad cultural spaces, and are unique and extraordinary cultural heritage that contain complex and multifaceted memories including the origins of nomads, social, commercial, cultural, inter-tribal relations between different groups of nomads. Read more in Mongolian
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| | Video: President Khurelsukh at the UN General Assembly
/United Nations/ Sept 20. KHURELSUKH UKHNAA, President of Mongolia, expressed full support for international efforts toward disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, noting that Mongolia declared its territory free of nuclear weapons more than three decades ago. For the eighth time, Mongolia hosted this year the International Conference of the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security, a significant platform to strengthen confidence-building measures and to establish regional peace and security. Watch here |
| | In search of the eagle huntresses: Addressing a documentary
/Al Jazeera/ Sept 21. In 2013, Kazakh women in Mongolia captured global attention when a young eagle huntress, Aisholpan Nurgaiv, became the subject of a viral photograph taken by Israeli photographer Asher Svidensky. He returned to the country in 2014 with British director Otto Bell, who made a documentary about the teenager. The storyline focused on her being an outlier in Kazakh culture in what Bell described as an “isolated” community with “a certain kind of ignorance about what [women] can do”. [...] But Kazakhs and historians say this is not true. [...] “Eagle hunting always included women,” says Adrienne Mayor, a historian at Stanford University, who details the practice and its history in her 2016 research paper, The Eagle Huntress - Ancient Traditions and New Generations. “Archaeology also suggests that eagle huntresses were more common in ancient times.” Read more |
| | Dishes every Mongolia visitor needs to try, according to locals
/CNN/ Sept 21. Mongolia’s food [...] is highly misunderstood, thanks to the many deceptive, so-called “Mongolian barbecue” restaurants in cities around the world. “They’re all fake,” says Javkha Ara. “Very different from the original Mongolian foods.” A filmmaker and a self-proclaimed “mad foodie” from the northern city of Darkhan, Ara founded Artger [...] in 2016 after he realized how little information about his country was available online. Artger’s YouTube channel, which has amassed more than 510,000 subscribers and millions of views, focuses on Mongolian cuisine and culture. Read more
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| | Ambassador Buangan: The U.S. and Mongolia are promoting economic growth and food security.
/Montsame/ Sept 28. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Development Solutions NGO, through its Business Excellence for Sustainability and Transparency (BEST) project, organized a forum to enhance Mongolia's food security. [...] United States Ambassador to Mongolia, Richard Buangan, delivered opening remarks along with Gankhuleg M., Deputy Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry (MOFALI), and Amar L., Executive Director of Mongolian Bankers Association. They underscored the crucial role of partnerships to advance the growth of the agricultural sector. Read more
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| In Sports: Mongolia Earns Two Silver and Five Bronze Medals at Asian Games
/Montsame/ Sept 28. This year, Mongolia fielded its largest squad of 403 athletes for the first time to the Asiad. As of September 28, Mongolia is ranking 22nd with a total of seven medals - two silver and five bronze. China is leading the medal tally with 153 medals, including 83 gold, 46 silver, and 24 bronze, followed by South Korea with 76 medals – 20 gold, 20 silver, and 36 bronze – and Japan with 69 medals - 16 gold, 28 silver, and 25 bronze. Read more
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| | The 8-Year-Old Boy at the Heart of a Fight Over Tibetan Buddhism/New York Times/ Oct 2. The boy had seemed destined for a life of affluence and earthly pursuits. Born into the family behind a major mining conglomerate in Mongolia, he might have been picked to someday lead the company from its steel-and-glass headquarters in the country’s capital. Instead, the 8-year-old is now at the heart of a struggle between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Communist Party. He was just a toddler when everything changed. On a visit to a vast monastery in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, known for a towering Buddha statue gilded in gold, his father brought him and his twin brother into a room where they and seven other boys were given a secret test... They had found the 10th reincarnation of the Bogd, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism and, for many, the spiritual leader of Mongolia, where nearly half the population is Buddhist. Read more
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| "Middle Imperial China, 900–1350: A New History (New Approaches to Asian History)" by Linda Walton
Price: $105.00 (Hardcover)
In this highly readable and engaging work, Linda Walton presents a dynamic survey of China's history from the tenth through the mid-fourteenth centuries from the founding of the Song dynasty through the Mongol conquest when Song China became part of the Mongol Empire and Marco Polo made his famous journey to the court of the Great Khan. Adopting a thematic approach, she highlights the political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural changes and continuities of the period often conceptualized as 'Middle Imperial China'. Particular emphasis is given to themes that inform scholarship on world history: religion, the state, the dynamics of empire, the transmission of knowledge, the formation of political elites, gender, and the family. Consistent coverage of peoples beyond the borders – Khitan, Tangut, Jurchen, and Mongol, among others – provides a broader East Asian context and introduces a more nuanced, integrated representation of China's past.
Linda Walton is Professor Emerita at Portland State University.
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| | "The Tungusic Languages" Edited By Alexander Vovin, José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente, Juha Janhunen
Price: £205.00 (Hardback)
The Tungusic Languages is a survey of Tungusic, a language family which is seriously endangered today, but which at the time of its maximum spread was present all over Northeast Asia.
This volume offers a systematic succession of separate chapters on all the individual Tungusic languages, as well as a number of additional chapters containing contextual information on the language family as a whole, its background and current state, as well as its history of research and documentation. Manchu and its mediaeval ancestor Jurchen are important historical literary languages discussed in this volume, while the other Tungusic languages, around a dozen altogether, have always been spoken by small, local, though in some cases territorially widespread, populations engaged in traditional subsistence activities of the Eurasian taiga and steppe zones and the North Pacific coast.
All contributors to this volume are well-known specialists on their specific topics, and, importantly, all the authors of the chapters dealing with modern languages have personal experience of linguistic field work among Tungusic speakers.
This volume will be informative for scholars and students specialising in the languages and peoples of Northeast Asia, and will also be of interest to those engaged with linguistic typology, cultural anthropology, and ethnic history who wish to obtain information on the Tungusic languages.
Alexander Vovin (†), Directeur d’études, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, France.
José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente, Associate Professor, Institute of Linguistics, Translation Studies and Hungarian Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Juha Janhunen, Professor Emeritus of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Helsinki, Finland.
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| | "Travel Writing in Mongolia and Northern China, 1860-2020" by Phillip Marzluf
Price: € 104,00 (Hardback)
Travel Writing in Mongolia and Northern China, 1860-2020 invites readers to explore Mongolia as an important cultural space for Western travelers and their audiences over three historical eras. Travelers have framed their experiences and observations through imaginative geographies and Orientalizing discourses, fixing Mongolia as a peripheral, timeless, primitive, and parochial place. Readers can examine the travelers’ literary and rhetorical strategies as they make themselves more credible and authoritative and as they identify themselves with Mongolians and Mongolian culture or, conversely, distance themselves. In this book, readers can also approach travel writing from the perspective of women travelers, Mongolian socialist intellectuals, twenty-first-century travelers, and a Han Chinese writer, Jiang Rong, who promotes cultural harmony yet anticipates the disappearance of Mongolian culture in China.
Phillip P. Marzluf is Professor of English at Kansas State University. He has published Language, Literacy, and Social Change in Mongolia (Lexington 2018) and a co-edited collection, Socialist and Post-Socialist Mongolia (Routledge 2021). His work about Mongolia has appeared in the Central Asian Survey, the Journal of Asian Studies, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, and other journals.
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