Mongolia

Mongolia – Between Siberia and China

Mongolia lies in central Asia between Siberia on the north and China on the south and is slightly larger than Alaska. It is one of those places where one will find nomadic life still prevailing. The province of the Inner Mongolia is geographically and politically separate and is situation towards the northern area of China though it shares common borders with Mongolia.

 Mongolia State was earlier known as Outer Mongolia and contains the original homeland of the historic Mongols, whose power had reached its peak during the 13th century till Kublai Khan. They accepted the Manchu rule in the year 1689, though after the Chinese Revolution in 1911 with the fall of the Manchus in 1912, the Chinese officials were expelled by the northern Mongol princes and declared independence under the `Living Buddha’, or Khutukhtu.

Together with Japan and South Korea, Mongolia is one of the only legitimate democracies in the whole of Asia and elections have proven to be fair and free. With constant street protests, this region has been forced to policy changes related to most of the issues that come up.

An Upcoming Asian Country

Mongolia is an upcoming Asian country where its economy has been growing to 7.5 percent per year due to China’s needs of Mongolia’s raw materials and tourism along with cashmere and mining has become an important feature of the economy. Mongolia is an awesome travel destination which is unspoiled, especially for people, who love the adventurous life,wherein people can enjoy the outdoors and the adventure on the vast plains, riding horses as well as camping with the nomadic families. All these combination enables the visitorwith the opportunity to going back into time and enjoy a simple way of life. It is a perfect location for horse trekking, long distance cycling or hiking or leisure activities like yak carting, fly-fishing or even camping under a dark starry night.

Rich Natural Beauty

Mongolia being a country of rich natural beauty comprises of a wide range of various types of landscape on its vast region, right from the Gobi desert in the south to the clear waters of Lake Xowsgol to its north and from the grasslands of the east to the Altai mountain range in the west, with plenty of exciting moments to be experienced by the traveller.

The main religion of Mongolia is Buddhism with 90 percent of the population being Buddhists while the rest are Muslims, Shamanist with a few Christians. Earlier the Mongolians’ religion was shamanism which rose during the clan structure which was just magic and simple. Every clan in ancient period had a belief about their origin that they were descendants from a plant or an animal which was called tutelary genius.

Several museums in Ulaanbaatar is available for those interested in religion and culture such as the Natural history museum, hunting museum, geological museum, historical museum, which was earlier the revolutionary museum but now hosts an extensive exhibition together with a beautiful collection of Mongolian garments.

 Besides these, one will come across fine arts museum, Choijil Monastery which is located towards the centre of Ulaanbaatar, the former being a home to the priceless sculptures which were crafted by the famous monk, Politian sculptor and philologist Zanabazar and many more interesting sites to explore.