Post Tsagaan Sar Shaman Festival

This was a real cultural experience that we stumbled upon.  The first full moon since the end of Tsagaan Sar occurred last Thursday, and it is a very religious day for Shamanism which we were unaware of.  It was also International Women's Day, so school was closed.  We wondered why the US doesn't celebrate this.  Has the country maxed out days off for workers?

Back to the story.  Pam, two friends and I headed out to walk up the solidly frozen Tuul River.  As we slid our way upstream, we began to hear beating drums and then caught sight of lots of parked cars.  The hike was suddenly put on hold, and we scrambled up the river banks to check out the activity.

We were greeted with a kaleidoscope of colors, sounds and activities.  There was a large fire blazing away warming some of the Mongolians that had obviously come to see one or more shamans.  In addition, there were many blankets on the ground with bowls of milk, cups of vodka, the Tsagaan Sar centerpiece of biscuits and yogurt cheese toppings and, of course, mutton.  As we walked around, we became aware that we were causing more than a few heads to look our way.  It appeared that we were the only expats to grace this festival.

During the circumnavigation of the area, we witnessed people flicking milk or vodka into the air, onto the ground and towards the people.  This is to pay tribute to the sky, earth and people.  We also saw numerous male and female shamans dressed in costume in various stages of trances that involved beating drums, being cared for by non-shamans, smoking cigarettes made up with what we were not sure, and speaking in strange voices.  Some people were being beaten ( not harmfully) by shamans which we later found out was to drive evil spirits out either for themselves or for family members.  

As we stood mesmerized, a young man spoke to us in English and asked if we'd like to talk with his sister, a shaman.  Tolga, also a shaman, shared with us that he'd recently returned from the U. of Wash. where he'd been studying for the last 2 years.  An invitation like this was impossible to pass up.  Tolga's sister was in a trance when he had me sit next to her.  He explained that at the moment her body was occupied by an 800 year old spirit.  When I related my surprise upon seeing women shamans, he said that the women are much more powerful shamans than men.  He also shared that different shamans have particular expertise.  Some can address physical maladies while others can tell fortunes.  While I sat with Tolga's sister asking questions about future events, I became aware that a large group of Mongolians had encircled us.  Perhaps it was a sight to see an expat conversing with a shaman through an interpreter.

After finishing speaking with his sister, Tolga asked if we'd like to speak with the teacher of shamans.  The response was a no brainer.  He said that he would ask if she'd be willing to speak with us, which she agreed to.  During a trance no eye contact is made.  Tolga translated a few questions that the shaman had about my nationality and work.  It was then my turn for the questions, and she said that I'd be staying in Mongolia longer than my contract, that my kids would appreciate their visit here this summer more so after their return home, and that I'd be getting involved in a lucrative business.  Pam was told she has Mongolian blood in her through her maternal lineage and has a connection with Chinggis Khan.

Time will tell about these predictions but, in the meantime, this experience has both of us wanting to learn more about shamanism and keep working at improving our Mongolian language.      

Ken, Andy, Pam and I on the Tuul River

Prayer flag draped ovoos.

One would never believe that this is near to UB.

Ken reflecting on the experience.

One of the many shamans in costume.

Folks consulting with a shaman.

Consulting with Tolga's sister.

Speaking with the shaman teacher.

Tolga, his sister and enriched expats.

Tsagaan Sar (White Moon), Mongolian Lunar New Year

According to the Mongolian Dictionary & Phrasebook, this holiday has been going on for more than 2000 years.  The color white is associated with purity and happiness.  This holiday originally marked "the end of the cold winter and the beginning of the spring thaw" for the herders.  It usually occurs in February and has become associated in the non-nomad homes with the new lunar year, which is now the dragon.  It is a three day holiday similar to Thanksgiving because of visiting friends and family, eating and drinking.  Fatty sheep butt replaces the turkey, buhz (steamed dumplings filled with meat and onions) act as the hors d'ouvres, and the vodka flows freely.

There are many customs that Pam and I were coached on including how to enter a ger (always enter and move in a clockwise direction), bringing a khadag, a blue Buddhist piece of silk, to present to the oldest person in the ger, and on how to greet elders or younger folk.  Greetings involve cheek kissing and hand placement.  A younger person always places his or her hands facing upwards under the elbows of an elder.  This shows respect.  Another custom is to drink the entire first offering of vodka but, after that, one can place the ring finger of one's right hand in the vodka and flick some upwards, straight out in front and to the ground honoring the sky, people and Earth.  If you've had your fill of vodka, you then touch the ring finger to your forehead, indicating that you've had enough.  (I kept missing that part as we sat with a herder's family in the country.)  When receiving or giving some food or drink, it is always handled with the right hand while the left hand is under the right elbow, or it is given and received with both hands.  In both cases, the shirt sleeves are pulled down.  This is definitely a challenging place for left handers and a great place to retire for old school nuns that believe everything should be done right handed.  There is also a center piece of specially made oblong, cookie type biscuits that are stacked in odd numbers of layers.  The odd-numbered layers represent 'happiness' and the even-numbered layers represent 'suffering'.  The top layer should end in 'happiness'. The older the head of the ger is, the higher the stack of biscuits.

We were introduced to the horses the herder raised for racing and shown the number of medals that his kids had won.  The racers are young boys up to, I believe, 10 years of age but can begin at 4 or 5.  On our way back to UB, we stopped at an ovoo, a pile of sacred rocks which often have a stick in the center and prayer flags or silks attached to the stick.  For good luck while traveling, one circles the rocks clockwise three times before continuing on the journey.  Fortunately this does not have to be done at each ovoo that is passed, or it could take weeks to go 20 kilometers.

Since the holiday we've had many days of temps in single negative digits which has now almost become balmy to us.  The other surprise is the disappearance of a significant amount of snow and ice even though we've yet to go above freezing.  Since this winter didn't kill us, we're feeling stronger and have new definitions of cold, warm and hot.  We've also developed better timing of when to place that right ring finger to our foreheads.

Just trying to fit in.

The buhz are in the small dish to the right, and the small silver bowl just in front of the buhz is for the vodka.  In the background is the fatty sheep butt.  The tower is made of layers of biscuits, and the top is covered with dried cheese/yogurt pieces.

Our host is the one in the baseball cap.

One of our host's daughters in their "yard"

Touring the stables and a brief respite from celebrating. 

This is a Mongolian dog known as 'four eyes' because of the brown spots above the eyes.

Sergei, displaying good vodka drinking form.

Sheep butt (and tail) airag (mare's milk) and some kimchi.  How did that get there??

Horse riders and daughters of the ger.

Remind you of Thanksgiving??

The trainer and one of his champs.  I don't have a clue what he's talking about.  

Cheers!  

Today and Yesterday

This entry is more or less part 2 of the last two blog entries.  I'll update you from the last entry.

It's still cold but.....this past weekend the temps were in the negative teens which felt like spring.  I was able to spend time at the black market, known locally as Naren Tuul Tsx hatless and mitten less without fear of frostbite.  What an experience! This rivaled taking a shower the other day and not getting water on the floor after alterations were made to the tub that is tilted so that more water falls to the floor than the drain.  Pam and I were amazed at our level of excitement over these two moments.  One still has to practice being aged by shuffling around many places in town because of the massive ice sheets on the sidewalks and roads.  The few breaks come at frozen puke spots, which there are quite a number of, and high usage areas.  There is almost always a gorgeous blue sky that offsets the grayer moments.

Our first peddle taxi ride 

People must have thought we were famous because they kept asking to have their pics taken with us.

The local brew

Nerves, buns and legs of steel

Sunset in Java

Our first hotel room due to my disorientation

Our 2nd hotel to compensate for my blunder

Our final hotel, great price, location and service

Java volcanos and countryside

Borabudur Temple - taking a break after walking around the top 7 times for good karma.  Being able to successfully negotiate the crowd proved that it worked. 

Reminded me of sandcastles we'd make on the Jersey Shore.

Prambanan Temple, ran out of camera battery "sigh"

We left Bali and flew to Java since we had a week before heading back to Mongolia.  We spent the week in Yogyakarta, a university town with 2 World Heritage sites, many batik makers and lots of peddle taxis.  We began our visit with scrambling for a hotel two days before New Years because the hotel reservation I made turned out to be several hundred kilometers away from where we were.  I should have had the map of Java in front of me.  We then spent New Years Eve many kilometers away from the city in a beautiful resort with the promise that there was to be a great jazz party.  The great party, by midnight, turned out to be about 8 people singing karaoke with a local female "professional" singer.  It was a first for both of us.  The next day we moved back into the center of the town and stayed at a new hotel that had a disco type motif with an absolutely wonderful staff that catered to our needs.  We rented a driver and visited both heritage sites, Borobudur and Prambanan.  You should Google them and then start saving for a visit.  The peddle taxis were such an enjoyable way to see the town and very reasonable even before bargaining.  The week flew by and soon we were back in Bali fighting with Korean Air about the screw up with our flight itinerary.  We lost round one and had to spend an additional $400 to get back to Seoul.  We did make it back to UB without having to spend hundreds more.  We are presently trying to get reimbursed for the airline's admitted mistake so the war is not over.    

 

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Well, we thought we were looking forward to getting away from the heat and humidity of Indonesia, but we've returned to a cold that I've never experienced.  During the day it is often -25C+ and the temperature often dips into the mid -30's to low -40'sC.  For those that aren't familiar with the conversion rate -40C = -40F.  When we decide that we need to go out, we put on the wool socks (camel is amazingly warm), fleece coat or vest, scarf, down coat, neckgaiter, fleece headband and my nearly famous fox hat.  We don't have much snow so I can get by with hiking boots which give me more traction than my -40 Sorels.  Pam opts for the shearling lined boots and the rest of the uniform that's needed if you're out for more than 30 seconds.  The ritual of preparing to go out is performed every day since we still walk to school the approximate mile which takes about 15-20 minutes depending on if the guard (?) dogs that may be protecting vacant land decide that they need to warm up and run at us. 

Cutting across this field shortens our walk a bit, but we're faced with possibly changing our route due to construction that's started and the lesser of two evils, attacking dogs or traffic.  So far it is still the dogs only because we can protect ourselves with a stick as opposed to being helpless against a driver wanting to inch forward in the daily traffic jams.  I have noticed that the traffic does appear less congested since the cold freezes up engines quickly.  People that own cars need to garage them, which is not cheap, or periodically start them during the day and let them idle.  We were patting ourselves on the back today for not buying a vehicle which was a consideration when we first got here.

The snow that falls periodically turns to ice which tests balance, decision making (is there any snow to walk on?) and reaction time.  There have been a few moments when I possibly look like I'm having a grand mal seizure while trying to stay on my feet.  Pam has what is equivalent to tire chains for her shoes that were bought in Seoul.  I did see a way to reduce unemployment the other day on a walk to the market.  On the back of a truck filled with sand was a man shoveling it onto the road.  The temp fortunately was in the low -20's.

Fur is a huge seller here: fox, rabbit, mink and many others that I haven't learned the words to positively identify them.  The fox hat I have is by far the warmest hat I've ever owned and  gives me the false impression that I again have a full head of hair.  Wearing the hat and all suited up for the cold, I was actually mistaken for a Mongolian last night.  There are some Mongolians that must have very different DNA.  We've seen them without hats or gloves and only wearing fur-lined leather jackets walking around town or shopping at the Black Market.  We are dumbfounded when we consider our arsenal of clothing.  What we do have does the trick most of the time unless there is a breeze blowing.  Fortunately, that is not very often, but there are moments when our eyelashes freeze together or  snotcicles develop. 

The Mongolians do have their tried and true pieces of warmth.  Yak, camel, sheep and goat wool (cashmere) are fantastic.  The fur items do the trick, and felt is a staple for combating the cold.  The folks that sell their wares at the open air Black Market also wear felt boots which make one wonder if they are related to Big Foot.  To give one more standard of how tough Mongolians are against the cold, people were shooting pool outdoors last weekend.

In addition to the cold, we also contend with pollution.  There are many gers (yurts) in and around UB that heat with a low grade coal.  My understanding is that a couple of winters ago it was brutally cold and there was an abnormal amount of snow that prevented livestock from feasting on the dried grass. Many Mongolian herders lost so much livestock that they decided to move to the capital to try and make a living.  We have been told by some of the vets that on the bad days, which happen often in the winter, breathing the local air can be like smoking up to 4 packs of cigarettes.  However, some of our colleagues who have lived in Hong Kong and Beijing claim that those places surpass the worst UB can muster.  What a title to hold!!!  Fortunately, we live and work on the south side of the city, so the sky looks a lighter shade of grey.  When the airflow changes, usually in the afternoon, the beautiful blue Mongolian sky reemerges along with the mountains.

My friend Andy from Alaska preparing mentally to combat the dogs as we cross THE FIELD.

The pollution has dissipated.  This is looking in the opposite direction of the above pic. 

Bye, honey!  See you when I get home.

The Black Market

Let's see...which hat will be the warmest?

                                                                        Ger in Winter

Bali & Beyond

Wow! Is it HOT & HUMID!!! Those words were often followed by "Let's get a beer to maintain our stamina!"  This was our holiday vacation, which covered approximately 3 weeks.  We chose Bali because a childhood friend of Pam's lives in India, and she has a friend who lives in Ubud, Bali and so it made sense to us to meet there for the holidays. Follow the logic??? 

Our trip started with searching for some clothing not designed for -20 to -40 degree weather since we left from Seoul without any summer clothes.  Kuta, a tourist town with a beach filled with a lot of foreigners looking to drink, surf and party all night long, was also a great place to find what we needed with seemingly thousands of locals wanting to meet our needs in their shops.  With the clothing issue addressed, we headed to the beach for some relaxation.  Got to the beach slowly ( I'm not as quick on crutches as I used to be) and then convinced the local entrepreneurs at the beach that we didn't need anything.  Still having staples in my leg kept me out of the deep water, but Pam headed into the great surf to refine her body surfing.  I was entertained by wannabe surfers learning the fundamentals to conquer the giant curls.  We were a bit disappointed with the beach.  The name Bali conjures up beautiful images of beaches for many people, but the reality is that in Kuta there is trash on the beach and in the water just like many other beaches that we've been to.  Not all the beaches are sand. That surprised us.  Some have good sized stones that make getting to the water a challenge.

We had a great hotel on the main drag with a beautiful roof top pool and outdoor dining, and it was surprisingly quiet.  After two days of that, we met up with Pam's friend Tobi and her partner, Rahul, and happily left for the interior town of Ubud. 

Ubud is known as an artist and cultural center.  That it is.  Batik clothing and artwork, beautiful wood carvings that included penis handled bottle openers, jewelry and reed goods.  The transportation on the island looks like a battle scene from Lord of the Rings without the carnage.  Cars and motorbikes battle for control of the road.  The horn is probably the most important part of the car and the helmet for the motorbikers.  There are the "I'm invincible" younger folks that I can only presume think their skulls are thicker than a helmet, or they believe their reaction times can easily handle any situation that presents itself.

We stayed at a gorgeous villa that belongs to Steve, a doctor friend of Tobi.  He was a fantastic host with a staff that catered to all of our wants and needs.  We started out our stay being Steve's only guests but, after two days, the numbers of friends and family grew to over twenty.  Many of Steve's friends have worked with AIDS victims or relief agencies which led to many interesting discussions about the efficiency of NGO's and government agencies to address the needs of the people they are supposed to be serving.

To get to downtown Ubud from Steve's, we had to negotiate the Sacred Monkey Forest.  The macaque monkeys rule here.  They roam free and entertain and/or terrorize the more ?? developed relatives.  On our first stroll through the forest, one tourist said that she had been bitten by one of the monkeys, which Steve said carried some disease that could kill the bitee.  That info was enough to stop us from feeding the monkeys or from having them jump onto us for picture sake.  We were warned not to carry anything in plastic bags because the monkeys had figured out that plastic bags often contained food.  We witnessed the quasi paramilitary coordinated attacks by some of the monkeys to snatch plastic bags from their more advanced brethren and then rifle throughout the contents for food.  If they came up empty-handed, they would leave the bag looking a bit displeased.

Pam and I got to experience scuba diving and loved it.  We felt like we were extras in Finding Nemo 2 swimming beside iridescent, rainbow colored fish of all sizes and shapes.   We had a great instructor from Spain who guided us around the ocean bottom near a ship wreck.  We were diving in about 8-9 meters of water with 20-30 meters of visibility.  The fish were stunning, and a highlight was swimming with a huge school of Jack fish and then sitting on the bottom watching these 2 foot silver swimmers circle us with numbers in the 100's. 

We visited a few temples that required us to put on sarongs, passed rice fields filled with plants at various stages of maturity, drove past active volcanos, and marveled at the jungle plants.  It was a fantastic experience accentuated by the wonderful, good natured, friendly, helpful Balinese people.  From here we headed off to Java when Tobi and Rahul returned to India.

Where did I leave Dave?

Steve's 25 meter pool at the villa.

Pam pissed this guy off since she had no food and she's happy about it.

The stare down.  I lost.

The thorn and the buds.  Pam's childhood friend Tobi.

Rice fields in the rain.

The entrance to the Pura Luhur Batukau Hindu temple. 

The worshipers.

Pam speaking with her eyes.  It's a good thing I don't speak eyeballs.

The Pura Luhur Batukau Temple

Is there a right and left?

How many beers did you say I could have before diving?

The neighborhood.

Visitors