Deutsche Familie lebt unter Nomaden in der Mongolei

Deutsche Familie lebt unter Nomaden in der Mongolei

Good morning. Good morning, Nucki. Hello. Did you sleep well? Would you like an avocado? Unfortunately, the bottom of the banana was mushy and the top was not at all. And did you eat a piece of it? Yes, I ate half of it, but the bottom was mushy. I didn’t want that mush anymore. Do you want an avocado? Your favorite food. Yes, why do we live in a Mongolian yurt? Well, for me, I was in Mongolia for the first time six years ago and I was incredibly fascinated by the simultaneity of people living in Olambata, the capital – incidentally the coldest capital in the world – in high-rise buildings, living a completely modern life like in all the world’s metropolises, and at the same time, in the countryside on the steppe, nomads still live like they did 2,000 years ago, in a yurt that was built 2,000 years ago. And the fact that these things exist side by side really interested and fascinated me. And it was just as important for Michael and me that we stay in Mongolia for a long time, to really experience for ourselves what it’s like to lead this very simple, humble life like the nomads do here. So. So. Where’s your push bike? But I have to do one more thing. I just have to quickly fill the boiled water into the thermos. Okay? That’s our first act in the morning. Turn on the stove and boil water for the whole day. Then we make tea, hot water and coffee. Today the mane is being cut. The horsehair is used to make rope, also for the yurts, to tie the yurts. And today the hair is being cut, so to speak. I’ve never experienced that before either. It’s a first for me too. And the horses are very, very wild. That’s the barber. He’s got the scissors in his hand. He wants to cut my hair afterwards. Long hair is very unusual for men. I usually hide it too. Yes. And the beard is always a topic of conversation. Yes, the beard is a topic of conversation. The Mongolians don’t really wear beards here. You see how wild they are. They’ll be used to braid ropes later. They barely smell. Watch out, the horse is turning towards you. Not as much as the sheep. It doesn’t smell at all. Crazy. All day in the fresh air. Yes, or we already smell the same. Well, if I understand correctly, it’s the equivalent of less than €20 per kilo of hair. I don’t know why it’s such an effort and such torture. Well, it’s only been like this here since forever. These are their only sources of income, because the meat they slaughter in the winter, for example, they only use to feed their families in the winter. They don’t sell meat, they don’t sell animals, the only income they have is the cashmere wool and maybe the horsehair and then the sheep’s wool, which they will cut in June. And other than that, they have no income. I’ll give you a hug. Now, I’ll show you the yurt. You never stand in the doorway, you always go through and bow with everyone who comes in. That’s why the door is lower. Dog, let me go. That’s the fourth pair of trousers you’ve ruined. I’ll be glad when it’s swept. In the winter it was all quilted and sandy. That means that whenever you just opened the door, there was a film of dust on it, and you couldn’t get rid of it at all. That’s why you always had to cover the water tank to prevent dirt from flying in. That’s the cooler spot, hence the male side. The warmer spot by the stove is for the women and the children. Yes, and with us, it’s a little different. Our friends gave us this beautiful princess bed, this traditional nomad bed, and it was quite clear to Anuk and I that we wanted this bed and we would sleep there. We tried to build it on the female side, but it’s so wide, so huge, that it was much too close to the stove, and so we spontaneously decided, oh come on, we’ll just put it on the left side, and thought, Yes, okay, even when visitors come, he can first sit down on the nice bed and so on. The nomads were pretty impressed that we’d reversed the sides, so that Michael basically sleeps on the female side and Anuk and I on the male side. Yes, we’ve already started to reverse the gender roles a bit, and in a slightly absurd way, but while the nomads basically have their little Buddhist altar in the north, we’ve put our little trendy toilet for Anuk in the north, so that she doesn’t have to go outside in -25°C to pee in the outhouse. We’ve basically hidden the toilet in the back corner so that she can pee in the yurt. These two pillars that support the roof, the ones that support the tong, symbolize man and woman and their equality, meaning that they both stand side by side as equals. And this area, you’re only allowed to walk in a clockwise circle in the yurt, and you’re not allowed to pass things around. I don’t know what superstition it is, but it’s happened to me a couple of times that I’ve served tea through it. And then I was somehow immediately told that it should be served around the outside. That’s really important. And the oven plays a really important role too, because the nomads say that the fire god lives in it, and when Zigi is cooking, she takes a bit of the food and throws it into the fire to feed the fire god. And the fire god is also a child. Yes, it’s actually quite nice, that there’s something spiritual behind everything, that, for example, these roof trusses act like sunbeams and that the sun moves through the yurt like a sundial. Sometimes it seems to me as if the whole thing has a camping feel to it, because a lot of it is improvised, it’s actually always a bit dirty. You spend a huge amount of time sorting things out and creating order so that some kind of peace and quiet reigns. But I actually like it . I like being in nature with just one step, and I love seeing this grass growing on the ground in our yurt. I absolutely love it. I think it’s really beautiful, and I love that the first rays of sunlight coming over the mountain hit our bed and wake us up in the morning. It’s simply beautiful. Will it fit through here? Yes. No. No. Oh, much less. Much more algae than usual. I was here the day before yesterday, and there was even less algae. Probably now, when it’s getting warmer, more algae is growing. But here I thought the algae were good for the body. Like everything in Mongolia. In Mongolia, everything is healthy, even dirty water. Yes. What’s worth its weight in gold here is this fence around it. Because if it weren’t there, all the animals would drink here, and then the water would be dirty and contaminated again. Exactly, there’s a spring. Yes, we’re also in the volcanic region here, so there are extinct volcanoes not far from here. There are volcanic stones everywhere, and mineral springs everywhere. If you go around the corner another 500 meters, you’ll even find a spring with mineral water, sparkling water. That’s a little luxury we have here, but one we don’t indulge in too often. Nucki, if you run through there, we’ll have muddy water. Just run back there. Zigi was also drawing water with us recently, and she just used a ladle . Yes, we always boil our water. That’s important to us. Yes, and as I said, in winter it was sometimes really yellow , and we had no other choice. So, we boiled it and drank a little contaminated water because we simply couldn’t get away. We couldn’t use the car, so we had to take the spot that wasn’t frozen over. And you have to imagine that everything here moves with the sun. So, the sun rose around 8:30 a.m., and then the herds moved directly to the water, to this one spot where the water wasn’t frozen, and they drank and, of course, contaminated the water with their dung and urine. That means we had to be faster. That meant we had to go to the water with our canisters before sunrise, at 7 or 6:30 in the morning if possible. Without a car, of course. Now we fetched water by car, but we simply used a cart to go down the mountain to this small, unfrozen spot and then scoop up water. And then, at -25°C, it’s incredibly difficult. Those were really, those were the most painful moments for me, when I thought, wow, I’ve reached my limits. Dragging this 40-liter canister up the mountain with a wheezing lung was so exhausting, and that was just for water, for water that comes out of the tap at the push of a button at home, filtered and clean enough to drink. And here you had to make sure you got there early enough to have clean water, and yes, you had to boil it to be sure it was germ-free. And yes, you do think twice about whether to get in the bath today or not. Okay, you carry the trowel, please. No, yes. Yes, but can I take your hand? The other one? Yes, that one. Oh, now you have to walk backward. Up ahead is the hot spring. There’s mineral water there, and the river really bubbles. We went there once with a local, and he showed me the way down, and I walked it once, but that was the last time because I was scared to death. There’s a slope everywhere, and if you stand there when the thing goes down, you’ll be buried down there by your hot spring. Nucki, do you remember that we lived here? Look, this is the only thing left. A circular area. That was our home, remember? Yes. And the reason we lived here in the Owol during the winter was because we were protected from the wind here. This wall really was a huge protective barrier for us, for the yurts, and that’s simply no longer necessary. In spring, there are still very, very strong sandstorms and windstorms, but now it’s slowly calming down, so they can move into the valleys and simply enjoy the vastness for themselves. Some only move a few hundred meters further, which surprises us greatly, or a kilometer or 2 kilometers further. Other neighbors of ours will soon be moving 50 kilometers with their entire herd to a waterfall, in a completely different area. So, it varies greatly how the families choose, whether they choose a short distance or move very far, which would be a huge challenge for me to cover such a long distance with a herd of 500 animals, sheep, goats, and horses. And today they are castrating them. Oh, crazy, it looks really horrible. When we were still in Germany, we had a very romantic image of life in Mongolia. You imagine it’s life, you are one with nature in the wonderful landscape and it is such a pristine, beautiful life of the nomads. And we noticed here, too, how hard it really is. And we knew beforehand, we said that we actually wanted this romantic image to be replaced by reality and at the same time to learn from those who live with a much smaller footprint, like we did at home, and who produce less waste and can consume less. So we live here in a place where there is simply no coffee shop or supermarket nearby. So even if we wanted to consume, we simply couldn’t and we are somehow forced to endure this silence and that has always been something in my life that has attracted me, to go to places that are quiet and to learn to simply endure it in these places. I do reach my limits with some jobs, and sometimes even exceed them, because we had such a different life in Germany. We lived in our vegetarian/vegan bubble, and it was clear to us that when we came here, we would also come into contact with that. And we have to make an effort to observe things ourselves. There are a lot of things we don’t understand because of the language barrier. For example, why castration so early? Why without anesthesia? And yes, we’re definitely learning a lot, which is just part of it. If you eat meat, it’s just part of this animal husbandry, and it’s often hard to watch. Smoking is also somehow part of all the processes that take place here. They smoke with dried horse manure, and they say it’s good for the body and drives out evil, and exactly. Now the jack babies are being castrated. We initially just intended this as a surprise visit. I was in Mongolia 6 years ago and stayed overnight in their yurt. I also wrote a book about this trip 6 years ago, which ended up in Nepal during the pandemic. In this book, one chapter describes Ochi and Zegi, and there are pictures of them too. I never met them again after that, and so I wanted to surprise them with a book. We went there and surprised them, and they were really happy. They invited us straight away that day. They said, ” Stay here, eat something.” We stayed overnight in their yurt and had a really lovely evening with them. After that, we moved on again, because we were actually looking for a winter retreat, for a family with children. But in the end, it was just our gut feeling. In the fall, they told us, ” Let’s go back to Ochi and Segi and tell them about our plan to stay over the winter.” And that’s what we did. Ochi and Segi immediately said, Stay with us, you can just put your yurt next to ours. They said, we’ll look after you, we’ll chop wood for you. It was an immediate feeling. They’re about the same age as us, but we felt like we were in good hands, as if their parents were just there. Oh, the first jackbaby is already there. It’s a type of cow that originally comes from the Himalayas. You see them when you’re in Tibet or Nepal, you see a lot of jacks, and they’re really well adapted to Mongolia. Because they’re very hardy animals, and also because of their fur , in Mongolia the jacks mix with the cows. So, there are Mongolian cows and jacks, and they can have babies together. Then you get a Hannik, which is a hybrid between a cow and a jack. Exactly. And we just love these hunting babies. They’re the animals you’re seeing now. They are kind of my best friends here in Mongolia because when we arrived I helped with milking every morning and the milking process is like this: you hold the babies while the nomad woman milks the cow and then the jackbaby is released back to its mother and can drink again. And so I spent the whole winter with the jackbabies every morning and in the evenings they go off into the mountains during the day to look for green grass and in the evenings it was always my job in winter and still is to bring the jackbabies back because in the evenings they sleep near the yurts and I spent many hours with them in the mountains. So these are my friends. I just asked what they are doing with the stuff they have cut up and now they go in and cook it and then eat it. Yes, they like each other. That is the only Piero that was sick in the stable all winter and it didn’t make contact with the herd. It hasn’t found a connection with the herd, and it ‘s still wandering around alone while the others head off into the mountains. And that’s why Hutt, the dog, and the one-year-old jackbaby have become very friendly. So, look. That’s jack shit. Unfortunately, it’s too wet. So, we have to go find jack shit. that’s properly dried, otherwise we won’t be able to get the fire started. Actually, the smaller ones are the best; they dry faster and also ignite more easily in the oven. And they’re great for cooking while hunting. Jagdtung gets really, really hot in a short time, which makes it great for cooking on. Wood takes longer and heats up the yurt so much that it stays hot in the yurt for a really long time, and that’s not what you want in the summer, of course. We’re building a fire now. Such a good yield today. Oh, it’s freezing cold. During the day it actually gets over 20°, but now it’s freezing cold. 0°. Wow, that’s what it feels like. But when the sun is so blazing, you wouldn’t believe it’s that cold. Yes, and in winter it can easily show -27°. The downside to jack shit is that it produces an incredible amount of ash. There’s much less with wood. Okay, I’ll have to take it away for now, unfortunately. I like the nomad toilet, to be honest. I really love enjoying the view in the morning. I don’t mind it at all. In fact, all the work with the shit doesn’t bother me at all. Come, I’ll show you the toilet. Just a simple, improvised pit toilet made with whatever you have left over. Exactly. A hole, two boards, and off you go. But the view is unbeatable. So, at first, we always used matches, but that got too easy, and since then, we’ve been using this giant gas lighter like the nomads do. When you have to lug your 40-liter water canister up the mountain, you think very carefully about how much water you waste washing your hands. And that’s why the nomads have a container that dispenses water very, very sparingly for washing. Zigi, for example, would wash her hair like she does underneath here. She would simply fill it with warm water, hold her head under it, and wash her hair that way. Exactly. Put the lid on, and then water would dispense very sparingly. And it’s a very simple solution. At the bottom, there’s just a bucket for the wastewater, and we simply pour it onto the grass a few meters from the yurt. Besides fetching water at -25°C, I think the mornings in the yurt were actually the hardest thing for me, and what really made me angry. I would wake up in such a bad mood because the yurt was freezing cold. For the first few days or nights after we arrived here, we kept the heating on all night. We set an alarm every two hours to add more wood. And because we didn’t want the yurt to get so cold when it was -25°C outside. And then we asked our nomadic neighbors, how do you do it? And they said, well, we have 1,000 blankets and we’ll just let the fire go out. And then we thought, okay, we’re here to learn from them. So we’ll do what they did and not waste the good wood, right? We also had to get through the whole winter , and winter here means snow until May. That means we still had a very, very long winter ahead of us and knew we would have to make do with the wood. So we switched to not heating the house all the way through, but letting the stove go out. On the hardest nights , it was -6°C in the yurt when we woke up in the morning. And I mean -6°C. In Germany, you wouldn’t even go outside. Yes, you would just stay at home and turn on the heating or turn on the stove. And we woke up here with so much steam, and for me it was just too cold. I have to admit. So, it really worked on me, and then the first thing I did was turn on the stove, but it took about an hour until the room was really warm, and then you have a child who is freezing and doesn’t want to stay under the covers or let them put on their hat or something like that. And those were really my hardest moments. So, I love going to sleep in the yurt. I love this quiet place. I love this silence. I love it from the Animals in the morning, being woken up by animal noises, by Ma the sheep and so on. That was all wonderful. But those cold mornings really got to me. And I was worried, when they put those testicles in the pan, I thought to myself, oh my god, please don’t, you don’t want to eat that. And then they actually carry the pan into the yurt afterwards and then it gets cooked in the soup. Yes, I’m still torn. I actually said I’d try everything there is. That’s borderline. You that? Yes, I’ll eat it. Anna also ate the eye of the sheep. That didn’t work for me. Well, for me that was the eye that was the limit. Yes, I think that aspect of the nomads is really good, that they actually use everything, that everything is precious to them and not just the fillet. And yes, and that’s why some things make my stomach turn, but out of respect I want to eat it. The soup actually tastes the same as always. Wow, that’s crazy. Have you tried it yet? No, not yet. I’ll see what Tim’s like first. Put the whole thing in my mouth. Oh, shit. You do it first. Yes, I need to let it cool down a bit first . I mean, it’s not easy for me. I can’t chew it at all . Really difficult. Lots of seeds. Very tasty, but hard to bite into. What do you think? You know me well. Have you eaten the meat yet? Wow, crazy. Oh, strange. Weird feeling. Well, the consistency was there right away when I ate it. It was a consistency I’ve never had in my mouth before in my life. It just wasn’t nice to chew, and the taste also didn’t taste like meat. I ca n’t even describe what it tasted like. It was just kind of hard to chew on the outside and soft on the inside, and there was also this feeling that just half an hour ago this part was somehow part of this animal and also part of this natural cycle, where life comes and goes. So that’s the interface, and to then eat it is simply no idea. I’ve never thought about eating something like that before in my life. And here in Mongolia, it’s often the case that you’re thrown into a situation like that completely cold, unprepared. Nobody told us that we were having testicle soup today, and then it was there in front of us , and I would say that was the second worst day for me in Mongolia. Yes, after the slaughter in winter. This is our bathtub and today we’re doing the laundry in it. So, today we’re doing the housework. That’s about, oh my goodness, about 50% of the time here is really just spent on everyday life. Keeping the yurt clean, fetching water, taking away dirty water, washing up, doing the laundry, washing yourself. So, that really is a lot more time than in Germany. It’s also really crazy how dirty things get here all the time. Because we’re constantly exposed to sand, dust and everything, our clothes are really filthy and when we sometimes go into town to do our shopping, we first notice how much we stink of goat and stuff and yes, we are a little ashamed. But there are now a lot of laundromats in the small villages and towns , because so many people live in the Nurten and they can only really wash by hand. These days, even the nomads treat themselves to a laundromat wash every now and then so they don’t have to do everything by hand. And the same goes for bathing. So, this is our bathtub. I still fit in it relatively well. Anuk loves it. Michelle is quite nice. I sometimes get stuck when I get out because it’s so narrow. Yes, exactly. A quick wash is quite easy in this small sink, where we also brush our teeth. Wash our hands, wash our faces, and wash our hair, but it’s more comfortable in the large bowl. Even with our nomads, with whom we live here, you notice… that they are probably the last generation to live as shepherds. Their children have already studied in the capital and are pursuing completely different careers, and we see again and again that there are hardly any young people living here in the countryside on the steppe who will, so to speak, carry on this shepherding tradition. So, there they are. Okay, the sheep actually still think that we somehow live here in our winter quarters. Our nomadic neighbors actually only moved to our spring quarters a few days ago, and the sheep are always here in the evenings and gather here because they have always slept here for the last seven months. And now we have to remind them that we live down there now. They are just goats, or do you see sheep? Where are they? They are probably still in the mountain back there. We’ll drive up a little bit and take a look. Where are the sheep? There are the sheep. Let’s see if they respond to horns. Completely unfazed. If they respond to my shouting, I can save myself the trouble of running upstairs. It always works with Ochi. I don’t know yet if I have that nomadic authority. Yes, the evenings are always really nice because somehow the animals all come home, and then the evening simply becomes quiet, and now the sheep are in the barn, and then it’s basically time to call it a day. So, then the nomads go home and have one last cup of tea. They ‘re modern nomads, and they like to turn on the TV and watch something. Zigi has just brought the cows and the jack babies down from the mountains to milk them right away. It ‘s spring right now, mid-May to the end of May, and that’s when she starts milking the animals, because before that, the milk belongs solely to the jack babies. And the animals that graze in the mountains all day and all night know exactly where their babies’ stable is and then come out on their own in the morning so they can see their babies, so to speak. But these three ladies, I think, were n’t in the mood to be milked, and so she had to bring them down from the mountains. In Mongolia, there’s a huge tradition of dairy products, like a special kind of yogurt, a milk tea that people drink every day, salty tea with jack milk, and they make their own hard cheese, called Arul. There are so many cheeses and dairy products, yogurt, and curds, that they make from all that milk. And they traditionally eat that all summer long, so in winter, slaughtering takes place and meat is eaten all the time, and at some point this supply is used up, also with the temperatures when it is no longer possible to keep it cool, and then you move on to the phase where all sorts of things are made from the milk and eaten. In other words, purely traditionally, the nomads no longer eat meat in the summer, apart from dried meat that they made in the winter. So, who wants to go next? Come on. One, one. Come here, one, two. Yes, come, come, come, out. Great. Even if the men seem very, very strong and sometimes dominant. Women have a very, very strong role here. I mucked out the area, helped with feeding, did various tasks with the animals and it did me a lot of good. It was extremely good for me to slowly adapt to their way of working. I noticed that Zigi takes every step calmly, and that she has certain routines with specific sequences, and that she never disrupts them, that she always chooses the same cycles, for herself, but also for the animals, that they always have the same routines, so that the entire structure of 300 animals and these two people simply works. And at the beginning, I noticed what kind of rhythm beats within me. That I became restless when she did things slowly and I thought, I can do this and that at the same time, and this and that cleanly, and then we’ll be finished faster, that I simply had to change such an insane pace from my old life. I feel it within me, and I notice that I’ve become calmer here. And I also notice this when I call family and friends at home or when I travel into town; I’ve actually become much calmer, and I actually want that for my life, too—to have daily routines that somehow ground me. It would never occur to me to somehow convince a shepherd to give up meat and become a vegetarian, because here eating meat also feels somehow – and I say this as a vegetarian on pause – but it does feel more harmonious here. So, it feels like it’s somehow part of the cycle and there is a kind of immediate proximity. You open the burlap door and you see the herd outside. You see the cycles: the sun shines, the grass grows, the herd feeds on this grass, it grows big and strong, and then the nomads in turn feed on their herd. And so it is a kind of interplay, a kind of cycle that has functioned for centuries and millennia without them leaving a large footprint here.

Die Filmemacher Anna und Michael leben zusammen mit ihrer Tochter bei mongolischen Nomaden – mitten in der Steppe, ohne Strom und Komfort.

Folgt der Familie:
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https://www.instagram.com/annabaranowski/

NAMASTE HIMALAYA

https://www.piper.de/buecher/namaste-himalaya-isbn-978-3-492-40671-0

Titelbild: Chayodo

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