/зохиогчийн эрхээр хамгаалагдана/

Lifestyle, Ger and Clothes:

Ger: Since thousands of years ago,  the ancestors of the Mongols and other Central Asian nomads lived in ger, a round, cone-shaped tent easily assembled and disassembled felt homes which perfectly fit to their nomadic lifestyle.  A ger has normally windows on its very roof/outlet/, although some families construct windows on ger's  ceilings and walls. The  small opening with windows at the top of ger is  for stove's chimney too. The ger is erected from hana/folding lattice walls/, uni/wooden sticks for roof/, toono/upper smoke outlet with windows/  and door, which are assembled and fastened together; they are covered by tuurga, felt layers in winter and by light materials in warm season.

  

Ger is light and easily transportable on camel' back or on carts pulled by horses, camels and yaks.  Mongolian ger that used to have a fairly high  roof as a Kyrgyz or Kazak yurt, lowered its height since approaximately 1920-30s. It's evidenced in many historical photos. Ger has different sizes depending on number of walls.  The weight of a 5 wall- ger is approximately 350-450 kg. It only takes only an hour for 3-4 persons to disassemble an average size ger and half an hour to assemble it.  The ger's door usually faces to south. The altar and sacred possessions such as statues, photos, medals are kept  always in front of northern walls. Riding and hunting gears are kept on south-western side of ger while kitchen is on its south-eastern side. To enter the ger, you had to step over the threshold without touching it. Guests are traditionally seated in the western section  while eastern and north-eastern sections of ger are normally for the family members or for neighboors and close people. 

How to build  a ger?!  It's easy.

A ger is assembled and disassembled in a particular way and the door always had to face south.

1. First, you need to find a suitable place that is flat and with  dry soil as well as better protected from winds,

2.  You spread the walls and the gate and then link and reinforce them.

5.Next, you raise the roof and support it to the walls by 50-70 poles.

6.Lastly, you need to put the cotton or wool felt layers over the wooden frame of the ger depending on the season.

Routine lifestyle of nomadic families:

Diet and Cuisine: The food eaten by Mongols are mainly meat (including entrails), milk products and traditional cakes. But while herding their animals in the grasslands ans forests, Mongols used to eat many nutritious roots and fruits too. There were also some enrichments between cookings of Mongols and other nations who fell to the Chinggiss Khaan's conquests. The diet of the nomads differ from seasons.

For example, in summer, the nomads consume more milk products than meat. The nomads are semi-vegetarians in summer and autumn. The most favorite drinks of Mongols are suutei tsai/tea with milk/, tarag/yougurt/ and airag/fermented mare's milk/. In winter, Mongols eat highly nutririous reserve meat like horse meat rich with protein and fat that allows the body's warmth. During the windy spring, the people don't slaughter animals, but prefer to consume borts/dried meat/, hyaramtsag,/frosen horse blood/, uuts/preserved meat/, shuutz/preserved meat in its own sauce/ and etc. The most preferred meat is mutton, then follows beaf and horse meat. Goat meat goes for the boodog, delicious food prepared by baking with hot stones. The food is mostly cooked over a fire, but sometimes steamed or fried. Beef, mutton and camel meat dried in sun and wind, become very light in weight and they are preserved for a long period maintaining all their nutritious contents.

Milk beverages:  Raw mare's milk is rarely consumed, because it usually leads to diarrhea in humans (on the other hand, that effect can be applied for medical treatment). All milk beverages are based on milk of cattle, yaks, or camels (sometimes sheep or goats). The most common drink is suutei tsai, tea with cow milk. Then the ayrag, a mildly alcoholic drink made of fermented mare's milk and tarag... From milk many kinds of dishes are prepared. First of all, the milk is boiled and is stirred many times, and after cooling, the "urum", a white butter, (the thick layer on boiled milk) is taken off. Urum is eaten with bread and sugar. Further, the boiled milk is fermented and used to make tarag/yogurt/, aarts (sour cottage cheese), and aaruul (a dry curd sweet). A small quantity of yogurt is poured into hot milk and fermented, and from this byaslag (cheese), eezgii (dry curds) and eedem (similar to cheese) are made.

costumes:Historical sources and archeological findings show that ancestors of Mongols wore great many kinds of dress. For example, during the Mongolian empire period, married women wore original hats called "Bogtogo", which were very tall and slender, and were covered with silk, which was decorated with valuable pearls, precious stones and feathers on its top.

The del, the principal coat Mongols, was quite different from those of today.  According to scholars, the del almost reached the ankles and had no collar, simply wrapping across sideways.  In past, Mongol women wore traditional silver and coral  jewellery-rings, necklaces, earrings and pins. Great attention was paid to the ornamentation of the head-dress. Ugalz, wild sheep's horn-like headdress of Mongolian noble woman was an amazing sculpture. Women kept their hair smoothly combed back. And an artificial string was glued to the front of the taruur, on both sides of which hung pendants made of strings or pearls.

Today, in countryside, the del remains the main garment of Mongols. Then hantaaz/jacket/, gutal/boots/, lovuz/hat/ follow. Deel has multipurpose uses, acting as a blanket at night, as a tent under rain.  Mongolian costumes differ in shape and purpose. There are everyday costumes for men and women, for summer and winter, as well as special clothes for holidays and ceremonies. . The Mongols wear many kinds of hats and boots in all seasons of the year. Both men and women wear hats decorated with fur : sable, silver fox, red fox and others.