/зохиогчийн эрхээр хамгаалагдана/

Pastoral Nomadism

Routine lifestyle of nomadic families:

Animal husbandry: Since time immemorable, the Mongols raise 5 animals: mori, the horses, teme, the camels, khoni, the sheeps, yamaa, the goats and ukher, the cows/ or sarlag, the  yaks in mountainous areas/ and they live off by the animal husbandry  producing a great variety of diary products.  A proto-Mongol  man first met dogs called bankhar and brought them to his ger, a nomad tent  long before his grandchildren caught a horse. For centuries the Mongolian dog proved to be the best friend of  Mongol family.  But today the Mongolian dog is almost a rarity. Then mori, the semi-wild horses are the second best friend of Mongol. Although they are small, the horses billion times proved their incredible importance to Mongol warriors and nomads. In Gobi deserts, temee, two-humped camels are more important than horses.

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 almost vegetarians in summer and autumn. The most favorite drinks of Mongols are suutei tsai/tea with milk/, tarag/yougurt/ andairag/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 theboodog, 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.