I’m currently about 60 pages into what is already one of the best travel books on Mongolia that I’ve read. Henning Haslund went to Mongolia with a number of fellow Danes in the early 1920s to establish a farming and mining colony in the north not far from Khosvol Nuur. “Tents In Mongolia” is his account of that journey. It was re-printed by Adventures Unlimited Press in 1995 and retitled “Secret Mongolia”.
Henning has already demonstrated a flair for observation, so I thought that I would share this wonderful description of his and the party’s first personal contact with a Mongol in Mongolia. I really wish I had been there.
“Suddenly the caravan dogs gave tongue….Down a long slope to the eastward, a billowing cloud of dust was rolling towards us…..One, two, three, four, five riders galloped out of the dust and- we were completely disarmed.
“A sunburnt girl with a smile as fresh as a steppe morning reined in her fiery steed before our shamefacedly lowered rifle barrels. Her teeth were pearly white, her eyes as clear as day, her smile disarming, her grip on the reins strong and her movements in the saddle full of grace. She was a daughter of Mongolia, she was herself the free, wild, captivating steppe.
“She was dressed in bright-colored silks, and when she moved there was a ringing of silver and a rattling of precious stones. She shone with the joy of living, and her demeanor bore witness to pride and noble birth. Over her forehead she wore a wide, massive silver band in which were set five large pale red corals. From this diadem half a dozen small chains of coral hung down to the boldly curved and sharply drawn black eyebrows that marked her race. From the sides of the diadem and from her ears hung chains of silver ornaments and strings of corals, pearls and turquoises which fell jingling over her small strong shoulders. Her hair was kept in check by a coral-studded black veil, fastened behind by a jewelled sliver diadem.
Coral necklace, Museum of National History, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
“Her long robe was of pale blue silk, and over it she wore a short, sleeveless waistcoat of crimson brocade in which were interwoven dim symbols of fortune and long life. The waistcoat was fastened in front with golden laces attached to buttons of chased silver.
“Her cloak reached to her knees where it met her long black velvet riding boots. Her small, neat feet were shod in boots whose elegance was enhanced by the sharply unturned toes. Her hands were strong, but small and shapely. Her fingers were studded with coral ornaments and heavy silver rings, and thick bracelets clashed upon her wrists.”
We’re having a lovely weekend with family. This is Niki, our rough collie dog, after a day of running around and playing with six cousins, all of whom are ten and under. He was one tired pupski by sundown.
It’s been too long since I’ve presented any Mongol poetry. It’s another aspect of their culture that is almost unknown to westerners, even though examples survive from over 800 years ago.
If you would like to learn about and read more poetry, visit previous posts here and here and here.
This one has a subject dear to the heart of pretty much every Mongol…horses:
The stories of my people soar with horses, With wings they reach the golden sun. The wind riffs through their untrimmed manes, And, down the skyroad of Khormast, They return to the lake like migrating birds, According to the customs of the golden earth. The poems of the elders soar with horses, With wings they reach the vibrant stars. From the herds of letters formed within the month, We have taken these migrating steeds. And, from the hitching posts of our poets’ horses, We have taken off for distant roads. My horse, fly high, oh my horse, Fly high, into the worlds of my desire. From our wise elders’ heights of brilliance, I offer my song to the spacious earth. My horse, fly high, oh my horse, Fly high, into the worlds of my desire.
By Ochirkhuu (1943-2001), translated by Simon Wickham-Smith
Chinggis Khaan International Airport, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2006
As is obvious to anyone who follows this blog, I travel, often by air. I support any and all effective measures that will reasonably (there are no guarantees in life) ensure that I will get safely to and from my destination. So I have been following with interest the news about the new TSA screening methods: the backscatter x-ray scanners and the “enhanced pat downs” people are getting if they refuse to go through the scanners.
Both are an outrageous abuse of authority and, even worse, won’t stop a determined terrorist. But they have created a situation in which every air traveler (around 20 million a day) is guilty until proven innocent, which goes against one of the most fundamental tenets of our legal system.
Our civil rights are being violated and this must be stopped. We need real security in our airports and on our planes, not “security theater”.
The x-ray scanners strip you absolutely naked. The images are not supposed to be recorded and saved, but how can you be sure? Do you trust the TSA that much? I don’t. This isn’t about prudery, I assure you. Are you ok with the image in this great post by James Fallows? I’m not.
And it turns out to be completely unnecessary. Equipment exists that will do the job without the privacy violation. But I suspect their lobbyists didn’t get the fix in with the TSA, which defied the will of Congress and spent $25 million of federal stimulus funds for the current machines. One must ALWAYS follow the money.
The “pat-downs” are actually strip searches which include groping of genital areas. We tell kids to never let anyone touch them without their permission. The new caveat is “unless it’s a government employee”. Think they aren’t messing with kids? Guess again. Women and children in Afghanistan are not subjected to this. And it really crosses the threshold to become a sexual assault. Rape and domestic violence victims have had meltdowns when faced with either screening and who can blame them? How’d you like to start your honeymoon this way?
Apparently the purpose of the intrusive searches is to make everyone choose to go through the machines. Which is problematical for people with implanted medical devices, so they are stuck being molested. Here’s one person’s experience: “These clowns are NOT doing anything to prevent terrorists on our planes. If someone puts an explosive in a peach, TSA will ban all fruit on all flights. That works, huh? BTW, because of my ICD, I can’t go through the new (or old) scanners. Last trip out of ——- I had a very, very invasive and, shall I say, intimate pat down. I insisted on a private room and they made it worth my while!”
I have been told by someone else that they went through the scanner and then got the invasive search, too. WTF?
There are other accounts of how lines split at random and some must go through the back-scatter machines and some go through the old metal detectors. There seems to be no consistency in application, so, as usual, the devil is in the details.
There is no threshold of “Probable cause” being applied here, another violation of our rights.
But if you have enough money for a private plane, you get to skip all of the above.
If you are a pilot, as one pointed out, they can put you through the scanners till the cows come home, but you will still be flying the plane. And, I might point out, secure in a locked cockpit. Hello?
I’ve read snarky comments about how if you don’t want to go through the security, then don’t fly. Or they say, “use an alternative way to get there”. And I will get to Mongolia….how? But these kinds of idiot remarks completely miss the point.
Here is the relevant part of the Constitution:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” – The United States Constitution, Fourth Amendment.
Seems pretty straightforward to me. THIS is the point. The Constitution trumps the TSA. It must.
Here’s what you can do to help. Visit the Fly With Dignity website. Sign the petition. If you are flying on the 24th, consider participating in the national Opt-Out Day. Details on the Fly With Dignity site. Look up the contact information for your Congressional representatives. Call or write to them. I’ve read that their rule-of-thumb is that one constituent communication equals 100 other people who feel the same way. So what you say will count!
“But more alarming than the apparatuses is our willingness to go lowing into the night. Incrementally, we adapt to the stripping of civil liberties until, with the passage of time and the blinkering of generational memory, we no longer remember when things were otherwise”
“…there are far too many reports of T.S.A. agents groping passengers,
using male agents to search female passengers, mocking passengers and
disdaining complaints”
* The Washington Post printed an article on January 1, 2010, calling Chertoff out for using his government credentials to promote a product that benefits his clients. It was revealed that Rapiscan Systems, the manufacturer of the naked body scanner Chertoff was recommending, was a client of Chertoff’s security consulting agency. * Rapiscan has since received over $250 million in scanner orders.
Lead article on the Washington Post site (punchline: the problem of virtually strip-searching people can be solved if the TSA will simply make some easy software changes)-
“Wattenburg said that when news reached Livermore in 2006 that the TSA planned to buy the new generation of “backscatter” full-body scanners, the problem seemed clear. “We knew what was going to happen,” he said. “People are immediately going to scream like hell because they’re taking the clothes off everybody.”
From the New York Times front page (the push-back is working, apparently)-
“John S. Pistole said on the “Today” show on NBC Monday morning that his agency was willing to rethink its policy on the physical screenings that have become a flashpoint of anger among travelers. “We’re going to look at how can we do the most effective screening in the least invasive way, knowing that there’s always a trade-off” between security and privacy, he said.”
Honored elder at Naadam opening ceremony, Ulaanbaatar
Before I left on my July/August trip to Mongolia, I bought some new stuff and posted about it here and here. It included a new camera pack, jacket, hard drive for image back-up and memory cards. I also bought a couple of pairs of L.L. Bean tropic weight pants.
The KATA digital rucksack was a WIN. My camera equipment was well-protected and easy to access. The straps had a good ergonomic design that made the pack very easy to wear while hiking.
My new REI Windbreak Thermal jacket was also a WIN. It was all I needed for summer travel in Mongolia and it really did stop the wind and resist light rain.
Sunrise, Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve
The Toshiba 500GB hard drive, which I used to back up images that I had downloaded to my MacBook Pro did the job. I liked not having another battery to keep charged, as was true with the Wolverine drive it replaced. Another WIN.
The Sandisk Extreme 8GB cards were indispensible. I was filling one in a little more than a day at times. I’ll keep the 4GB ones for back-up for now, but will probably get two more 8GB cards for the trip to Kenya/India in January. Definite WIN.
Horses near Hustai National Park
The only FAIL were the L.L.Bean “tropic weight” cargo pants. I have no idea what they were thinking when they named these. I wasn’t in the tropics, but the weather was often humid, sometimes VERY humid. The pant fabric didn’t breathe at all. If anything, they acted like a moisture trap when my legs started to sweat. Very uncomfortable. Needless to say, they aren’t going to India with me, but they’re fine for wearing here in Humboldt County.
I spent a day last week at the Ornithology Department of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, doing research for a painting that I have been asked to do. I’ll write more about this project as it goes along, but this was a necessary first step.
Readers of this blog know how uncompromising I am about seeing my subjects in the wild and how much doing fieldwork feeds into an animal artist’s paintings. In this case, however, no matter how much money I was willing to spend or how far I traveled, I wasn’t going to see this species in its native habitat for the simple fact that it has been extinct for almost 100 years.
The Carolina parakeet was the only member of the parrot family native to North America. Although the passenger pigeon is better known, this very colorful bird also originally was seen in enormous flocks in a range that covered most of the eastern United States from the Atlantic to Florida to Ohio and west to Kansas. They were shot for their feathers, meat and because they were considered a pest, as they liked grain fields and orchards.
And now, except for specimens in museums they’re gone, all gone. Forever.
So my only option was to do my fieldwork at one of those museums. I was going to be in New York for a Society of Animal Artists board meeting and was able to secure access to the rare and extinct bird collection at the AMNH. The room is locked and every drawer in it is locked. After all, there won’t be any more specimens collected of any of those species. I spent all day with two drawers of fifty skins, plus a number of mounts, measuring, photographing and sketching them. And marveling at how beautiful they were.
Now back at home, I’ve started to do drawings in graphite to learn what the birds look like. I will have to rely on the understanding, accuracy and competence of the taxidermists of the AMNH who prepared, preserved and mounted them. I hope to get permission at some point to post some of my photos, but for the time being what I can share is the art that I’m creating from them.
Carolina parakeet studies from taxidermy mountsCarolina parakeet studies from taxidermy mounts
I will be working with a few colleagues who specialize in painting birds to ensure that I get their structure and body positions as correct as possible. I will also be consulting videos of a couple of similar species to see how they move and behave. This is a challenging commission, but one that I know will be very rewarding.
After the dramatic trip down the mountain and then arriving at our campsite just before dark, it was lovely to wake up to sunshine the next morning on a grassy hillside. Even better was the parade of horses and yaks that came right by where I was sitting as I was having morning coffee. Lazy animal watching and reference shooting again.
Our beautiful campsite near Tsenkher Mineral Springs
I found out over breakfast that we were camped near Tsenkher, another mineral spring resort. We drove to one of the ger camps, where the manager treated us to tea and snacks, arranged for us to take showers and for me to do a last small round of laundry.
The hot spring, with ovoo
We then drove north out of the mountains to the large town of Tsetserleg, where we visited a hillside temple in front of which was a very tall, new statue of the Buddha. I had been wanting a new del, so we searched around the container market, but didn’t find one that was what I was looking for. Getting to poke around a town a little was fun, though.
View of Tsetserleg with new Buddha statue
I thought our next stop was the famous monastery of Erdene Zuu, but Soyoloo’s cell phone rang and, the next thing I knew, we were back at her sister’s home. We were invited to join them and share a meal that is dear to the hearts of many, many Mongols….bodog or marmot BBQ. We arrived just as they were ready to begin stuffing the carcass with hot rocks and meat. Once the marmot was ready, we all piled into cars and went to a lovely spot on a nearby river for a picnic dinner.
The entire process was a pretty involved affair and I took around 150 images. I’m just going to show a couple here and do a separate post later on, which the status of marmots in Mongol culture certainly justifies.
Yes, the fur really is removed with a portable blowtorchDinner is served!
I was honored with the liquid that was poured out of the body cavity, which I drank and found quite good, then the tongue, which I ate and found quite good, and the first cut of meat, which I ate and….found quite good. We all washed down the feast with vodka (all together now), which was quite good.
It was late afternoon by the time we said our good-byes and were on our way. We camped on a hillside along the road to Erdene Zuu. It was warm and humid. There were lots of mosquitos, so we lit a dung fire again. I use earplugs, so I slept ok, but Khatnaa and Soyoloo were kept awake by loud and numerous grasshoppers.
species of grasshopper on a toothbrush
Our first stop after breaking camp were the ruins of an old Uigher city, Har Balgas. As it happened, there was an archaeological dig going on, which was interesting to watch and I got to chat with the archaeologist in charge.
Rampart ruins of Har BalgasDig in progress
Not too much farther on, the stupa-lined walls of Erdene Zuu Monastery came into view. Not only is it adjacent to the site of the ancient Mongol capital, Kharkhorin, but it was built using stones from the old city, which was destroyed by a Ming Chinese army after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, which had been founded over one hundred years earlier by Chinggis Khan’s grandson, Kublai Khan. A stone turtle is the only artifact left where the city had stood.
The wall around the monasteryOne of the main templesLarge stupa complexCeramic roof detailPosing with the turtle
I had gotten careless and went into the complex with no hat, sunscreen or water, so by the time this photo was taken, I wasn’t feeling very well. It was extremely humid and hot. I was ok once we were back at the car and I drank a lot of water, but this was probably the closest I’ve ever come to heat exhaustion or worse. Very foolish. But Erdene Zuu lived up to its reputation as the top tourist site in Mongolia. The temples are magnificent and I was sorry that no photography was allowed inside them.
Our route now took us north, where, for our last night out, we were going to camp at a lake known for its birds. As we were driving along, I noticed a large ger encampment to the left. I almost said something to Khatnaa, but let it go. Then he had to slow down because a bunch of men and boys on horses were crossing the road. I told him about the gers. We followed the horsemen.
The one thing that I had hoped for on the trip, but had not been able to find, was a local Naadam. Now it appeared that we had stumbled onto one the last day of the trip. We pulled up into an area on a rise where a lot of cars and trucks were parked. There were horses all over the place. Khatnaa got out, spoke with someone and came back with the news that the event was essentially a family reunion. Stay or go? We’d inadvertently crashed a private party. I told Khatnaa that it was up to him to do what he thought best. We stayed. And tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Over the next few hours I sat in the car and took around 500 photos. Our arrival had coincided with the horse race and we had gotten there in time to watch all the preparations for it.
Some of the horsemenLots of socializing on horseback; the men in fancy del and traditional hats all seemed to be the trainers
Our “cover” was blown when a young couple on a motorbike drove up and offered us fresh, hot khuushuur (fried mutton turnovers). No way we were going to pass on that. I stayed in the car until the first horses were approaching the finish line and then got out and joined the crowd.
Jockeys taking their mounts out to the starting lineNeck and neck to the finish line; the winners crossed the line at the same time
Afterwards, I was photographing a lovely black race horse who was being scraped down. A woman came up to me, took my arm, led me over to the horse and made a gesture for me to lay my palm on the sweat, which is lucky and auspicious. It was a very kind and thoughtful thing for her to do since I obviously was not one of this very big family. I was never so glad that I knew how to say “thank you” in Mongolian.
All day it had been cloudy and humid, with some squalls of rain. By the time we were on the road down to Ogii Nuur, it had gotten really windy. Khatnaa and Soyoloo managed to wrap a tarp around a picnic structure to provide shelter from the wind to cook our dinner. At dusk, it died down enough to set up camp on the lakeshore. We were all pretty tired.
The weather was much better the next morning and we got in some good birdwatching. Khatnaa had gone up to one of the ger camps along the lake the previous evening and made arrangements for Soyoloo to use their kitchen to prepare our breakfast, which was very kind of them. The owner of the camp was there and turned out to be a retired Mongol army officer, who still needed something to do, so he had started a couple of ger camps. We had a nice chat with him and his wife and then left for the final leg of the trip.
Soon we were on tarmac, leaving the earth roads I love behind. There were a few more sights to see, like a dune complex where local herders were offering camel rides and our lunch spot next to the road where I got one last round of good horse and herder photos.
Lunchtime reference opportunity
By mid-afternoon we were in Ulaanbaatar, pulling into the hotel parking lot. I had left UB on July 10. It was now July 25. I still had trips to Hustai National Park to see the takhi and to Ikh Nartiin Chuluu and, as much as I looked forward to going to both places, I was sorry to have my camping trip come to an end. It was one of the best experiences of my life. My goal was to simply go into the countryside without a set itinerary and let Mongolia come to me. It did, in ways I would literally never have dreamed of. Bayarlala!
I had the opportunity to spend yesterday morning and early afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City before my evening flight home. (I was there for a Society of Animal Artists board meeting and added a little time for other things). My main purpose was to see the Kublai Khan exhibition. He was the grandson of Chinggis Khan, which I hadn’t realized until I started to learn about Mongol history. That will be a Mongolia Monday post at some point.
Afterwards, I wandered through the 19th Century European painting galleries and was reminded once again that there is no substitute for seeing masterpieces in the original. I also noticed quite a few paintings with animal subjects. I didn’t have my Nikon, just my iPhone. So the following images aren’t great, but they will serve to share my favorites.
I didn’t remember to photograph the labels for all of them, I’m sorry to say, but did track down titles and artist for all except one. But it really doesn’t matter who did them. The takeaway is to see and appreciate the great lineage of animal art that those of us who have chosen our fellow creatures as subjects are part of.
Tiger and Cubs- Gerome
Animal art has a long and honorable history in European painting and was not dismissed with the snobbery so many of us encounter today.
detail of horse painting- Bonheur
It is instructive to see how artists of the period, who had tremendous ability as painters in a variety of subject matter, could also do a specialized subject like animals extremely well. That is often not the case today.
Detail, camel
There was one entire room dedicated to European artists who painted North African subjects. Many also traveled to the Middle East. The collective term for them is Orientalists. I should do a post on them sometime since their approach and reaction to what they saw is interesting for any artist who, like myself, is also fortunate enough to journey to distant places.
Before the Audience- Gerome
What IS that black cat doing there? A spy, perhaps?
Friedland detail- Messonier
This is a detail from a massive painting of one of Napoleon’s greatest victories, with a cast of dozens. This horse is around 5″ from top of head to bottom of hoof. Stunning description of action and anatomy. Here’s the whole thing:
Friedland- Meissonier
Since we have a rough collie in the family, I naturally had to have a photo of this one, which has a more old-fashioned shape to the head:
Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon- Zorn
The Met also has a phenomenal collection of Greek and Roman sculpture. The main hall was filled with schoolkids drawing from the marble and bronze figures.
Bronze lions, ancient Greece
If you have access to a museum with animal sculpture, you have a great rainy day opportunity to go sketch animals that will hold still.
Statue of Artemis/Diana
It’s interesting to note how artists interpreted something like the head structure of a deer over 2,000 years ago.
detail of deer's head
I also want to strongly make the point that there is no substitute for seeing great art “live”. Reproductions in books and posters are, at best, rough approximations. The color is probably not accurate. The size certainly isn’t. And size matters. The visual impact of a painting like “Friedland” is due in no small part to its large dimensions: 53.5″ high and 95.5″ wide.
But what I think is missing almost the most is that a painting has a visual texture, sometimes subtle, sometimes not. Printing an image of a painting on a flat piece of paper eliminates that aspect completely. As an admittedly dramatic example, here is a Van Gogh. First the whole work. Then a detail shot at an angle that shows how the paint was applied. When he put it on this thickly, the painting almost becomes a live thing.
van Goghdetail
A painting like this is about more than the image. It’s also about paint as paint.
But there is a Mongolia connection with all three.
When It Rains It Pours Department: The first two announcements are somewhat related since they both involve very special invitations to travel to “interesting” locations and work with fellow artists.
Update Jan. 2011: Guy and I both bailed on this one when it became clear that it wasn’t very well organized, but who knows, I may still make it to India sometime.
The first invitation has been extended to me thanks to my good friend and colleague, Guy Combes. Even though I’ve bought the plane tickets, I’m still pinching myself about this incredible opportunity. I’ll be departing on January 18, 2011 for Nairobi, from where Guy and I will fly to…..India! We will be part of an international group of artists from the UK, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Peru, the USA and Australia who have been invited to the Kanha Tiger Reserve for an Artist’s Week. We will be exploring the park, shooting reference and sketching in order to be able to produce art for a show which will tour internationally and then be auctioned to raise funds for tiger conservation. All expenses except airfare are being covered by our hosts, who own the luxurious lodge where we will be staying.
This is the place that inspired Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book stories. It is home to 22 mammal species and over 200 species of birds and is one of the remaining strongholds of the Bengal tiger.
And the Mongolia Connection? Babar, who conquered part of India, was a descendant of Tammerlane, who claimed descent from Chinggis Khan. Maybe or maybe not. But he did come from Central Asia and the part of India that Babar ruled became known as “Mughulistan” or “Land of the Mongols”. We know it as the Mughal Empire, which lasted from the 1500s until the British took over India in the 1800s. The most famous artifact of the Mughals is the Taj Mahal, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.
Kanha Tiger Reserve is near Nagpur
After our week in India, we’ll go back to Kenya, where I will stay, visiting and animal watching until I come home on the February 15.
The second invitation came via an email from Dr. David Wagner, who specializes in curating shows of animal art, including the Society of Animal Artists annual exhibtion “Art and the Animal”. He has invited me to join him and a number of my colleagues on the Sea of Cortez at the end of March, 2011. We will be accompanied by a scientist familiar with the Sonoran desert and Sea of Cortez ecosystems. Our mission is to learn about them, shoot reference, sketch and paint, hang out on the beach and eat great Mexican food while talking art shop. The end result will be a show at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in 2013. More details and who else will be going soon.
The Mongolia connection? I will be able to compare the Gobi with the Sonoran Desert ecosystem to see what the similarities and differences are of climate, plant and animal life. I already know that the far-western edge of the Sonoran Desert extends to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, where there are desert bighorns and that there are argali sheep in mountain areas of the Gobi.
We will be based outside of Guaymas
Last but not least, I am pleased to announce that Plaza Design, with stores in Eureka, Arcata and McKinleyville, is now offering a large selection of my small, original oil paintings! There’s a little bit of everything, including landscapes and American wildlife. They will be offering a selection of my greeting cards, too.
The Mongolia Connection? There are currently a couple of takhi (Przewalski’s horse) paintings available, with more Mongolia subjects to come.
Here’s a look at the display in the Arcata store:
Next week I’ll wrap up The Best Camping Trip Ever.
Susan Fox, American Artist 
