Mongol Bokh

AB ger camp — Arburd Sands ger camp with a summer storm coming in

As I noted in my previous post, in Mongolia flexibility is important. So when I got back from my weekend at Arburd Sands ger camp and found that the other artist had cancelled due to a family emergency, I had to get flexible and fast.

The WildArt Mongolia Expedition is now postponed until September of 2013. I will be traveling in the countryside to other locations between now and when I head for home. I’ll post about them when I can.

The great news is that I am working with a young Mongolian man, Byambakhuu Darinchuluun, who lives in New York and who has contacts all over the United States with the various Mongol-American communities and also here in Mongolia. We will be publicizing the Expedition while I’m here in the country, explaining this special, first-time collaboration between Mongol and American artists I’ve planned that will also support conservation. And we’ll have time to extend and refine this important initiative.

To that end I will be the focus of a special event, “American Artist Susan Fox- the WildArt Mongolia Expedition”, on September 22 at ArtiCore Gallery Company, which is right in the middle of Ulaanbaatar, across from Sukhbaatar Square. I’ll be meeting local Mongol artists, talking about the Expedition, giving a presentation on my work and demonstrating my fast sketching technique.

I’ve created a Facebook event here.

I had a wonderful time at Arburd Sands ger camp last weekend, which was hosting their first naadam for visitors. I got to see the horse race from the beginning through the middle and end and took around 700 photos plus video. There will be more on that later, but here’s a few photos that I particularly liked, including a couple of Mongol bokh, or wrestling.

AB race 1 — I got to ride in the car which paralleled the horses.

AB race 2 — The ones taken through the windshield communicate the excitement quite well.

AB race 3 — This is the winning horse, quite a beauty and he won by quite a bit.

AB wrestler 1 — Some of the wrestlers are big guys.

AB wrestler 2 — Doing the Eagle Dance before a bout.

This is the biggest holiday in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar pretty much shuts down for a few days while everyone celebrates and attends competitions in the Three Manly Sports: horse racing, wrestling and archery.

I got to see all of it, including a local celebration, in 2009. Here’s some photos, ending with a wonderful music video by one of the most famous singing groups in Mongolia, Nomin Talst. The group is no longer together and this video was made some years ago, but it still gets played on the music video channel around this time of year. And it’s one of the things that hooked me on Mongolia. I had to find out more about the kind of people who are shown in it and who clearly know how to have a good time today, while preserving their ancient traditions and sports.