Trips

The bus drove us over the muddy road full of ditches from water runoff to about one kilometer from the Aryabal Buddhist meditation temple. The walk from the bus was through a park of larch woods with many wildflowers. The temple was built in 1992 and resembles an elephant: the 108 stairs up are the trunk, a stupa on each side represents the ears, and the temple is the head. On the rocks on the mountain to the right are the Mongolian words of the mantra; on the left are paintings of three gods. As we entered the grounds and walked up the brick path, we passed signboards with Buddhist sayings on each side. There were 72 boards with 144 teachings to be read as you walked toward the temple. Half way up was a large prayer wheel. We each walked around it three times clockwise and spun the wheel. When the wheel stopped it pointed to a number that indicated the saying or teaching that was supposed to be meaningful to that person. Marge's was: 140 and my number was 148 - and there weren't that many signboards. Oh, well, I did not get a teaching.
We crossed a swinging bridge and went up the 108 stairs and looked at one of the caves, now a wall in a meditation pavilion, and then someone came (after he voted in the presidential election) and let us into the temple. I was able to take some pictures inside. It was small but elaborate.

Aryabal Meditation Center

Swing bridge up the the Center

Pathway or Buddhist teachings

Marge's number

View of the valley from the meditation center

Mongolian soyombo in wrought iron

Words of the mantra painted on the rocks

Paintings of three gods

Inside of the Buddhist Temple

       After lunch at our camp we helped/watched how the gers are erected. First a floor is made and then five lattice sections are stretched out and joined to form the circular walls. The roof ring is tied to two posts and lifted up in the center. From outside, 88 poles are placed from the lattice to the roof ring. A door frame is positioned facing south. Next, sheep wool felt is wrapped around the sides and held in place with a long sash like a belt. Two sections of felt go over the poles as a roof. A waterproof material is wrapped outside the felt and the ger is complete. This is all collapsed and transported and rebuilt at the winter home and then the summer home of the nomads. It takes a man and his wife about three hours to reconstruct their dwelling.
       Next the camp staff dressed us in Mongolian outfits for pictures. My robe was very comfortable. The tight sash the men wear supposedly protects their kidneys when riding their horses.
        Another surprise was that we got to try some archery. None of us hit the target. (Someone is supposed to send me pictures of this event - to be added later.)

Camp for orphans

Another view of clouds and landscape from our front porch

Ger building - platform and lattice

Erecting the roof ring and center poles

Placing the 88 "ribs" for the roof

Adding the felt

Bob and Gale in traditional costumes called dels

Gale in traditional costume - a del

After ger building, we went to visit a nomad's family ger where they herd 100 sheep, 100 goats, 80 cows, 6 horses, and some yaks. The wife makes milk tea, yogurt, curd cheese, and wheel cheese. The woman went through the processes while we watched and tasted the things she made. People come to her to buy her cheese and yogurt.

Ger of the cheese making group, complete with satellite TV dish

The herder and the bowls used to serve us the milk tea

Heating the milk to make the cheese

Ladling curd from milk

Squeezing and straining milk from curd

Pressing cheese into cheese wheel

Finished cheese wheel - ready to be dried

When it was time to milk the cows she showed us how and several of us gave it a try. We all got milk to come out but not very efficiently. I have always wanted to milk a cow!

Milking the cow

Gale trying her hand at milking

Finally, my turn!

Thurs., 6/27/13 - Gorkhi-Terelj National Park to Ulaanbaatar
            Today we packed up and left our ger camp in Gorkhi-Terelj Nat'l Park and headed back to UB for one night to get cleaned up and repacked for the next more primitive camp. We will miss the modern bathroom attached to this ger. On the drive we saw lots more yaks, horses, cows, sheep, and goats and a pair of demoiselle cranes.
            We stopped at an ovoo where we each picked up three stones and walked clockwise around the pile three times adding one stone to the pile each time.
            We stopped in Nalaikh village again to pick up our Kazakh miner to visit the mining site where he used to work. There are 200 mines in this area but only 28 are licensed to operate. The rest are illegal and dangerous. The coal is of poor quality and is used mostly for heating in the gers. One of the coal burning power stations uses the coal from the legal mines. The mines operate only from October to March. The state owned the mine our host worked in. It was opened in 1950 and closed in 1991 due to a big fire in which 20 people died. The mine was 180 meters deep. He worked seven hours a day, six days a week, and made $800 to $900 a month, which was very good pay during the socialist era.

Moon setting behind our camp

Demoiselle cranes

Marching three times around the Ovoo

Looking back at the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park entrance and surrounding countryside

Coal mines

Making concrete blocks

Coal mines

Continue on next page

Return to Top

Return to Trip Itinerary

Return to Dreamcatcher Home Page