Mongolia | Bayankhongor Aimag | Ekhiin Gol Oasis

Wandered on out to Bayankhongor for a quick visit to Ekhin Gol Oasis, the southernmost settlement of the aimag. After dropping down from the high plateau around Shinejinst to the Gobi Desert the first oasis we encountered was Zuunmod.

Zuunmod Oasis

From Zuunmod we went south to Nogoon Tsav, a picturesque assortment of green (nogoon), red, white and black rock formations. Dinosaur bones are occasionally found here.

Nogoon Tsav

Rock formations south of Nogoon Tsav

The Wedding Ovoos. Locals who get married alway stop here to built an ovoo and down a bottle or two of vodka.

After traveling for over sixty miles through the barren desert it is a downright shock to come to the luxurious greenery of Ekhiin Gol Oasis.

Ekhiin Gol Oasis

All kinds of vegetables grow here in amazing profusion, including tomatoes (for which the oasis is famous), cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, onions, potatoes, and all kinds of melons.

Also sunflowers!

One of the seven springs which feed Ekhiin Gol Oasis

My main reason for visiting Ekhiin Gol was to track down information on Dambijantsan, a.k.a. Dambijaltsan, Dambija, Ja Lama, Ja Bagsh, Toushegun Lama, False Lama, Avenger Lama, Two Camel Lama, and Chia (Jia in Pinyin) Lama. Earlier this year I had tried to visit Dambijantsan’s Fortress in the Black Gobi. Now I wanted to meet with an eighty-year old man named Zeskhüü whose wife, now deceased, was the daughter of Dambijantsan’s chief lieutenant. This man had a wealth of information about Dambijantsan which he was not at all hesitant to share. We talked to him for a total of five or six hours. I will have details of his revelations about Dambijantsan later.

Zeskhüü

Zeskhüü

Shandas, who accompanied me on the trip. She is an excellent translator and a very personable young woman. It was a privilege to meet her (click photo for enlargement).

Shandas again

Mongolia | Tov Aimag | Horse Trip #5

On the way back from Khagiin Khar Nuur we made a slight detour to the ruins of Saridgiin Khiid, the monastery founded in the 1654 by Zanabazar, the First Bogd Gegeen of Mongolia. Zanabazar built this monastery with the idea that it would become the center of Buddhism in Mongolia. Several of his most famous art-works, including his Five Transcendental Buddhas, were meant to be displayed here. It was not to be; in 1688 the monastery was destroyed by Zanabazar’s arch-rival Galdan Bolshigt. I had visited the ruins twice before, as described in my Guide To Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar. Saraa and Günj said they wanted to see the site so I agreed to go again.

Ruins of the 108-Pillar Tsogchin Temple

Corner of the 108-Pillar Tsogchin Temple

Clay figurines, known as shuteen in Mongolian, which Zevgee claims date to the time of Zanabazar. Someone had dug them out of the ruins and placed them on stone altars.

Saraa at the altars

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #4

I planned the trip so that we would be at the lake for the Full Moon. The night before had been overcast, but we were hoping for clear skies tonight. The moon was scheduled to rise at 7:41 pm.

Somber reflections by the campfire as we wait for the moon to rise

We were not disappointed. It was a perfectly clear night and the moon rose right over the lake.

Saraa with the Full Moon behind her. This photo is particularly fitting since her full name is Sarantuya, which means “Moonbeam.”

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #2

At the last moment Zevgee’s son-in-law Badmaa decided to come along on the trip. He would help Zevgee with the horses. Thus there was six of us: Zevgee and his wife Tumen-Olzii, Badmaa, Saraa, Gunj, and myself.

Badmaa and his three boys

Our group at Biren Buren Pass, the Continental Divide of Inner Asia. East of here drains into the Kherlen River, in the Pacific Ocean Watershed, and west of here into the Tuul River, in the Arctic Ocean watershed.

Günj and Tumen-Olzii, who although sixty-five years old is always ready for a horse trip

Dropping down to the Tuul River from Biren Buren Pass

Crossing the the upper reaches of the Tuul River

From the Tuul River we headed up Khiidiyn Gol. Around two in the afternoon we stopped for lunch and I immediately brewed up some Yunnan Gold black tea. Both Saraa and Günj remarked on how good the tea tasted. This was in large part due to the remarkably pure and soft water found in Khiidiyn Gol. I had been here on a previous trip and had sampled this excellent water before. Saraa immediately decided to wash her hair, knowing that the soft water would bring out the luster of her locks.

Saraa doing a quick shampoo in Khiidiyn Gol

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #1

Came out of Occultation to make a short horse trip into the Khentii Mountains. Accompanying me were my friends Saraa, who had some vacation time coming from her job as office manager of a software firm in Ulaan Baatar, and Ms. S, a Turkish-born but New York-based auteur and adventuress who visits Mongolia each summer with the regularity of a demoiselle crane. From UB we drove four hours east to Zevgee’s ger on the Kherlen River north of the sum center of Möngönmört in Töv Aimag.

I first met Zevgee, now seventy years old, in 1997, as described in my book Travels in Northern Mongolia. This is the ninth trip, either by Horse or Camel, that I have done with him. This past winter he broke his leg and was on crutches for a couple of months, but now he claimed to be just fine, and while perhaps not ready to ride off to Poland to battle the Teutonic Knights appeared fit and fiddle enough to ride to Khagiin Khar Nuur, a small but exceeding picturesque lake in the Khentii Mountains about thirty-five miles ATCF west of his ger. This was a short and simple trip, but Ms. S had never ridden a horse before so I did not want to do anything too strenuous: I figured two easy days of riding to the lake, two days of relaxing at the lake, and then two days back.

Zevgee (third from right, standing) and his extended family

Ms. S. was promptly nicknamed “Günj’ (günj = princess) by Zevgee’s family. Here she looks like she’s getting ready to invade Armenia.

Günj, looking like she just spent an pleasurable morning whipping peasants

Saraa—linguist, calligrapher (she did the traditional Mongolian script frontpiece for my book Illustrated Guidebook to Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar: First Bogd Gegeen Of Mongolia, and office manager

Saraa in real teal deel

Günj and Saraa bonded immediately

One of Zevgee’s silver-chased saddles, valued at over $1500