Zuun Taiga

The reindeer herders living in Mongolia are divided into two areas: East (Zuun) ja West (Baruun) Taiga. I went to East Taiga where two large families had joined to spend a summer in cool valley with their reindeer. In total there were currently 107 people divided to 23 families, and their approximately 350 reindeer. In West Taiga there are more people and reindeer, around 35 to 38 families. In East Taiga I was told that the total number of reindeer in both taigas would be just above 1000.

The reindeer wondered freely grazing in the valley and surrounding mountains often coming to rest by the ortz (tepee).

   

This is Zaya’s and PJ’s ortz where I spent my 8 days of visiting the camp. The day usually started around 9am, although either Zaya or PJ usually got up around 7am to make the fire. My tasks included wondering to the river to bring water, sweeping (which I was great at), bringing in firewood and helping with the dishes. Sometimes I assisted in cooking. I definitely did a lot of eating which I think deserves a post of its own.

   

Mornings proceeded after a long breakfast with catching the female reindeer and milking. Here’s a photo of Zaya catching her females (in the evening though) to take them back to the camp for milking. She gave me her husband’s wellies, tied my feet in cloth (socks not used) and took me with her as her assistant herder. Each family has 2 to 4 females that they milk getting about 200g of milk per reindeer. It is used to make tea and cook, for example to make very filling and tasty rice pudding. Families who have more females and can collect more milk also make cheese. Reindeer are not used for meat unless it is unavoidable to kill a reindeer once it has, for instance, injured itself.

Me and the reindeer I brought back for milking. Everyone laughed when they saw the photo saying I was so extremely tall that a reindeer looks like a tiny sheep when put next to me. Reindeer have very sweet always in for some salt.

Milking time in the evening looked usually like a patchwork of tourists, locals and reindeer scattered in their different interests of the event. The reindeer were pretty calm, only reindeer babies who were tied to the logs for the time being wanting to be reunited to their mums. The Dukha women and children were chatting, milking and sorting out reindeer. The tourists wanted to take pictures of the reindeer and the milking event. And then me, a student, wondering around, asking everyone questions that broadly divided into categories: having been asked hundred times before or ones that didn’t seem of much relevance.

A large part of the day was spent in an ortz socialising and relaxing. Here’s a usual view from our ortz. Reindeer often come by to ask for salt from the families they belong to. Other reindeer wondering by are not given salt. Men usually were occupied with firewood or carvings. Women were cooking or doing small household tasks. All happened in a very relaxed unhurried manner.

Most of the time was spent in an ortz having tea, chatting and visiting each other. Everyone walked freely from one family to another always being welcome and sharing food if someone had more than the ortz next door. Here two sisters (placing 2nd and 3rd in age in the village) are chatting to visiting Italians (film-maker in the far left) about a film made in 1996 that they had just seen. The Italian group brought it along and screened and the locals were indeed to see it. Electricity for it comes from solar panels that were distributed and sold half price by a World Bank project. The film lasting for few minutes was in Italian and presented a very mystical aspect of everyday life of the group. The second man from the left – the shaman of the village – was later interviewed by the Italians. Zaya is second from the right, translating. The tourist interest were mainly located on 5 groups from which 3 are captured on this photo: elderly people, the shaman, English-speaking Zaya who had moved to the taiga 6 years ago. The two other groups are children and reindeer who received a lot of attention, especially by being photographed.

 

Summer seemed a busy time– there was always something going on. Here a week-long or so school is being put up for children to learn written Tuvan, their mother tongue. Tuvan is written in Cyrillic script like Mongolian but has several additional letters. Tuvan is spoken but everyone is also fluent in Mongolian.

 The children who go to school in Tsagannuur and stay in the village during the winter with their families were all back for the summer. The taiga gets also gets a lot of visitors particularly from end of June up to beginning of August which is actually a very short spell of time. During my stay at the camp there were 23 tourists coming to visit the camp out of whom 19 I interviewed. Besides them it was me (borderline tourist) and a French anthropologist Magali who had been studying the area for 17 years and was now spending her summer holiday there with her two children. On the photo, a typical early July scene– children playing on the left, Magali in her beige top looking at the souvenir market organised for the tourists.