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MongoliaModernized Nomads
Unavailable
A motorcycle-owning nomad with
traditional hand-tooled saddle
Courtesy Steve Mann
In contrast to the period before the collectivization of
herding, which was carried out in the late 1950s, the work of
individual herders in the late 1980s was more closely supervised
by administrative authorities. Herders were responsible for a
herd of collective animals that usually included some of their
privately held stock as well, thus providing an incentive for
careful management. Herders with a record of losing too many
animals or failing to meet monthly or annual quotas were deprived
of custody of the collective animals and were reassigned to other
tasks. The moves of the herds and the herding camps were plotted
on a map in the cooperative's headquarters, and officials of the
cooperative--riding on motorcycles or jeeps, and on a more
limited basis, airplanes--scouted for good pasture and then told
the herding camps where to move next. Moves from one campsite to
the next usually were made, using the cooperative's jeeps or
trucks, and sometimes crossing the roadless steppes at night with
uncanny accuracy. The cooperatives attempted, with mixed success,
to grow hay and other fodder, which was stored at the winter
campsites, some of which had barns and sheds to shelter animals.
Herding camps were assigned to winter campsites, which often were
provided with stocks of coal and sometimes with portable electric
generators to provide power for lights and even television sets.
Herders on the range used transistor radios to listen to weather
reports and storm warnings.
The somon center became a miniature urban outpost,
providing a meeting hall for regular assemblies of the
cooperative, political rallies, plays, concerts, and films; for
the administrative offices of the somon and the
cooperative; for a clinic, or small hospital, and a veterinary
clinic; for the motor pool and vehicle repair station; for shops,
run by the state trading organization; for storage and processing
facilities for food and wool; for a sports ground, and for a
school with boarding facilities. The center kept in touch with
the herding camps through radio telephones and motorcycle
couriers, who, bearing messages, mail, and newspapers, usually
visited the camps every three to five days. Like urban residents
or state-sector employees, herders from cooperatives were
eligible for annual vacations, often spent at the holiday camps
or spas operated by aymag governments. The government and
the party took care to recognize the value of the herders' work
and devoted resources to improving their lives without demanding
that they settle down in permanent dwellings. In this regard,
Mongolian pastoralists were more fortunate than their
counterparts in many countries in Asia and Africa. There, urbanbased governments attempted to force nomads to settle down and to
abandon their migrations for what was thought of as a more modern
and civilized way of life, but that usually proved detrimental to
the livelihood of the nomads and to the national economy. The
pastoral background of Mongolia's leaders and their understanding
of the realities of the nomadic way of life produced policies
designed to modernize, but not to destroy, an ancient and
productive ecological system.
Data as of June 1989
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