Mongolia

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The territory of modern-day Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the First Turkic Khaganate, the Second Turkic Khaganate, the Uyghur Khaganate and others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous land empire in history. His grandson Kublai Khan conquered China proper and established the Yuan dynasty. After the collapse of the Yuan, the Mongols retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of factional conflict, except during the era of Dayan Khan and Tumen Zasagt Khan.

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Etymology

The name Mongolia means the "Land of the Mongols" in Latin. The Mongolian word "Mongol" (монгол) is of uncertain etymology. Sükhbataar (1992) and de la Vaissière (2021) propose it is a derivation from Mugulü, the 4th-century founder of the Rouran Khaganate, first attested as the 'Mungu', (Chinese: 蒙兀, Modern Chinese Měngwù, Middle Chinese Muwngu), a branch of the Shiwei in an 8th-century Tang dynasty list of northern tribes, presumably related to the Liao-era Mungku (Chinese: 蒙古, Modern Chinese Měnggǔ, Middle Chinese MuwngkuX).

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History

The Khoit Tsenkher Cave in Khovd Province shows lively pink, brown, and red ocher paintings (dated to 20,000 years ago) of mammoths, lynx, bactrian camels, and ostriches, earning it the nickname "the Lascaux of Mongolia". The Venus figurines of Mal'ta (21,000 years ago) testify to the level of Upper Paleolithic art in northern Mongolia; Mal'ta is now part of Russia.

Neolithic agricultural settlements (c.

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Geography

At 1,564,116 km2 (603,909 mi2), Mongolia is the world's 18th-largest country. It mostly lies between latitudes 41° and 52°N (a small area is north of 52°), and longitudes 87° and 120°E. The geography is varied, with the Gobi Desert to the south and cold, mountainous regions to the north and west. Much of the land consists of the Mongolian–Manchurian grassland, with forested areas accounting for 11.2% of the total land area. The whole of Mongolia is considered to be part of the Mongolian Plateau. The highest point is Khüiten Peak in the Tavan Bogd massif in the far west at 4,374 m (14,350 ft).

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Government and politics

Mongolia is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic with a directly-elected president. The people also elect the deputies in the unicameral legislature, the State Great Khural. The president appoints the prime minister and nominates the cabinet on the proposal of the prime minister. The prime minister is the head of the executive branch.

The State Great Khural, with 126 seats, is chaired by the chairman of the State Great Khural. Its members are directly elected, every four years, by popular vote. According to V-Dem Democracy Indices, Mongolia was autocratizing in 2024.

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Economy

Economic activity in Mongolia has long been based on herding and agriculture, although development of extensive mineral deposits of copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten and gold have emerged as a driver of industrial production. Besides mining (21.8% of GDP) and agriculture (16% of GDP), dominant industries in the composition of GDP are wholesale and retail trade and service, transportation and storage, and real estate activities. Also, Mongolia produces one-fifth of the world's raw cashmere. The informal economy is estimated to be at least one-third the size of the official economy. As of 2022, 78% of exports went to the PRC, and the PRC supplied 36% of Mongolia's imports.

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Demographics

In 2024 the population was 3,544,835, per the National Statistics Office of Mongolia. This figure includes the total number of citizens who usually reside in Mongolia (for more than 183 days or six months), as well as citizens living abroad. 51% of the population was female and 49% male, with 71.2% residing in urban areas, compared to 21.8% in rural areas. The population growth rate was estimated at 1.2% in 2007.

The first census in the 20th century was carried out in 1918 and recorded a population of 647,500.

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Culture

The Soyombo symbol represents the sun, moon, stars, and heavens per standard cosmological symbology abstracted from that seen in traditional thangka paintings.

The traditional dwelling is known as a ger. In the past it was known by the Turkic term yurt, but this has been changing as the Mongolian term becomes better known in English-speaking countries. According to Mongolian artist and art critic N. Chultem, the ger was the basis for development of traditional Mongolian architecture. In the 16th and 17th centuries, lamaseries were built throughout the country.

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In film

The Eagle Huntress is a 2016 internationally co-produced Kazakh-language documentary feature film directed by Otto Bell that follows the story of Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia, as she attempts to become the first female eagle hunter to compete in the eagle festival at Ulgii.

In winter 2023, Australian filmmakers Ben Golotta and Morgan Wright traveled with and filmed two horse herders, Batbold, aged 18, and Tsagana, aged 22, herding around 2,000 animals across the Tsaikhir Valley, in a traditional journey to take the horses to safer grazing.

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