THE MONGULAI JOURNAL
Explore Mongolia through its living traditions, history, food, music and craftsmanship—told with context by people connected to the culture.
Mongolian screen comedy has used satire, mistaken identity, family pressure and the contrast between countryside and city life. English titles vary across archives, so this guide preserves recognizable translations while identifying films by their Mongolian titles where available. 1. Before Adding a Rank This film is made in 1965. It is about a Nobleman named […]
Mongolian folk tales can be comic, frightening, morally ambiguous and sharply observant about power. The word “vicious” in the original title points to their darker turns; these stories are best read as oral-literary variants rather than as one fixed canonical text. Oral storytelling changes with each teller and audience. Tricksters often defeat danger through wit. […]
Meet Mongolia’s Tsaatan, or Dukha, reindeer-herding community: their taiga homeland, seasonal camps, livelihoods, identity and respectful travel etiquette.
Ten evidence-based facts about Genghis Khan, from the uncertainty around his birth to the empire’s organization, religious policy and global legacy.
Understand Mongolian bökh ranks, Naadam rounds, match rules and the families of grips, trips, lifts and throws known as mekh.
Mongolian traditional wrestling, or bökh, is a contest of balance, leverage, timing and ritual. It has no weight divisions, and a bout ends when a wrestler touches the ground with a body part other than the hands or feet. Bökh is one of the three central sports of Naadam. The devekh, or eagle dance, frames […]
Mongolian wolf stories often portray the animal as intelligent, observant and fiercely independent. The accounts below combine a traditional tale with memories attributed to hunters and herders. They belong to oral and literary culture and should not be read as verified scientific studies of wolf behaviour. The She-Wolf and Her Cubs Once upon a time […]
Trace Mongolian food history through herding, meat, dairy, grain, preservation, trade and today’s changing urban and rural diets.
The Mongolian steppe wolf is often used in proverbs and stories to express freedom, hardship and attachment to one’s natural home. The accounts below explore the idea that a wolf remains loyal to its destiny even when people try to domesticate or redirect it. These passages are presented as oral history and literature, not as […]
The brave Mongolian wolf appears in steppe stories as an animal capable of enduring injury, cold and pursuit. The narratives below preserve observations attributed to hunters and writers. They should be understood as cultural testimony rather than universal or scientifically verified behaviour. A Proverb About Recovery “The outer Mongolian wolf is healed, when it licks […]
How wolves hunt has long interested Mongolian herders, hunters and storytellers. The following text combines folktales, proverbs and personal observations about teeth, scent, teamwork and prey. It documents cultural interpretations and is not a field guide or a substitute for modern wildlife research. A Folktale About the Wolf’s Share The Buddha was distributing shares to […]
Explore Mongolian oral poetry without melody, including household incantations, protective sayings, milk libations and the cultural meaning of spoken ritual.
Due to its poor relations with the Mongols, Russia then began seeking direct contacts with Qing China and the Dzungar Khanate. On August 27, 1689, Romanov’s Tsarist Russia and the Qing Dynasty signed a treaty at Ford Nerchinsk on the Nevchuu river. It was the first document of its kind in the history of Russo-Chinese […]
The Mongols had a new neighbor in the north. In 1558 Tsar Ivan IV [Ivan the Terrible] gave land west of the Ural region, including the Kama River basin, to a merchant by the name of Grigorii Stroganov. Setting his lands with very kind of trader and peasant, Stroganov gradually expended both his territory and […]