Trip to taiga : the Tsaatan people

The Tsaatan people are ethnically tuvan and have been stuck in Mongolia during the second world war. They are quite few, about 300, still living nomadically in the taiga in winter or on higher places in summer. The summer camp we visited had about 25 families, spread sometime far from each other.


The summer tipi that our host family used is bigger than the winter one but some people still use the winter one in summer. The height of the winter's one is just enough to stand up in the middle.
The oven is always in the center. As the temperature was like winter in Switzerland or Japan, there was always a fire to heat the tipi.

Dried reindeer meat. In opposition to most of the reindeers herders in the world, the Tsaatan rarely eat their reindeers. They will sometime slaughter an old reindeer and dry its meat to keep it as long as possible.

The reindeer milk is very precious to make cheese (which tastes almost like Emmenthal !) or butter. We both liked it very much.

The boy of the host family was specially shy but very friendly with his reindeers.

Trip to taiga : Ulaan Uul (red mountain)

Ulan Uul is a small village in a protected area. It was also our last stop before Tsaaga Nuur and the Tsaatan people.The region is increadibly beautiful : pine forests, endless green steppes and many lakes. And far, huge mountains.


The region gets pretty a lot of rain. We have never seen so intense rainbow. It looked like more than seven colours !

Houses of the village are closer from Siberian type than Mongolian. Pretty colorful.

This house was specially interesting ! It was the working place of an old man.

And always, lots of kids who love to be on your fotos.

..and yaks. We knew later why lots of them were attached in tandem : it's easier to gather them quickly.

Trip to Bayan-Olgii : Khoton Nuur

Our final destination of this travel was a lake "Khoton Nuur" where is just to the border of China.The place could look like Leman lake 3000 years ago when there was nobody living around. The landscape was so familiar !

Since our Kazakh guide has family everywhere in Bayan Olgii, we could stay by her uncle and cousin's gher who were still in true nomadic life style.
They collaborate to herd 1000 sheeps with 2 other families. They produce mostly cheese and meat from their animal and actually, except fried bread, they don't eat other food. So when we offered an orange, they made big eyes !



When we met the oncle of our kazakh guide, we had a strong impression to be in Central Asia !

And always a lot of kids !

The kazakh people live in bigger ger than mongolian people. This family had a pretty dreamy place

...and inside, we could see the traditional kazakh embroideries. The bed was specially amazing.

Trip to Bayan-Olgii : Tsengel sum

Tsengel is the home of Kazakh and Tuvan people. Kozy could then meet a Tuvan khoomi singer.
Kozy used to listened Tuvan Khoomi more than Mongolian Khoomi in the recordings. So, he was really curious to listen the difference after spent 4 month with the Mongolian Khoomi singer Sengedorj in Khovd.

Tsengel was also the first village (sum) that we saw with wooden houses. As there's forests not far from the village, it explains these new materials and "colours" !

How to build a ger

Now that summer finally arrived, lots of people in Khovd moved near the river to install their summer ger. We were invited to see how to do.
So, here are some pictures of the different steps :
1. First add the wooden frame. The floor, the wall and the door were already fixed when we arrived.
2. Then, you fix the support columns with the crown. With poles all around the ger, the crown keeps stable.

3. Cover of the ger: first put a net on the lower part of the ger, to avoid the moskitos to enter (only for summer ger).
4. Then, put a thin cotton fabric on the roof and the walls.
5. Add thick felt blankets on the roof and on the walls.

6. The cotton fabric and the felt must be well attached on the top of the ger.
7. Add a white impregnated canvas against rain, which covers the whole ger.
8. Fix everything well with ropes.

Well, basically, it's done, in about 2 hours !
The family has now a new house for the summer !

Sum guer of Sengedorj

We spent one night there, in our tent. The bus is there for 35 years. Sengedorj made a sleeping place and a kitchen of it !