Nomadic lifestyle

Nomadic families follow a seasonal routine, moving their herds to new grazing land based on the time of year, rather than one of aimless wandering. Historically, each clan had various chosen grazing grounds that were used exclusively by the same clan year after year. This tradition carries on today and families return to the same locations at the same time each year, for example, traveling at the end of each winter from a specific sheltered valley to a particular area on the high plateau of the Steppes. Daily responsibilities are divided evenly among family members and no one person’s work is considered more important than another’s. Traditionally, men take care of the horses and the herds and make saddles, harnesses, and weapons. In addition, they hunt to supplement the traditional diet of dairy products. Women’s responsibilities include cooking, taking care of the children, and making clothing (the traditional Mongolian costume is the ankle-length silk deel). Women also milk cows, goats, and mares (the national drink is airag–fermented mare’s milk). Despite their enterprise, however, Mongolians are not self-sufficient. Since ancient times, they have traded with surrounding civilizations for grain, rice, tea, silk, cotton, and, above all, metals for their weapons.

Traditional Mongolian dwelling-Ger

Ger has been used since the Mongols started nomadic life with animal husbandry. A ger consists of felt covers (deever, tuurga), wooden columns (bagana) and a toono (a square window) and uni or thin wooden poles and floor, khana or wall (wooden lattice attached together with animals’ hide ropes 0 and ropes.Most of ger materials are made of animals like felt-sheep wool, ropes-camel or sheep wool, horse or yaks‘ tail, and of course wood. A ger size depends on the owners’ wealth, khana numbers decide the size, the biggest ger in Mongolia or in the world was called Bat-Olziit and its diameter was 40 m and it had 32 khans. A usual Mongol ger has 5 khanas and 88 unis. 

Tsam religious dance of Mongolia

The ancient religious mask dance, or Tsam, is a significant religious ritual which reflects Buddhist teachings through images. It is a theatrical art performed by skilled dancers wearing magnificently ornamented costumes, which represent characters of different holy figures and devils, animals, and people.Through story, music, and dance, the wide range of personalities of the characters are depicted. To symbolize positive and negative attributes, characters from popular stories, and animals such as the Khangarid (lord of birds), Lion (the king of wild animal), stag (the beauty among animals), crow (the soothsayer) and various domestic animals are imitated. Furthermore, the colors and decoration of the costumes are clues as to the nature of the personalities of each character. 
Tsam mask dancing is included in the art form called “Doigar”, which embodies independent imagination, one of the ten kinds of sciences according to ancient Indian philosophy.The Tsam dance ceremony was introduced in Mongolia, in 8th century, when the famous Indian Saint Lovon Badamjunai was invited to Mongolia to sanctify the construction of the first Tibetan Buddhist temple, Samya. From the time, the Tsam dance performed following the traditional teaching of Nyambdeyan. During the 16th century, it became popular in Dash-Ihum monastery, Uigien Namjra, and other places. Eventually, more than 500 of the 700 Mongolian monasteries had their own local variations of the ceremony.

Morin khuur

Perhaps the most ancient musical instrument of the Mongols is the “morin khuur”, invented at least a thousand years ago. In Mongolian, morin means horse, and khuur means sound, rhyme, and melody. 

This instrument’s history is based on a legend of a man, who had a beloved, magical horse that could fly. When an evil man killed the horse, the man made a musical instrument so that he could remember the horse. Originally, the handle of the horse-head fiddle was made of horse ribs and its base is made of horse skin. Today, the long tail hair of a horse is used for the strings. It is said each tail hair fiber should be processed until it “starts talking”. To honor the horse, its head is carved of wood and placed where the scroll would be on a violin. The wooden neck and the sound box of the instrument are often decorated by the five elements and the horoscope animals of the Buddhist 12-year calendar. Finally, the symbol of eternity is depicted on the sides of the box. The tone of the morin khuur is tender and beautiful.

Khuumii-throat singing

Mongol khuumii involves producing two simultaneous tones with the human voice. It is a difficult skill requiring special ways of breathing. One tone comes out as a whistle-like sound, the result of locked breath in the chest being forced out through the throat in a specific way, while a lower tone sounds as a base. Khuumii is considered musical art - not exactly singing, but using one's throat as an instrument. 
Depending on the way air is exhaled from the lungs, there are various ways of classifying khuumii, including Bagalzuuryn (laryngeal) khuumii, Tagnainy (palatine) khuumii, Hooloin (guttural) khuumii, Hamryn (nasal) khuumii, and Kharkhiraa khuumii: under strong pressure in the throat, air is exhaled while a lower tone is kept as the main sound.Professional khuumii performers are found in only a few areas with certain traditions. The Chainman district of Hovd aimag (province) is one home of hoomii. Tuva, a part of Russia to the north of Mongolia, is also a center of khuumii.

Long song

Mongolian unique traditional singing style is known as Urtiin duu, or long song. It's one of the oldest genres of Mongolian musical art, dating to the 13th century. Urtiin duu involves extraordinarily complicated, drawn-out vocal sounds. It is evocative of vast, wide spaces and it demands great skill and talent from the singers in their breathing abilities and guttural singing techniques. 

Contortion folk acrobat

Young Mongolian girls bend their bodies in ways that will defy nature. Contortionism has been a tradition in Mongolia for several hundreds years. 
Mongolian contortion folk acrobat is widely considered more of an art than an acrobatic feat. Students of contortion often begin training as early as age five in order to prepare their joints and ligaments to withstand the rigorous physical demands of performing, reaching a peak performance age in the late teens to mid-twenties. Most students will study for four to five years before they are considered a professional contortionist.

Western Mongolian dance with cup

Another popular Western Mongolian dance is performed with cups. You may come across old men and women in the countryside who will tell you with fascination what magnificent dancers performed it in the past when it was very much in vogue. They balanced cups full of water on their heads without spilling a single drop. The dance varies depending on whether the cups are balanced on the head, hands, or knees. The Derbets, Zakhchins and Torguts dance with the cups on their heads and the backs of their hands, while the Bayads balance the cups on their knees. 

Classical traditional dance - Biyelgee

Mongolian traditional dance Inscribed in 2009 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
Our classical traditional dance is biyelgee, is a particular to the people western Mongolia . It is performed to the music of Mongolian national musical instruments, such as the morin khuur (horse headed fiddle) and yochin. Is performed in a ger in circle of people, in other, in other words, in limited small space, before the hearth, so the dancers make partially no use of their rhythmic movements express various aspects of their identities, such as sex, tribe, and ethnic group. Plastic movements of the dancer‘s hands and horse express everything in the dance.
Biyelgee is a descriptive dance, actually a pantomime, with the dancer acting several scenes from everyday life of herders, such as milking the cow, cooking, hunting, etc.

The first part of Biyelgee dance, called the Elkhendeg, is ritually solemn, with the dancer slowly spreading his arms, gracefully waving his hands and moving his shoulders. In the second part called the joroo mori, character of the dance suddenly changes. The body rhythmically swaying, the dancer's movements become light and challenging, in imitation of the gait of a horse.
Dances imitating the gait of a horse, such as the Shonon khar and Jalam khar, are in general very popular amongst the Bayads, Torguts, Khotons and Zakhchins of western Mongolia. Each nationality, however, performs them in its own way. The Bayads, for instance, dance on half-bent legs, with the lower part of the body motionless. The Zakhchins squat as they dance, with the body inclined forward. The ability to dance without using one's feet at all is the ultimate achievement in the art.