An Everlasting Debt
Just a breaker. While preparing my recent post, Under the Big Mongolian Sky: Echoes from the Steppes, which talked a lot about the Mongolian herders’ worship and devotion to Mother Nature; I remembered this photo which I took in August last year. I found this sign under a tropical rainforest while trekking the 4-km mountain trail of Eden Nature Park in Davao City, Philippines with my kids (will post something about it later). To me this proverb is very true and it got me thinking; maybe we need to learn more from the Mongolian herders about living a life in harmony with nature for the sake of our children, the true owners the Earth!
The drag of endless mental work in a strange land takes its toll. Fatigue can kill so petty escapades provide hopeful deviations from the brewing madness. An aging DSLR keeps good company to a walk around the neighbourhood, a short drive to a scenic place, or a silent recollection in a quiet nook granting that the host community and the elements of nature would allow one a safe passage to solitude and contemplation. Loneliness quickly turns to joy when something exciting gets captured by the cam’s shutter then set free into the laptop’s screen followed by electric words that rush from the fingers to the keyboard in an effort to describe the moment. Alas, the brain is alive once again!
Beautiful!
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Like really this shot … This message disappear slowly within the jungle : doest it mean that nature will take the advantage, finally ? but also should not we forgot to quickly this message … Good shot which raises many questions !
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Thanks salytango. Interesting thoughts. I think nature used to be in charge until man started playing God. Thanks for visiting.
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How true.It appears that the Mongols and our North American Natives have so much in common.They also worshiped Mother Earth.
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Thanks for your thoughts, ken. I agree. I think most old cultures worshiped and had a strong bond with Mother Earth.
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Awesome, and so true!
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Thanks, Janette.
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What’s sad is that since life under the old Soviet Union, many Mongolians lost many of the lifeskills of their fathers. A couple of winters ago, there was widespread loss of animals due to severe cold and drought. Their parents would have known more of how to prevent such losses. They are now trying to regain their history as well as move into the future.
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Hi Lilly. You have pointed out some very interesting points. I think you are referring to what Mongolians call tzud or dzud — an abnormally long and severe winter. One of the worst, I think was in 1974 where temperatures dropped to as low as minus 68 degrees Celsius even in certain parts of Gobi. But the recent dzud was also severe where I think Mongolia lost around 40% of its livestock.
Maybe life under the Soviet system had indeed affected the Mongolian herders’ lifeskills but even the most skillful herder with, let’s say 500 cows in open range (the steppes), can’t do much to protect his herd at a time when almost the whole country freezes to 60 degrees below zero. It is said that for every Mongolian there are 15 heads of livestock so even if each Mongolian man, woman and child helps secure a portion of the livestock during dzud, it will still be a gargantuan task under very difficult conditions.
I believe that the loss/obsolescence of lifeskills and all employable skills for that matter is more relevant to Mongolia’s transition from the socialist system to a free market economy. Whereas in the previous system, the state provides every person a house, a job, and an education; every adult person now has to find a job, buy a house and pay for his children’s education, etc. But the opportunities are scarce and what is worse is that the skills gained under the socialist system have lost relevance in the present system. Even a skill in the Russian language is not a big asset anymore since English speakers are now in greater demand. And so we have a significant number of skilled, middle-aged professionals who can still be very productive but have nowhere to apply their skills on and thus are at a loss as to how to provide the needs of their family. This is also believed to be among the major reasons for the heavy influx of informal migrants from the rural areas to Ulaan Bator and other urban centers.
I fully agree with you on the third point; Mongolians have been trying hard to regain their history since the break-up of the Soviet Union. They are also enthusiastically looking forward to what is expected to be a bright future. Because of the huge revenues expected from the recently booming mining industry, some experts say that the Mongolian economy can soon become the 4th fastest growing economy in the world! While this maybe good news, this is poised to become another big spoiler of the traditional Mongolian way of life. The Mongolian herders of the future maybe found only inside modern heated buildings sipping vodka as they monitor the weather and track the movement of their herd via satellite. So long, Mongolian horse. 🙂
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Great reminder.
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We’ll get no thanks from future generations if we don’t pass it on at least as good as we found it.
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