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Mongolia’s Tuvan reindeer herders

January 31, 2023 by Andrew Califf

Photos by Andrew Califf

There is a small section of taiga [boreal forest] surrounding the Darkhad Depression in northern Mongolia that is home to a niche community of Tuvan reindeer herders. The border cuts them off from the Russian Tuvan Republic, which has exponentially better herding conditions, less hunting restrictions and more land for larger migratory patterns. The Mongolian Tuvan reindeer herders find that climate change increasingly impacts their subsistence strategies and traditions.

Two Tuvan reindeer herders, Mandah and Oyunaa, sit inside a tent made of wood posts and tarps.
Mandah and Oyunaa in their ‘ortz’ (a teepee-like tent)

NOMAD Science recently organized an archeological expedition into the western taiga with an international team of multi-disciplinary archaeologists led by Dr. Julia Clark. An additional goal was to show digital copies of old photographs of Siberian reindeer herders from the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme to the Mongolian Tuvan community and to conduct ethnographical interviews. The goal of these interviews was to determine how this unique group’s material culture has changed over the years. The team interviewed five families across three camps.

One young man, Mandah's son, walks towards an ortz in the woods, passing a young boy preparing to playfully charge.
Mandah’s son (left) returns from herding just in time for a wrestling challenge.

Oyunaa and Mandah are both in their sixties and camp alongside their grown son’s family, watching their young grandchildren wrestle in the grass and herd the reindeer. Mandah vividly remembers when winters were colder and longer during his childhood. He says each summer is warmer than the last and the average reindeer herd size grows smaller each year. The animals themselves are also on average smaller with each ice patch-melting summer. They aren’t adapted to thrive in these current conditions.

Two young children ride their respective reindeer from right to left across the frame. The background is a wall of trees, and the foreground is filled with reddish-yellow undergrowth.
Mandah and Oyunaa’s grandchildren ride reindeer while herding their animals along a river.

Mandah also blames the diminishing of the herds on localized hunting restrictions which allow wolves to flourish. Many herders attested there has been a drastic increase in wolf activity. One reindeer was even taken by a wolf during the length of our expedition’s stay with this family.

A couple, Mandah's son and his wife, stand in the middle of a herd of reindeer. The woman in a light pink sweater is looking across the herd, and the man is looking at the camera. He is wearing a blue hat and his face is framed by antlers in the foreground.
Mandah’s son and his wife wrangle young calves out of the herd, so that the mother reindeer can be milked the next morning.
The foreground is filled with reindeer and their bobbing antlers, and the background is a slope of green trees. On the other side of the herd, a young boy with a white baseball cap rides his own reindeer.
Mandah and Oyunaa’s grandson herds the reindeer home.

One finding of the NOMAD Science expedition was how much the absence of snow has impacted the Mongolian Tuvan’s material culture.

Otgon and his wife are jealous that Siberian herders can use sleds. The taiga reindeer herders are surrounded by mountains, and nowadays the snow never accumulates to the extent which would make sleds feasible. They also do not ice fish like their neighboring herders in Siberia, as according to Otgon, the rivers don’t have enough fish. Due to the increasing temperatures, there is also only one small area left in the region where wild reindeer live.

In foreground are gnarled roots framing two teepees in the distance in a grove of evergreens.
Mandah an his family are about to begin the process of deconstructing their ortzs so they may travel to Tsagaannuur to enroll the grandchildren in school.
A man holds his son in the foreground as they swipe through images on a tablet together. A woman laughs beside them looking to the left of the frame. He is wearing camo and a bucket hat, and she is wearing a green robe. They are in a tent and there is a stove in the right foreground, and outside the tent flap, some of a reindeer is visible.
Otgon and his family looking at archived photos of Siberian reindeer herders.

Because large sections of the Darkhad Depression and the taiga are considered protected areas by the Mongolian government, hunting is prohibited. But it seems every family has a firearm to protect themselves and their herds from bears and wolves. Shots rang out through the valley during the expedition’s last day in the taiga. They originated from the woods Otgon was camping in, and we were later told that the herders were trying to scare wolves away from the reindeer. According to the herders, the wolves are boldest right before and right after winter.

An older man in a green deel or tunic sits inside a tent staring to the right of the frame. There is a cowboy hat and saddle bag behind him.
Amgalan with his cowboy hat and some pelt saddle bags. He suffered extreme sun burn on one side of his face, and members of the expedition gave him sunscreen.

Amgalan is 58 and slowly sips milk tea from his Frozen mug while his grandchildren jump all over him. His family originates from the Tuvan Republic and has shamanistic roots. Their ancestral guardian, who the shaman contacts for ceremonies, is the goose spirit, which is considered a protector of women and a symbol of fertility.

A girl in a colorful, floral tunic of blue and red sits looking to the right of the frame while a woman out of the frame braids her hair.
Amgalan’s granddaughter is a big fan of Frozen and wears a Frozen necklace.
A man in a cowboy hat and green deel stand in a wooded thicket with his back to the camera. He is looking at a multitude of reindeer amongst the trees.
Amgalan surveying his herd.

Due to the modern border between Russian and Mongolia, Amgalan cannot return to areas sacred to his family and their goose guardian. A buffer zone around the border also prevents reindeer herders from visiting sacred mountains in Mongolia, as well as a legendary, pristine valley flanked by a jagged mountain. This sacred ceremonial place is filled with serrated, razor sharp rocks, and should be left alone by everyone, including any buffer zone military presence, Amgalan explains.

A boy in a blue cloak stands just inside the entrance to a teepee, in the background are trees in the distance, and a man sits drinking from a cup just inside the teepee
Amgalan’s grandson puts on his nice deel. The average Mongolian has four to five, some are for nice functions and others for riding and chores.

Tuvan reindeer herders in this region have uniquely developed due to their proximity to Mongolian pastoralists. They adopted the deel, which is an incredibly functional piece of clothing used by Mongolians in the countryside. The garment can be worn in multiple different ways depending on the weather, the belt offers support while riding for long distances, and the material helps cushion riders using traditional Mongolian wooden saddles. Even though the deel predates Chinggis Khan, no other group in Siberia has adopted the fashion.

A small stream in a bog is crossed by a reindeer caravan. Trees and mountains rise in the background.
One group of herders travels through a bog to reach Tsagaannuur to bring their children to school. At the beginning of September, almost every family will make this trip.

This stretch of upraised land surrounded by bog lies near the edge of a mountain pass that acts as a gateway into the taiga. Its name translates from Mongolian into “Muddy Ladle.” It is where one of the western taiga’s few shamans, Galaa, sets up his ortz [teepee-like tent] for the summer.

A girl in a yellow vest and a purple sweater looks and the camera while she sits near her father, Galaa. They are in a tent, and he is wearing a baseball cap.
Galaa and his daughter. Every ortz typically has a clock, a stove, and a bowl of snacks to offer to visitors.

Shamans are consulted on a variety of topics across Mongolia and Siberia. They supposedly can read the past better than the future, but people go to them for help with bad spirits as well as future predictions. Galaa is what the Mongolian herders in the steppes would call a “dark” shaman, because he doesn’t amalgamate his shamanistic tradition with Buddhism (light shamanism). All Tuvan shamans are purely shamanistic and in turn dark, but the term doesn’t have any negative connotations. Dark shamans can also perform curses and they are generally considered to be more powerful.

A little girl in pink and green crouches over a tablet.
Amgalan’s granddaughter looking through the expeditions archived photos. Many herders agreed the reindeer in the glass plate negatives looked much healthier.

Galaa and his daughter huddle around the pictures brought by the NOMAD Science team, reacting with excitement to most of the images. He was especially impressed by how the documented Siberian shamans wore extremely authentic and traditional garb for ceremonies. “I’m so jealous of these people – they can go anywhere and we are restricted,” he said. “The younger generation should learn Tuvan and traditions – we are losing it and it’s sad.”

A line of herders and reindeer along a slope in front of a line of green trees in the background. The sky is blue and filled with clouds, and there is a motorcycle near the men farthest left of the halted convoy in the center of the frame.
A brief bartering exchange between families traveling to Tsagaannuur.

As August rolls into September, the reindeer herding families migrate down to Tsagaannuur in the Darkhad Depression to enroll their children in school. The parents will return until winter grows too harsh, and then it will just be rotating shifts of men staying in the taiga with the reindeer herds until spring thaws out the bogs.

Filed Under: Features, Photo, Uncategorized

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