Category Archives: Mongolia

Blockbuster show on Genghis Khan opens in France after row with China

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Exhibition features objects never before seen in Europe and draws lessons from Mongol empire relevant to today

It was a major cultural row between France and China, prompting a history museum to pull the plug on one of its most important exhibitions of the decade accusing the Beijing authorities of interference and trying to rewrite history.

But now the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne history museum in Nantes has finally opened its blockbuster exhibition on Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire, with large crowds queueing to see hundreds of objects that have never been shown in Europe, some dug up by archaeologists only three years ago. It is part of a new modern reading of the geopolitical importance of the vast continental empire.

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Mineral-rich Mongolia is steeling itself for democratic change

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Anti-corruption protests have drawn a stream of European politicians to the country – and the man tasked with cleaning up its act is confident that he can deliver

In December, amid sub-zero temperatures, thousands of Mongolians turned up in Sükhbaatar Square in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, to protest about rampant corruption, and for a moment the Asian democracy, sitting uneasily between China and Russia, looked as though it might crumble.

That this would have mattered to the west is shown by the number of European politicians who since have travelled to the capital, including not just Emmanuel Macron, the French president, but Polish president, Andrzej Duda, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, and her French counterpart, Catherine Colonna.

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Mongolia under pressure to align with Russia and China

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Landlocked state is pursuing neutrality despite neighbours’ efforts to create triangle of anti-western cooperation

Mongolia, a squeezed outpost of democracy in north-east Asia, is under renewed pressure from its authoritarian neighbours, Russia and China, to shed its independence and form a triangle of anti-western cooperation in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

The country is doggedly pursuing a path of neutrality, coupled with a policy of economic diversification designed to keep its unique culture and still relatively recent independence alive, according Nomin Chinbat, its culture secretary.

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Teenage boy dies of plague in Mongolia after eating marmot

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Two others being treated with antibiotics after death of 15-year-old, health ministry says

A 15-year-old boy has died of bubonic plague in western Mongolia after eating an infected marmot, the country’s health ministry has said.

Two other teenagers who also ate the marmot were being treated with antibiotics, said a ministry spokesperson, Narangerel Dorj.

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‘No way to stop it’: millions of pigs culled across Asia as swine fever spreads

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Experts say region is losing the battle to stop the biggest animal disease outbreak the planet has ever faced

South-east Asia is battling to contain the spread of highly contagious African swine fever, known as “pig Ebola”, which has already led to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam.

African swine fever, which is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs, was discovered in China in August, where it has caused havoc, leading to more than 1.2m pigs being culled. China is home to almost half of the world’s pigs and the news sent the global price of pork soaring.

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Mongolian couple die of bubonic plague after eating marmot

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Six-day quarantine declared in region, preventing tourists from leaving

A Mongolian couple have died of the bubonic plague after eating raw marmot kidney, triggering a quarantine that left tourists stranded in a remote region for days.

The ethnic Kazakh couple died on 1 May in Mongolia’s westernmost province of Bayan-Ulgii, which borders Russia and China.

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‘An example to all’: the Mongolian herders who took on a corporate behemoth – and won

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Displaced from their land by multinational mining companies, nomadic herders defied the odds to preserve their heritage for future generations

All photographs by Susan Schulman

Just 10 years ago, the district of Khanbogd, in southern Mongolia’s Omnogovi province, was a barely known region of eastern Asia.

That changed with the discovery of gold and copper deposits below the seemingly endless Gobi desert, home to a community of herdsmen who had worked hard to make a living from this barren land. So when their government forged an agreement that threatened to deprive them of the land they had owned for generations, they fought back for their way of life, taking the mining giant Rio Tinto and others to court in order to safeguard their heritage.

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Dalai Lama: Yeah, I’d Visit With Trump

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The Dalai Lama may have unveiled his surprisingly decent Donald Trump impression earlier this year, but as it turns out he's completely willing to visit the president-elect on his next visit to the United States. Speaking in Mongolia, the Dalai Lama said that he considers the United States a "leading nation" and that he'd like to pay Trump a visit sometime in the future.

Dalai Lama says will visit Trump

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Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said on Wednesday that he would visit U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, a meeting that would infuriate Beijing which views the Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk as a dangerous separatist. Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama addresses those gathered at Buyant Ukhaa sport palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, November 20, 2016.