If ‘Incredible !ndia’ can headline a tourist campaign for India, what about Magnificent Mongol!a for that large land-locked country in Central Asia? Here, let me try and make a start—because there was plenty of magnificence on display when I visited last month…

a walk

My hotel was on a major intersection near the center of Ulaan-baatar, the capital city. Soon after arrival, and not wanting to get lost, I decided to walk ‘there-‘n-back’ in each direction.

First impressions? The absence of visible places of worship—apart from a flash Mormon church! As I walked and watched it felt more like a secular nation than I had expected. The way Communist-era buildings, lower and older, are flanked by modern ones, taller and newer, caught my eye.

The two largest empires in history are reputed to be the British and the Mongol—but there’s not much evidence on the streets of UB that the ‘twain did ever meet’. There is (almost) no English language anywhere. It is interesting that Mongolians traditionally considered themselves to be the ‘white’ people, while those like me were yellow people (related to hair colour, I think—rather than a liver condition!). The foreign country with the strongest presence, flooding the country with tourists, is South Korea.

a beauty

Ulaan-baatar (UB) has a similar population as my hometown of Auckland, in New Zealand. I had beautiful vistas of the city from the 12th floor of my hotel over the first two days. The temperature ranges from +40 to -40 (Celsius) each year. Given that the city sits in a bowl, the extreme winter pollution just sits there without shifting. On more than one occasion I was told that UB was the most polluted city in the world. I was not convinced, with my other hometown—dear ol’ Delhi—surely being another candidate.

Debates about dirt need not delay us here.

The time in UB was just a transit on the way to Terelj, an hour northeast of UB, where the training programme was being held. Talk about beauty. WOW.

a man

Yep, the main man is everywhere…

His statue, astride his horse, in the countryside is impressive.

As is the new museum, in the central city, named in his honour.

A bit like the museum being built in Cairo, here is a people with a long history making a statement about their past—and doing it with such pride and pzazz. As we ascended up the museum floor-by-floor, wandering down the timeline of history as we did so, an encounter with him was inevitable.

a history

Now that we’ve met the man, we need to pause with the history for a few minutes.

If you play the word-association game—where you respond to my spoken word with the first word that comes to your mind… With the word ‘Mongol’, a lot of people say words like ‘brutal’ or ‘cruel’. There’ll always be some truth in that response—but on the top floor of the museum, their retelling of their own history was different, summed up as Pax Mongolica:

I’ve always found that the various Khaans take a bit to decipher—and so coming across a family tree was a welcome sight (albeit in a dimly-lit room!). Notice the five great Khaans in gold text, but also the extent of the empire, covered in that bottom line: Russia and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China and the Middle East.

There are two fascinations to pluck from this tree…

One is the two women who are Christians: Sorgaqtani Beki (mentioned here, the mother of three Khaans) and her daughter-in-law (unmentioned here, but named Dorkuz). Jehu Hanciles, in his book on Migration and the Making of Christianity, has a section on “Mongol Wives and Queen Mothers as Migrant Missionaries” (386-395). He describes these two women as “devout Christians” (388). Dorkuz married Hulegu and under her watch Christianity was “revitalized” in Persia.  She “shaped the tenor and trajectory of Christianity in Persia for at least a generation” (390).  However, none of the Khaans became Christians and soon after the death of Dorkuz, the first one converted to Islam.

Having Bayaraa, Mongolia’s only PhD in Biblical Studies, as my personal guide through the museum was a great help. He would observe, or insert, pieces of Christian history into the story—a witness which goes back to the 6th-7th centuries. Like when he noted the presence of a church in the top left corner of this painting…

… or how one of these sets of coins—not exactly sure which one—references the three members of the Trinity!

The other fascination—one I was glad to get straight in my mind—was tracing the link between the Mongol Empire and the Moghul Empire, which ruled India for more than 300 years—highlighted by such buildings as the Taj Mahal. In the family tree, this line can be traced through Chagatai. On one of the many maps, it was a surprise to see a picture of a building just up the road from where we lived in New Delhi: Humayun’s Tomb (a prototype for the Taj Mahal, if I remember correctly).

The Khaans went on for quite a few more years, as Bayaraa narrates here 🙂 …

If interested, this is a very cool 5 minutes from TED, on the history of The Mongol Empire:

a map

Yep, Mongolia is cartography-heaven. There are maps everywhere. I like this photo of Bayaraa leaning back, trying to get the breadth of the Mongol Empire into one frame :). It is never easy to do.

I loved the ones that revealed the spread of the empire like a flowing and ebbing tide—but, sorry, I was a bit late with this one!

a music

On my final evening I was taken to the Hun Totem National Art Performance just outside UB. I can’t remember seeing a more compelling cultural event—anywhere. It was extraordinary. In exactly 60 minutes, we must have moved through 15-20 items. There was barely time to blink. This piece of music was haunting…

Once we settled into the training seminar, I discovered that one of the leaders, Puje, was heading into life as a composer-dancer before the Lord called him to be a pastor-teacher. But he kept writing songs—in fact, close to 100 worship songs of which 40 are still being sung in churches! At the start of one of the worship times, I interrupted, “Could we please hear one of Puje’s songs?” After a little encouragement, Puje picked up the guitar and off we went. It was wonderful. It remains one of my very favourite things in this work—listening to people singing their own worship songs…

an art

There was plenty of art to enjoy along the way. Whether it be the paintings in the museums …

… or the fabrics, in the dress-up-like-a-Khaan section of a museum …

… or the contortionist at the cultural event.

an office

If Puje surprised me as a composer-dancer in a previous life, there were more surprises with Bayaraa! He was a gymnast-acrobat in his younger years. After the fall of Communism, he picked up a job hurling himself across multiple camels! Then he became the first Mongolian missionary (in the modern era!), as he and one other were commissioned to work with Operation Mobilization on one of the ships.

But now he is giving himself to the translation of the first Mongolian translation of the Bible to work directly from the original Greek and Hebrew—the Mongolian Standard Version, due to be published in 2025.

It is remarkable that his life is devoted to such detailed textual work, given that he has no vision through one eye, while his vision through the other one is seriously impaired.

We squeezed in a visit to his office which is the base for other translation projects in which his wife, Yanjaa, is heavily involved as well. They’ve completed the entire Bible in braille, for example!

The office has a section devoted to a little Bible Museum, to which Bayaraa introduced me:

a preaching movement

This was my purpose in visiting Mongolia. The preaching movement has been going for almost ten years. This was their annual week of training, focusing this year on preaching from the Old Testament.

In between these annual weeks, they meet in little ‘preaching clubs’. They are required to post photos of each meeting on their facebook page. If someone doesn’t meet the minimum requirement for attendance, they cannot come to the seminar. The week started with sharing stories from these clubs. Each one has a name, which gives it an identity—and a little rivalry with other ones! One is a diaspora club with participants gathering online from the USA and Austria, as well as Mongolia.

So many stories…

Manibazar, at 62 years of age, was the oldest person at the seminar. He is not in great physical health. But this was his posture throughout the week. I found the sincerity and urgency in his spoken desire to improve as a preacher—leading him to participate in not one, but two clubs—to be very moving.

I loved watching Begee and Unoroo through the week, only for them to end up being the ones to host me on my final day (together with their wives, Ankhjargal and Narangerel)—with the first couple being the proud parents of the contortionist. Begee is one of the pastors in a church in UB, while Unoroo and his family are missionaries sent out from that same church to work in Ulaangom, in western Mongolia. After the cultural event, filled with GoogleTranslate-chat (!) between us, the five of us drove back to my hotel. The next day Unoroo and Nara headed for home, 1369kms and 17hr 40min away!

Two other men, Battulga and Ochir, travelled a similar distance, not as pastors of little communities—but as farmers wanting to learn how to preach the Bible better.

So, add up a walk, a beauty, a man, a history, a map, a music, an art, an office—and a preaching movement … and you have a little taste of Mongol!an Magn!f!cence.

nice chatting

Paul

PS: The Langham USA team recorded a little more of Bayaraa’s story earlier this year…