Mongolian Ger Living

Many Mongolians continue to live in gers, a kind of circular tent. I have seen gers earlier, e.g., in Kyrgyzstan. I heard that it is common in central Asia.  But this time, in Mongolia, I have the opportunity to visit quite a few, and get to know a little better how people live in them. 

The nomadic Mongolians need to move with their herd to follow the best grass. And gers are designed to provide that mobility.  

A get is essentially a big tent.  It has a circular frame, supported centrally by 2 vertical pillars in the middle.  The two pillars are topped by a ring which provides a window to let in sunlight.  Which also let out exhaust air from the stove through a chimney. The perimeter of the ger is protected by vertical panels.  Spokes link the top of the outer panels to the central ring, providing the structural integrity.  

The panels can be opened when it gets hot in summer.  The whole tent is covered by some kind of canvas.  A get is thus quite modular, making it reasonably easy to dismantled, transported and set up again.  

In the centre of the get is a stove, for cooking, which also heats the ger, It is typically fired by wood or coal.  Now the government is encouraging the families to switch to electrical heating.  Partly because of of the pollution and fatalities from carbon monoxide poisoning.  Some families who continue to burn coal install a sensor above he stove to provide warning against poisoning by the gas.  The electrical power grid in essentially confined to cities.  Those who live outside have to find their own power sources.  

Herders out on the grassland typically still live in gers.  They are often many kilometres from the next family.  If solitude is what you seek, the Mongolian grassland is a good place to find it.  But you must be very self-sufficient.  

Even in the city, where most people live in houses, many gers can still be seen.  I was told it is because gers are much cheaper to acquire than houses.  Often a couple’s children grow up and get married.  The new family cannot afford to move away, but there is really not enough space in the existing house.  So they set up a ger in the yard, if they have a yard, for the new family.  Alternatively, the parents move in to the ger, and leave the house for the new family.  It is still quite common for a couple to have many children.  We have seen families with 6 children, all quite young.  

A poor family that we visited was allowed to set up their ger on the yard of a church, at the outskirts of the city.  They have very limited electrical power by drawing a power line, most likely illegally, from the church.  We installed a small solar panel for the family, to provide them with some lighting, as a trial.  We are still exploring the possibility of a sola panel project in or near Ulaanbatar.